## Dragons, Throgs, and Reptile Men
Something you learn very quickly is that there are A LOT of dragons in Forlornia.
There are big ones, small ones, and particularly nasty undead ones that'll drain your Glory points or your life.
They're basically everywhere, but there are also a lot of magic items that help you fight dragons, so I never felt as terrfied of dragons as I did of, say, undead in [Tomb of the Lich Lord](http://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_review-dungeoneer-tomb-of-the-lich-lord) or daemons in [Realm of the Ice Witch](http://mixedsignals.ml/games/blog/blog_review-dungeoneer-realm-of-the-ice-witch).
That's not to say that the dragons aren't a threat.
They are, and it's beacause you're constantly being hounded by dragons that you so desperately search for magic items to boost your defences against them.
What comes through less clearly are the other inhabitants of
Forlornia.
Throgs make frequent appearances, but you don't really know
much about them and they're too original (if that can be used
as a crititque) to equate to any desert fantasy trope.
Maybe if they'd been mummies or jackal-headed warriors they
would speak to more to me.
I realise that I'm basically wishing for _less originalty_ in a game,
and I'm almost ashamed for it, but for whatever reason I just
don't know what to make of the Throgs and the one Reptile Man
wandering the desert.
Maybe a little more flavour text, or a Quest that implies more
about the lore around them, would have helped.
## Hard decisions in the desert
In **Dungeoneer**, the typical game loop is moving around to
find trasure that you can use to power up your character so you
can face the big threats the Dungeon Lord is going to throw at
you.
It's no different in **Dragons of the Forsaken Desert**, except
that in this set not all threats come from monsters or even
locations.
In this set, resource management and timing is a strategy.
Several treasure cards confer a bonus for just the current turn,
or until you use the bonus.
Additionally, some Peril cards and Quests can be mitigated or
resolved with Glory or Movement.
Adding one of these to your inventory too soon can mean that
you don't have an important bonus when you need it the most,
or the Glory points to complete a quest or to offset Peril.
You can't just assume, as you usually can in **Dungeoneer**,
that a good card goes straight into your inventory.
And yet you have a hand limit and must discard a card at the
end of your turn, so you also can't just hold on to everything for
later.
To make matters even worse, the gnome character Delf Loedhi
has the ability to steal cards from other player's inventory, so
there's that additional threat when he's in play!
The game loop is familiar, but the strategy you must use during
that loop is pretty unique.
It feels like the difference between, for example, a Druid and a
Brute deck in **Flesh and Blood**, or a Magic the Gathering
deck loaded with Instants and Auras compared to Creatures
and Artifacts.
This is the set's strongest mechanic, and the terror I feel during
game play is always whether I'm making the right choice when
spending Glory, or equipping a temporary magic item.
That's exceedingly appropriate for a desert setting.
I can't think of a better way than resource management to
remind players that they're in a region where you must ration
water and mitigate exposure to sunlight and the slow burn of
magical energies.
Even the magic items here are subject to the magical decay the
Eldritch Lords have caused in Forlornia.
You can read it in the flavour text and take note of it when yhou
deconstruct the set, but until you experience it in game play you
have no idea what it really means.
Once you know, it legitimately causes you to make decisions
you don't want to have to make.
## Photo finish
Between Delf Loehdi and Redark Noman, my most recent game
was neck and neck right up to the finish.
This isn't uncommon in **Dungeoneer**, because the balance of
Peril and Glory often produces some surprises, but sometimes it
feels closer than other times.
Bot Delf and Redark escalated levels at a steady pace, but it felt
like Delf was doomed once it became evident that the locations
he needed for his quests just weren't showing up.
To make matters worse, Redark made a foolhearty (or daring?)
attempt at the global quest and amazingly accomplished it on
the first try, giving him an early lead.
There's no accounting for gambles, and at the last minute Delf
took a ridiculous chance on a quest that required 3 successive
tests, and rolled impossibly well, winning the game with Redark
a mere action away from completing his final quest (he should
have equipped that +1 Move card on his previous turn, after all!)
**Dragons of the Forsaken Desert** is a fun **Dungeoneer** set
that maybe isn't as evocative as other settings (depending on
your own prefences, obviously) but that feels unique for the
touch decisions it forces you to make with the resources you
scrounge from the sands of Forlornia.
Photos Creative Commons cc0, but all photos contain products and artwork copyright by Atlas Games and Thomas Denmark.