Dragonbane (2023) is Free League’s modern overhaul of the classic Swedish RPG Drakar och Demoner (which translates to Dragons and Demons). The first edition of the game, which came out in 1982, was in essence a Swedish translation of Chaosium’s Magic World. From that starting point, it developed its own nuances but, despite the gleaming polish and modern design comforts, reading through the rules it very much feels like a Basic Roleplaying game to me. Which is great, because I love Chaosium and BRP, but it is interesting because I’ve always felt that Free League’s Year Zero system was like a far-future mutant evolution of BRP, so it interesting to me to see them sort of time travel back to the original bones. Oh, and, if you’d like a longer history of the game, check out the essay Gandalf Tätting wrote back in 2022 on that very thing!
The most important thing you need to know about Dragonbane is that it allows you to play Ducks. The second thing you should know is that it is fairly lightweight, plays fast, encourages mayhem and is sort of shockingly deadly, to the point that folks I know who run it have house-ruled that down a bit. Third thing is the Johan “Vaesen” Egerkrans is the lead artist and with Anton Vitus and Niklas Brandt, delivers a gorgeous-looking box set (this is somewhat odd, in fact, because Egerkrans also did a lot of art for Ruin Masters, which is another recent, though ill-starred, re-launch of the Drakar och Demoner system).
Let’s talk about the box a bit. Lot of stuff in there. There’s a rulebook, a solo adventure, a world map, some very nice character sheets, a set of dice, very cool standees, the adventure book (more on that in a sec) and four decks of cards. I’m not really sold on the Adventure or Treasure decks. The Initiative deck is admittedly useful. But boy, I love the Improvised Weapons deck. At the inn, in a fight? Why not rile up the pig and point it in the direction of your enemy for 3d6 damage? Does this information need to be a deck of cards? I don’t know. But I love it.
The adventure book bears mentioning, as it contains 11 interconnected scenarios that, when taken together, serve as a pretty epic, non-linear campaign (they can be played in any order, with the exception of the final scenario which is, you know, last). They’re an excellent clinic in giving you the least amount of material that will provide the most amount of adventure. Which is not to say they are scanty — the book is 110 pages and so each scenario has about ten pages each — but rather that the collection of framing material, NPCs, keyed dungeons and so on is presented in the most usable way. It’s very pleasing.
I’m keen to seen this game grow over the coming years.
