FGP: I Learn to Play Dragonbane

[@Xenuite81]

The great part about cardboard standees is that everybody succeeds on their Stealth check against the overhead camera.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

[@wilonascave]

My No. 1 Solo RPG system

[@mattjackson]

It looks sooo good but I cannot make my brain go for the ‘rolling low is GOOD’ thing. Just breaks my brain!

[@waltterihaapaniemi4341]

As a solo-player I really quickly became kinda fan of the Dragonbane system. It really is everything I have wanted from a more heroic fantasy system. -quick character creation -so easy to homebrew on the fly -just enough crunch -horizontal character developement. Even the solo rules are quite nice. Simple add but really makes the difference. Really excited to see how well recieved this game become in the community. (Ps. Not assosiated with freeleague but I think you are exactly right on rolling a dragon with parry that it is a free attack that is auto hit "You immediately perform a counterattack - an automatic hit with your weapon that cannot be dodged or parried")

[@ricardo.mazeto]

I'm here for that Dragonbane Solo campain! Trevor, please, reconsider it! Haha. 😅

[@dranorter]

I'd second that. I trust Trevor's judgement, but this game does seem to hit that sweet spot of having enough detail to keep combat interesting, yet also having combat be quick.

[@CasparLapthorne]

I hope he gives it a go soon as the solo rules and accompanying adventures are fantastic! Even if its just a one-shot or mini-campaign it'd be so good

[@jameslondelmccullough344]

But then it would be spoiled for the rest of us. So I imagine that is why Travor doesn't want to do it online. ;)

[@ricardo.mazeto]

@@jameslondelmccullough344 Why would it be spolied for us? It could be his own story, his own campaign.

[@Syenthros]

So just a quick note here: You actually cannot parry or dodge after your turn. It doesn't matter if you don't use your action on your turn, after your turn is over you cannot use reactions. Page 42: "Some actions are not performed on your turn, but on the opponent’s. These are called reactions and include things like parrying or dodging attacks. This uses up your own turn in the round, which means that you cannot perform a reaction if you have already had your turn. Flip your initiative card after performing a reaction."

[@DocTYoh]

Exactly! Pg. 43, box "Flip the Initiative Card: Once you have had your turn in the round, you can flip the initiative card face down to make it clear to you and everyone else that you have acted. This means that you cannot perform any reaction (such as parrying an attack) later in the round." Note that it says "had your TURN in the round", not "had your ACTION in the round".

[@DocTYoh]

Also at around 19:34, the Orc drops the crossbow as a Free Action and uses his Action to draw his scimitar. According to pg. 43, box "Free Actions", the "Draw Weapon" Free Action includes the "exchange" option, so I would rule, exchanging the crossbow for the scimitar would be a single Free Action, hence a Melee Attack would still be possible as an Action in the same Turn.

[@jcraigwilliams70]

I came so close to backing this. I still might buy it. I have too many games already (I'm trying to solo play Ironsworn, Starforged, OSE, Shadowdark, and Savage Worlds, with Captain's Log on the way and Crown and Skull looking interesting), but I could happily pick this up just for the art. 7:06 I can relate to this. I am also Canadian. I measure height in feet and inches, speed in km/h, weight in pounds, and temperature in celsius, though for a long time I would refer to 0 degrees as the freezing point, 100 degrees as the boiling point, and 70 degrees as room temperature.

[@wbbartlett]

Ha, as a Brit I use an almost identical mishmash of metric & imperial (apart from using MPH, unless I was driving on the continent)

[@adiosgringo8200]

Sounds like a true Canadian. They do not want to offend anyone, so they adopt all forms of measurements into their daily life. Btw, I am in the same boat when it comes to measurements. I blame my Canadian education when they switched it all over to metric halfway through my schooling.

[@arphod]

My (USA) science education compeled me to use metric and become comfortable with it. Except temperature. I never, ever know what the Celsius is unless water just froze or water just boiled.

