FURY OF DRACULA SPECTACULAR

If there is one thing I love its discovering a great, new board game that captures my attention the way many of my nostalgic favorites did the first time I played them. This past weekend I discovered such a game, a true gem in the rough that deserves all the praise I can offer. The Fury of Dracula by Fantasy Flight Games however is not a new game as I quickly discovered, in fact it is a gold box classic from the 80’s. I played the 2^nd edition of the game recently released, but my understanding is that little has actually changed in the base design.

Van Helsing, the famed vampire hunter

The Fury of Dracula is a game in which one player represents Dracula and the remaining players represent the 4 famous vampire hunters from the Bram Stoker novel including none other then Van Helsing in a search to find and destroy the famed blood sucker in Europe. The simple yet elegant design plays very smoothly with an uncanny ability to keep all players glued to the game board regardless of who’s turn it is and maintaining a constant surge of suspense.

It might look complicated in an screen shot but the game is very simple to learn.

The premise is simple. You have pieces representing the hunters moving on a map of Europe from city to city searching for equipment, resolving a variety of events and encounters while searching for clues to Dracula’s whereabouts. Dracula also moves around the board in Europe, but unlike the hunters, he moves in secret through the use of ‘location cards’ which are placed face down in a row representing where Dracula is currently and a trail of cards of the locations he has been. When the hunters land on a city in which Dracula has been the location card is revealed from which the hunter players can make estimates of where Dracula might have gone and continue to follow the trail. Dracula leaves behind ‘encounter’ tokens to slow the players down, representing things like henchmen and traps for the players to fight through and overcome. The unique balance comes in the form of timing as each round represents a turn of the clock and as the day changes to night the advantage does as well as Dracula is stronger and has more powers at night while being considerably weaker in the day time. The hunters must not only find and trap Dracula, but time it so that they face him when he is weak else they can quickly become the hunted. The objective of the Dracula player is to survive long enough to spawn 6 Vampires in Europe, a task done in a variety of ways including planting Vampire encounters in cities to defeating on of the hunter characters.

The Box art for the original 1987 release of the game

The game is beautifully balanced although it may at first appear as though Dracula has a major advantage since he can essentially win the game over time by avoiding the hunters, initially a pretty easy task, but it becomes increasingly difficult for Dracula to do so as players pick up event cards and equipment that make locating Dracula easier. One drawback for Dracula is that he cannot return to places he has been in the last six rounds (the last six locations which are his trail). This fact makes it easier for the hunters to figure out where Dracula might have moved as well as help them to set up traps for Dracula through the use of various event cards and equipment. Dracula also spends blood to use his various abilities like wolf form which allows him to move faster, or hide which allows him to remain in place. This means over time as the players get stronger he can actually become weaker, a sort of count down for Dracula pushing him to act. In order to win as the Dracula player you must wisely avoid the hunters while also appropriately take advantages when their guard is down or they are weakened by the encounters you leave behind in cities. Timing, location, event cards and equipment are just some of the things that go into the complicated formula that is good strategy, but despite juggling these various resources the rules are so simple and elegantly presented that its quite easy to keep track of everything. Its really just a matter of good execution of a plan and a bit of luck.

If and when you do finally face Dracula or one of his many minions you are exposed to the unique combat system of Fury of Dracula, which is perhaps the only time when luck comes into play. Essentially each player has base abilities (both hunters and Dracula) like Punch, Escape and Dodge. Dracula has additional abilities like Mesmerize, Fangs and Claw, but many of these abilities only function at night, in fact during the day Dracula is considerably weaker then any single hunter especially if they have equipment like Pistols, Rifles, Crucifixes, stakes… etc.. Combat is resolved by each player choosing an action, ability or equipment card and simultaneously revealing them. Then a six sided dice is rolled and the player with the higher roll wins the round of combat. This does not however guarantee a victory of the combat or even that the winner of the die roll damaged his opponent. Each individual action, ability or equipment has a reaction to each other type of action, ability or equipment. Hence you resolve the round of combat depending what types of cards where played by each player. A pistol against a knife for example will have a very different result then say a Claw against a crucifix. Sometimes even if you win a round of combat you manage to only stay in the fight but not actually do any damage. Coming to a fight with the right equipment is crucial for the hunters, while simultaneously for Dracula its important to be fighting at the right time (at night) so that he has all his abilities available.

First time players might find that killing Dracula is very difficult, perhaps even smilingly impossible as they are unaware of what the various abilities and combinations of equipment and event cards can do, but one of the key advantages the hunter players have is that they are playing as a group and can share ideas, strategies, tactics even equipment. The Dracula player must effectively beat the group alone. Its also worth noting that it takes some time to see the big picture of the game, like chess you can learn how to move the pieces around quite fast, but knowing where the best place to put them and how the best way to use the pieces is really at the heart of the game.

One aspect of Fury of Dracula I really love is that the game plays very well as a 2 player game, in fact the experience is very much the same. Obviously its always more fun to have more hunter players who can discuss strategies and tactics, but in as a whole the game does not change whether you are playing with 2 or 5 players. In fact if you are looking for a really great 2 player game with a bit of complexity this is a great choice.

Fury of Dracula really has all the elements of a really great adventure game and even more so for fans who love the myths and legends of Dracula which this game has translated so honestly. Within you will find quotes, characters and plot elements from Bram Stokers novel as well as the ever growing popular culture of the Transylvanian tale. To me this game infuses great design with great story making for a great evening of gaming.

Enjoy it!