Draco & Co.

From: Eurogames Designers: Michael Schacht, Bruno Faidutti List Price: $18 Players: 3-6 Playing Time: 45-90 minutes  Type of game: Family card Skill level: 2 Complexity: 6 Reviewed by: Peter Sarrett, Issue 27, Summer 2002

I’m not sure if Bruno Faidutti attracts chaos or if it works the other way around, but in gaming circles the two are as closely associated as Robert Downey Jr. and rehab.  Faidutti actually takes second billing to Michael Schacht on this one, whose other games (Kontor, Web of Power) are not known for chaos.  Draco & Co. is a good illustration of why.

Draco and his cohorts, arranged in a circle, are celebrating their success.  When Draco toasts, he favors those closest to his drinking hand with gold while taxing those closest to his other hand.  The game is all about juggling the seating positions so you’re on Draco’s good side when the wine starts flowing.

Everyone has a pair of representatives at the table and a hand of action cards, one of which must be played on each turn.  Cards do the standard sorts of things, moving people around and otherwise mucking about with the state of things.

After playing a card, if Draco’s goblet is in the center of the table a player can take it and toast, triggering a scoring round.  The four characters closest to Draco’s drinking hand (which can change) get paid one to four coins each, and the two unfortunates on the other side get docked one or two.  A trio of neutral characters at the table may also come into play at this time, shifting the payouts around or awarding extra action cards to their neighbors.

Once a toast has been completed, the goblet remains in front of the toaster until the end of his following turn, at which point it returns to the center and becomes available for another toast.  The game ends with a final toast after the deck of action cards is exhausted, and the player with the fattest purse wins..

Naturally, players want their actions to matter.  And so they pore over their cards, desperately searching for the one which will let them do the most good.  It’s not uncommon for your plans to be messed up by the player immediately before you, which means you have to start from scratch and come up with a new idea.  Which takes time.  That’s a common problem in games with action cards, and this one is almost nothing but those cards.

Toasting when the goblet is available isn’t mandatory, but it’s the best way to get big points for yourself.  If the table isn’t arranged well for you when the chance comes, you won’t get another for a long, long time.  If you don’t toast, things are only likely to get worse for you and better for the next guy.  So you typically toast anyway and hope to improve your position before the goblet frees up again.

Adding insult to injury is a production snafu resulting in characters being double– rather than single-sided.  A number of action cards involve the random rearranging of cards, which becomes a bit more cumbersome when the cards’ faces can’t be hidden.

We really wanted to like the game, and came into it in completely the right mood and mindset.  But by the end we were worn out and happy to see it finish.  Draco & Co. is essentially Guillotine done wrong.  Games like this want to be free-wheeling and fast-moving, with simple rules and streamlined gameplay.  Players expect chaos in an action card game, but they also expect the game to respect the chaos by keeping things moving and providing plenty of opportunities for quick payoffs.  The rules here are cumbersome.  The game of musical chairs is constantly shaking things up, but the music doesn’t stop often enough for anyone to care.

Draco & Co. plods, involves some clumsy card management, and wastes too much of the players’ time and actions.  Guillotine is exactly the same kind of game, and is superior in absolutely every way.  Give this one a pass, and drink a toast to yourself for making a discerning choice.    A