deep dive
Welcome to the Misty Vale
Everything you need to know about the Dragonbane TTRPG
quick hits
system
How easy is it to learn and prepare?
- Strategically rewarding combat rhythm
- Deep, yet light-load character generation
- Intuitive d20 roll-under resolution mechanics
setting
How expansive is the world?
- Low magic sandbox world toolkit
- Compelling “storybook” fantasy calamity
- Intimately familiar, wonderfully strange
support
How much content exists for it?
- Industry leading production quality
- Low homebrewer barrier to entry
- Third-party content license
x-factors
Binary resolution with little to no math after character creation.
Effectively limitless character advancement in a low crunch package.
Offers solo mode support with the procedurally-generated “Alone in Deepfall Breach.”
Tactical decision making through offense or defense trade-offs with its action economy and initiative.
Unique voice in a saturated genre, with a more “Saturday Morning Cartoon” vibe rather than high fantasy epic.
decades of legacy
Dragonbane has been the most popular roleplaying game in Sweden since the early 1980s under the name Drakar Och Demoner (English: Dragons and Demons). It began in 1982, when Tomas Björklund of Target Games (also known as Äventyrsspel) created the first edition of Drakar Och Demoner. This was essentially a word-for-word translation of Chaosium’s Magic World, which used the d100-based Basic Role-Playing system.
In 1985, Target introduced the second edition, which deviated in more significant ways from its BRP roots. Two years later, they simultaneously released Drakar och Demoner third edition, as well as an Expert version, which opted for the d20-based roll-under system we see in Dragonbane today. This Expert version seems to be widely accepted by retro Drakar Och Demoner fans as the “definitive version” of the classic.
Skipping ahead to the 90s, Target releases the fourth edition, while also branching out from fantasy with the gnostic horror game, Kult, and the post-apocalyptic wasteland RPG Mutant. Target Games would ultimately go defunct, and Drakar Och Demoner was folded into an IP holdings company for licensing.
The first to take up this license was a developer called RiotMinds, whose editions of the game would fall closer to Dungeons & Dragons conventions, such as class levels instead of the narrative-based, flexible advancements of previous editions. RiotMinds’ vision for the system seems to have never quite “hit” for the Drakar Och Demoner fanbase, and development on the IP mostly stopped on their end.
When it seemed like Drakar Och Demoner was going to fade into gaming obscurity, it got some hope in the form of one of the best tabletop role-playing game developers in the world. In 2022, Free League Publishing obtained the license and announced they were working on their own take of Drakar Och Demoner, and would bring it to U.S. shores under the title of “Dragonbane.” Their 2023 Kickstarter campaign raised over $750,000 to revive the IP, and they’ve managed to create one of the most appealing products on the entire TTRPG market.
gameplay summary
This edition of Dragonbane is a d20-based roll-under system with tactical, grid-based combat. Rolling low is good here, so rolling a “1” results in a “Dragon”, which is the Crit, and rolling a “20” results in a Demon, the Fumble. If you roll equal to or below your Base Chance with the Skill or Weapon, you succeed on the check being called for.
The thing to notice here is that difficulty isn’t hidden from the players by something like Armor Class or a difficulty judgment call arbitrarily set by the game master. They always know their base chance of succeeding at whatever they’re trying to do. This is a really clever way of tackling subconscious suspicions of adversarial game mastering, as players will always know what they need to roll to succeed.
Dragonbane draws tons of its mechanical roots from another of Free League’s games, Forbidden Lands, but acts entirely differently in operation. In a lot of ways, Dragonbane is a sort of spiritual “Forbidden Lands 2nd Edition” but expands on character expression and reduces the tracking-heavy rules. While Forbidden Lands leans in on survivalist aspects, Dragonbane instead puts its focus on sword-and-board. You aren’t tracking your ammo here, as long as you have a container for it. You don’t need to track specific amounts of food and water, just make sure you have your rations and waterskin. It doesn’t reduce things to “unnecessary and forgettable” territory, but focuses on trying to make things practical for what’s necessary for play.
Despite the characters' overall lower power, this isn’t a “gritty” game. The damage structure is “squished” overall, with some of the most powerful monsters doing around 5d6 damage with major attacks that need to recharge. You won’t necessarily be “relearning” a whole lot if you’re already familiar with games like Dungeons & Dragons 5e, but you might want to watch where you make assumptions.
action economy
Even the action economy says a lot about the genre. The rhythm of a fight is less predictable with the card-draw initiative in a way that has to be experienced to really “get it.” Each round, you draw your Initiative from a deck of 10 cards, numbered 1 to 10. Because the Initiative changes every Round, you aren’t stuck in a particular game loop from planning around the sequence. The Turn order starts at 1 and ascends to whoever drew the next lowest number. You only have one Action in combat, which you can take when you come up in the Initiative order, or by reacting to something else’s Action to defend yourself.
