For parents, teachers and counselors

Hand of Dragons is a free, offline poker RPG made for teens and young adults.

It is a card battle about showing up for your friends, with a story about grief, hard days, and how to be there for someone. Here is what to expect before you hand it over.

What the game is

A single-player game. The player builds poker hands, and each hand powers the attacks of five friends. Between fights, the party walks the Lantern Road across forty-nine days, and each day is built around one feeling, from shock and denial to gratitude and love. There is no chat, no online play, no ads, no accounts and no purchases.

What it covers

Grief after losing a friend, depression, loneliness, stereotypes and labels, pressure to be perfect, burnout, and family money stress. A death by suicide is implied and never described. No method or cause is ever shown.

How it handles those topics

• A content notice appears before the story, with a link to a Support and Resources screen.
• One chapter shows what to do when a friend says they have thought about suicide: ask directly, stay, tell a trusted adult, and call 988.
• Players are told that telling an adult is what a friend does, even if they were asked to keep it secret.
• Humor and small kindnesses carry the story, and every scene can be skipped.
• Each day ends with one plain, true line: it is okay to not be okay.

Using it in conversation

The game works well as a starting point for talking. You might ask a player which friend they relate to, what the friends in the story did that helped, or who they would call on a hard day. If a conversation shows that someone is struggling, please reach out to a person right away.

Privacy and safety

No ads, no accounts, no tracking, and no internet needed to play. Progress and the names players type for their friends stay on the device. Read the privacy policy.

Hand of Dragons is a game, not a substitute for therapy or crisis care.