Dragon Tides Review

Dragon Tides is bizarre- the Bruce and Brandon Lee being featured characters in a board game type of bizarre. What’s even crazier is that players don’t embody a Bruce Li or some other typical stretch goal simile that you might see in another game – this is the real deal. You’re kicking ass and taking names in an early 70’s Golden Harvest picture against waves of mooks with super-sized protagonists.

At first blush this is a one vs. many simple dungeon crawler like the popular Descent. One player controls the bad guys and puts pressure on the rest of the group which cooperates to accomplish their objective. This is where that whole “don’t judge a book by its cover” thing comes in as this game takes a radical departure not just in setting but also in structure.

While you do control miniatures and move space to space to close distance and trade blows with nameless foes, the context of the action is what defines the experience. Instead of exploring locations and gathering treasure you’re playing through key scenes in a Kung Fu film. The game comes with two booklets detailing each available film – Glitterbang and Shakedown In Little China. Both have you taking on the ominous Tiger Clan who are spreading drugs and mayhem on the streets.

So each scene in the movie comes with a bit of narrative and a setup which details the tile(s) you need, who you are up against, and win conditions. Depending on victory or defeat the story branches and a new chapter unfolds. Sometimes players will have options such as storming the office with guns blazing or sneaking in – each leading to different scenes and confrontations. It all works exceptionally well as the story is deliciously cheesy and the dialogue will have you feigning a poor dub and overacting. I laughed out loud several times during key moments of the fiction and the players ate it up.

Eventually you come to a boss or possibly (sic) subboss encounter where you have to lay it all out on the table and fight your guts out. What’s enticing here is that the player controlling the big bad gets to choose his two main characters from several options before play begins. They function nearly identical to full player characters and come with some tactical bite and gumption.

Dragon Tides’ characters vary wildly in specialization. The three types of attacks in the game are Strikes, Grapples, and Throws. Each persona will toss different sized dice pools looking for fists which are cancelled out by the opponent’s shield results. The setup for an attack resolution – dubbed a Showdown – consists of the two opponents selecting either a Strike/Grapple/Throw card and placing it face down on the table. There’s a paper-rock-scissors element at play here in that Strike beats Grapple beats Throw which beats Strike. This is reminiscent of the fantastic WWE Superstar Showdown which was released in 2015.

Unlike Gale Force Nine’s design, Dragon Tides’ combat isn’t all or nothing. If you choose the maneuver that trumps your enemy’s you gain two bonus dice and move a space forward on your Super track which unlocks a special move. This Showdown mechanism is fast and dramatic allowing for quick play and a bit of suspense with bluffing and double bluffing. You will eye up your opponent’s stats and give them a thousand yard stare as you try to determine if they will lean on their grapple which is rated a four or their strike that’s a lowly two. They’ll use that against you and that fatalistic moment where you realize you judged incorrectly is like biting into a warm slice of apple pie brimming with razors.

What’s also tremendous is the really unique environmental conditions of the individual scenes. Some scenarios will feature sewer lids you can pick up and throw, crates you can shatter, and chairs you can wield as a deadly weapon. One key moment in Glitterbang features a conveyor belt that can literally dump a character down a chute and eliminate them from play. The first time you tell that to your group they’ll make that scrunched up “you kidding me?” face. When you clarify that they can actually mess with the control panel to alter the speed of the conveyor you’ll see the magic alight in their eyes.

So we have Bruce Lee, multiple weapons and environmental objects you can interact with, and a crazy mini campaign structure that you can play in one evening. This sounds like it’s a sunny day chilling on the beach; unfortunately, the forecast isn’t completely clear. Dragon Tides falls short of greatness due to a glaring lack of finish. There’s borderline genius found throughout the design but it’s all cast in moments of confusion and doubt.

The rule and movie books in particular have about as many issues as Black Belt Magazine. Basic things like a thug’s movement are never detailed. Edge cases appear continually and are never addressed. The flow of the main rule booklet is actually very solid and easy to understand, but as a reference it has some huge gaps.

The printed materials for the films sometimes reference incorrect elements and give way to heartburn. Most scenes feature solid scaling rules for different player counts, but these seem to have been left out on the boss and subboss duels. Other little nagging inconsistencies and daggers inflict light wounds as you progress. Making spot judgments and rolling with it should have been the fourth character stat. All of these flaws can be dealt with but finicky players will have no issue finding buoy’s to cling to with incorrigible annoyance.

Despite all of this I keep coming back to the realization that it’s easy to overlook a game’s flaws when it offers something unique and different. Dragon Tides is a random, dice chucking affair with an extremely neat structure and a mound of clever winks. Players will blitz through early scenarios and then hit a huge Ivan Drago-like wall near the end. It’s a wild ride full of flavor and moments of lofty exuberance.