[@NeoRaven78]

I backed the Dragonbane Kickstarter on the art alone. The Mallard on the cover is too cool. My copy arrived about two weeks ago and regardless of your feelings on the rules, the production quality and value for the price are top-notch.

[@bjhale]

Definitely. Part of me wishes Free League would become full on producers of other people's games because they so frequently knock it out of the park in production quality.

[@TheMilkHead]

This is actually a new release of a old swedish roleplaying game named Drakar Och Demoner, wich means Dragons and Demons and it was released in 1981

[@christopherwintersvahn6087]

Just a heads up to new players: the rules has been updated. When it’s your turn you have to use your movement and action. You cannot save any of them for later. You may move a bit, use the action and then move again though. If you choose to play with the optional “Wait” rule you have to swap initiative with anyone whose turn is after yours and who has not waited themselves. Not sure why they changed the rule, I guess it becomes a bit quicker? 🤔

[@firstlast5454]

It makes a LOT of sense that they changed that. Under the old rules you'll ALWAYS want to go second or hold, since the enemy has a chance to miss. This means you can either do a non parry attack or block which you would want to do anyways.

[@Spacemutiny]

I’m new to this channel and just wanted to say, I am loving your videos! Your enthusiasm is contagious.

[@SimonMatthews-b4v]

What a brilliant learn to play video. You made the game exciting and so much fun. I'm so happy to have stumbled across you. More Dragonbane please.

[@CraftworldStudio]

I Love the Dragonbane and art in it. (Had few session so far) Well I do love everything I tried from Free League Publishing. Forbidden Lands is probably my favorite so far because of the dice mechanics and how you can interpret them with role-play Dragonbane is more heroic but still it can be very deadly. Great video as always and I look forward for Dragonbane solo and at some point Forbidden Lands maybe? . Keep up the awesome work Trevor. 😊

[@marccaron6008]

Fun video. Such a great box! When I want to play old school I play D&D BX (OSE). When I want to play contemporary fantasy RPG I play Dragonbane. I've played it solo and it was fun to have some meaningful tactical choices without falling into the 'wargame' trap.

[@himurogentoku7117]

Mr. Devall! Thank you so much for the Dragonbane tutorial! I have been meaning to learn Dragonbane! Please teach us how to play Runequest in the next FGP sir. I'm a bit overwhelmed by it.

[@ErictheCleric-RPG]

My thoughts exactly. I’ve got Dragonbane and Runequest at basically the same time and started to learn Runequest first. My brain has trouble figuring Runequest out. PLEASE do a quick tutorial on Runequest.

[@nairobie755]

Drakar och demoner was a swedish version and setting of BRP it's settings has changed with each publisher and the system has evolved quite a bit since the start. My favorite being the 1987 relese, though I haven't played eithe the version by riot minds or fria ligan.

[@Ryuuuuuk]

Why do you prefer the old release?

[@Rnedlose0784]

Great vid! One minor quibble tho, you flip the init card after your turn regardless, the only way to parry/dodge is if your init hasn’t passed yet.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Thanks! I read it differently, though: you flip your card once you’ve *performed your action*. The reaction uses up the “action” part of your turn, not the “movement” part of your turn. This means you can move in your turn, and take no action - which allows you to “hold” your reaction until it’s used. This tactic would only make sense in certain situations though, like when the orc moved forward but did not get close enough to engage. Many other games utilize this “holding the parry” tactic too. Although on second thought, my reading could functionally duplicate the “initiative card swap” option, so maybe by the strictest interpretation of the rules you’re correct. Guess we need an Official Free League Judgement to see who’s “right”! 🤪 (Not that I care particularly - we all reserve the right to house rule any way we see fit; but I do try and get things correct first by running RAW. Thanks for the food for thought 😊)

[@Rnedlose0784]

Hmm, it says flip your card after your turn though, not action. In any case, you’re right, play the game how you wish! Great video!

