Dragon Dice is a collectable dice game produced by TSR. The are (currently) nine races to play with, and you can play with any combination of them.

This page contains cool stuff about Dragon Dice, at least the races I play.

• Selumari (Coral Elves)
• Vagha (Dwarves)
• Amazons
• Firewalkers
• TheFeral
• Promotional Dice (Not really a race, but close enough)
• To Dragonkin and Magic Items (They aren't actually races, but they're almost as good)
• The Dice Commander's Manual (A book by TSR about our favourite dice game)

Selumariare a mixture of blue and green, the elements air and water. Their homeland is the coastland terrain. As one of the earliest races to be published by TSR, they have very few special advantages (except that all of their icons are easy to decipher). They do count manoeuvers as saves in coastlands and they do have blue magic, something no evil race has (yet - although Frostwings will) which allows them to summon the blue dragon, which while not as spectacularly devastating as the red dragon, has the nice ability to paralise an entire enemy army (they cannot even fight back to kill the dragon). Not only does that prevent the enemy from attacking, it prevents him from doing the most dangerous thing he can: manoeuvering and counter-manoeuvering against you.

Good units: Not too many. As an early race, they sort of got cheated, but...

• Sprite Swarm. This unit has three magic icons, plus whenever you roll the ID icon, you get four of whatever you were rolling for plus you get to roll the die again (sort of like a REND for ID icons).
• Gryphon. This unit has FLY, REND, and FERRY, which allows you to move the Gryphon to any other terrain and either stay there or return with up to four health of six sided units. That is very nice now, since Swampstalkers make it dangerous to go into the reserve.
• That's about it. The Coral Giant isn't bad, but not spectacular, and of course, you will want to include any Enchanters you might have, simply because they have CANTRIP, made especially valuable by Dragonkin.

Vagha are a mixture of red and gold, the elements fire and earth. Their homeland is the highland terrain (perhaps they are Scotsmen in disguise). Also an early race, they are not particularly spectacular, although there are a few exceptions to that rule. They double their manoeuvers in highlands, making their charges doubly dangerous (at least). "Transmute Rock to Mud" is a valuable gold spell to cast upon your enemies, and "Path" can let your smaller units escape the dreaded "Mutate" ability of the Swampstalkers. And, of course, the red dragon and the gold dragon are both very fearsome monsters, although their breath weapons are both very straightforward, and don't help any strategy subtler than mass destruction.

Good units: Dwarves are tough all around, and not bad at all, but a few dice stand out...

• Mammoth rider. In a charge, this unit flattens all opposition. The revised rulebook tells how he can do fifteen points of dammage in a charge in highlands when he rolls either of his two TRAMPLE icons, so I won't explain it in detail, but to re-iterate this guy's value, let me say again: 15 points of damage in a charge!
• Gargoyle. FLY. SMITE. Those by themselves aren't bad, but when you add to them DISPEL MAGIC, this monster is quite valuable.
• All the magic units are good at saves (for magic units) and of course the Wizard has CANTRIP, making him a worthy addition to any army.

Amazons are humans not based upon any element. This means that they cannot specialise in any colour of magic. The colour of the magic depends upon the colour of the terrain they occupy. However, this should always be the flatland terrain, as this is their homeland. In flatlands, Amazons can count their manoeuver results as missile results. In the reserve, they can also use their missile results to attack enemies at their home terrain when the whole reserve rolls for magic. That's pretty cool.

Good units: Amazons were in the first kicker pack, and they ended up with several good dice and dice combinations...

• War Driver. This rare cavalry needs to be in a flatland terrain with a tower. His two TRAMPLES are melee results, manoeuver results, really bad in a charge, and missile results in a flatland.
• Envoy, Battle Rider, Charioteer. These light infantry and cavalry units also belong in a flatland with a tower. With their manoeuvers, they can quickly get to the eight face and then use their double manoeuvers to shoot lots of arrows at any terrain.
• Oracle. This rare magic unit has one more magic point on the die than any other rare magic user that I am familiar with (except for the FirewalkerAshbringer). Unfortunately, he does have one less point of CANTRIP (only three). The uncommon magic user, the Visionary, also has one more point of magic any other uncommon unit, except for the Firewalker Sunflare.
• There are several other good units, but one in particular, that excells in melee, missile, movement, and sepecially so in flatlands, is the Centaur, with TRAMPLE and KICK (which lets him do four damage in melee to any die he chooses).

