Draftosaurus was another one of our Christmas acquisitions last year. As the name implies, it is indeed a game about dinosaurs. And you do indeed draft them. But instead of a card drafting game, you are actually drafting tiny wooden dinosaurs. So, how does it work as a game?
Gameplay- B+
Your goal is to build the best dinosaur zoo in the land. You do this by acquiring new dinosaurs each turn from a passing collection. There are six different types of dinosaurs from your childhood favorites (T-rex, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, etc), each a different color. Then you must decide where in your park to put the dinosaur from among six different pens (plus the river, because who wouldn’t want to put a dinosaur int he river). Each pen awards points differently.
The games over a series of six rounds and then repeated. You start by each person drawing six dinosaurs from the bag. This is your starting pool of dinosaurs. Each person will choose one dinosaur to play that round and pass the rest on to the person on their left. Before choosing which dinosaur to play, a dice is rolled which will place limits on where your dinosaur can be placed. This can place a dramatic impact on your choices. If you have a blue dinosaur that has a perfect spot but the dice prevent you from placing in that pen, you might choose a different color. When it is your turn to roll the die, you are not bound by its limitations.
There are different game boards you can play on, each with a different setup of dinosaur pens for scoring. They all involve having different combinations of dinosaurs. A few examples include scoring points the more copies of the same dinosaur you have, more points for each different dinosaur, points but only if that is the only copy of that dinosaur on your whole board, and another if you have the more of a particular dinosaur than anyone else. There is also a T-rex bonus where you get a point for each different pen that contains a T-rex.
One thing to keep in mind is that there are a fixed number of each dinosaur. In a game of three players that’s six of each. If you draw a blue, and there are four others out on the table already, you probably don’t want to put that dinosaur in a pen where you need a pair as your odds of getting that last blue are low. Finally, if you can’t find a spot for a dinosaur in one of the six pens, you can always put a dinosaur into the river which is worth one point.
Production- B+
The game’s components are all quality. The dinosaurs are wood rather than plastic, always a plus in my opinion. The boards are sturdy and there is a nice canvas bag to draw the dinosaurs from. Even the instruction book is laid out well.
The only downside is the actual passing of the dinosaurs. Since each group of six are supposed to remain secret, you need to keep them under the table, out of sight, and then pass them around to the next person each round. The game asks you to do this from hand to hand. This can be problematic during the early rounds as, even though the dinosaurs are small, six of them take up a fair amount of room in a hand. Difficulty is doubled when small kid size hands are involved. It’s a simple enough solution to find a small container to put the dinosaurs in to make passing easier. It’s just a shame the game didn’t think to include something.
Theme- A
The dinosaurs won’t try to eat you. Jurassic Park has taught me that if you put dinosaurs in a park they will try to eat you. So penalty points there for breaking my suspension of disbelief.
Other than that, it’s dinosaurs and everyone loves dinosaurs. The box art and game board art work well. The dinosaur figures are shaped well enough you can tell them apart and tell what dinosaur they are supposed to be (at least generally).
Expansions- TBD
None.
Conclusion- B+
This is a quick, simple game. You have to make a total of twelve relatively limited decisions so even people who have indecision paralysis can get past it. The dice randomness further helps as it limits your available options. Put a dinosaur in a spot. Rinse and repeat. Despite that simplicity, it’s fun to play because it goes quick and each game presents you with different choices. Having two different game boards, each with different scoring rules, increases replayability further. It’s a good family lunch time game.
Wayne Basta
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