Defenders of the Realm: “Dragon Slayer” Pledge (Kickstarter Special)
Board Game Geek Rating: 6.04
Board Game Geek Avg Player Rating: 7.67
Players: 1 to 6
Published: 2019
Content Notes: Kickstarter “Dragon Slayer” Pledge Edition of the Dragon Expansion for Defenders of the Realm by Eagle Gryphon Games. Includes Dragon Expansion, Heroes Expansion #4, Heroes Expansion #5, Sterling Dragon Expansion Pack, and all additional unlocked stretch goals. Please note: unless otherwise stated paid add ons from the Kickstarter Campaign are not included.
Dragon Slayer Pledge Includes:
🐲 Dragon Expansion
🐉 Defenders of the Realm: Dragon Expansion (2nd Edition) allows players to increase or decrease the difficulty level of game play using variants and scenarios. 3 Dragon miniatures, 3 Agents of the Dark Lord placards and 4 new Minions (placards) enter the Realm! The 2nd Edition improves on the former edition adding the following new material:
- New art and graphics for seven (instead of three dragons)
- Re-written rules and new graphics in an expanded Rulebook
- New graphics for card decks (which all now contain a Dragon Icon for easy identification)
- The Winds of War Expansion – cards and tokens
- Contents include:
🐉 3 General Miniatures (3 Dragons)
🐉 3 New General Cards
🐉 1 New Sapphire (Blue Dragon) General Card
🐉 4 Wound Tokens 1 for each General
🐉 3 Agents of the Dark Lord Cards
🐉 10 Fire Tokens
🐉 4 Royal Blessing Tokens
🐉 1 Royal Blessing Card
🐉 12 New Quest Cards
🐉 10 Global Effects Cards
🐉 1 Fame Card
🐉 6 New Special Cards
🐉 New Darkness Spreads Deck
🐉 New Hero Cards Deck
🐉 King’s Champion Variant Scoring Tokens
🐉 7 Kings Champion Reward Cards
🐉 Rulebook and A Story from the Realm
🐲 Heroes Expansion #4
🐉 2 new Heroes with matching Character Cards Dragon Rider & Hunter who have come to help defend Monarch City – each with special powers
🐲 Heroes Expansion #5
🐉 3 new Heroes with matching Character Cards Mariner, Bard & Centaur who have come to help defend Monarch City – each with special powers
🐲 Sterling Dragon Expansion Pack
🐉 Defenders of the Realm: Sterling – Guardian Dragon of the Realm
🐲 And All additional unlocked stretch goals please contact us at The Game Steward.
Defenders of the Realm (DOTR) was first published in 2010 and has sold many thousands of copies worldwide since then. Created by the wonderfully fertile and imaginative mind of designer Richard Launius, and enhanced by the genius of artist Larry Elmore, DOTR has developed an ever-increasingly larger and loyal fan base. This Kickstarter campaign is primarily geared to that fan base and generally assumes that Backers will be familiar with the base game of DOTR. However, Eagle-Gryphon Games recognizes and appreciates that some Backers will not be familiar with DOTR and for them we offer this link so that you can check out the world of Defenders of the Realm and then perhaps purchase the base game as an add-on to this Kickstarter project:
More about Defenders of the Realm
Once again, Darkness has spread across the Realm. The Dark Lord has rallied his forces to overrun the walls of Monarch City. Four dreaded Dragon Generals have emerged from the far corners of the land and legions of foul dark-spawn sweep the horizon — leaving only flames and terror in their wake.
Yet — there is hope!
The King has called his champions to slay these denizens of the dark, and bring peace once more to the realm. These Heroes will battle throngs of Imps, Zealots, Fire Elementals, and dreaded Dragons to banish the darkness forever more. These Heroes are the DEFENDERS OF THE REALM.
