Main Rules Chapter 1: Intro and Chapter 2: Creating a Character.
Dragons and Demons have been at war over the land since the most ancient of times. The dragons, keepers of Law and Order through, well, draconian means spread far and wide. The Demons spread Chaos and Corruption wherever they went. According to the backstory, their war ended in the ruination of the earliest civilization, leaving vast ruins for us to explore.
I absolutely love three things about this Intro chapter. First, the setting is baked into the game. We have dungeons to explore and the two most absolutely badass forces of the world to uncover and possibly defeat. The Dragon Empire left countless treasures to be uncovered, assuming we can fight our way through their various minions and possibly a dragon along the way.
Second, did you notice what they didn’t mention anywhere? Religion. No gods, no angels and no celestial golden hounds are coming to rescue anyone. Characters have to be self sufficient and magic is something we’ll cover later on. How many campaign worlds have we seen that started with religion? Not this one.
Third, a little further down the line the authors get into more of the mechanical side of the game. It’s the standard intro to roleplaying for those who have never slung the dice before. It’s very thoughtful. Most importantly, the Europeans have the most mature take on Safety Tools I have seen amongst the TTRPG community so far.
After the brief introduction, we get into the fun of making characters!
I truly appreciate Chapter 2 being character creation. The designers were wise and knew that most tabletop gamers like to dive right into character creation early on. We get into all the system mechanics of gear and spells later.
I disagree slightly on the order of steps in character creation, but I’ve been making characters for other d20 system games for so long that I’ve gotten into my own pattern. Reading a different take on character creation was refreshing.
One of the biggest draws in the game comes first.
Kin. I was drawn to this game because of the artwork for Kin. (Known in other games as Races, Ancestries, Lineages, etc.) It’s clear that this game was sort of Tolkienesque, but then Donald Duck was incredibly popular in Sweden at the time. It’s such a fascinating dynamic. Not sure how Wolfkin fit into all this yet, but no complaints.
Humans are pretty cool in this game. They’re highly skilled. They’re obviously the most relatable Kin given that most of us on real Earth are humans. We obviously see everything in a fantasy world through that lens naturally.
Then there are the Halfling. We just had to include the Hobbitsees, didn’t we? I don’t mind playing a Halfling character, but where are the Gnomes? Aren’t garden gnomes a thing in Europe? Personally, I’d have skipped Halflings in favor of something else, but we’ll go with it. It made total sense back in the early days of TTRPGs. It’s cool.
Just an organizational note: I’m not sure why the Kin aren’t in alphabetical order. Maybe it’s the natural bias toward humans or maybe it’s that way for lore purposes. It’s also possible that it makes more sense in the original language. I dunno.
Dwarves are said to be “the oldest of the elder folk.” They’re what one naturally thinks of when one thinks of fantasy Dwarves. I’m really stoked to recreate my favorite Dwarf character because of the artwork on Page 8. The old Dwarf with the eyepatch and the crossbow is one of my favorite tropes. Dwarves are also cool because their Innate Ability forces the player to keep a notebook of the names of everyone who has ever harmed the character.
Then we come to Elves. I may find out I’m mistaken about a good number of things when it comes to these kin, but I think they age at the same rate as humans. They may have been around longer, but their lifespans seem to be the same. Otherwise, they are still the same slender, forest oriented, esoteric minded Elves we’re all used to.
I would also like to point out that no playable Kin have any kind of advantage seeing in the dark. This brings us back to the Old School TTRPG element of torches. I’m very likely bringing the torch rules over from another game to add some hijinks to Dragonbane. I think lanterns and torches definitely should be a thing to keep track of.
Now we come to my two favorite Kin: Mallards and Wolfkin.
I think it’s hysterical that someone decided to include Donald and/or Daffy Duck with Dragonbane. These last two Kin and the art that comes with them convinced me to pick up the Quickstart Rules from DriveThruRPG.com. Wolfkin are just plain cool. I’ve mentioned them previously and I definitely want to include one with my “solo party.” (I couldn’t just make one character. C’mon. It’s me.)
Even the lore in the core book basically says they don’t know how or where the Mallards came from, but here they are. All said and done, they fit right into the world. It’s just a matter of getting used to these anthropomorphic ducks being a regular feature of the campaign setting. They also get two really great innate abilities. They can freak out and get mad, like Donald Duck does in the cartoons. As expected, they also have webbed feet making them excellent swimmers.
Wolfkin are also just as one would expect from anthropomorphic wolves. They have keen eyesight and an excellent sense of smell. They’re wild creatures at heart. I’m a bit surprised there’s no claw or bite attack listed for them. Otherwise, they look really cool. I’d play one.
I think maybe I should create a forest campaign given the nature of Elves and Wolfkin. Dragons and Demons are both natural enemies to forested civilizations. Overgrown dungeon type environments or ruins would be a natural occurrence in an ancient forest. I could get into that.
Stay tuned next time when we get into the real weeds of character creation.
We haven’t even picked a Profession or rolled dice yet. We’re just getting warmed up. I’m really going in depth on this game because I think it’s better than a lot of the 2024 competition.
If you think the Kin in the core rules are exciting, I’ve peeked at the Bestiary a little bit. The new Kin offered in that book are pretty intense. I might have to put my GM’s ban hammer on standby for flying player characters. But that’s a long way off. Let’s get these characters rolling next time.
Jeff's Game Box 