The Red Dragon Inn is a card game that was first released in 2007. Fantasy wise, it's reminiscent of Dungeons and Dragons where your character might be an orc paladin or a tiefling trickster. However, the group is not delving into dungeons but instead heading out to the inn for a night of drinking, gambling and rabble-rousing after a successful day of dungeon delving.
The original game had 4 characters: Deirdre the Priestess, Fiona the Volatile, Gerki the Sneak, and Zot the Wizard.
Each character starts with 10 gold, a deck of cards, a fortitude of 20 and an alchohic content of zero. Some cards are generic to the game, and others use the specialty of the particular character. For example, a fighter might take an action to get into a fight with another character or a rogue might steal a coin or two. Each character gets one drink card from the tavern and pulls 7 seven cards from their shuffled deck to start.
In each deck there are Action Cards, Sometimes Cards, Anytime Cards and Gambling Cards. You can only play one action card per turn while sometimes cards can be played in response to actions cards. Anytime cards are self explanatory. Gambling cards can only be played during a round of gambling (started using an action).
Each turn a character gets has the following parts in the below order:
1. Discard any cards you don't want to use and draw back up to seven cards.
The important part here is to maximize your characters strengths.
2. Use an action card.
Keep in mind that anytime cards and sometimes cards can be used in response to your action.
3. Buy Drinks (for yourself or other characters)
4. Drink (from your current drink pile). One drink with a few chasers can knock you out of the game pretty quickly.
Your alcohol content (starts at 0) and your fortitude (starts at 20) are on the same scale so if your fortitude ever meets your alcohol level, you pass out and are out of the game. Also if you run out of money, you are kicked out of the tavern. So to win, you need to manage your character's sobriety and gold while trying to be the last conscious player with money.
This game is a good time even if you choose not to drink while playing the game. The game's signature moment is calling out the card phrases and special abilities, especially when defending against other players' actions. Things like shouting "I don't think so!" or "Oh no you don't!" when countering someone's play really adds to the tavern atmosphere and roleplaying element. It's a great ice breaker when meeting new gamers. And there's huge variety of character decks available through expansions to keep the game interesting.