Designer: Jesse Li (The Flow of History, Guns & Steel, Ponzi Scheme)

Artist: Jeremy Jhang

Publisher: Tasty Minstrel Games (Amun-Re, Aquasphere, At the Gates of Loyang, Belfort, Chimera Station, Colosseum, Eminent Domain, Gold West, Gugong, Homesteaders, Luna, The Oracle of Delphi, Orleans, Ponzi Scheme, Rialto, Scoville, Village, Yokohama)

Genre/Mechanisms: auction/bidding, card drafting, economic, set collection, trading

Funding Status: At the time of this posting, Dragon’s Interest is already fully-funded.  In fact, it just passed its initial funding goal with a few hours left on the campaign.

Player Count: 3-5

Solo Mode: no

Complexity: light

Risk: low

What It’s About: A light, fantasy-themed kingdom-builder and tile placement game largely focused on bidding, bluffing, trading, income, and escaping the destruction of the rotating, fire-breathing dragon.

How It Works: Dragon’s Interest is played over several rounds, each with 4 phases: Borrowing Gold, Activating Buildings, Refreshing Available Buildings, and Moving the Dragon and Paying Interest. Each player starts the game with a set of Contract cards specific to their player screen. Contract cards are used to simultaneously bid on turn order for taking available buildings. After buildings are activated and refreshed, the Dragon moves triggering players needing to pay interest for any buildings it passes. When anyone can’t pay, or anyone has built 10+ buildings, the end game is triggered and players score based on their newly rebuilt Kingdom. Players score 1 point for each different type of building in their Kingdom and 1 point for each type of building the player possesses the majority. The player with the most points wins.

Comparisons The obvious comparison here is Ponzi Scheme. They’re both by the same designer, and Dragon’s Interest is essentially a re-skinning of Ponzi Scheme with some light re-design and the implementation of its new fantasy setting and theme. 

What Should I Pledge?:
$25 Dragon’s Coins: “just the coins, ma’am, just the coins.”
$50 Dragon’s Interest: a copy of the game with all unlocked stretch goals.
$55 Dragon’s Interest + Metal Coins: the two previous pledge levels combined.

Add-Ons:
None listed, but the metal coins may also be available as an add-on in the pledge manager.

KS Exclusives:
None.

All-In Total: In the continental U.S., you’re looking at $55 for Dragon’s Interest + Metal Coins, plus $9 in shipping, for a total of $64.

Dragon’s Interest completes its Kickstarter on Friday, June 14th and tentatively ships in April 2020.