Dragon Trader is a fantasy turn-based trading sim, inspired mostly by Dope Wars and Elite. As with many merchant games,it begins with the playing character owing a loan he cannot pay with the available money. The only way to pay the debt is by buying goods, moving to another location and selling goods to a profit. The loan grows every day and at the end of the game if the player is unable to pay he will have to face the loan shark, a huge dragon.
The game is played in turns, moving from a town to another one takes one turn (“day”). The game length is 20, 30 or 50 days. A menagerie of monsters will attempt to stop the player, but he can run from them, bribe them or even turn them into valuable resources if he invests in a “bounty hunter license”. Random events (such as helpful wizards teleporting the player, goods sold at a higher or lower price) can also help or hinder the player.
As with Dope Wars, the game is luck dependent: the price of goods vary randomly from town to town and random events and encounters can heavily influence the early game. However, the player can also buy items in shops to minimize risk, such as weapons and armor to increase his chances in a fight or trading rumors to remove the randomness of goods’ prices.
A Challenge mode provides variety, changing some of the games rule and usually hindering the player, for example by reducing the game’s length without changing the amount of the loan or by having the monsters deal double damage.