Dragons appear in the legends and folklore of cultures around the world, and the hero’s journey to kill a dragon is widespread. In Western cultures, dragons are most often depicted as gigantic and monstrous creatures, having horns, four legs, wings, and the ability to breathe fire.
Thanks to the many stories from modern literature from Tolkein’s The Hobbit, LeGuin’s A Wizard of Earthsea, McCaffrey’s Dragonriders of Pern, and even Pratchett’s Discworld series, we have a shared and common vision of what makes up a dragon—and what makes up a dragon also makes up an interesting board game.
Here is a sampling of games that feature dragons as essential parts of the game.
Dungeons & Dragons
The basic gaming system of the first game you likely think of when you hear “dragons”.
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Dragon Canyon
Carcassonne: The Princess and the Dragon
Gloomhaven
The classic D&D-style game with Adventurers, dungeons, and dragons.
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Dragomino
A game for kids (“My First Kindomonino”) where you play as Dragon Riders exploring to find the most dragons.
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Trogdor!! The Board Game
A co-operative game where players try to defeat the dragon of consummate V’s.
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Dragonland
Dragons have been storing their treasures in volcanoes—volcanoes that are about to erupt. Help them to rescue more loot than your opponents.
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Catan: Treasures, Dragons & Adventurers
Here be Dragons: Into the Unknown
Dragons
You and your fellow dragons will collect all sorts of goodies in this card-based, set collection game by Bruno Faidutti.
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Defenders of the Realm
A co-operative game where players take on the roles of heroes trying to defend the lands against Orcs, the Undead, Demons, and, of course, Dragons.
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Dragon Pets
Players are dragon breeders looking for the right matches for their starting dragons.
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Wyvern
One of the first collectable card games to follow Magic: The Gathering, Wyvern sees opponents trying to eliminate your opponent’s battlefield of all terrain and dragons.
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Dragonwood
Collect Adventurer cards to earn dice to roll against your foes throughout an ever-changing landscape.
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The Hobbit
Reiner Knizia’s take on the J.R.R. Tolkien classic novel, featuring Middle Earth’s own Smaug the Dragon.
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Dragon's Gold
Play as Dragon Hunters to gain the riches from dragons—then figure out how to divide the spoils.
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Tatsu
A two-player game where you’re trying to control three types of dragon pieces to eliminate your opponent from the board.
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Dragon Racer
A card drafting game where collecting the right sets of cards moves your dragons further down the track.
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Aladdin’s Dragons
Players perform blind bidding to cast spells, steal treasure from dragons, and purchase artifacts.
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Dragonscales
You and your fellow villains slay dragons and grab treasure and, just maybe, you’ll leave the others behind to get killed.
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Seven Dragons
Looney Lab’s game where you’ll play cards to create a connected territory of seven panels from your secret dragon color
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Dragon Strike
Escape from the dragon’s cave with loot, but watch out for the mechanical dragon’s swinging, segmented neck!
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