This is an adventure game where players explore new lands, find hidden treasure and fight monsters. Oh, did I mention that it’s also a surprisingly effective way to practice English?
This game is designed to be incredibly adaptable so that it works for a wide range of ages, levels and learning styles. It’s free play, so it’s easy to adapt it and make it relevant, fun and engaging in your own creative ways. I hope that you enjoy using it to learn and teach English.
Start with some useful vocabulary and grammar to help you get the most out of the game.
The Backstory
Welcome to Lion’s Tooth Castle. Nobody in the House of Lion can remember when or why the fight with the House of the Serpent started. So many generations have passed, that it felt natural for each to look down on the other. There were endless border skirmishes and disputes.
But something has changed. It is rumoured that the House of the Serpent gained a strong, magical advantage, and put a terrible curse of the House of Lion. Nobody knows for sure. But suddenly, the entire royal family and everyone in the castle has vanished. People say that they are trapped in their own dungeon, while strange monsters rule their castle!
Your people live in the plains, between the lands of the great houses. You have no allegiance to other. But the power imbalance has been causing serious problems, and you fear that large armies will soon be marching through, to claim the Lion’s land. The town elders decided that someone needed to investigate. They organized a lottery, and drew the names of those who will undertake the adventure.
Your name was chosen, and you were happy to accept the challenge.
Your first task is only to know yourself, to gain knowledge and skill, and to build up your resources. You will need all your strength to face the challenges that are to come.
Setting up the game:
1.) All players select a colour for their game pieces, and the character that they want to play. The choices are:
A.) Human warrior
B.) Human magician
C.) Elf
D.) Dwarf
E.) Giant
(See selecting a character.)
2.) All players begin in the castle entryway, marked with a ‘X’ on the map. You can drag and drop the game pieces to indicate where players are in the castle.
How each turn goes:
1.) The player adds his/her health points. (For example, on the first turn: If the player is a human warrior, they add 5 health points to the 100 that all players begin with. So the player has 105.)
2.) Players can choose to buy or sell items at the store, or offer trades with other players only at this point in each of their turns.
3.) When a player enters a new room, s/he flips the card for that room and reads it. (See entering new rooms.)
4.) The player can search for any 1 item. (See how to collect items.)
5.) The player flips the next monster card. If a monster does not appear, the player can search for another item, then flip another monster card. If a monster still doesn’t appear, the player can take the final item in the room. The player moves to any connecting room, ending the turn.
If a monster appears, the player flips the 6 sided die card, to see what the monster will do. (1-3 =No attack/ 4-6 =Attack)
When monsters don’t attack, players can decide if they will attack the monster or run to a connecting room (ending the turn). If monsters attack, players must defend themselves.
There are a few factors to consider when deciding to attack or not. (See how to fight.)
GAME RULES
Selecting a character
1.) Players decide who they want to be. There are 5 categories, and each category has strengths and weaknesses. Choose carefully! Once players have decided on their characters, they should draw or write a description of themselves, and share it so that everyone knows what they look like.
If players want to invent their own characters, they are most welcome to! They can simply substitute their own character type for one of the 5 here.
Character Categories:
A. Human warrior (special weapon – sword)
Speed: Flips 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: +1
Defense strength: +1
Healing: 5 health points per turn
B. Human magician (special weapon – Staff)
Speed: Flips 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: –
Defense Strength: –
Healing: 5 health points per turn
Magicians begin the game with potions: 1 blue strength potion, 1 blue healing potion, and 1 blue poison potion. They also get + 3 on all potions.
C. Elf (special weapon – bow and arrows)
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: -2
Defense Strength: +2
Healing: 10 health points per turn
D. Dwarf (special weapon – hammer)
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: +4
Defense strength: -1
Healing: 8 health points per turn
E. Giant (special weapon – club)
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: + 5
Defense strength: -2
Healing: 2 health points per turn
Rooms
Entering new rooms:
There is a lot of freedom in this aspect of the game, and it can be adapted to suit the players. Teacher can read and/or summarize the cards for beginners. More advanced students can read the cards on their own. Players are encouraged to improvise and add to the room descriptions. The only rule is that players can’t add monsters or items to take.
