Don't call me Draugr

“Bolog aaz,mal lir!”

(which in Draugr means Beg mercy, little worm!)

Before I get into the game I wanted to talk a little about our main adversary. How did they get this way? First and foremost, you have to be dead. The main indication that a deceased person will become a Draugr is that the corpse is not in a horizontal position but is found in an upright or sitting position, indicating that the dead might return. This does not mean it will 100% happen, but rather a possibility. Any mean, nasty, or greedy person can become a Draugr. As Ármann Jakobsson notes in Vampires and Watchmen: Categorizing the Mediaeval Icelandic Undead, "most medieval Icelandic ghosts are evil or marginal people. If not dissatisfied or evil, they are unpopular".

What's it all about?

The Draugr is a solitaire game, designed by Todd Sanders, playing in about 20 minutes. To win, you must slay 4 of the 6 Draugr. If at any time during Phase 1 all 7 Townspeople or more than 7 of the cards (a combination of Townspeople and Locations) are corrupted you lose.

Gameplay

The game is played in rounds consisting of two phases: Corruption and Hunt.

Phase 1 - Corruption Roll the six-sided die once to see which Draugr will hold sway over Stjørdal for the round and will corrupt Locations and Townspeople in the row they are adjacent to, matching the die face to the image on a Draugr Card. Roll the die a second time and look at the symbol in the upper left corner of the die. Place a Corruption Marker on each card in that Draugr’s row with the matching Corruption Sigil. (See the section on the Shepherdess for protection from this rule.) If a Townsperson card has been turned over you do not need to place additional Corruption Markers on the card.

Phase 2 - The Hunt You must now move your player marker up to two adjacent cards in distance (The Nunnery and Foundry are the only two cards to supersede this rule). All movement is orthogonal (horizontally and vertically). Once you have finished moving you may choose a Special Action of that Townsperson or Location. Some cards have only 1 Special Action, some allow for a choice between 2 Special Actions. You do not have to choose a Special Action if you do not wish to.

If you land on a Townsperson card that has been turned over, no Special Action can be chosen. If a Special Action allows you to place Holy Water or Iron Markers on a Draugr, take one from your supply on the Town Square card and place it on a Draugr of your choice. If you match the number of markers as indicated in the upper left of the Draugr card, that Draugr is slain and removed from the game. Return all Holy Water and Iron Markers on that Draugr to your supply. Once a Draugr is slain and their card removed, slide one of the adjacent Draugr cards up or down so that partially spans either 2 rows (or if 2 Draugr have been slain, 3 rows). The Draugr now holds sway over 10 (or 15) cards for rolls during the Corruption Phase. If you slay all 3 Draugr on one side, no further Draugr is moved to replace them.

Game End: If you are able to slay 4 of the 6 Draugr you are successful and the other Draugr are forced to flee. If at any time during Phase 1 all the Townspeople or more than 7 of the cards (a combination of Townspeople and Locations) are corrupted you lose.

The Takeaway

I love this game. It has incredibly high replayability due to the different difficulty settings and the random setup nature of the game. The theme is strong for me and the art and weapons tie in perfectly. The greatest thing to me so far in my venture into solo gaming is the adaptability of the games and gamers. Some people make solo rules for games that don't have any or they modify the current rules. I have done that with this game. I will use dice but they are not my favorite mechanic. I have left the pieces as chit and I draw the pieces from a drawstring, bag. I know that statistically, it does not increase my odds whatsoever, but in my head, I fell like I, can pull that perfect piece that helps me avoid danger. Completely irrational, and yet it adds so much to my experience in this game. The game has a physical version in the BGG store as well as an app on Apple devices.