Whenever an attack would hit you, you can Dodge or Parry the attack reactively. Dodging is made as an Evade Check, which allows you to move up to 1 square if you pass and cancels the attack’s hit. Parrying is made as a Check with the Weapon, and reduces the damage to 0 if you pass. However, if the attack’s damage exceeds your Weapon’s Durability, the weapon breaks and must be repaired with a Craft Check after combat.
You can run with the gamble and take your Action earlier to try and kill-off a hostile enemy, but that could leave you open to attack. This moment in the round where you’ve used your Action and you might be defenseless is an interestingly tense period. In some ways, being later in the initiative order is a benefit, because you’re able to see how things are unfolding. On paper, this might not seem like anything special, but in practice you’re going to feel tension towards using any action in a fight because everything comes at a cost and you can’t predict the order of the next round.
character creation
There’s four major steps to Character Creation. You need a Kin, Profession, and Age. After that, you’ll roll for your Attributes, which are augmented by your Age.
Kin: Your Kin grants you a unique Kin Ability. That’s it. Kin are incredibly light loads, but the Kin Abilities typically deliver enough punch to not be wanting for more.
Profession: You’ll get your Skill array to choose your trained skills from, a line up of starting gear, and a Heroic Ability that helps define your role as an adventurer.
Age: You’ll either roll or choose your Age, which actually has mechanical weight in Dragonbane. Age can alter your base attributes and number of trained skills. Age has always held an interesting spot in Free League’s games, as most Year Zero Engine games do this as well.
Stats: There aren’t any modifiers in Dragonbane, but we still need to determine multiple aspects of your character by calculating your Attributes and Base Chance. You roll 4d6, drop the lowest, but you must assign these scores each time you roll them. After you finish, you can swap two of these scores. Then determine how your Age affects them.
Young gets a +1 to Agility and Constitution, but only gains 8 Trained Skills.
Adults have no change and gain 10 Trained Skills.
Old gets a -2 to Strength, Agility, and Constitution, but gets a +1 to Intelligence and Willpwoer, and 12 Trained Skills.
buyer's guide
Always start with the Dragonbane: RPG Core Set Box. It contains:
The full Rulebook and entire campaign as softcover print books,
Cardboard standee miniatures,
Playing cards for Initiative, Treasure, Improvised Weapons, and Adventure beats,
A double-sided battle mat
Custom dice.
This is all included for virtual tabletop in Alchemy’s Dragonbane Core Set, but I wanted to mention it here for those of you physical collectors as well. The Dragonbane Rulebook in hardcover is a more premium version of the same Rulebook, and the Bestiary contains more Kin options and even more Monsters. You won’t be getting more material from the hardcover Rulebook than you would in the Core Set Box, but it’s an undeniably sturdier version if you find yourself wanting to take the game into a long term campaign.
touchstones
Dragonbane plays on sword and sorcery tropes, with a touch of lighthearted whimsy. Its roots are in classic pulp fantasy, but this storybook, Saturday Morning Cartoon feel gives it a sincerity and charm that distinguishes it from high fantasy epics. Free League embraced the sometimes comedic themes, penning the intended genre as “Mirth and Mayhem” role-playing. While any fantasy media can inspire your Dragonbane stories, the following hit closer to this game’s voice:
Dragonslayer by Hal Barwood and Matthew Robbins
A Wizard of Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien (yes, water is also wet)
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by Nintendo
gamemaster advice
When it comes to worldbuilding for Dragonbane, you need to prepare a calamity. This could be as massive as a world-ending magical nuke, or more of an ideological crisis like the rise of an oppressive power. Seriously, try to find a single piece of fantasy media that doesn’t have a calamity. This is the ultimate “stake” of your story, and it’s just as important as your main characters. Heroes are nothing without acts of heroism, and a legendary hero needs legendary stakes.
Final Fantasy VII was an adventure to stop Sephiroth’s summoning of Meteor.
Game of Thrones’ most memorable quote is a foreshadowing of the apocalyptic end.
Jack Vance’s Dying Earth tells the story of refugee adventurers trying to survive on a planet with a dying sun.
Lord of the Rings was a journey to prevent Sauron getting the One Ring.
Adventure Time climaxes with the battle to stop the reality-warping GOLB.