Firewalkers are a race of beings from the sun, made up of blue and red (air and fire). While not strictly a good-alligned race, they are not specifically evil, so I play them. They do not have a homeland per se, but their race's special ability to move from any terrain with blue in it to any other terrain during the movement phase without going to the reserve at all. This saves a step and keeps your units safe from the "Mutate" ability of Swampstalkers. In addition to being able to cast any normal blue and red spells (which allows them to summon the two best [possibly] dragons, the red and blue dragons), Firewalkers also have some new blue and red spells available only to them. Most of them aren't anything special, but with red "Elemental Blast," blue "Elemental Blast," and enough extra magic points, you can negate any spell in the game (think: "Open Grave"). As the second kicker pack, Firewalkers have lots of good units. There is also "Flashfire," which lets you re-roll any one die of yours until the begining of your next turn.

Good units: There are a lot of them, but these are the best of the best...

• Genie. He grants three wishes with FIRECLOUD (During missile, your choice of four health of opposing dice must roll at least one manoeuver or be killed), GALEFORCE (Get rid of all flying results from the target army until the monster's controller's next turn), and FIREWALKING (move the Genie and up to three health of allied units from here to any other terrain in play, if you want to; this is a very effective counter to the "Mutate" ability of Swampstalkers). He also has CANTRIP, which is always useful, and some regular magic, melee, and saves.
• Fireshadow. The best die there is. Period. SUMMON FIRE MINIONS is an ID icon that doesn't count for routing. He has two. Also CANTRIPs, SMITEs, COUNTERs, and FLYs to round out this Elder Firewalker.
• In addition to these awesome creatures, the Phoenix is loaded with saves and can even make an additional save against death even if it is killed. It makes it again if someone tries to bury it, and if it makes it either time, it goes to the reserve. Never forget the most reliable magic users, the uncommon Sunflare and the rare Ashbringer (with, of course, CANTRIP), which are mentioned above. The only complaint I have ever heard against Firewalkers is that some of their dice are too good at everything, keeping them from specialising in one single thing. Huh.

The Feral are a race of humanoid animals made of blue and gold (air and earth). They have no homeland, but this means that their special ability does not depend upon being at a particular terrain. Their ability is to be fruitful and multiply. At the begining of each turn, if you have any common Feral units in your dead pile, you may place one at every terrain where you have any other Feral units. They can cast any blue or gold spells from the basic rules (allowing them to summon my favourite dragon, the blue wyrm), and they also have a few new spells of their own. One of the better ones is the gold spell "Backlash," which, when cast upon a terrain, forces any army there to save against damage equal to the magic points they expend there. Some good blue spells are "Call of the Wild," which summons any one Feral unit (of yours) from any terrain to this one (neatly defeating the "Mutate" ability of Swampstalkers), and "Wilding," which lets you double the melee or save results of any unit of your choice in the target army until the begining of your next turn. When combined with TRUMPET, that's pretty good.

Good units: As might be expected, there are a few especially good units in this kicker pack...

• Elephant-Folk. In addition to probably being a Republican, this monster has one of the best icons in the game (at least if you place him with a large Feral army). That icon is TRUMPET. When rolling for melee or saves, this doubles the results of all Feral at that terrain. This monster also has TRAMPLE.
• Owl-Folk. With FLY, SCREECH, SWOOP, DISPELL MAGIC, and regular magic icons, there's very little this bird cannot acomplish.
• Some other good units are Wolf-folk, who have REND (although, unfairly, only one face with only three icons), Buffalo-Folk, with high manoeuvers and COUNTER, Horse-Folk, who have the highest expected manoeuver results of any good unit, and Badger-Folk with CANTRIP.

Promotional Dice are not actually a race, but some of them are actually units, and so worth mentioning here. You can't normally find them in a store, they are sold at some conventions and available at some contests and other special events.

