Drakborgen

The Drakborgen (Dragon's Keep) is a series of dungeon-delving tile-laying games originally designed by Jakob Bonds and Dan Glimne.

The Swedish original was released by Alga in 1985 and contained art by the Swedish artist Anders Jeppsson. It was released in Norway and Denmark under the names Skatten i borgen and Dragenborgen, respectively.

The game was licensed to Germany (Drachenhort, Schmidt Spiele) and Great Britain (DungeonQuest, Games Workshop) in 1985. The German edition used the same art as the Swedish original, with the exception of the box cover. The English version had original art by Gary Chalk (Talisman, Lone Wolf game books).

The game saw one expansion in 1987, called simply Drakborgen II that contained a few extra room tiles and cards. It added 8 new heroes, and the concept of the Catacombs and Amulets. This expansion was also released in Great Britain; but the Games Workshop version was split into two: Heroes for Dungeonquest (1987) that contained the additional heroes, and Dungeonquest: Catacombs (1988) that contained the rest of the material; the catacombs deck and the additional room tiles and cards.

In 2002, the 2nd edition Drakborgen Legenden (Dragon's Keep: The Legend) was released. It featured a slimmed down system, with tiles instead of room cards, simplified some of the original's card decks, had pre-printed runes on the chamber tile walls for hidden exits, added a fast yet more complex fighting system and the concept of enemies staying on the board, including the giant spiders that ran for the kill as soon as a hero got stuck in a web. The game contained aspects from the original's expansion, such as amulets and the Catacombs, and all 12 original heroes. The art for 2e was done by Andreas Gustafsson. This edition was never released outside Sweden and is generally considered as slightly weaker, as the "insta-death" aspect was toned down. This is the only version that allows the main dragon to be killed, and also allows for co-op play.

In 2010, the game was re-licensed to Fantasy Flight Games who released the 3rd edition, called simply Dungeonquest, which was next to identical with the 1e, except with new art, modern component quality, and some card distributions changes, like several Room cards ending up in the Catacombs deck. The combat system was completely changed to a system where both combatants draw cards from a common deck; this was generally considered as a good combat idea, but that it slowed down the game too much. FFG set the game in their Terrinoth setting, linking it to their successful titles such as Runebound, Descent and Runewars. Like the 2e, this 3e included many of the aspects of the original's expansion, like certain room cards and the Catacombs; it did not, however, feature the amulets nor the much-feared Snotlings (Likätare/Corpse Eaters). It had six newly made heroes but none of the original.