The mystical island of Emberheart is home to the last living dragons, who once lived peacefully with the villagers until poachers from the Distant Lands arrived to capture and plunder. To protect the island, the Dragon Ambassador seeks the King’s support. As one of the King’s Champions, your mission is to join the villagers, rescue dragons, and defend Emberheart from the invading poachers.

Emberheart is a quick-playing, medium-weight worker placement game. Your role is to recruit heroes, rescue dragons and expand their preserves, train your personal dragon companion, and oppose roaming poachers. Each turn, you either take an Aide token—granting a unique bonus for the round—or send a party of hirelings to one of the island’s locations. The number of hirelings you send determines your priority in choosing limited rewards and whether opponents may outbid you. Grunts offer versatility but are single-use, while Scouts, Rangers, and Wardens are permanent but tied to specific locations. Your Dragon Companion can also join a party, providing bonuses based on its training.

Location rewards allow you to recruit heroes with unique abilities, rescue dragons from poachers and place them safely in matching preserves, and launch counterattacks. Some actions—and the Poachers’ Raid at the end of each round—can cause burns, and advancing too far on the Flame track will have consequences at game end.

You earn Glory by rescuing dragons, recruiting heroes, training your dragon companion, and keeping your Flame low. After five rounds, the Champion with the most Glory becomes the new Dragon Ambassador.