Dinn | Swift and Furious Game

· 2 Players

· 1–30 Min

· Age: 13+

· Designer: Gabriel Whittemore

· Artist: Gabriel Whittemore

· Publisher: Sisyphus Systems

Dinn is a fast-paced deck-construction card game combined with alternate-reality puzzles. It is steeped in strategy and a dash of luck, surrounded by Villains and Heroes from mythology and history.

My son played Magic the Gathering for years and on occasion he would ask to teach me to play. Hearing the banter while he played made it sound intriguing, however the vast amount of cards and their abilities prompted me to put it off for another day. Moons have passed and we have played smattering of cards games similar and still there was no spark or connection to the cards for me…. Until now. I could be that I love the art on the Dinn Cards or the mechanics of the card abilities, but it just clicked for me.

The goal of Dinn is to defeat your opponent by playing a combination of three types of cards: Heroes, action, and equipment cards. Each player has three Heart cards that can crushed by the player having the highest Hero power that round.

Gameplay

The starter game came with a neoprene player mat and two starter decks: Beast which is classic monster and Sentient which is King Arthur times.

Each player places 3 Heart cards face-up on the mat. Then player’s shuffle their 36-card deck. Each player draws a hand of 8 random cards from the top of their deck at the beginning of the game. If you do not draw a Hero, discard, and draw a new hand. Hero cards are revealed simultaneously and the Hero with the higher value goes first. Once the Heroes are on the table, it is time to plan the best route to build an engine with higher values to crush hearts or build up your defenses.

Players place face down and Action or Equipment cards that has matching icons. They are revealing simultaneously, and the higher value Hero goes first. These cards have various abilities that range from adding value to Hero, pulling cards from the Graveyard to negating the opponent’s ability.

The third-round players place face down and Action or Equipment card. It should be noted that if you know that with the cards in your hand, you can not win, you can pass to save cards for the next round. The highest value Hero goes first and once the abilities have been resolved it is time to declare a round winner. The Hero with a lower Total Power loses the round. That player must then shatter a number of Heart cards equal to the number of Hearts on the Hero they played.

The Clean up phase is to discard cards used to the Graveyard. If both players still have Heart cards in play, begin the next round by drawing two random cards from the top of their respective decks.

Any card abilities that alter a card are only active during that round unless otherwise specified. Once a card is in the graveyard, it is effectively reset.

The winner Dinn successfully crushes the opponents three hearts.

Mechanics

After a few plays we did get to forming a deck of combination cards that the abilities made difficult to beat. However, there is a big dose of luck in the drawing of cards and learning to pivot a strategy was crucial. The starter deck did supply enough combination and variety to keep gameplay fair and competitive.

I was relying heavily on pulling hearts from the Graveyard and modifying power by +1 for retrieving for Equipment cards in hand.

The card abilities are well thought and crafty.

Bits and Bobs

Player Mat

Beast Starter Deck

Sentient Starter Deck

QR Code for Rules

The Last Word

The main reason I wanted to play Dinn was that the cards play a part in a large-scale puzzle that you follow through an interactive story driven mystery. I spent a few hours following down that rabbit hole. There are clues online and the community interaction to assist with the puzzles. This is a whole different adventure that I fully intend to dive back into, crack the codes and save the day. Crazy good puzzling!

There are endless combinations to build a good engine; however, one opponents’ card can topple your engine. You are constantly defending your Hero while collecting stronger cards to put opponents at a disadvantage. It is a quick but complex game.

Dinn the Card game has refreshing mechanics and multiple paths to victory make for a captivating experience.

It is a rare mixture that we found had the perfect balance between depth, style and substance, and challenge.