Stats:
No. of players: 1-4
Amount of time to play: 60-180 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5-10 min

Heropath Dragon Roar is a fantasy-themed board game. It can be played competitively, cooperatively, or in solo mode.

Heropath Dragon Roar Undertow Rules Description:

In Heropath Dragon Roar players must kill the dragon to win. You start by choosing your hero. The heroes include a warrior, sorcerer, dwarf, and elf. Each hero has different starting attributes.

There are many different types of cards in the game that represent weapons, equipment, spells, and other items that can help you. After choosing starting heroes players draft these cards, place their hero on the start space and are ready to play.

On your turn you take four actions. You can repeat and action any numbers of times. The actions include; travel, rest, visit, fight and encounter. Travel gets you around the board. Rest lets you gain vitality and reorder your cards. The board has different locations you can visit. With the visit action you may enter these places and gain their benefits which often cost you something. Killing the monsters on the board requires a fight action. The encounter action lets you steal equipment and resources from other players.

Combat is resolved by rolling two hero battle dice, adding the sum of all the hero’s attribute scores, and any bonuses they have from equipment, spells or other abilities. Then you roll one or two enemy power dice (depending on their difficulty), add their basic power level, and the current scale of evil. Ties go to the hero but still lose one vitality. Dead enemies go on the scale of evil and once four enemies are on a space they must be placed on the highest space. This scales the enemies’ strength to help them keep pace with the heroes.

When the scale of evil increases the dragon gets a turn. The player that placed the enemy token is still the active player. On its turn the dragon may move and them breathes fire on different types of terrain on the board (determined randomly). If your hero is on the specified terrain they lose one vitality. Then each player takes an enemy token and places it face-down at least seven spaces from their figure. Lastly the player that activated the dragon and the player to their left adds a location to the board where noted at last seven spaces from their figure.

You may fight the dragon if you are in a space adjacent to it. The dragon has a base fifteen power, adds the results of two battle dice and the current rank of the scale of evil. Losing to the dragon costs you two vitality. If you defeat the dragon you win the game.

Quick Review of Heropath Dragon Roar:

Heropath Dragon Roar is a labor of love. You can tell the creators set out to make an in-depth fantasy game with many different mechanics. I have mixed feelings about the game. Iit has some fun moments, but it also has a lot going on. Maybe too much.

The components are a mixed bag. Some elements are well done like the location standees and figures. But most of the artwork looks amateurish and rules are not organized well and hard to follow in some places. The rules summary in the back of the rule book is helpful.

Like I said above there is a lot going on in this game. None of it on its own is bad. But all of it together overcomplicates the experience. The way your attributes determine the cards you can equip, the scale of evil keeping the enemies on pace with the heroes are interesting. You also need to match what actions you take and locations to visit to increase specific attributes. This creates a fun puzzle you must solve to get your hero into a position to defeat the dragon.

Another cool thing about Heropath Dragon Roar is the number of different ways you can play it. There are team, cooperative, and solo modes. You can also customize the game by selecting different options for different game mechanics. For example, the Moral options let you change how the encounter action works or eliminate it altogether. This modularity lets you play the way that best suits your group’s play style.

There are two expansions for the game that add new heroes to play and new cards to the decks. They also allow you to play with up to six people.

Heropath Dragon Roar has some interesting mechanics. But unfortunately the game has too much going on for what it is. If this game sounds interesting to you, based on my review and other sources, you might want to try it before you buy it.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 5 out of 6
Player Interaction 4 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 3 out of 6
Overall 3 out of 6