Flamecraft is a Eurogame published by Cardboard Alchemy and Lucky Duck Games, designed by Manny Vega, with art by Sandara Tang. The game centers around Artisan Dragons, which are tinier and magically adept versions of their larger cousins. Up to 5 players take the role of Flamekeeper, one skilled at communicating with the dragons and finding ideal homes for them in the villages' shops.
Flamekeepers take turns moving to shops to gather resources from them, or enchant them using resources to improve yields on subsequent visits. Placing Artisan Dragons in shops allows you to get rewards, increase shop yields, and allows the player to use the Artisan Dragons’ unique abilities. Along the way, Flamekeepers must make a name for themselves in town by accruing reputation points through their town activities and the celebrations of the Fancy Dragons - the Flamekeeper with the most reputation wins!
Gather goods, place your dragons, fire them up, enchant shops, and become the Master of Flamecraft.
Flamecraft contains examples of:
- Anti-Hoarding: Players can only hold 7 of each type of item token and 6 artisan dragons in their hand by the end of their turn.
- Aerith and Bob: Artisan and Fancy Dragons run the gamut from names like Chonkers, Cinnabun, Mulch and Hot Dog to names like Steven, Taylor, Todd, and Herb.
- Awesome McCoolname: Crystal dragons seem to gravitate towards these. Examples include Silverscale, Deathfang, and Frostfire.
- Breath Weapon: Downplayed, as each dragon has their own elemental breath which they use for tasks like heating forges, roasting meat, or baking bread. In particular, plant dragons have magical misty breath used for things like tending to plants and aromatherapy.
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: One of the shops is called Bizarre Bazaar, likely in reference to the trope.
- Delightful Dragons: the board game!
- Dragon Tamer: The player is a downplayed version that acts more like a recruitment officer or hiring manager than a tamer.
- Dragon Hoard: Dragon Hoard Bank references the concept, and a Fancy Dragon named Goldrush fulfills the trope by his card picturing him sitting atop a pile of coins.
- An Entrepreneur Is You: As Flamekeepers, players are essentially responsible for the economic development of the town.
- Euro Game
- Good-Guy Bar: Flagons & Dragons, your typical adventurer's pub.
- Literal Wild Card: Potion Dragons are a partial example - while they only create potions as a good, their ability is to swap them with another dragon at another shop, then activate the swapped dragon’s ability. Additionally, gold coins can be exchanged for any trade good during the game, but are worth reputation at the end of the game.
- Our Dragons Are Different: They're small, dedicated, and looking for work! Artisan Dragons come in six types based on their respective goods, while Fancy Dragons are attracted to the activities of Flamekeepers and will give reputation and other rewards for fulfilling the goal on their card.
- Magic Potion: Potion Dragons are skilled alchemists. They also make a mean cup of joe.
- Merchant City: The unnamed town you operate in.
- Mundane Utility: The Artisan Dragons use their magical flamecraft to do basic tasks like cooking, botany, and forging.
- Pun: Several shop names, including the hardware store Gnome Depot, a pizza restaurant staffed by witches called Pizza Coven, a bee farm called Nunya's Beeswax, and a clothing store called Sew Cute (bonus points for being staffed by the Fancy Dragon, Taylor).
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: Just look at them!
- Shoulder-Sized Dragon: The dragons are just a couple of feet high at most.
- Shout-Out: Several of the shops are references several different media and pop culture, including:
- Critical Rolls, a bakery.
- Hello Nursery, a plant nursery.
- Draco Bell, a skewer cart.
- Funky Brewster, a coffee bar.
- A pottery store called Saving Throw. More directly, the pub is called Flagons & Dragons.
- Hedges & Henges includes a flower that looks like a sleeping Petilil.
- Fogo de Char is a reference to Brazilian steakhouse chain Fogo de Chão
. - The human worker at Gnome Depot bears a resemblance to George Lucas.
- The owner of the candy shop Guilty Treasures' outfit is very similar to Johnny Depp's Willy Wonka.
- Dragon Alley is a reference to Diagon Alley.
- A promo shop released for Gencon called Lucky Lake depicts the dragons feeding ducks, and is based off Flamecraft's international publisher Lucky Duck Games.
- The Kickstarter exclusive shop cards include the Flamestarter Statue and The Spice Tower, featuring Tom Vasel as a shopkeeper. The spices in the background are puns based off various board games including: 7 Mustards, Shroomhaven, Pande-mica, Thyme Stories, Blood Sage and Clove Letter.