• Dragonlord. This fellow ties the Fireshadow for best die. He is a six-sided, four hit point unit with four of each of the following: FLY, MELEE, SMITE, and CANTRIP. He also has an ID icon worth four points of anything and a TSR icon that allows him to take control of a dragon (and only one dragon at a time) that is attacking his army. He can then ride that dragon to any terrain (id est, he and the dragon can move instantly to any other terrain. The controlled dragon is managed thus: whenever the dragon might attack an army at the begining of the owner's turn, the owner of the Dragonlord decides if the attack will occur. The Dragonlord has no home terrain and can cast any colour of magic (he is sort of a crystal grey-white colour himself). I understand that there are coloured Dragonmasters who can only control dragons of their particular colour and only cast magic of that colour too. I don't know. I don't own one.
• Dragonslayer. This die came with the book Cast of Fate. The book was all right, but not great - except for this die. The same colour as the Dragonlord, he is also a big four health six-sider. He has four MELEE, SMITE, COUNTER, and SAVE icons, and an ID icon and TSR icon. The ID icon does four of anything (with magic, I guess it is four of any colour), the melee does the normal thing except when rolled when you aren't rolling for melee. Then it instantly slays any unit at that terrain, with no saves possible. I don't know if you have to kill one of your own dice if no enemies are there; I've never been required too, but the rules page wasn't clear on that. The TSR icon instantly slays a dragon at that terrain during a dragon attack, with no damage to the Dragonslayer's army, but with no promotions either. As a matter of fact, if an army with a Dragonslayer in it ever kills a dragon, it cannot promote anything for it.
• The King's Die. I don't have one, but I gather that he lives in the reserve, and whenever the reserve is rolled, there is a chance that he will promote a die in the reserve. Or something like that. Doesn't seem too useful, especially considering the Swampwalker ability to "Mutate" dice in the reserve.
• Red Dragonkin Champion. As a dragonkin, he isn't really a unit, and will be discussed in more detail later, but he is a promotional die, apparently advertising Magestorm! dragonkin and the Champions! expansion all at once.
• Blue Dragonkin Champion. As a dragonkin, he isn't really a unit, and will be discussed in more detail later, but he is a promotional die, apparently advertising Magestorm! dragonkin and the Champions! expansion all at once.

• Dragonkin
• Magic Items
• Minor Terrain
• Off to The Races
• The Dice Commander's Manual (A book by TSR about our favourite dice game)

Dragonkin are dragons aspiring to be units. Or vice virca. The are treated like units, but have to be summoned with a multi-colour spell "Summon Dragonkin," which costs two magic points per hit point of dragonkin you summon. The dragonkin come to the army the caster is in, and cannot move or go to the reserve (as far as I know) and the cease to exist if the army they are with all leaves the terrain where they are, as an army cannot consist of dragonkin alone. Rare dragonkin have breath weapons, although some are better than others, and all dragonkin have automatic saves equal to their hit points (unless they roll a BELLY icon, which they have one of, apiece). Since they aren't units, they go to that amorphous place dragons go to when they die (I call it "Atlanta") rather than the graveyard. This means they can't be buried by black magic. They make CANTRIP truly worthwhile, since your average CANTRIP can summon two points of dragonkin every time it is rolled, giving you automatic saves and something easy to bring back if it is killed. Not only that, but by summoning your entire dragonkin pool, you make your army one third again as large as your hit point limit. Sort of like the Swampstalker "Mutate" ability.

Good units: There is no such thing as a bad dragonkin, however, some are especially useful...

• Red Dragon Champion. Actually a promotional die, he is the biggest dragonkin of all. His breath buries the unit of your choice, and he has SMITE and FLY.
• Blue Dragon Champion. Actually a promotional die, he is the biggest dragonkin of all. His breath buries the unit of your choice, and he has SMITE and FLY.
• Red Dragonchamp, Dragonspy, Dragonsteed. Rare red dragonkin, their breath buries a unit in the target army. Not quite as good as the Red Dragon Champion, as the army's owner decides which is buried.
• Gold Dragonchamp, Dragonspy, Dragonsteed. Rare gold dragonkin, their breath kills one unit in the taget army unless it can roll a save all by itself. The unit's owner chooses which unit to roll.
• Dragonfoal, Dragonmount, Dragonsteed. These "mounts" [cavalry] are all excellent at manoeuvering, and that, as we know, is the name of the game.
• Dragonscout. This common light dragonkin is also good at manoeuvers.

• Missiles and Magic. They can't do these things at all. Not even their ID faces. Don't even roll them.
• Green dragonkin breath weapons. One unit in the target army, chosen by its owner, halves its rolls until the end of its next turn. So what?
• Blue dragonkin breath weapons. One unit in the target army, chosen by its owner, can only roll for saves until the end of its next turn. The best dragon breath turned into the worst dragonkin breath. Huh.
• BELLY. As mentioned earlier, this negates the dragonkin's automatic saves.