[@christiansullivan1346]

What a great video. I backed this as a Kickstarter and yet to play it. Please do the solo adventure! Loved your enthusiasm!

[@thomassammis8070]

Not a D&D guy bc it always felt like a Part time job going through a campaign, LOVE how this game is quick to setup and let's the players use their imagination 😀

[@skadan113]

Great video. What I wouldn't give for a "featureless gray plain" for Harnmaster. Picked that up on your recommendation and I was so intimidated by my read-through that I haven't tried it yet. You'd be one of the few Harnmaster tutorials on KZbin... I've definitely looked :)

[@zelbarnap]

you did such a great job of selling the Dragonbane to me. I am in!

[@NefariousKoel]

Hey Trevor, have you ever considered setting up a combat spell cast along with the melee in these 'Grey Plain' videos? At least for those which aren't the rote "quiver of arrows" style of guaranteed spell casting as in that one game * wink wink *. Always find the risky failure-prone ones a lot more interesting but there is some variance in them. Sometimes even when inspired by the same system.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Yeah, I have a bunch of different variants I'm planning, including (depending on the game) magic and social conflicts.

[@Anna-w2u]

Tack!

[@MothMariner]

So, I can see what bits of text might confuse and I’m trying to get confirmation, but I’m 90% sure you can’t hold your action for after your turn like you appear to be doing here. If you take your turn and finish it, you have to flip your initiative card which means that even if you didn’t use an action during it, you can’t use a reaction later. Basically you can’t have a full move and also save your reaction for later. I think. It’s move and action, OR reaction.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I already responded to this in a previous comment, but yes, you’re probably correct.

[@MothMariner]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG ah no worries! I tried scrolling back to see if it was mentioned, but there’s a lot of comments!

[@CONTINGENCY_sys]

Been binge watching "DOMINION" series for the 4th time all the way through. Fantastical series once again would be great. Pew pew is all great and love but clash and bang is more my flavor for adventures. Runequest had quite a range in the early days. Be fun to see what the new age does with exploring it. Old or new its all good.

[@keithmathews4605]

Absolutely LOVE this!!!

[@RomanEmin]

Great video, this system looks pretty fun. I’d love to see you running the solo module. As usual, awesome job!

[@DeadMarsh]

This is so weird. It's like the combat uses D&d, Forbidden lands, and The one ring abit. Definitely going to pull this off my shelf as I have and play all of those.

[@matthewconstantine5015]

I too had sort of dismissed this game, but I've been warming up to it, especially after finding out it has a lot of RuneQuest in its genes.

[@andrewmorgan9429]

Superb breakdown! I late backed this. Have thr PDFs but eagerly awaiting the physical product as it looks beautiful. Free League has THE best art, bar none. Would love to see a side quest of the Chapel and the Wolf!

[@gustavlindsten-composer6760]

Hey trevor, big fan here! When is season 4 coming out? Can't wait!

[@messenger3478]

I'm just about to play this! Was gonna use the Quickstart rules with the Solo guide, but I look through the Quickstart, and realized it's seems to be more like a reference book then anything. So, I'm gonna use the full rules to play.

[@derskusmacher]

What serendipity, I open youtube to look up a how to play Dragonebane and this is in my reccomended!

[@SoloAnteelDADO]

Hello Trevor! Nice job showing these games! I think the "free" counterattack when rolling a "Dragon" with the shield, is like you did, an autohit.

[@animatorFan74]

I love these mechanics.... that tactic of waiting for others to go first so you don't use an action is brilliant.... there's so many cool tidbits of rules and mechanics here that you can use in other games, just port any handy rules over. Those improvised weapons cards are awesome too...I love little random stuff like that. :) I wonder if there's enough rules in this one to use in Season 4, maybe...? Nudge nudge.... :P

[@mr.dragonbane]

I personally think that Dragonbane can become a D&D 5e killer... if enough players give it a shot. It really does the job as far as rules lite, keeping the players engaged and allowing for more fun that you may realize.

