Dragonbane is the fantasy RPG I've been looking for

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PS But fuck pigeons, that's just silly.
Please do not fuck pigeons.

It looks great and I have pretty much backed every other FL RPG released in English other than Into the Odd. However, I will be passing on this. I have plenty of fantasy RPGs and I have no nostalgia attaching to Drakar Och Demoner nor BRP. Every session I play of Dragonbane would be one session I wouldn't be playing of Dragon Warriors or B/X D&D (or Symbaroum, WFRP or Forbidden Lands for modern equivalents).

I may pick it up down the line once they have released more books and have a decent number of adventures/campaigns available.
I’m confused. This game has duck people. This is practically the Pub’s brand. If there was a goose villain, I’m pretty sure buying this would be in the bylaws.

Also that elf up there might be the cutiest patootie.

… that’s not relevant, I just like cute elf girls.
 
Yeah, that's a new one to me. For those with experience with the original game, was it typically more about confronting the monster vs. a monster? If so, I heartily approve. Mowing down hordes of creatures that would otherwise be nothing but nightmare fuel in any folk tale, legend or novel has always been a little deflating in most of the fantasy RPGs I've read, run or played.
Eh, sometimes. Since DoD was a BRP game, combat was fairly lethal, but there were often a lot of monsters. In the box set I started with at like 9 years old (and that box was old at the time, would have come out in the mid-80s) there was a book of two adventures included. One was about confronting an evil Wizard on an island and getting back some sacred relics of a group of wood elves, the other was a treasure hunt into a ruined monastery. The Wizard one has orcs and ogres, a riddling sphinx, a demon trapped in a tower (but not the pentagram it had been summoned into), some skeletons and the Wizard himself. The monastery adventure on the other hand just featured a group of human (and one ogre) bandits, the ghost of the prior and a stranglevine guarding the treasure. On the other hand, it also had the monastery be underground on an island in a lake and flooded, something the PCs had to solve before going into it.
 
Looks like traditional fantasy. Not sure if that is what you're looking for or not. But monsters auto hit but on a random chart and no attacks are the same in a row. Which I've never seen before.

Spoilers for the Lady and her Knight:

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I think this is pretty similar to what they did with the Monsters in Forbidden Lands. The chart of different attacks looks very similar anyway.
 
Yep, been talking about this for a while over on the BRP thread. Not sure if I'll back this, but I'll definitely end up buying the Swedish version. Drakar och Demoner was the second rpg I ever played. From interviews and statements from Free League they're looking to keep to the core of the Swedish BRP fork, with some new elements added to the rules.

Does the game have an assumed setting, or is it kind of generic fantasy. If it does have a setting can you give a brief description. I'm really hoping it is drab and generic setting as I really have no need "kind of like BRP but uses a d20" but the art shown looks amazing. Free League has gotten a lot of money from me.

I backed it this morning. At this point, I'm just Free League's bitch...

If the answer to the above pushes me towards must have, then I may as well get a T shirt that says "I'm just Free Leagues Bitch". In fact I'd suggest Free League just go ahead and make that T shirt a stretch goal.
 
Looks like traditional fantasy. Not sure if that is what you're looking for or not. But monsters auto hit but on a random chart and no attacks are the same in a row. Which I've never seen before.

Now I am interested. I was skimming the quickstart PDF and thought I was going mad as I couldn't see any rules on how to actually make an attack. But this is... perhaps really clever... all attacks autohit and do damage unless you actually do something like parry or dodge. Just flips the whole combat system on its head.
 
Now I am interested. I was skimming the quickstart PDF and thought I was going mad as I couldn't see any rules on how to actually make an attack. But this is... perhaps really clever... all attacks autohit and do damage unless you actually do something like parry or dodge. Just flips the whole combat system on its head.
Unless they’ve changed the entire core of the system attacks should be a D20 vs skill value, equal or lower. Think standard BRP but divide all skill values by 5.
 
Does the game have an assumed setting, or is it kind of generic fantasy. If it does have a setting can you give a brief description. I'm really hoping it is drab and generic setting as I really have no need "kind of like BRP but uses a d20" but the art shown looks amazing. Free League has gotten a lot of money from me.



