With only a few sessions left in my Dragonbane campaign, I think now is a great time to release the review. Please note that I did receive a free copy of the pdf and foundry module, but I was planning on at least running the quickstart guide eventually. That said, this will be my honest review. 

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What is Dragonbane?

Dragonbane is a fantasy tabletop RPG based in the Mysty Vale It features unique races, an interesting combat/initiative system, and a less limiting class/character creation system than a traditional RPG. The game is easy to pick up, and fun to play once you’ve adapted to the Year Zero engine.

Initiative

Dragonbane uses cards for initiative, and I love this system. While I love rolling dice, nothing beats the randomness of drawing cards. While some characters and creatures might go multiple times in a round, there are no initiative bonuses in Dragonbane. Instead, the creature or player who pulls the lowest card goes first. 

This order isn’t fixed. Players can switch initiative cards with each other or enemies for an advantage, and the initiative resets after each turn. It felt like my players were no longer waiting around for their next turn, but instead were adapting to change, or planning to gain the advantage. 

Combat

I love the combat system in Dragonbane. As a GM, I love how the system handles monsters. Monsters come with a roll table of abilities and attacks they can perform each turn. During a monster’s turn, GMs roll for the action. The randomness of this system makes combat a lot more exciting. I either roll for the TPK (I never did), or I waste a turn on a useless debuff. There are some monsters I’d tweak for future campaigns, but combat generally had enough fun and suspenseful drama. 

From a player’s perspective, I love how strategic the action economy is. A player can use their action to attack, aid a party member, or evade/parry an attack. I like that players aren’t waiting around for damage, but can instead use their action to mitigate it. Waiting and evading a deadly attack is so satisfying.

Classes

It’s important to note that classes in Dragonbane are more like templates. While other systems limit the abilities and skills available to a character based on their class, Dragonbane gives players the freedom to play their character how they want. Classes in Dragonbane are only really to help players allocate their proficiencies and skill points. 

After a player starts the adventure, players have the freedom to allocate skill points wherever they want. This means you can be a wizard who is proficient at swords, or a knight who can cast magic (depending on how your world handles magic). To people coming from other systems, some of the classes will feel underwhelming, but I always let my players change their character if they don’t like what they come up with the first time. 

Leveling

Leveling in Dragonbane is based on five questions:

✦ Did you participate in the game session?
✦ Did you explore a new location?
✦ Did you defeat one or more dangerous adversaries?
✦ Did you overcome an obstacle without using force?
✦ Did you give in to your weakness? (Optional)

At the end of the session, the GM asks players these questions. I didn’t use the optional rule for my campaign because we didn’t want to deal with keeping track of weaknesses. For every yes, players get a point they can spend on attempting to level one of their skills. They then roll a D20 for every skill they want to level. If they roll a number higher than their skill, the skill increases by 1.

There will be sessions where players will level every skill they roll against, and in others, they won’t get any. The higher the level, the harder it is to upgrade which is what gives the game the system its balance. My players loved this system because they got to roll dice, and they had the freedom to customize their character to fit their plays tyle.

I loved the questions because they forced my players to play differently. My player who didn’t usually participate was suddenly roleplaying and encounters that would have usually resulted in murder were resolved peacefully. It was such a nice shift, but it also meant I needed to be ready for anything.

Adventure

The prewritten adventure is a great way to get you started in the system. GMs get access to a well-structured template of adventures, and players get a solid sense of what to expect from the system.

The adventure is a collection of quests loosely tied by lore, but they can exist independently. I changed a lot from the adventure because that’s how our narrative flows. If you’re thinking of running Dragonbane, and don’t know where to start, the adventure in the core book is fantastic. Like all prewritten adventures, use it as a template, and don’t be afraid to go off-script. 

I always start with these prewritten adventures, but we usually veer way off and have a lot of fun doing so. This adventure was no different. I liked the adventure. The flavor was good, the lore was neat, the encounters felt balanced, and there was enough content for a long campaign.

Conclusion

We had a lot of fun with Dragonbane, and it’s going to be hard switching to another system. With the new Beastiary coming out in March, I’ve got a few more sessions planned, so it isn’t goodbye just yet. 

I loved how easy it was to jump into this system and pick up all the rules. I love how easy of a transition it was from 5th Edition. Some mechanics took some time to get used to, but nothing that I would call impossible. It has a neat leveling system, a fun combat system, and unparalleled freedom in character creation.

If you are looking for a fantasy TTRPG, you need to look into Dragonbane. I recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, or just needs a break from 5th Edition burnout. Pick up your copy of the rule book in PDF from Drivethru RPG ($24.99), but the art is so beautiful you’re going to want a physical. You can pick up your physical copy from the official site ($41.98 +shipping) or Amazon ($49.99 shipping included.) It is currently on sale on Amazon for $45.69.