Moving between rooms:
Players can enter a new room at the beginning of a turn. They can do as much as they like in that room, as long as they stay alive! As long as they aren’t under attack, players can move to a connecting room, and this ends the turn.
The stairways don’t count as rooms.
How to fight
Players begin the game with a health score of 100, and they gain health points per turn.
After each time a player searches for an object, s/he flips the 6 sided die cards to see if a monster attacks (1-3 No attack/ 4-6 Attack). If the monster attacks, players defend. If a player decides to attack, the monster defends.
The outcome of each battle depends on the player and the monster’s health points and special strengths.
The attacker roles first. Select the 6 or 8 sided die, depending on the attackers speed. Flip the card to get the base number. Add or subtract the attack strength. Add any extra points (use of potions, etc.) This it the attack score.
The defender repeats the process, to determine the defense score.
The highest of the 2 scores wins. Losers subtract their scores from their health points.
Players under attack must continue to defend. Attackers can continue to attack or they can stop. If they want to stop, they must run to a connecting room, and end their turn. Monsters remain in the room until they are defeated, with their remaining health scores.
Players can team up to fight monsters. They can decide how to divide up any items that they find in the rooms in whatever way they like.
Items
How to collect items:
Players flip the item cards to see what they found.
There are items to find all over the castle. There are 3 in each room. Players can say that they are search for an item anyway they makes sense with the scene and story. For example, they could simple say “I look under the bed, and I find a…”, or preferably, they could say “I tip-toe across the dark, cold room towards the bed. I go down on one knee, afraid of what I’ll find. But luckily for me, I find a…”
Once an item is collected from a room, remove one of the item cards from the room on the map. Players take the corresponding item and add it to their collections.
Players can also buy items from the store, or trade with other players.
Complete collections:
Complete collections come with special abilities for each house.
Owning the complete eagle collection gives the player +2 defense.
Owning the complete serpent collection gives the player +2 attack.
Owning the complete lion collection gives the player +5 health.
Owning the complete dragon collection gives the player 1 random yellow potion per turn. (Flip the 6 sided die: 1-2=a healing potion, 3-4=a strength potion, 5-6=a poison potion.)
Gold Coins:
Players can collect coins by finding them or by selling objects at the store. Gold coins come in bags of 25, 50, 100, etc. Players can cash in smaller amounts for larger ones to save space in their vaults.
Potions:
There are three kinds of potion: healing, strength and poison. Each bottle of potion can only be used once. (Players move the potion from inventory to the store.)
Healing Potion adds health points to a players health score:
Purple adds 50 points.
Blue adds 20 points.
Yellow adds 10 points.
Poison potion adds points to an attack score:
Purple adds 50 points.
Blue adds 10 points.
Yellow adds 5 points.
Strength potion adds points to a defense score:
Purple adds 50 points.
Blue adds 10 points.
Yellow adds 5 points.
Monsters
A. Goblin
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: -1
Defense strength: –
Healing: None
B. Skeleton
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: –
Defense strength: +1
Healing: None
C. Ghoul
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: +2
Defense strength: +2
Healing: None
D. Troll
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: +1
Defense strength: +3
Healing: None
E. Serpent
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: +2
Defense strength: +4
Healing: None
F. Gorgon
Speed: Flips the 6 sided die cards
Attack strength: +3
Defense strength: +4
Healing: None
G. Hydra
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: +4
Defense strength: +4
Healing: None
H. Griffin
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: +5
Defense strength: +5
Healing: None
I. Wendigo
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: +6
Defense strength: +4
Healing: None
J. Dragon
Speed: Flips the 8 sided die cards
Attack strength: +8
Defense strength: +8
Healing: None
Game options
If you are playing with only 2 players, consider having 2 characters each. You can work as a team all together, or as each players 2 characters competing against each other to collect the highest total gold coin score.