If the answer to the above pushes me towards must have, then I may as well get a T shirt that says "I'm just Free Leagues Bitch". In fact I'd suggest Free League just go ahead and make that T shirt a stretch goal.
They’ve stated they’re not tying it to a particular setting. DoD has had several settings in the past, most notably Ereb Altor (very kitchen sink generic fantasy, parts of it thinly disguised formed the basis of Symbaroum’s setting), Chronopia (clockpunk grim dark in a massive metropolis ruled by an emperor wielding time magic) and Trudvang, a more Nordic focused fantasy world. As far as they’ve stated in interviews, this edition isn’t tied to any specific setting though. On the other hand, they also said they weren’t going to translate it to English in those same interviews.
 
Eh, sometimes. Since DoD was a BRP game, combat was fairly lethal, but there were often a lot of monsters. In the box set I started with at like 9 years old (and that box was old at the time, would have come out in the mid-80s) there was a book of two adventures included. One was about confronting an evil Wizard on an island and getting back some sacred relics of a group of wood elves, the other was a treasure hunt into a ruined monastery. The Wizard one has orcs and ogres, a riddling sphinx, a demon trapped in a tower (but not the pentagram it had been summoned into), some skeletons and the Wizard himself. The monastery adventure on the other hand just featured a group of human (and one ogre) bandits, the ghost of the prior and a stranglevine guarding the treasure. On the other hand, it also had the monastery be underground on an island in a lake and flooded, something the PCs had to solve before going into it.
I guess I'm just looking at the quick-start rules, and the concept of a "monster" always hitting sure seems like it is going to encourage they are used sparingly. Of course, that's operating under the assumption that player-character hit points remain static (as they should if this is a proper BRP game?), because even with armor absorbing static amounts of damage and characters having the ability to dodge (and maybe only occasionally being able to parry) this seems like it could turn into a TPK in very short order.
 
They’ve stated they’re not tying it to a particular setting.
That may be, but the KS seems to come with a nice map of a place called "Misty Vale" and so that looks like the start of a setting. I'm unfamiliar with any of the settings that previous editions might have used, so I have no idea if this is an offshoot of an older one or a start of a new one.

I sort of like the idea that Misty Vale is a local region that you have to defend. I'm sort of tired of world-sweeping adventures and like the idea of "you live in the Shire and it's threatened by goblins" or whatever Misty Vale turns out to be.
 
I really love the artwork, just like Vaesen, it will probably sell the game.

However I have heaps of BRP and Mythras is my main game, so this is more or less scratching the same itch except no percentile dice, it uses a D20.
If I didn't already have a default fantasy system then I would definately be grabbing this as it looks great as far as game mechanics, and the product itself will be beautiful to have.

So I don't think I will back this, but I haven't made my mind up yet - I ticked the "Remind Me" icon just in case I have some money floating around in four weeks, so we'll see what happens. But at this stage I can barely keep up with the games I have, let alone embarking on a new system covering more or less the same thing.

I would also want the core books to be hardcover before I considered backing. Free League's Forbidden Lands boxed set has hardcover books, so I am not sure why this boxed set has softcover books.

Despite that, I'm sure this kickstarter will go well.
Absolutely love the art work
 
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I really love the artwork, just like Vaesen, it will probably sell the game.

However I have heaps of BRP and Mythras is my main game, so this is more or less scratching the same itch except no percentile dice, it uses a D20.
If I didn't already have a default fantasy system then I would definately be grabbing this as it looks great as far as game mechanics, and the product itself will be beautiful to have.
So I don't think I will back this, but I haven't made my mind up yet - I ticked the "Remind Me" icon just in case I have some money floating around in four weeks, so we'll see what happens. But at this stage I can barely keep up with the games I have, let alone embarking on a new system covering more or less the same thing.

Despite that, I'm sure this kickstarter will go well.
Absolutely love the art work
They could probably sell all of this forum by offering a d100 stretch goal and going through and altering just the dice.
 
I'd be more interested if it used their house system. I love the art. I've always been meh about ducks as a race (which doesn't make a lot of sense, since I'm fine with bird-people in some games, apparently its just ducks and geese I've a big issue with.) I'm not against BRP, I do need to pick up Mythras (someday when I've not forced to resort to selling body parts to survive Texas.)
 
Looks like traditional fantasy. Not sure if that is what you're looking for or not. But monsters auto hit but on a random chart and no attacks are the same in a row. Which I've never seen before.