Magic Items and Artifacts are four-sided dice (artifacts are ten-sided) of one colour each. They cannot exist alone, but must each be carried by a different unit of a race that is made up partly of that colour. Amazons can carry any colour item (except black) and multi-coloured Promotional Dice can carry any colour at all. Magic items have only one kind of icon, and there are only twenty different types of item (although having five different colours of each makes one hundred differnet dice). Each item specialises in one action, and is covered with icons for that action alone. Their inclusion in your army assures that you will roll at least one of whatever kind you put in, but, as they count against you hit point limit (each item or artifact has hit points based upon its rarity) even though they cannot be removed to account for damage. Also, they cannot be used in the reserve at all.

Good items: These dice are pretty straightforward, with nothing interesting enough to set certain dice aside, except for a couple...

• Dragon Staff. Dragons are fun, but usually not worth the trouble to get out. This artifactchanges that. Besides casting magic, it has a special SUMMON DRAGON icon, which brings a dragon of any colour, regardless of the colour of the artifact to this terrain.
• Magic Carpet. This artifact's special icon ELEVATE lets you count any accidental missile results in melee. Combined with Amazons or a BULLSEYE, this isn't too bad.
• Some of the rare four-sided items have worthwile special icons as well. DECAPITATE and IMPALE kill one opposing unit that rolled an ID icon, ATTUNE changes the colour of one unit's magic roll, and BASH reflect one opposing unit's melee roll right back on it.

Minor Terrain are small eight-sided dice in the same colours as normal terrain. When you make a successful manoeuver roll, you can choose to put into play a minor terrain instead of moving the terrain die where you are. Every time you use the army that controlls a minor terrain, you roll the minor terrain. It probably will roll an icon that lets you do melee or missile or magic, regardless of where the major terrain is located. Or it might double your saves or manoeuvers. However, it might roll the one bad face, which are detailed below.

Bad Faces: These one in eight chances can do some pretty bad things to your army, and make you lose your minor terrain, but some are blessings in disguise...

• Flood. This kills all one health units in the army.
• Landslide. The army instantly take damage equal to the number of units therein. Each manoeuver negates a point of damage.
• Lost. Irritating, but nothing else, this takes away the rest of this army's march, sort of like a self-inflicted blue dragon.
• Revolt. A blessing in disguise, this causes all dice that roll ID icons or manoeuver icons to flee to the reserve. Why can that be good? Well, they can come right back out in your movement phase, and go anywhere they want withou fear of the "Mutate" ability of the Swampstalkers.

• Off to the Races
• Magestorm!

The Dice Commander's Manual is a recent publication by TSR that sumarises all the rules in the rulebooks that came in the starter box, the kicker packs, and the Magestorm! expansion, as well as offering a few optional rules of its own. It lists all available spells, including those in forthcoming kicker packs 6, 7, and 8 and some new spells for the first four races. The Dice Commander's Manual also contains spell cards for all the new and old spells, just like the Dragon Shield accessory, as well as several FAQ lists and three Campaign Scenarios. However, while worth looking at, the book may not be worth its $18.95 price tag.

Good Spells: The best aspect of The Dice Commander's Manual is the inclusion of new spells for the first four races. Some of course, particularly stand out...

• "Degenerate Dragonkin." This blue Coral Elf spell is very expensive at 9 magic points, but its value is immense. It causes all dragonkin in the target army to decrease one health size unless they each roll an ID icon. Any dragonkin which cannot decrease in size (common units and those who cannot trade to a smaller size) are destroyed and buried. However, all dragonkin in the casting army are also destroyed and buried.
• "Reforge Item." Thisred Dwarf spell restores one health worth of destroyed magic items and artifacts, and at 3 magic points, it is no more expensive than "Spark of Life".
• "Bloat Corpses." This green Coral Elf spell causes one health worth of any player's dead units to be buried. Not very polite, perhaps, but good units need some better offensive abilites.
• Besides these spells, the gold "Explode Stone" stands out, as it allows Dwarves to destroy and bury enemy items and kill the unit carrying the item (who must roll a save to avoid these effects).

Elder Monsters. The Dice Commander's Manual does hint very strongly that the first five races will have a fifth monster of great power added to their ranks at some time, but when and how is not made clear. Hmm....

That's all that's here right now. To see some more good stuff about dragon dice, go to The Official Dragon Dice Page, Morthalion's Dragon Dice page, or to Newsbytes about Dragon Dice. There are links to them from my home page.