2022Daryl Andrews, Morgan Dontanville
- Videos
- 32
- Creators
- 25
1 - 2 players90 minHeavy weight

2026Nick Warren
Mainly reviews and how-to-play. Crimson Keep is covered on BoardGameVideo.com by 4 reviews, 3 how-to-play guides, 1 recorded sessions, 1 unboxings, and 2 other videos.
From BoardGameGeek
Two clans, divided from the trials of being exiled, have held onto twin sacred amulets, prophesized to guide them back to their rightful kingdom. On a rare Fire Moon eclipse, both amulets have lit up, guiding them to the Boiling Sea and a mysterious monolith. Upon reaching the monolith, the light from the amulets ceased, and the monolith lit up, pointing each clan at two separate locations on the distant mountain. The two clans now race each other to build the Crimson Keep and summon the fabled dragon to rule over their newly reclaimed kingdom! Crimson Keep is a dark fantasy, tower-building, card placement, set-collection, strategy game. To begin the game you'll draw five cards from your deck and choose 3 to keep. Each turn you'll take two actions, Place or Replace a card, Flip a Card over (to activate it) or Draw Cards, Use a Special Ability or Attack, or Move. Each of these actions has a track that you'll be moving up, which will gain you bonus actions when you reach the top of the track! Carefully manage your actions and hand, because if you end your turn with no cards in hand, you'll automatically draw up at the beginning of your turn, instead of wasting an action on drawing cards! There are three different types of cards, Building, Combat and Cavern. When you are Placing a card, you always place it on the inactive side. Once Flipped, the card is on the active side, and you'll be able to use its special ability. When you place a building card, you'll be building up your Keep! You'll want to make sure its tall, strong and fortified! Combat cards will be how you attack the rival clan! And cavern cards will let you have enhanced actions! The actions you take throughout the game, winning combats, building up your keep, and more will allow you to discover runes, which you will need to summon the mighty dragon! You'll need to pay attention to your Summon Board to focus on the actions that will get you the highest value runes possible! The higher the total value of runes you acquire, the more powerful dragon you'll be able to summon. But you'll need to keep a close watch on your rival's rune discovery progress to make sure they don't beat you to the punch! Once one of the clans summons the dragon, an epic final battle ensues! The dragon will now face off against the other clan's fortress. Have you built it well enough to withstand the dragon's fearsome attacks? Each time you repel an attack by the dragon, you will injure it! If your fortress manages to defeat the dragon, you will rule over the kingdom! But if your keep falls, your rival will take control of the land!
Learn to play
Crimson Keep has 11 videos from 6 creators: 4 reviews, 3 how-to-play guides, 1 playthrough, 1 unboxing and 2 other videos. They date from 2025 to July 2026.
To learn the rules, start with "Crimson Keep | How to Play | Designed by Nick Warren | Board Game Launching soon on Kickstarter" by Fun With Boxes, which runs 30 min. For a quicker teach, "CRIMSON KEEP - An Overview" by The Games Kingdom runs 18 min.
For an opinion before you buy, start with "[Kickstarter Preview] Crimson Keep Board Game | DaniCha" by DaniCha. 3 creators have reviewed it. To see it played, watch "Learn to Play Presents: Kickstarter Play Through of Crimson Keep" by Learn to Play Games.
If you like it, try Batman: The Dark Knight Returns – The Game, 1565: St. Elmo's Pay – The Great Siege of Malta, 52 Realms: Adventures or Warfighter: The Vietnam War Special Forces Card Game, which share several of its mechanics.
2022Daryl Andrews, Morgan Dontanville
1 - 2 players90 minHeavy weight
2020Tristan Hall
1 - 2 players30 - 40 minMedium weight
2024Matthew Dunstan, Rory Muldoon
1 players10 - 20 minLight weight
2024Kevin Verssen
1 - 6 players30 - 90 minHeavy weight
From BoardGameGeek:
Two clans, divided from the trials of being exiled, have held onto twin sacred amulets, prophesized to guide them back to their rightful kingdom. On a rare Fire Moon eclipse, both amulets have lit up, guiding them to the Boiling Sea and a mysterious monolith. Upon reaching the monolith, the light from the amulets ceased, and the monolith lit up, pointing each clan at two separate locations on the distant mountain. The two clans now race each other to build the Crimson Keep and summon the fabled dragon to rule over their newly reclaimed kingdom! Crimson Keep is a dark fantasy, tower-building, card placement, set-collection, strategy game. To begin the game you'll draw five cards from your deck and choose 3 to keep. Each turn you'll take two actions, Place or Replace a card, Flip a Card over (to activate it) or Draw Cards, Use a Special Ability or Attack, or Move. Each of these actions has a track that you'll be moving up, which will gain you bonus actions when you reach the top of the track! Carefully manage your actions and hand, because if you end your turn with no cards in hand, you'll automatically draw up at the beginning of your turn, instead of wasting an action on drawing cards! There are three different types of cards, Building, Combat and Cavern. When you are Placing a card, you always place it on the inactive side. Once Flipped, the card is on the active side, and you'll be able to use its special ability. When you place a building card, you'll be building up your Keep! You'll want to make sure its tall, strong and fortified! Combat cards will be how you attack the rival clan! And cavern cards will let you have enhanced actions! The actions you take throughout the game, winning combats, building up your keep, and more will allow you to discover runes, which you will need to summon the mighty dragon! You'll need to pay attention to your Summon Board to focus on the actions that will get you the highest value runes possible! The higher the total value of runes you acquire, the more powerful dragon you'll be able to summon. But you'll need to keep a close watch on your rival's rune discovery progress to make sure they don't beat you to the punch! Once one of the clans summons the dragon, an epic final battle ensues! The dragon will now face off against the other clan's fortress. Have you built it well enough to withstand the dragon's fearsome attacks? Each time you repel an attack by the dragon, you will injure it! If your fortress manages to defeat the dragon, you will rule over the kingdom! But if your keep falls, your rival will take control of the land!