Spoilers for the Lady and her Knight:

The chart cools my enthusiasm a bit. A paragraph for each attack?

Puts the brakes on writing down a short stat block in my session notes before play...

How quick is this at the table? How about human bandits? I have to have the book open for each monster entry during combat?



Now I am interested. I was skimming the quickstart PDF and thought I was going mad as I couldn't see any rules on how to actually make an attack. But this is... perhaps really clever... all attacks autohit and do damage unless you actually do something like parry or dodge. Just flips the whole combat system on its head.

Unless they’ve changed the entire core of the system attacks should be a D20 vs skill value, equal or lower. Think standard BRP but divide all skill values by 5.

They've changed something...


.... The monsters just "hit" if the situation is right (the PCs do rolls to evade and avoid danger).

This is a paradigm shift from standard BRP combat. I'll have to experience how it works in actual play to be convinced.

Quickstart here we go...
 
So buried in the Kickstarter comments they explained that only monsters auto hit. NPCs like bandits and even goblins have to roll to like players. Which… seems cumbersome
Have you ever played BRP, OpenQuest, Stormbringer? Combats don't typically last very long (unless there are lots of combatants or you have to weapon-masters with very high weapon skills facing off against one another).
 
Have you ever played BRP, OpenQuest, Stormbringer? Combats don't typically last very long (unless there are lots of combatants or you have to weapon-masters with very high weapon skills facing off against one another).
Just a couple games of Delta Green if that counts.
 
Just a couple games of Delta Green if that counts.
Yeah, that counts for sure. I have no idea how much combat you actually got into, but all of these BRP games typically end in a few rounds. A limb gets lost, a major wound is inflicted, etc. I wouldn't expect bandits and such having to make attack rolls would make things cumbersome, unless there are about a dozen or more combatants. But who knows how Free League is approaching the finer points in this game?
 
I'd be more interested if it used their house system. I love the art. I've always been meh about ducks as a race (which doesn't make a lot of sense, since I'm fine with bird-people in some games, apparently its just ducks and geese I've a big issue with.) I'm not against BRP, I do need to pick up Mythras (someday when I've not forced to resort to selling body parts to survive Texas.)
I mean, this is the system half of Free League (the part that used to be Järnringen) started with when they released Mutant: Heirs to the Apocalypse back ... shit, like 20 years ago now. That was even d100 BRP. Making this with their house system would be entirely counter-productive as they a) already have a Year Zero engine fantasy game heavily inspired by Drakar och Demoner nostalgia (Forbidden Lands uses art from the most prolific and celebrated old DoD artists from back in the day, Nils Gulliksson) and b) the Swedish fans don't want that. Shit, I'm not sure they haven't changed too much from classic DoD with this game.
 
Yeah, that counts for sure. I have no idea how much combat you actually got into, but all of these BRP games typically end in a few rounds. A limb gets lost, a major wound is inflicted, etc. I wouldn't expect bandits and such having to make attack rolls would make things cumbersome, unless there are about a dozen or more combatants. But who knows how Free League is approaching the finer points in this game?
Yeah, I can see combat being quick. I guess I meant cumbersome more in how many mechanics to keep track of depending on the combat encounter. But I’m just overthinking it like usual.
 
Yeah, I can see combat being quick. I guess I meant cumbersome more in how many mechanics to keep track of depending on the combat encounter. But I’m just overthinking it like usual.
Maybe you are maybe you aren't? The Quick-start rules left me with more questions than answers, so while I find the idea intriguing, I'm really probably not in the market for a low-complexity BRP-like fantasy game when I'm perfectly happy to play/run something like Magic World or OpenQuest. Maybe I'm being a snob or pedantic, but no Size characteristic throws me off for some reason.
 
So a history question, if I may. Was Magic World a precursor to Runequest or was it a different setting all together?
 
They could probably sell all of this forum by offering a d100 stretch goal and going through and altering just the dice.
I was actually thinking the same thing. A BRP book with that artwork would have likely been a must-buy for me.

Even so, I may possibly get this down the track out of interest, but I doubt I can back the kickstarter at present with other rpg lines and other financial committents external to this hobby.
 
