Dragomino

LEARN THIS GAME IN OUR HOW TO PLAY VIDEO

Official Rules

The official rules are available here.

Enhanced Rules

This game is easier to setup and play with some minor changes as described in our Custom Rules section.

How many players?

• Playable with 2-4
• Best with 2-4

What ages can play?

• Playable for ages 3 to adult
• Best for ages 3 to 10
  

Can different skill levels or ages play together?

Yes. Older or more strategic players would have a very slight advantage, but this presents a good chance to teach younger kids to begin thinking in a more strategic way.

How long does it take to play?

10 - 15 minutes, including setup time.

Will we get bored after a few games or does it have good replayability?

This is a very replayable game. Each game will be a little different because of the randomness in which tiles are available and how this drives players' decisions.

Setup/Cleanup

How much work is it?
Low. The tiles can be played right from the box and there is a way to make the rest of setup very quick as well (see our Custom Rules section).

Would kids be able to do it on their own?
Kids as young as 3 or 4 could setup and clean-up this game on their own.

Will parents have fun too...

...when playing with the kids?
Parents will find this more enjoyable than many games intended for younger kids. However, it won't be challenging for parents or nearly as interesting as Kingdomino, which also has ways to include younger kids as we describe here. But for those kids not yet ready for Kingdomino, this is a good starting point as a family.

...without the kids?
No, adults will find Kingdomino much more interesting.

What skills will this game help develop?

Basic Probability
The six different landscapes in the game all have the same number of baby dragons available, but every landscape has a different amount of empty eggs that won't provide any points. So players will need to decide which landscapes to collect and how to position them to give themselves the best chance of finding a point scoring baby dragon.

Strategy Introduction
Players will need to select and position their landscape tiles in ways that give them the best chance of finding a baby dragon. This may mean passing on a tile that will give you one good match, for a different tile that gives you two lesser matches. These are great decisions to introduce younger kids to the basics of strategic thinking.

Matching (Pattern Recognition)
For very young kids, matching the landscape tiles can provide great practice while being part of family game time.

But will my kids actually have fun playing it?

Yes, the gameplay is quick and will hold kids' attention. The artwork and theme are a huge draw for kids as well.

Decrease setup time

During setup, place all the eggs facedown in the box lid.
The official rules suggest placing each egg type in its own spot around the playing area. This requires sorting all of the egg types between games and making sure each kind is shuffled well so all the dragon or empty shells aren't together from the previous game. This is by far the longest part of setup for the game. For quicker setup we prefer to place all of the eggs facedown in the box lid and then can mix them all easily at the same time. This also makes cleanup easier because we do not need to sort the different types of eggs out again when we put them away.

Highlight the probabiliy aspect of the game

During setup, place eggs in stacks that are ordered by probability
Here we place each egg type in its own stack and arrange them in order from highest probability of a baby dragon (volcano) to lowest probability (desert). This is more work but it really helps kids to understand that each terrain has a different chance of providing a baby dragon. This is especially true later in the game when kids can see that some stacks are smaller and then count the dragons already on the board of that type to decide their best option.

Yes, these two suggestions are complete oppsites but each serves a different purpose. Use whichever works best for your family. We've found it helpful to sort the eggs by probability for new players and then mix them together in the lid for those that have played many times before.

Do you use custom rules we haven't thought of? If you have found some other ways to customize the rules, please share them with us through our Contact page. We're always interested in new ways to improve gameplay.

If you like this game, we suggest these others

• Kingdomino
• Brandon the Brave
• Sleeping Queens
• Silly Street

Or check out our full list of Reviews where you can sort by any of these categories

• Our Ratings
• Number of Players
• Playing Time
• Competitive vs Cooperative
• Educational Skills