Dueling Dragons

Dueling Dragons is a favourite pastime on Starhelm, and has even spilled over to Dovak most recently. It is frequently played in Essillion, Avandar, Hollow’s Point, Stonebridge, as well as in most Human, Halfling, and Gnome villages and towns across the continent. It is a popular game amongst mercenaries and traders and it is not uncommon for most taverns to have multiple sets of dragon dice for those casual players who do not have their own sets.
Multiple variations of the game exist, allowing nobles and peasants alike to play. There are many rumours of disguised nobles coming into seedy taverns just to try their luck with the common folk. The Dwarf delegate Braxton Forgeguard and the prince of Essillion Ryan Starshield are often found doing this, making it one of the worst kept secrets in all of Essillion.
The basic rules are relatively easy to follow and give rise to a combination of skill and luck in order to win. Below are the rules and a few variations of play that can be found throughout Starhelm.

Basic Rules

Dueling Dragons is a dice game that requires five specific and varied types of dice, as indicated below. Each die represents a different type of Dragon and many are stylized with depictions of their relevant Dragon. Typically Dueling Dragons is played with two opposing players, however multiplayer rules are also available for those who wish to include more people.
The 5 various Dragons are represented by a different sided die as follows:

• 4-sided die: White Dragon
• 6-sided die: Black Dragon
• 8-sided die: Green Dragon
• 10-sided die: Blue Dragon
• 12-sided die: Red Dragon

The game is played in 5 rounds. During each round every player selects in secret a die of their choosing. A Dragon Fight is initiated when the dice are rolled. (proficiency in Dueling Dragons allows you to use your proficiency bonus in place of a die roll once a game)
Each opponent rolls their die at the same time, then the values are accumulated and tracked. At the end of round five all points from each round are tallied. The winner is the player with the most accumulated points at the end of round five.
Pair of Dragons If the same Dragon die is rolled by both players in the same turn those Dragons are removed from that round.
Combat Superiority Each Dragon has superiority over one other type of Dragons, as indicated below, providing double the result of the die when opposing that Dragon type.

***White Dragon has superiority over Black Dragon has superiority over Green Dragon has superiority over Blue Dragon has superiority over Red Dragon has superiority over White Dragon***

Rules Variations

Multiplayer Rules If three or more players engage in a Dragon Fight, any duplicate Dragons rolled cancel each other out and are removed from the fight. Subsequently, superiority from those dice do not apply for this round.
Dragon Lords Variation This variation introduces a sixth round and an additional special die (20-sided) representing the Dragon Lords. Both Illbrendar and Drakova have no superiority or inferiority to any other type of dragon but they are considered a pair of Dragons to each other, therefore they will cancel themselves out. There are no multiplayer options for this variation.
Rules of the Forlorn Hope Each player has two sets of dice to play with. Every round each player rolls two dice. Alternatively, before dice are rolled a player can choose to roll one die instead. If they do so, on the next turn, they can choose to roll three dice instead of the usual two dice. As usual in a Dragon Fight, only five rounds are played; any remaining dice cannot be used and are discarded without effect.
Mastiff Brothers Variation Common in taverns, traveling merchant caravans, and amongst thieves, this variation is played with pairs of players teaming up against each other. The pairs are treated as one opponent and when the rounds end their total points are tallied together. The origins of this variation stems from a pair of brothers who used trickery and deception to win their matches. One brother would read the minds of their opponents to know their dice selection ahead of time, while the other brother would manipulate the dice to always roll high.
Commoners Rules The values on the dice are not tallied. Instead, for every round you win you get one point. If you win that round utilizing an opposition die this round counts as two points.