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Dragonbane: Quickstart Guide
Dragonbane is a game full of magic, mystery, and adventure, designed for fast play with very little prep time and adventures that are a breeze to run. This is an RPG with room for laughs at the table and even a pinch of silliness at times – while at the same time offering brutal challenges for the adventurers. We call this playstyle mirth and mayhem roleplaying.
This Quickstart Guide includes condensed rules, a complete adventure, and five pre-generated characters. All you need to play is a few dice – and your imagination!
This Quickstart Guide includes condensed rules, a complete adventure, and five pre-generated characters. All you need to play is a few dice – and your imagination!
44 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 16, 2024
Entra nel dungeon, uccidi mostri, evita le trappole e sopravvivi (opzionale).
Perfetta unione fra vecchio e nuovo.
Perfetta unione fra vecchio e nuovo.
December 17, 2025
It's the Dragonbane quickstart guide given out for free RPG day. The rules digest is nice and expected in a quickstart guide but I'm mostly here for the module, The Sinking Tower.
This styles itself as an old-school-style tournament module meant to be played by lecture halls full of players all vying to get the most characters out alive with the most treasure. It's a format you don't see as much any more but was almost standard back in the 70s.
Your party is contracted by a one-eyed sorcerer to retrieve an artifact from the top of the tower. The tower rises from the sea periodically for 2 hours before sinking back down. So, there's a ticking clock element at play here and you've got a tight time frame. You won't be taking any rests while here, that's for certain.
The dungeon is pretty good standard dungeon crawling fair. There are puzzles and combat encounters. Hints to the puzzles are displayed 2 floors below the puzzle floor. Since you have limited ability to heal (but a single-use get-out-of-dying-free potion) you should try to avoid combat where possible. The puzzle are interesting and while I'm glad there are hints baked in I think their delivery is a bit occluded and while the book does explain the logic I think there should be a better way of signaling that to the players. The module almost seems to run better a second time with the PCs having some prior knowledge of what's going on.
The climax is suitably epic but the players are free to negotiate and do not have to fight their way out of their problems. And, indeed, they would be better off not doing so. Killing the boss is the highest scoring goal but it's only 1 point more than giving the boss what he wants so he goes away.
This styles itself as an old-school-style tournament module meant to be played by lecture halls full of players all vying to get the most characters out alive with the most treasure. It's a format you don't see as much any more but was almost standard back in the 70s.
Your party is contracted by a one-eyed sorcerer to retrieve an artifact from the top of the tower. The tower rises from the sea periodically for 2 hours before sinking back down. So, there's a ticking clock element at play here and you've got a tight time frame. You won't be taking any rests while here, that's for certain.
The dungeon is pretty good standard dungeon crawling fair. There are puzzles and combat encounters. Hints to the puzzles are displayed 2 floors below the puzzle floor. Since you have limited ability to heal (but a single-use get-out-of-dying-free potion) you should try to avoid combat where possible. The puzzle are interesting and while I'm glad there are hints baked in I think their delivery is a bit occluded and while the book does explain the logic I think there should be a better way of signaling that to the players. The module almost seems to run better a second time with the PCs having some prior knowledge of what's going on.
The climax is suitably epic but the players are free to negotiate and do not have to fight their way out of their problems. And, indeed, they would be better off not doing so. Killing the boss is the highest scoring goal but it's only 1 point more than giving the boss what he wants so he goes away.
October 28, 2023
I read a lot of RPG systems as "research" for my own creations. I'm always excited to see some new creative ideas, someone doing something different. Unfortunately, this system is basically D&D 5e with a couple changes. Nothing against 5e (it's what I play and run), but it just seems like, "Why even create a new system if it's just going to copy another system?" There are definitely some differences, but not enough to make me think about changing systems.
6 attributes, same as D&D with only 2 named differently, hit points, advantage/disadvantage (called boon/bane, at least they changed the name), resistance/immunity, 1 move/1 action, 3 death saves at 0 hp etc...
They did get rid of AC so you roll against your skills to hit, then subtract armor rating from damage and they added "parry" and "dodge", actions you can take to avoid damage by using your attack action up.
I do like the cards for initiative, the art, and the monsters having a list of attacks that they use, but don't understand why they always succeed?
6 attributes, same as D&D with only 2 named differently, hit points, advantage/disadvantage (called boon/bane, at least they changed the name), resistance/immunity, 1 move/1 action, 3 death saves at 0 hp etc...
They did get rid of AC so you roll against your skills to hit, then subtract armor rating from damage and they added "parry" and "dodge", actions you can take to avoid damage by using your attack action up.
I do like the cards for initiative, the art, and the monsters having a list of attacks that they use, but don't understand why they always succeed?
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October 3, 2024Free League's fondness for using cards to determine initiative order is something that, totally unreasonably, puts me right off. We've already got dice on the table, we don't need a second way to randomly determine a result! Anyway, this is fine. Obviously descended from its own long history, but for me coming in here it feels somewhere between 5e, Shadow of the Demon Lord, and Free League's own Forbidden Lands. I like the way conditions work, and the art is great, but I can't see myself using this, certainly not whole cloth.
October 30, 2024
I got this free on free RPG day 2023. I finally read it and it is a great entry to the game. I like that it comes with a short adventure. I am going to try to run it with my adult children and I haven't ran anything for 20+ years.
February 16, 2025
The rating and review refer to the Dragonbane Quickstart module called The Sinking Tower.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews