I’m  absolutely enthralled by this game right now.

[DISCLOSURE: I received a free digital copy of the Dragonbane Core Set from Free League Publishing. I am not an affiliate, nor have I received any compensation for the review itself. ]  

Before I got into Dragonbane, I downloaded the free Quickstart Rules from DrivethruRPG.com. I also watched all of the lovely Dragonbane How-To videos by Ellinor DiLorenzo. If you haven’t seen the videos, I highly recommend them. She’s a gem. Link to the first one HERE.

I’m going to cover the rulebook to start with. This will be a multiple part series, as I truly admire the heck out of this game so far. I haven’t been this excited since Shadowdark RPG was announced. I maybe sorta kinda promised I’d make a video on YouTube with this review, too. Hey, I gotta start somewhere.

Drakar och Demoner was the original title of this game.

I have fallen in love with a game from Sweden, known in English as Dragonbane. This game originated as Europe’s first major foray into TTRPGs in 1982. Here is a link to the Wiki page for those who would like to know more.  

We have been fortunate enough that Fria Ligan aka Free League Publishing brought the game to the United States as Dragonbane. I have to say “Demons and Dragons” sounds pretty badass as a title, but I can see where an American audience might kinda freak out about that. The letters D and D with an ampersand in the middle might get the game confused with those other guys, who the Swedish game was designed to compete with.

Personally I wish this game had come over a lot sooner. I think it would have gotten traction here sooner and taken some money away from those big guys on the Coast. After a successful Kickstarter in 2022, Dragonbane came to the USA. I wish I had gotten in on that, but I was a lot broke at the time.

Here we are with Mirth and Mayhem.

This one illustration convinced me.

Oh to have been a fly on the wall during the design session where the original idea came up. We have this cool idea for a game, mechanics that work, elves, dwarves, dragons, and wizards. Someone said, “I know, Let’s throw Donald Duck into the game!” Thus the Mallard race was born.

I have to honestly admit, the idea of channeling my inner Daffy/Donald/Darkwing really drew me into this game. Even the art just slays me. Serious looking knight in full plate armor looking majestic on his sturdy steed- wait, is that a beak? And the art for the rogue who looks very Darkwing Duck.

It gets better because after the Mallards there are Wolfkin. I had a Wolfen warlock character for RIFTS who was just a blast to play. Any time there are anthropomorphic animals in a game, it just gets hilarious. But wait, when we talk about the Dragonbane Bestiary, there are more and even more furry characters. Love it! (*Only a dozen more lawns to go before I can acquire the Bestiary.)

The system lends itself well to the mayhem of the game. It’s a d20 roll under system meaning 1’s are great news and 20’s are terrible news. Oh, and monsters hit automatically, but their actions can be determined randomly. The monsters are not to be taken lightly.

Art can make or break a TTRPG.

I should carve than into something around here as often as I have said it. Dragonbane’s art 100% sells the book. From the evocative cover art all the way through to the Ogre on Page 112 of the core rules.

The art for this game reminds me a bit of the art from the various Cawood Publishing sourcebooks even though I’m not sure there’s any real intersect between the two. At the very least, Dragonbane has a very distinctive style of art connected with it. Johan Egerkrans worked on both Dragonbane and Vaesen, which explains the similarities in art style between both of those Free League titles. It’s just so good though. It really captures that serious tone with just a hint of humor.

So much more to come.

Please remember I’m the guy who recently said I was getting burnt out on Western/European medieval fantasy? I hadn’t discovered Dragonbane yet. I was aware of it and all of the Free League titles, but I hadn’t held one in my hands yet. Dragonbane is so darn good! The best part is; it’s old enough to be Old School, but new enough to compete with a Fifth and a Half Edition of that one dungeon game. It even makes Shadowdark look a little… dark?

Next time we’ll dive into character creation, skills, equipment and maybe a little on magic. I’m going to make a character just to test out the system. I may try to do it on camera eventually. (eek.) I’ve also got a pretty good list of crossovers and ideas I want to develop further with Dragonbane. It might not become my new forever game, but I like it better than anything 2024 has had t offer yet. It’s definitely my game for the summer.