Do you have what it takes to make a love connection with your date; how about if it was a dragon?  Don't fail or you might get burned!

Cindr (2020)
Designer(s)	Ben Walker, Harold Mikolaitis	Artist(s)	Leah Fuhrman	Publisher	Smirk & Laughter Games
	1-5		14+		30-40m

Ever wonder what it is like to date a dragon.  Download the dating app, Cindr to swipe right to make a love connection.  Do you have what it takes to have a successful date with a dragon? Watch out, if you don't impress your date, you may get burned... to a crisp!  Let's take a look at this hilarious game by the amazing Smirk & Laughter Games. 

Box and Components

Let me start by saying the box are is so cute and adorable!  It truly captures the essence of the game.  The box is sturdy and includes cardboard insert to help separate the components of the box.  However, I have seen Smirk & Laughter share some amazing 3D printed inserts for this game, so be sure to take a look at those if you'd like to upgrade your inserts.  

There are a few types of cards within this game; so lets take a closer look at each of these and the other components.

• 15 Character Profile Cards: These cards are dry erase marker proof.  With the dry erase marker proofing it gives the cards a nice shine to them and very smooth to the touch. These cards are bendable so please use caution when handling them.  The backs of them contain larger profile pictures of your character.  The backs of the cards contain a smaller profile picture to the side as well as different compatibility matcher qualities, more on this in set up.  Then there is a place to write your profile name, your pronoun, your likes and your dislikes, as well as your score tracker.  This is where you can make your character your own.  
• 18 Second Chance Cards (6 of each type): These cards are used for second chances based on how many flames you roll on your turn.  These cards made with a sturdy material and it makes it relatively hard to bend the cards. With try again (purple colored cards), you can spend to re-roll a Fire result from your last roll.  With Apology (pink colored cards) you can spend it to remove a fire result.  With Do Over (blue colored cards) you can spend it to re-roll ALL fire results from your last roll.
• 31 Cindr App Dragon Profile Cards: These cards are made of a sturdy cardstock material and are double sided.  On the side you will see in the "app" it will have the name of your date, their profile picture (which they are amazingly drawn) and then a little blurb about your potential date.  If you decide to date this dragon, you will flip it over and check out your compatibility.  It will have the dates name at the top, their characteristics as well as abilities that could happen on the date at different times.
• 16 Whelp App Location Cards: These cards are made with a sturdy cardstock material with a flat finish. On the side you will see prior to the date, it will give the name of the location of the date at the top.  It will provide how many stars it received on the Whelp app and a little description of what could take place on the date.  When you agree on the date, you will flip it over and on the back it will have the name of the location at the top, which is the same as on the other side.  Then it will tell you about the date which consists of three parts: Meet Up, Next Step and Next Level.  In order to successfully complete the date you must be successful on either the Next Step or Next Level.  Then it gives some abilities that could take place on the date.  It could change out a die or could tell you if you roll a particular sequence something happens.  It adds adventure to your date. 
• Solo/Co-Op Love Meter Card: This is made on the same material as the Cindr App Dragon Profile Cards.  This will provide the breakdown if you play it in solo mode or co-op mode.
• 12 Dice: 4 of three different colors (green=good, blue=neutral, red=potentially bad)
• 5 black dry erase markers with erasers.

Mechanics

The objective of the game is to push your luck with the dice to see if you have what it takes to successfully date dragons without getting burned!  You will have the chance to roll dice up to three times, once for each stage of your date, which can be found on your Whelp App Location Cards.  You are trying to roll as many hearts as you can without getting burned to earn Love Points.  If you roll 3 Fire symbols at any point in your turn, you loose all your points you've accumulated that round.  Once a player has 21 Love Points it triggers final turns.  Each player will have equal number of turns.

Setup

1. Each player choose a User Profile Card and take a dry erase marker.  With the marker, give your character a name, pronoun, and a like and dislike.  Then on the Compatibility Matcher chart circle one of the three attributes listed for each trait.  Pick only one attribute per row and no more than two in any given column.  
2. All players get one Try Again Card
3. Place all remaining Second Chance cards face up in stacks of their different types to the side of the table within reach of players.
4. Shuffle the Dragon Profile cards and place the deck with the dragon pics face- up in the center of the table.  This is the App Deck.  Leave room for three dragons to be place in a row below the App deck.  This area is called the Dating Pool.
5. Shuffle the Location cards and place them beside the App deck with the map image facing up to form the location deck.
6. Place all the dice nearby within reach of all players.

The player who recently went on a date is the first player. 

Player Turn

On the active players turn they will do following:

