The game simulates combat between armies of fantasy races for control of a young world named Esfah.

Dragon Dice classifies magical power by element: air, earth, fire, water, and death.

These two deities had several children, each of whom represented one of the major elements described by Plato (Fire - Firiel, Earth - Eldurim, Wind - Ailuril, Water - Aguarehl), and one of whom was named "Death."

After Nature's children created two races, the Coral Elves (Selumari) and Dwarves (Vagha), Death created its own set of races, the Goblins (Trogs) and Lava Elves (Morehl), bent on causing mischief and discord.

Nature and her children became enveloped in a continuing war with Death, each causing the birth of several new races, including the Amazons, Firewalkers, Undead, Feral, Swampstalkers, Frostwings, Scalders, and Treefolk.

Players, acting as army Commanders, assemble race units and compete against each other in a battle on selected terrain.

Legendary units, Dragonhunter and Dragonmaster leaders of The Eldarim, each holding the power of one of Esfah's elements, grew within the ebb and flow of the war.

For example, you could be anyone from the Coral Elf Commander, leading your army on a path to destroy Death races, driven by that which stole your peaceful existence and attacked Mother Nature, to the Treefolk General, leading a harmonious balanced life in Water and Earth.

For example, a Swampland terrain is green and gold, showing it is made of earth and water.

The eighth face of terrains has one of four special icons: City, Temple, Tower and Standing Stones.

Four new 8th face icons were also introduced that can only be used at the Frontier location: Dragon Lair, Grove, Castle, and Vortex.

2009: "Acolytes of the Eldarim": This fully expanded race now includes 1-health commons, 2-health uncommons, and 3-health rares, along with new racial abilities and spells.

The terrains printed in white ink have the same four 8th Face types (City, Standing Stones, Temple, Tower) and are a part of the basic game.

These minor terrains represent lesser objectives that may give your army a needed boost if you're willing to take a risk.

[10] The Battlefields expansion also contains special terrains printed in gold ink with new 8th Faces: the Dragon's Lair, Grove, Castle, and Vortex.

[11] 2011: "DragonCrusader and DragonZealots" are Eldarim Champions (along with DragonLords / DragonMasters and DragonSlayers/DragonHunters) and have the ability to control dragons.

Each DragonCrusader or DragonZealot that rolls its SFR logo allows the acting player to control one dragon.

Before the start of the game, units are divided into three separate armies, Home, Horde and Campaign.

Spells are assorted by color, and have varying effects such as inflicting damage, adding protection, or even summoning a dragon.

At a terrain with a melee (sword) icon showing, the acting player can choose to engage their opponent in a skirmish.

In the modern version of the game, Melee actions follow the above mentioned "skirmish" rule and "charging" disappeared in favor of advanced racial abilities.

For example, a CANTRIP icon allows for up to 4 points of magic during any action other than maneuvers that can be used immediately.

A player wins by maneuvering two terrains to the 8th face, or through attrition by removing all of an opponent's pieces from the game.

Both of these expansions flopped and because bookstore sales are ultimately returnable, TSR was the one left holding the bag.

[18] Two short works of fiction accompanied gaming accessories, Tome of the Tarvanehl and Heart of Stone and Flame.

Several full-length paperback novels were written to promote the game: A computerized version, Dragon Dice, was published in 1997 by Interplay.

The strategies available are virtually limitless and, in common with other great games, it's hard to imagine two conflicts ever being the same.

"[19] In Issue 5, Faragher rated the Monsters & Amazons expansion set a disappointing 6 out of 10, commenting, ""So, interesting new dice but frankly not enough of them.

"[20] In Issue 7, Chris Baylis rated the Firewalkers expansion set an above-average 8 out of 10, calling them "much better balanced, in terms of dice variation as well as distribution, than the Amazons, particularly for a single-colour army.

"[21] In Issue 11, Baylis rated the Dragon Dice Battle Box an average 7 out of 10, calling it well designed, but noting "The only problems are the random assortment of dice - a fixed selection would have made things more playable - and the fact that the full rules refer to a couple of things that aren't actually in the box, which can be annoying.