So a history question, if I may. Was Magic World a precursor to Runequest or was it a different setting all together?
It followed RQ and came in the Worlds of Wonder boxed set; a combination of 3 rulesets tuned for different genres (also included were Superworld, and Futureworld). it came with a 16-page booklet outlining the BRP system essentials and MW was a 16-page booklet that laid out some basic fantasy races, a simple magic system and a few professions. The more modern iteration of Magic World was basically a restatement of Stormbringer 5/Elric! with the Moorcock IP stripped out (and some RQ3 creatures thrown in).
 
Maybe you are maybe you aren't? The Quick-start rules left me with more questions than answers, so while I find the idea intriguing, I'm really probably not in the market for a low-complexity BRP-like fantasy game when I'm perfectly happy to play/run something like Magic World or OpenQuest. Maybe I'm being a snob or pedantic, but no Size characteristic throws me off for some reason.
Losing Size was a bit weird, especially since they kept small races like Halflings and Ducks. On the other hand, of the seven characteristics, it's probably the easiest to just get rid of, especially if they're going to handle any big monsters like dragons differently than regular creatures. Adopting the advantage/disadvantage rule from D&D doesn't bother me at all, it fits into BRP as well as regular modifiers really. I'm somewhat less impressed by the adding in of pressing rolls and getting negative conditions from that from the Year Zero engine however.
 
Still resisting Dragonbane so far. This is the game I wanted in 1985, but nowadays I'm not sure it does anything my own D100 rules don't. I almost certainly won't run it, and is it worth getting on the off-chance of playing in someone else's game? Not convinced (yet). The art looks pretty, as does the map.

Oh, and ducks. While I'm happy with my Games Workshop RQ3 books having all references to ducks Tippexed out and overwritten with "goblin" in biro, I'm reluctant to subject fancy new Fria Ligan books to the same editorial treatment.
 
What I like about Dragonbane is all the adventure support. Sometimes I just don't have time to write an adventure. Starting a new RPG is a pain a lot of times because there is just the core rulebook in many cases. Not with Free League in general or Dragonbane in particular. It comes with a whole campaign of adventures right in the box from celebrated Swedish RPG writers.

For less than $40 I can run my entire own homebrew campaign. I can run my entire home game using their campaign. I can drag this thing to every convention and one off get together and run it because of the pregens. And I have tons of adventure support.

Plus I can grab stuff from Forbidden Lands, Warhammer RPG, and BRP easily enough to convert. Heck, I even think the One Ring will work in some cases, at least for adventure ideas. Ditto with OSR and D&D. And probably aliens from Alien that also use that attack matrix. I'm going to mine Troika! as well.

I like Magic World a lot. But I don't want to write all the adventures and never have support. Yeah, I know RuneQuest and Mythras but the combat in both of those hurt my head. Dragonbane is crunchy enough and realistic enough but doesn't have to have hit locations. Or some PCs with two actions and some with three. Not my jam.

And if that wasn't enough, there will be a generous open license. So likely OSR like third party support.

Plus dice, cards, standees, poster map, battle map, boxed set, rulebook, adventures and whatever else they throw in. Even support to play online. And Free League usually continues with additional support later as well.

And murder ducks.

Finally, the core PDF comes out really quickly after the kickstarter ends to backers since most of it is done.

Yeah, I'm all set I think on fantasy RPGs after this.
 
After checking out the Quick-start rules, I can say that It's not for me (I really don't like some of the mechanical changes). So, I won't even go for the PDF version on this one.
 
DoD has had several settings in the past, most notably Ereb Altor (very kitchen sink generic fantasy, parts of it thinly disguised formed the basis of Symbaroum’s setting), Chronopia (clockpunk grim dark in a massive metropolis ruled by an emperor wielding time magic) and Trudvang, a more Nordic focused fantasy world.
Is that the same Chronopia that had a miniatures skirmish game (somehow kindasorta related to the folks doing Mutant Chronicles)? That was a brutal setting that I liked a lot... but I don't recall anything about 'clockpunk' or 'time magic'.
 
I'm not seeing any reason for me to want this... I'm firmly BRPed up at the moment and this isn't close enough, or different enough to put a fire under me. The art is nice though, if Magic World had looked like that it would have received a LOT more attention... as just about anything that looks like that does.
And if Dragonbane looked like Magic World... would we be talking about it?
(I don't really think Magic World looks bad at all... but folks sure drop their drawers for this full color ersatz-Disney stuff).
 
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