Fury of Dracula

by Fury of Dracula

Product Features

• The Un-Dead Count returns in this remake of the 1987 Games Workshop classic!
• Ages: 10 - adult, Players: 2 - 5, Game Time: 2 - 3 hours
• Features rules updated and streamlined from the 1987 edition
• Download game instructions at http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/PDF/furyofdracularules.pdf
• Look for Arkham Horror and Runebound: Midnight Expansion also from Fantasy Flight Games

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.8 x 11.8 x 3 inches ; 3.6 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 4.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000EUKRYK
• Manufacturer recommended age: 10 years and up
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #31,461 in Toys & Games (See Top 100 in Toys & Games)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)

Product Description

It is 1898. Eight years ago, the most evil Count Dracula traveled to London in a bid to create an empire of Un-Dead! In this he was stopped by a small band of God-fearing people who managed to thwart his plans and destroy him within the very shadow of Cas

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Overpriced but Classy, May 8, 2006

By 

Dhampire (Carbondale, PA United States) - See all my reviews

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fury of Dracula (Toy)

FFG has been making quality Board Games of late. This one takes place 8 years after the events of the novel and it is appearant to anyone familiar with the book that the people who made this game know the book, as well.

Knowledge of the novel is not required for play, though it certainly does help the players to understand their roles.

This game is competitive. The Dracula Player is competing against the Hunter player(s) by completing a certain set of objectives to score a determined set of victory points.

This would seem basic if it were not for the mystery and sleuthing element of Dracula's movement. The Dracula player's moves are kept secret and noted by playing face-down cards showing his location. A certain number of cards are kept on the board providing a trail. If a hunter lands on a place where Dracula has been, they recieve encounters and clues noting his passage and must then determine where he went next.

Educationally it really focuses memory and reasoning skills. Especially if the Dracula player is exceptionally cunning. The game will never repeat itself and makes each session unique.

The encounter resolution system allows combat to take place in less than three minutes. This gets the encounter resolved quickly and puts the players back into tracking down the vampire.

The player markers are plastic but well sculpted/molded and surprisingly rubust. The counters and tokens are of a thick and sturdy card board, not flimsy card stock. The board, sheets, and cards are of excellent durability and visually helpful by showing each hunter's unique powers right on the card for easy reference and having card icons to indicate the size of your maximum inventory.

A quick action summary card (one for every player) means that you will never have to flip open the rulebook to check sequence of events or timing issues since that is all one one handy card.

The game only has two detractions.

1.) The Dracula Player's powers and movement requires full and complete understanding of the rule book.
I could explain the rules the hunters needed to know in all of five minutes. Explaining the Dracula role is something I would not be able to do without ruining the experience.

2.) The contents for the price.
The box is of a decent, and almost standard, Board Game size. This betrays the size of the contents.
Four Dice, Two stacks of cards, a fistful of counters, player sheets, and a game board. At a price of $50- it is a bit much. $35- is a little more reasonable for the contents of the game.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Game!, May 28, 2008

By 

J. Beard (Columbia, TN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fury of Dracula (Toy)

First I would like to say this is a great game! I was impressed with the entire package from the box down to the little game pieces inside. My entire family loved it once we moved through a few rounds of play to work out the kinks and understand the rules.

The game recommends the most experienced player be Dracula. This is true. As my boys are only 10 and 8, they would have struggled to be Dracula right out of the box so I took that role first game. After our first game, my 10 year old handled Dracula like a champ! After our second game, my 8 year old did a great job as Dracula with only one hiccup during the game - he got a little excited and forgot what city he was in! Aside from that, he handled Dracula perfectly for the rest of the game. Three games and 11 hours later, the kids finally had to go to bed - they were exhausted.

I bought this game specifically to help develop my childrens deductive reasoning by tracking Dracula and following the clues. This is also a great game to teach kids how to work together as a team, communicate with each other, strategize, teach them to see how their actions have an impact on future rounds of the game and realize where they went wrong.

Long story short, the game has a lot of pieces to it and it appears to be complicated, but once you get a game under your belt and pick up on the rules it is a lot of fun.

Our next game - Arkham Horror!!!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've foiled you again, Van Helsing., December 30, 2007

By 

Lyal Clough - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

= Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars  = Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Fury of Dracula (Toy)

This game was a big hit with my gaming group. We played it twice in three days; once with a full group of five (the maximum), and the other time with only two players (the minimum). Both times were really fun and, despite the long playing time, didn't drag.

Overview
The game is based on the Bram Stoker novel with the major characters of the book hunting Dracula. Basically, one player plays Dracula against four hunters. The four hunters are always used despite the number of players, one to four, that are controlling them. The object of the game is for the hunters to deduce where Dracula is hiding and kill him. Naturally, the object for Dracula is to try to prevent this from happening through his powers and cunning (including bluffing).

Components
The board is well laid out and printed on high-quality cardstock. The same can be said for the cards and tokens.
The box has pretty good storage space already, but it would be a good idea to buy two small containers to hold the tokens.

Mechanics/Gimmicks
The game has a few clever mechanics that make the game quite fun. First, Dracula doesn't say where he is or place his miniature on the board; instead, he places "Location" cards facedown on his "Trail", a row of the most recent places that he has been. Hunters can reveal Locations by going to one of the cities on the Trail, either by accident or through deduction (e.g. "Let's see, Dracula was here and then played two Location cards. He is probably either here or here."), or by playing certain cards that reveal Locations.

The second mechanic we liked is the way the players draw from the "Event" deck. The Event deck has cards that benefit either the hunters or Dracula; the two different types of cards being indicated by a symbol on the back. The twist is that only the hunters draw from the deck (well, normally) and they draw from the bottom of the deck. This makes the card draw a little suspenseful.

Rules
The rules are pretty straightforward and surprisingly easy to pick up. Another reviewer mentioned that the Dracula player has to remember a lot more rules than the hunters and this is absolutely true. The rulebook recommends that the player who knows the rules the best play Dracula, at least initially. This is sound advice and should be followed. Even if you normally fight on the side of good, if you're teaching other people to play the game, you need to be Dracula.

Appeal
My gaming group includes different levels of gamers: from those that will play a game to just hang out with friends to those that listen to podcasts of Magic: The Gathering tournaments on their MP3 players (For the record, it's not me.). This game was a hit with everyone. I think that there is enough going on in this game to appeal to the "serious" gamer and it's accessible enough to be a great family game.

Educational note: The game is not designed to be an introduction into the Bram Stoker classic, but I could see it being used that way. Also, the game relies heavily on deduction, which helps to keep the brain limber.