Cheerful Dracula -or- Old stories making great new boardgame memories with Plague of Dracula

RockyMountainNavy, 12 January 2025

Sorry, Brant. I broke your rules for The Armchair Dragoons. I understand that review copies of games provided by designers and publishers to The Armchair Dragoons are intended for us to be able to review and write on those products. As writers and reviewers, we are under no obligation to write puff-pieces or automatically sing the praises of a design for we are expected to be impartial (though highly hobby-motivated) players. Once we are done publishing the piece the games are the common property of The Armchair Dragoons, though in reality most end up in private gaming collections. So why did I give the review copy of Plague Of Dracula by designer Mike Nagel from Relative Range (printed by Blue Panther) to RockyMountainNavy Jr. for Christmas?

I could make the excuse that I already played Plague of Dracula at The Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly this past October and could comment on the game based on that experience. I will not, however, make that excuse and instead beg your indulgence to hear me out. The true story of Plague of Dracula and Christmas (speak about opposites!) I believe is far better than any review I write based on just my plays of the game.

You see, Plague of Dracula arrived a few days before Christmas in the period that I call my “End of Year Gaming Blackout.” That blackout is when newly arriving games are not counted as current year acquisitions but among the first of the new year. It is also a period when I know that my personal time commitment to gaming is reduced due to family obligations (first) and the need to do my end-of-year blog preparation (far second). So when Plague of Dracula arrived I set it aside while promising myself that I would get to it in the new year.

Then I go to thinking (Yes, dangerous I know).

As the final rush and flurry of Christmas preparations flashed by, I remembered that RockyMountainNavy Jr., my college-age son, has a small gaming group at school that loves boardgames. In particular, they love to play cooperative boardgames. I also remembered that RMN Jr.’s girlfriend loves horror movies and books. That is why Horrified (Propseo Hall, Ravensburger, 2019) is one of their go-to games. [Interestingly, RMN Jr. tells me they prefer the Horrified: Dungeon’s & Dragons version.]

RMN Jr. also mentioned that he was looking for some good solo games to play after the New Year when he gets his wisdom teeth pulled. That is when I recalled that Plague of Dracula is a boardgame about Dracula…and a solo game…and a cooperative design. As the ad copy at Blue Panther Publishing relates:

Plague of Dracula is a solitaire game that lets you live (?) the horror in Victorian London while Count Dracula casts his dark shadow across the city. The game faithfully recreates the events depicted in Bram Stoker’s classic novel, from the moment of Lucy Westerna’s first bite, to the climactic battle at Dracula’s castle.

All of the main characters from the book are depicted in the game, including Jonathan and Mina Harker, Lucy Westerna, Doctor Seward, Arthur Holmwood, Quincy Morris, and of course, Professor Van Helsing. Dracula’s mad minion Renfield is also depicted, causing trouble as the “hunters” seek to halt the spread of Dracula’s plague.

Each turn, the plague spreads and the hunters perform a variety of tasks to help them in their efforts to stop it and eventually turn the tide against Dracula. But as they move into corrupted locations throughout London on a game board inspired by actual locations as well as those depicted within the novel, they draw the attention of the Count’s ever growing army of the undead.

Merciless attacks can only be turned by the use of occult weapons and failure may result in a hunter turning into a vampire and joining Dracula’s side.

Although the game is designed as a solitaire effort, optional rules are included to allow for up to four additional players to join in as either a cooperative and/or antagonistic experience.

Can you, as the cadre of brave vampire hunters work together to turn back Dracula’s attempts to turn London into a city of the living dead? Time is running out as London is under attack by the Plague of Dracula!

So Plague of Dracula ended up under the Christmas tree. RMN Jr. was happy when opening the gift, remembering me talking about the game after Fall Assembly. He was happy to see it was for solo play. He was very happy to see it could be played cooperatively. When he showed it to his girlfriend she was very, very happy and interested as both the theme (Dracula) and core game mechanism (cooperative play) are highly favored by her.

Thus, it came to pass that I was seated around the dining table on a Saturday night with RMN Jr., his girlfriend, and two other of their young home-from-college friends to play Plague of Dracula. I was not a player but instead took my cue from designer Mike Nagel who led my game at Fall Assembly. I read the rulebook in advance and worked to recall what rules I stumbled with. After a short teach we started play.

At Fall Assembly I liked the immersive gameplay in Plague of Dracula. With what little I knew about Bram Stoker’s Dracula I nonetheless saw relatable storybeats between the book and the game. While I knew that RMN Jr.’s girlfriend liked the Dracula story, I did not realize just how much of the story she knew. There were moments in play where she audibly gasped as she saw a situation on the board that—as she shared afterwards—was evocative of the story. Yet, while Plague of Dracula is based on the story of Dracula it is—thankfully—not a railroading adventure; the game allows players to create their own narrative.

And create they did.

Watching these young players create their own Dracula story was exciting. This same group also plays roleplaying games together and the cooperative, narrative building gameplay in Plague of Dracula brought out their roleplaying chops. Each player started talking about their actions as their game character, referring to themselves in the first person (i.e. not “I use Quincy’s transportation ability to move Lucy across the city” but instead, speaking as Quincy, “I use my fast carriage to sprint Lucy across town”). As the game facilitator even I got involved by describing the emergence of threats not unlike a Dungeon Master might. My attempts at an evil “mwahaha” laugh may have been…laughable…but all were smiles and played along in the undead spirit of the game.

Given this was their first game of Plague of Dracula the threat level selected for play was low. As is often the case playing a game for the first time, there were some rules questions and some stumbles as players figure out the “levers” of the game and how to get their strategy or game engine going. Plague of Dracula is in some ways relatable to a States of Siege or Pandemic game where the threat is spreading and the players have to first muster resources to stem the tide before going “on the offensive” to drive the threat back. Most appropriately, the game climaxed with a real “Boss Fight” against Dracula where the outcome was not assured. This made their win all the more exciting with RMN Jr. visibly sagging from relief at the win (and, of course, getting a REALLY big kiss from the girlfriend…in front of Dad…which led to some sheepish looks and red cheeks on both of them…and a laugh from me as I am not that stupid to not realize that love has bit both of them).

The narrative that emerges in play from Plague of Dracula is the real power of the game. Granted, the design has a few rough points (read the rulebook carefully as most of the answers are in there) but once the core game is understood play moves along nicely. Yet, as closely tied the story is to gameplay, it is absolutely not necessary to know the story of Dracula to play. Sure, knowing the story helps with the immersion but as far as strategy goes the game drives player actions in a natural way. That is, perhaps, the real power of Plague of Dracula. Whether solo or cooperative, Plague of Dracula is a game with a naturally emerging narrative that is interesting and evocative of the theme that presents appropriate gaming challenges to players. If one takes a bite at Plague of Dracula you might even get a big kiss out of it.

Without breaking any Regimental rules.

[Post Script – RMN Jr. got his wisdom teeth pulled and played Plague of Dracula solo in a somewhat drugged state (pain killers and antibiotics). He did not win his first attempt but did win his second. He called them “practice rounds” for better learning the game for himself so his game group can play again in the next semester because they already asked to schedule a game night. How many games does your family or friends demand an encore gaming performance of? Such is the allure of…Plague of Dracula.]

You can chat about this game in the Adventure Gaming section of our discussion forums

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