Board Game Review: Mirth and Mayhem in ‘Dragonbane’

Dragonbane from Free League Publishing resurrects classic expect-the-unexpected, dungeon-crawling gaming from the early days of the tabletop. Today the world of role-playing games is incredibly diverse, but the first generation of gaming was High Fantasy, heavily influenced by appreciation for JRR Tolkien, and war gaming. Lead writer Tomas Harenstam discusses in the introduction to Dragonbane his own first memories of RPGs in 1985 and how he has sought to bring it back to the table with a reimagined Drakar och Demoner. Dragonbane does just that, allowing older players to relive their past glories and new generations to experience the mirth and mayhem of classic gaming.

The Misty Vale World

While many role-playing games have expansive worlds stretching over multiple continents and even different realms of existence, the whole of Dragonbane takes place in a single large valley. It is packed with ancient ruins, nests of foul creatures to vanquish, and a few human trading posts and holdouts. This compact area fraught with adventure makes for fast campaign play while also allowing non-player characters to become part of the stories by potentially showing up again and again. The box set comes with a beautifully detailed map as well as an adventure guide with a dozen session-long quests and random encounters in the journeys between them.

Adventuring

Many of the features of Dragonbane will feel familiar to those who have experienced old-style tabletop gaming, but it also has tweaks that make it a game all its own. Players first choose their kin, such as humans and dwarves or, for unique touches, humanoid ducks called Mallards and canid Wolfkin. Adding a little silliness to what otherwise might be considered a Dark Fantasy genre encapsulates the whimsy that sets Dragonbane apart, much like the satire of the classic comic Cerebus the Aardvark.

Dragonbane’s system has clever details making for original gameplay. Age is a crucial part of character development, with older characters having more skills but fewer attribute points. The magic system is really four magic styles rolled into one. Magic-users may be animistic and seek to work with the world around them; elementalists who use the four forms of matter; mentalists with psionic-based powers; or they may see magic as a general set of tricks like any other skill.

Rather than complicated rolling and adding points for initiative, players draw cards and may even choose their numbered order if they perform an action that would surprise an opponent. The cards also make waiting an easy process, holding an action simply by swapping turn-order cards with allies. After the fight, treasure cards allow for random draws upon victories and even tables-within-tables to roll for random bonus gear. 

Mirth and Mayhem in Dragonbane

Dragonbane promises “laughs at the table” and “brutal challenges for the adventurers” in the chaotic balance common to early roleplaying, and it delivers both. The game master will set clever traps and strong opponents against the players, testing their merit against the cardboard cutouts maneuvering the battlefield grid. The set even contains a solo adventure, “Alone in Deepfall Breach,” where a single player or a few can go about their questing without a game master to direct them, just the words in the game book. The greater the challenge, the greater the reward.

Game books and components may be purchased individually or together with the core set having all the maps and dice together with a stock of pre-made characters for instant gameplay.