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[generic] What's great about Dragonbane?

Brass Jester

Brass Jester

Demi-God
I've been offered the (unused) box set at a fairly reasonable price but I don't know anything about the Game other that is is an old Swedish RPG. Can anyone enlighten me on anything at all about it?
Is it better or worse than Forbidden Lands
How well does it play?
Is it only for one-offs or suitable for extended campaign play
How long are the statblocks for monsters and NPCs? I tend to go for short stuff nowadays that you can get on a 3 x 5 index card.
The blurb mentions "mirth and mayhem." is it a serious Game or a comedic one? I prefer serious Games and have the humour come out naturally in play, rather than being inbuilt (one reason why I struggled with Games like Toon and Paranoia) - Example: a Game of Traveller where one PC, seriously injured, stayed holding the breach whilst the others escaped from the bad guys and the soon-to-explode fusion plant (a re-hash of Aliens.) They escaped, plant went thermonuclear boom. At which point, the rearguard asked the GM if the two frag grenades he was carrying went off! The reply was "I don't think anyone noticed."
 
The Dragonbane boxed set is one of the best I have ever seen, absolutely packed with stuff to play out the included mini campaign.

I like the game a great deal, but then I am an old school BRP person, so my biases are well catered for. The game is a low page count, simple to play and run BRP derived system, with a clutch of the usual Free League design flourishes. It works for one-shots through to lengthier campaigns. Personally, I would dial back the session skill increases to pace advancement over a lengthier campaign.

Tonally, the game is a light framework that can be flavoured by setting. The only area you might want to look at are the fumble tables, which you can ignore or modify. Even then, as is, it isn't a comedy game. Characters can survive thanks to the recovery and death save system. It's a lot less brutal in play than it looks.

Using asymetric character design, the monsters are simply expressed and each have their own monster attack tables on a D6. The flavour text of each attack may burst the index card aspiration, but their stats are not at all complicated.

It is neither better or worse than Forbidden Lands, but I much prefer it, and have found it great for its adaptability to 'generic fantasy', or indeed something themed to an existing game world. The Bestiary is an extra book, and well worth having in the future, if you take to it. The Magic book is currently being crowd funded and will add significantly to the starter array of spells.

Dragonbane is one of my favourite games of the past few years and, unlike others that have languished on my shelves, has seen continuous play since I got it.
 
I agree with everything First Age said. I like it better than Forbidden Lands but I couldn't say that it's better. Just different.

It plays great. It works well for both one-shots and campaigns, it's fast paced, and it's easy for new players to pick up. I ran a game as a team building event at work and they all got the hang of it pretty fast. It's a joy to run, with the random monster attack tables meaning the monsters are just as unpredictable to me as to the players.

The mirth and mayhem comes from where it should: the players, and occasionally surprise dice rolls. E.g. I asked everyone to roll acrobatics to cross a pit using a narrow plank. Every single one of them got a crit. I described the goblins who were intending to ambush them instead staring in admiration at this extraordinary display of agility.

The campaign I ran was the third party Shadow Over Gloomshire, which brings in gothic horror tropes with an undead filled graveyard and an evil temple, followed by the OSE adventure Halls of the Blood King, tweaked a bit to fit what had gone before and to replace all the monsters with Dragonbane ones.
 
It's great fun, and I say that as someone with minimal tolerance for either rules-light trad games or OSR stuff. The boxed set has everything you need and explains the rules well along with a mini-campaign of tight, interesting adventures.

It holds the distinction of being one of the very few games we've featured twice in Unconventional GMs, too!

 
I think the "mirth" tag might have been over promoted to distinguish from the grimmer FL, however I think both could be funny or grim dark.
 
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