You are an amateur dracologist in the world of Wyrmspan, a place where dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors roam the skies. Excavate a hidden labyrinth you recently unearthed on your land and entice these beautiful creatures to roost in the sanctuary of your caves.

During a game of Wyrmspan, you will build a sanctuary for dragons of all shapes and sizes. Your sanctuary begins with 3 excavated spaces—the leftmost space in your Crimson Cavern, your Golden Grotto, and your Amethyst Abyss. Over the course of the game, you will excavate additional spaces in your sanctuary and entice dragons to live there, chaining together powerful abilities and earning the favor of the Dragon Guild.

Wyrmspan is inspired by the mechanisms of Wingspan, though its unique elements make Wyrmspan a standalone game (not compatible with Wingspan).

Is Wyrmspan the same game as Wingspan, just with dragons instead of birds?

Like its predecessor, Wyrmspan is a game about collected unique winged animals on a player mat. While Wingspan served as the inspiration, Wyrmspan is a more complex game featuring the following differences:

• You must excavate a cave space before enticing (playing) a dragon to that space by playing a cave card (which has a “when played” benefit); you begin the game with 3 excavated spaces
• Hatchlings (baby dragons) are a type of card found in the dragon deck. They all have an egg cost (you’re hatching them from an egg), an ongoing power whenever you feed them, and a strong one-time ability when they’re fully grown
• Four different guilds (1 per game) offering different in-game and end-game benefits as you progress
• Dragon cards have personality tags referenced by various powers and end-round goals. Every dragon card is designed from scratch; they are not designed as copies of Wingspan cards.
• Actions are performed by spending coins and often eggs (not action cubes), both of which you can save for future rounds. There are even some ways to gain extra coins while you play (in Wingspan, you can never gain extra actions).
• Explore your caves from left to right to activate abilities (not right to left); reaching the end of a cave–when fully excavated and occupied–offers scoring benefits
• There are two nest icons on your cave mat even before you play a dragon (so you can lay eggs on your first turn if you wish)
• Start the game with your choice of 4 cards (from 3 dragons and 3 caves) and a choice of any 3 resources
• Discard down to 9 cards, 9 coins, and 9 resource tokens at the end of each of your turns (a restriction that gives players the creative freedom to actually carry over actions to the next round)
• Gain 6 coins and 1 egg at the beginning of each round (four total rounds)
• No dice (you’re either always gaining a specific resource or your choice of the 4 resources). The food dice are often a nice element of variability and player interaction in Wingspan, but we found it just a little too frustrating in Wyrmspan if all resources weren’t consistently available.
• No bonus cards (these types of bonuses are built into various dragon cards)
• A 2-for-1 resource exchange can be used at any time (not just when playing a card)
• Card abilities are optional. If an ability gives an opponent a benefit, they may gain it even if you decline to do so.
• The end-round goal scoring is friendly. For example, if two people tie for first, they both gain full VP for first place. The next player takes second place.
• Dragon facts are found in a field-guide style book, not on the cards themselves. We found that by separating this text from the cards, we made the dragon cards more vision-friendly (plus, the 32-page full-color book is a fun addition).