Draftosaurus
What it is
Draftosaurus is a drafting filler, one of those short games that fill the gap between one thing and the next. The theme is tongue-in-cheek: dinosaurs have been cloned, and everyone has their own park to fill with the wooden dinosaurs that come out of the bag.
Everything revolves around the draft. Each player draws six dinosaurs, keeps one and passes the rest to their neighbour, who does the same. So you’re always choosing from what the others left you, and whatever you pass on ends up in someone else’s park. Each enclosure rewards something different, pairs in one, all different species in another, a single dinosaur in a third, and your points come from filling them the right way.
The placement die makes things trickier. Each turn a different player rolls it, and the restriction applies to everyone else: only in the forest, only to the right of the river, only in an empty enclosure. Whoever rolled it places freely, and the dinosaur you needed often ends up where you didn’t want it.
How it plays
It’s really quick, often under the fifteen minutes printed on the box, and you can explain it in three. That’s why it became our go-to game for filling a gap, and once one game is over, another one usually follows straight away.
When there’s a bit more time we play the double game, one round on the summer board and one on the winter board, adding up the points at the end.
At our table
The pizzas haven’t arrived yet, or the long game is over and it’s not quite time for bed. That’s when Draftosaurus almost always comes out at our place.
How long does Draftosaurus take?
The box says 15 minutes. At our table: 20 minutes at two, 8 minutes at three, 10 minutes at four, 15 minutes at five.
The box
Video tutorial
Show the video tutorials 3 in Italian
Draftosaurus: Tutorial Let’s Play ITA HD dadeq90 ·YouTube
Draftosaurus - Tutorial in Italian squaraine ·YouTube
What’s your favorite filler game?
A filler is the short game you play between one long game and the next.