You should also familiarize yourself with Dragonbane’s time abstractions. While everyone should know these terms, it’s especially important for those of you looking to dive into this game’s sandbox exploration elements and non-combat interactions. It uses a system similar to David Black’s Black Hack, where keywords are used to refer to units of time instead of specific seconds, minutes, hours, and days. This is shown on the “Measuring Time” table on page 7 of the Rulebook.
The game refers to these units of time as either Rounds, Stretches, or Shifts.
A Round encompasses about 10 seconds of time, this game’s combat round duration.
A Stretch is at least 15 Minutes, similar to what other games call a “Scene”.
A Shift is at least 6 Hours, and is used for Travel and Rest.
With that, the game materials are fairly self-explanatory. The Adventure book isn’t perfectly sight-readable, but it also won’t require hours of prep to maintain continuity. There’s a beautifully tropey multi-level campaign ready for you right in the Core Set, so dive in and check out this beautiful game for yourself today!
Written By Taron Pounds
Taron Pounds is the lead designer of the Vagabond Pulp Fantasy TTRPG, a YouTuber at the channel Indestructoboy, and ENnie-award winning creator. In addition to Dungeons & Dragons 5e material, he also creates third party material for Shadowdark, Mörk Borg, Vaesen, and Dragonbane, as well as system neutral materials.
Get Dragonbane on Alchemy today and experience Mirth and Mayhem Roleplaying like never before.
dive deeper
-
Dragonbane is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game filled with magic, mystery, and adventure. The d20 system for running it is designed from the ground up to facilitate fast gameplay while requiring minimal preparation from the gamemaster. This system provides plenty of room for jokes and mayhem at the table while still delivering a challenging experience to the players.
-
In Dragonbane, each player starts with their Kin, or playable race. Many common fantasy races, such as humans, dwarves, and elves, are present in the world of Dragonbane. Past that, there are several unique races, including the mallard, whose origin is shrouded in mystery, or the wolfskin, who use their knowledge and intuition to survive life in the wilds.
Each player character also selects a profession, reflecting what they know before the game begins. Professions determine important character information, such as skills, gear, and abilities. It's also encouraged to tie your profession into your character's personality, as each also offers a nickname, which is fun to build a backstory around.
-
The game's world of Dragonbane is full of jagged peaks, enshrouded forests, and unexplored areas. It is a world full of adventure, danger, treasure, monstrosities, and dark cults operating deep in the shadows. A common starting point for many adventuring parties is the Misty Vale, a fabled region that remained out of touch with humans for centuries until about a decade ago—nestled between the Kummer Mountains and the Dragonfang Peaks, the Misty Vale lies obscured by a thick haze that encapsulates the entire region and provides a wealth of history ripe to be uncovered.
-
Dragonbane is a fantasy TTRPG at its core, and many of the narratives explored in that genre fit right at home here. In addition, the world of Dragonbane has its own rich lore involving the historical conflicts between dragons and demons—and how they have shaped the greater world. This lore is easy for any gamemaster to onboard into, and much of that can be leveraged easily to weave a tale distinct to the world of Dragonbane.
-
Aside from the common benefits of playing from anywhere, not needing to buy dice, and keeping your notes, reference books, and everything you need to play in one place, Draognbane specifically works well on a virtual tabletop (VTT) for gamemasters looking to immerse their players into an immersive, cinematic narrative.
Looking to play on Alchemy? Alchemy has a tailor-made implementation for the game. In addition, the Alchemy Enhanced core set comes with additional, exclusive assets to help your games come alive and immerse the table into the story. These assets include the following:
A Custom Thematic Interface
An Animated Title Screen using key art from the game
10 Atmospheric Looping Overlays
10 Ambient Soundscapes
10 Minutes of Original Dynamic Music
These assets, created by and for use in Alchemy, were made hand-in-hand with Free League to ensure they best represent Dragonbane and cover many uses for any games across the Misty Vale.
learn to play
where to buy
Harcover & Box Set
Support the Creator Directly
Enhanced VTT Module
Save 20% on the Alchemy Marketplace
Dragonbane is © 2024 Free League Publishing. All rights reserved.
about alchemy rpg
Alchemy is the world's first virtual tabletop (VTT) built specifically for cinematic immersion and theater of the mind gameplay. Its scene-based structure empowers gamemasters to tell incredible stories with animated environments, motion effects, ambient sound, and music.
Alchemy’s core features are completely free. For those looking to run many of their games on the platform, Alchemy Unlimited opens the possibilities of more adventures with additional slots for player characters, games, and homebrew content (universes).