Fury of Dracula: First Plays

I played Fury of Dracula twice yesterday.

Our first was a learning game between the Mrs. and I. She had read about half of the rulebook and I had finished it, but since Fury is on the heavier side I knew the game demanded a play between the two of us before introducing it to new players. Since I had read the rules more thoroughly I decided to play Dracula and consult the rulebook, and the Mrs. controlled the four hunters. We both had our hands full between my immersion in the rulebook and the Mrs. playing all four hunter roles (which is a lot of work for a first time player!) Our game covered the majority of the rules, although I never went to sea and we only drew a fraction of the event deck. Victory went to the hunters.

James and Karin came over for dinner and games last night and we started off with Fury of Dracula. I took on the Dracula role once again, the Mrs. played Lord Godalming and Dr. Seward, Karin Dr. Van Helsing, and James Mina Harker. We were a little worried that the game would be too difficult to teach especially because we had only played through once, but it really wasn't too bad. Helping with this was the game's semi-cooperative nature so the Mrs. could guide the other players throughout much of the game helping everyone to understand better. We didn't explain going to sea or Dracula's special powers, or the resolve track, or combat until each of those came up during the game, which simplified the pregame explanation considerably.

I felt like I made some excellent decisions as Dracula, but the hunters kept finding me through well-timed event cards and I was never really able to get any separation from them, even with going to sea twice during the game. I was two turns from maturing a new vampire and thus advancing the vampire track to six for the victory when Mina Harker, with the hunters' last chance to catch me, took a train to my locale (during the day!) and successfully staked me on two consecutive rounds of combat. Oh the humanity!

The game probably took us between 2 1/2 and 3 hours to play, which did feel a little long. There are a lot of unique event and item cards in the game that need to be reviewed when drawn and again every turn to make sure they are played at an opportune time. During future plays when we are more familiar with the cards and options each turn Fury should play a bit more quickly. Everyone did seem to have a good time, and Fury of Dracula will definitely see future plays with the same group.

We ended the evening with a couple quick games of Wits and Wagers which was fun as always.