Dragonbane

Hi all,

I've been running a home game of Dragonbane using the materials in their amazing boxed set. Free League makes wonderful products, and the box set is something else. It's not just a starter set with a Quickstart. You get the full Dragonbane rulebook, in softcover, along with a separate adventure campaign book, The Secrets of the Dragon Empire. You also get dice, card stock standees, standee bases, a solo game, character sheets, a double-sided gridded play mat, a deck of cards (adventure rumors, initiative, treasure, improvised weapons), and a map. It's like a Beadle & Grimm's box, but it's $40 on Amazon (slightly more on Free League's page, but then you get the PDFs too). In other words, it's about a year's worth of play materials in one box.

We are four sessions into our game .My players and I are really connecting with Dragonbane's fast, gritty combat. It's a low power game, but it has a lot of combat actions that just make a lot of sense. For example, critical hits can do double damage (like in that other game), but you can choose to strike again instead, or, if you are using a piercing weapon, you can choose to ignore your opponent's damage-absorbing armor. You can rally and fight at zero hit points. You can parry and dodge attacks, though weapons can sometimes break. Team work and playing smart is important. Running from a fight might make as much sense as sticking it out.

It's the sort of game where there's a LOT to do outside combat (having a good Bushcraft skill is very important), and so the other pillars of play (exploration, social interaction) are prominent too. In our campaign, one character's class is Scholar and another is Merchant. The merchant's nose for treasure was a definite asset, as was his Bluffing skill.

I've gone heavy into Dragonbane, picking up the booklength adventure Paths of Glory, and backing both of Free League's recent two Kickstarters. Meanwhile, I'm considering seriously whether the original Norrøngard setting could benefit from a Dragonbane edition. I'd love to know what you think of this idea, as well as your own experiences with Dragonbane if you play.

Meanwhile, here are some shots from yesterday's epic session. I used a combination of 3D printed terrain from Fat Dragon Games and cardstock printouts of the maps from the adventure (available in PDF from the Free League site). Since overland travel is an important part of the Dragonbane experience, I use the 3D terrain pieces for our journey, and then when we arrive, it doubles as a nice Fog of War to remove a tile at a time to reveal the dungeon map underneath!

That's all for now. Until next time...