1. Choose a Dragon to Date:
   • You can look at the profile of the dragon on top of the App deck.  If it is a new dragon, read the profile text aloud for all players.  This text may provide clues on if you hare compatible with it or not.  If you feel you could be a match you can swipe right to initiate a date with that dragon.  If you are not feeling it, you can swipe left removing the dragon from the top of the App deck and placing it beneath in the left most space in the Dating Pool.  The Dating Pool area can only hold up to three dragons.  If there is already a dragon in the dating pool, it forces it right until it is full.  If the dating pool is filled with three dragons and you swipe right the furthest right is removed to the discard pile and can't be selected until it is put back into the App Deck.  Players have the opportunity to pass twice for free, however for anything extra you must loose 1 Love point per swipe.  Players are able to select any dragon in the dating pool even after swiping left.  You can also select a dragon you have previously dating on a successful date more on this in the Successful dates section.  You can also select to date a dragon from an opponents Dating Circle but it will cost you 3 Love points to do this. 
2. Assemble Your Dice Pool
   • When you have chosen your dragon, place the dragon beside your character's user profile and flip it over.  This will reveal the Dragon's compatibility chart and special powers.  Compare their compatibility to your own and gather your dice pool
     • For each attribute you match, you will add a green die to your pool.
     • If you are one away in the attribute, you will add a blue die to your dice pool.
     • If you are two away in the attribute, you will add a red die to your dice pool.
3. Draw the top Location card from the Location deck
   • You will draw the top location card and read the description aloud of all players.  This is the location that the dragon wants to go on their date with you. Flip the location card over, the first set of rules shown can impact the dice in your dice pool.  It could say upgrade your Lifestyle die by one, meaning if you had a red die for the lifestyle you can upgrade to a blue die.  If it was a green die on lifestyle you will downgrade to a blue die. If so, you must swap out those dice for the new ones.
4. Check Dragon Powers & Location Bonuses
   • On the location cards, you will see a "rolling bonus".  This will be something along the lines of check your first roll of the dice or your final roll for added benefits.  These bonuses may contain sparks that you roll during that specific roll.  Sparks are located on some of the fire symbols but not all of them.  These sparks can show you had some type of connection and perhaps on a specific location may give you some benefits.  
   • Dragon Powers have different symbols for when they take place.  A single D is during the date.  A D with a heart is "on a success".  A circle with a down arrow is "in your circle", these powers activate when a dragon becomes part of your dating circle.  Very often they have on-going abilities, so take special care to remember them.  The flame symbol is "when burned."  These are typically penalties accessed if you are burned by the dragon.  
5. The Date/ Roll Dice Up to 3 Times
   • A date consists of three stages located on the Whelp location card: the meet up, the next step and the next level.  You must always attempt the stages in order, starting with the Meet Up.  You will roll all of your dice pool, each heart rolled counts as a potential Love point you can achieve on a successful date towards your victory.  However, each Fire rolled counts towards getting burned.  Place all Fires rolled on top of your Profile card.  These are no longer part of your dice pool on this date.  You can stop rolling and bank your Love points after any roll.  However, if at any time during the date, three or more Fire results placed on your profile card, you are burned and end your turn and receive no Love points for that turn.  If you decide to stop rolling after the Meet Up stage, you will bank your Love points to increase your score and end your turn.  While nice, that doesn't count as a successful date.  The dragon you dated will be placed in the left-most spot in the Dating Pool.  To be considered a successful date you must have successfully completed either The Next Step or The Next Level.  To attempt The Next Step/Level, simply reroll all the hearts from your previous roll.  Both hearts and fires are cumulative with each roll, adding to your potential Love points or your chances of being Burned.  So remember your Heart points from roll to roll adding as you go along.
     • Ending a Successful Date: When you are successful on either The Next Step or Next Level stages, add the total Love points you earned that turn to your score and marking them at the bottom of your personal profile card.  The dragon you dated remains next to your Profile in what is called your Dating Circle.  This dragons in your Dating Circle stay there until they are Burned by this dragon on a subsequent date.  Dragons in your Dating Circle are therefore not susceptible to be cycled and discarded from the Dating Pool and will now cost other players 3 Love points to try and date them.  In addition, some dragons have special powers that only activate when they are part of your circle.
     • Getting Burned: If you gain three or more fires you are burned.  Any hearts rolled during that turn are lost and are not added to your Love points.  The dragon you dated is placed in the left-most spot of the Dating Pool.  However, if your date ends in a burn you get a second chance card based on the number of Fire results in your final roll.  The number of dice needed are shown in the top left corner of the card.
     • Second Chance Cards: These cards can be used after any roll to mitigate the luck of the dice.  When a fire result is removed by any card ability, it is not placed on your profile and does not count towards your accumulated fire results.  Simply place it aside and ignore it for the rest of your turn.
6. End of Turn

End Game

Whenever a player has reached 21 Love points or more at the end of their turn, the end game is triggered.  All players who have not had a turn during this round may have one final turn; the game is played with all players having equal number of turns. The player with the highest score wins.  

Additional Components

When this game was on Kickstarter, there was an option for a playmat that will provide the necessary spaces for the App deck, Dating Pool and Location Deck.  If you are at all interested in this, be sure to check out Smirk & Laughter's website to order.

Like I had mentioned in the components section, Curt with Smirk & Laughter had shared a website where you can purchase a 3D printed insert for your game and pick the color you'd like the filament to be.  This is no way affiliated with the company, but it was a nice upgrade someone had come up with.  To check this out, be sure to check out their Etsy page. 

Final Thoughts

Brian and I here at WVGamers have loved  all the games in the Smirk & Laughter lineup, and this game did not disappoint.  It is a great push your luck dice game that also allows you to role play into your character and temp your opponents to continue pushing their luck.  You can use voices/accents for your character to really get into the game.  I love how cute the artwork is.  Leah did an amazing job on it.  My favorite playable character is probably the Unicorn and the Female Orc like creature. I love the fun puns that are included on the Cindr App Dragon Profile cards.  Tons of laughter has been had while playing this amazing game.  The different location cards, or Whelp App cards, really add to the game because it could make or break your dice pool on a specific turn.  If you love laughing and imagining you are dating dragons, be sure to check this amazing game by Smirk & Laughter!

Links/Media

Cindr Board Game Geek Page

Publisher Product Page

Cindr Amazon Product Page

Disclosure

We received the product in order to write an honest review; all reviews reflect the honest opinions of the writer.

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