Defenders of the Realm: The Dragon Expansion (2nd Edition) provides the means to ramp up, ease up, expand and customize your Defenders of the Realm gaming experience in a variety of ways. The three Dragon Generals (Onyx – black, Hemlock – green, Brimstone – red) join Sapphire, the original blue Dragon from the base game, in a struggle that will severely test the mettle of the Heroes of the Realm.
The Artwork, Rules, and Molds have all been updated for enhanced game play. If you decide to back us, we have LOTS of fantastic stretch goals for you to help us unlock, including everything from New Dragon miniatures, to New Heroes, to Flame and Inn Miniatures!
- New art & graphics for eight (instead of 4) dragons (incl. Sterling)
- Re-written rules and new graphics in an expanded Rulebook
- New graphics for card decks (all now contain a Dragon icon)
- The “Winds of War” expansion
- Provided various Stretch Goals are achieved (see below):
New artwork, graphics, placards and rules for
- Minions
- Three Dark Agent Dragon miniatures
- Sterling–the 3-Headed Dragon
- Inn and Flame miniatures
- Hero miniatures, art, and placards
The details: New Dragon Dark Agent miniatures (3 of them) from New Molds (these become available as add-ons–for $7 each–when the Stretch Goal levels of $70K, $80K and $90K are achieved). Sterling (the fourth new Dragon) is FREE if we can achieve a pledge level of $100K.
- Emerald: Taller than most trees and angrier than a raging forest fire
- Cinders: The huge-headed, pot-bellied fire breather
- Drakus: The menacing, lethal loner
- And introducing Sterling (FREE at the $100K Pledge Level): The Silver Dragon and Guardian of the Realm, this dragon may be called upon only in an adventurer’s most dire time of need. He comes with a miniature, a placard, his own set of cards and rules describing his function in the game.
New Artwork
- For all of the eight dragons that are (or will be at $100K) in the game
- For two new Heroes (achieved as Stretch Goals at $50K and $60K)
- For three new Minions (Unlocked!)
- For the Inns and Flames miniatures (at $110K and 120K)
New Graphics
- For the Eight Dragon and Dark Agent placards (incl. Sterling at $100K)
- For the Hero cards
- For the Minion Cards
- For a far better Rulebook–clearer, better organized, more art, FAQs
- For many new cards
- For the Winds of War expansion
The Winds of War Expansion adds an entirely new dynamic to any Defenders of the Realm game. There are 16 Winds of War cards that can be activated, each with their own unique effects.
Details: Whenever the players use three “Special” Hero cards, a Winds of War card is activated. Each Winds of War card provides the players with two options: An Action, and a Prevention.
The action will unleash a devastating effect upon the board. In the case of the “Burned Inns” card, the resulting action is “All the Inns Burn to the ground.” However, the Prevention allows the players to collectively stop that action from occurring, but at a cost. In the case of the “Burned Inns” card, the prevention is to “Place 1 taint crystal in each Inn. The Inns remain open, but they are tainted by the Dark Lord.”
Hemlock is probably the most evil of all the Dragons. He enjoys the suffering of his enemies, and his hatred of humans is evident when speaking with the crippled adventurers that survive battle with the Green Dragon – of which there are few.
Brimstone lives for one purpose and that is to see the world burn. The current conflict and chaos enable him to pursue one of his greatest desires: to see the Realm set on fire, not only by him, but also by the army of Fire Elementals at his command.
The Black Dragon is the perfect warrior: ruthless, cunning, intelligent, and lightning fast. Onyx is different from most dragons in that he has human followers, The Order of the Black Dragon, that join him on his march to Monarch City.
Sapphire, wise in the ancient dragon spells, draws power from the other dragon generals and becomes the Dragon High General – ruler of all the dragons and their forces. Under Sapphire’s direction, the dragon generals are an even more formidable threat to the Realm.
Sterling, like most Silver Dragons, prefers to take the form of a human, dwarf, or elf, and mingle amongst the people. In fact, many wise adventurers believe the three heads of the Silver Dragon each represent the fabulous creature’s mental link to each of the 3 races and as such offer different responses when called upon, depending on which head’s attention the adventurer has gained.
Emerald’s heart is as venomous as his breath, and his task of finding the Heroes, sanctuaries lead him to the Inns, seeking them out when and where they are least prepared.
“Set the world aflame to welcome the master…” – That was the charge of Brimstone, and one this Dark Agent is far too happy to obey…
Drakus enjoys operating alone to harass the Heroes that stand between the Dark Lord’s Army and his ultimate victory over the Realm.
This project, as to the Stretch Goals, is a work-in-progress. We need your Kickstarter support to make the decision to produce each of these stretch goals. We will provide artist drawings, and samples of sculpted figures, (and painted examples if we have any) and whatever else we may have as we get closer to achieving each of these Stretch Goals.
If you’re new to the Defenders of the Realm world, the above video serves as a great introduction to some of the base mechanics of the game. In the base game, you still play against 4 unique generals. Sapphire, the Dragon King, is still terrorizing the land, but you must also stop Undead, Orc, and Demon Lords from entering Monarch City while fighting your way through throngs of minions to claim victory for the King!
Defenders of the Realm: The Dragon Expansion provides the means to ramp up, ease up, expand and customize your Defenders of the Realm gaming experience in a variety of ways. The three new Dragon Generals (Onyx – black, Hemlock – green, Brimstone – red) can be used with Sapphire, the original blue Dragon, in a struggle that will severely test the mettle of the Heroes of the Realm. The new General card for Sapphire gives her an additional hit point for each other Dragon in play.
You can also mix and match the new Generals with the existing Generals. The new Generals minions, each have their own special abilities:
Onyx’s (black) Zealots go berserk when fighting – the survivors together dealing one point of damage after each combat action. You’ll still take a wound from each if you remain in the same area with them at the end of your turn.
Hemlock’s (green) Imps propagate quickly (whenever you place an Imp, another one pops up in every adjacent space) and steal a random card from you if you remain in the same space with them at the end of your turn.
Brimstone’s (red) Fire Elementals spontaneously combust whenever three of them get together, setting the area on fire. Areas on fire require 2 Actions to move into, taint whenever three minions are present, instead of 4 and deal wounds to Heroes remaining in the area at the end of their turns.
The Generals each have their own special nastiness as well. For example, Brimstone, instead of moving along the usual red-General path, moves every time her card comes up when Darkness Spreads, flitting here and there and setting the world on fire. Players can lose cards when attacking Hemlock.
Any of the new dragons can also be used as an Agent of the Dark Lord when playing with at least one of the original Generals (Varkolak, Gorgut, or Balazarg). You can add up to 5 of the 10 Global Effects Cards (5 Good, 5 Bad) to the Darkness Spreads deck to adjust the toughness of your campaign. Likewise, a number of Royal Blessing Tokens (4 max) can also be added to the game. Royal Blessings allow players to either ignore a Darkness Spreads card, remove a taint crystal or prevent a General from moving.
For a more Campaign-style game, players can utilize the King’s Champion Scoring Variant which allows players to track their feats, major and minor. Feat examples include: taking on 3 minions at once, killing two with one blow, attempting to complete a quest, successfully completing a quest, healing the land, putting out a fire, dealing wounds or the killing blow to a General… The player with the most fame at the end of the game becomes the King’s Champion. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th most famous Heroes also receive titles and awards. The titles and awards each provide a special ability to that character that can be utilized the next time it is played by the same player.
— from the publisher
We’re glad to back campaigns to bring you games like Defenders of the Realm: “Dragon Slayer” Pledge to buy online at TheGameSteward. We will use a hefty percentage of every dollar you spend on Defenders of the Realm: “Dragon Slayer” Pledge towards backing fantastic new games on Kickstarter! Just a reminder, if you have purchase questions on Defenders of the Realm: “Dragon Slayer” Pledge game, how to buy online at The Game Steward or just need game advice, please contact us at The Game Steward.