[@garenne0169]

I’ve just reiceved mine and i love it. No more hit points bags like in D&D. Many very interesting features and no avancement based on level. Trevor, please, mind you do a solo campaign 🥹

[@TweaksDIRT]

Definitely need to cover Symbaroum. It has it's flaws but the setting is awesome.

[@hinkasadv.riding8129]

I did the solo ”campaign” with the misses and we loved it! Well actually, not quite done, might get to the last parts tonight. I think you will like it alot, and if you succeed with it you come out of the dungeon sith a nice shiny weapon ;)

[@mattlowder]

thank you thank you thank you for doing this. This is an instant buy for me now.

[@JohnPowell6]

Great video but I don’t think you can move and then hold your action as a possible reaction. You either wait on your turn by swapping initiative cards, or you take your turn.

[@jasonmosley6157]

I love your excitement when it comes to learning game!

[@davidtravis1384]

I think Free League is coming out with some great games that are easy to play solo. The first is Dragonbane but the other is Pirate Borg. Both games may be d20 but they don't have the D&D feel.

[@odinulveson9101]

Great video! Subbed! Lefty you too I see 😁 Just got the core set + gm screen and Im in love with Dr&De. I will surely show support to Free League with buying extra dice. And, sure we can download the campaign specific maps and such but I wouldnt mind buying physical map packs for Dragonbane! With thecessence of Johan Egerkranses art 😄

[@samchafin4623]

I picked up the quick-start rules for this game, and while I don't love "skill list" games, I really do like those improvised weapon cards.

[@Scubasgamecorner]

I have this game as well, have not had a chance to break it out and play so this video is a great motivator. Also bought this for Solo as well as normal TTRPG play.

[@simonhunter7244]

Love your definition of Gen-X :)

[@allluckyseven]

Pretty cool! I had read a bit of this game in the Quickstart, but it was great watching it in action! And quite an energetic action it was!

[@niefali]

I need something like this for every interesting rpg Game.^^

[@elnovato-8165]

It seems an interesting system. I appreciate the video and your insight on why it would be good for solo plays. Another game to the list. Thank you. 😃

[@Kunstdesfechtens]

I got my KS the other day. Dragonbane is as close to a perfectly designed game as I've seen. That doesn't necessarily mean "better", but it does exactly what it says on the tin. It is squeaky clean.

[@Tysto]

The quality of art & layout in small RPG publishing is astonishing now. A lot of them look better than D&D books.

[@Acmegamer]

My one major ongoing issue with Free League is using those small 10 cards for initiative, they're hard to actually shuffle. Also I feel they limit too much. After using them in their Alien Rpg as GM, I'd rather replace it with a d10 or something and adjust to using the die versus cards. Other than that I love the Free League rpgs. As an aside, I do like the Savage World cards, it's easy to shuffle 52 cards that are card sized. Though the newest version of Savage Worlds had gone to an oversized card deck which is fine as well.

[@zulupox]

Maybe you could use a bag with numbered tokens in. Like arkham horror board game games do.

[@Acmegamer]

@@zulupox Actually, I have considered something like that. It's definitely on my "potential" list as an idea. :)

[@zulupox]

@@Acmegamer I'm gonna try it myself too, when I start with my campaign. Arkham Horror the card game uses tokens in a similar manner :)

[@Stevebernier2017]

Hi How does the open opposed rolls work in the rulebook? Im ok with the opposed rolls (in the quickstart there was only that) but they integrate the open opposed rolls... They say both parties can push their Rolls but npcs and monsters cant push their rolls 🤔 With poisons for exemple, Do we use opposed rolls or open opposed rolls? Thanks 😆

[@MattisCarlgren]

I would love a video on barbarians of lemuria ❤

[@odolowa1]

I enjoy that one of the default playable races in this game is a duckman

[@bobavontanelorn5713]

Hi! Thank you for your video! It is great as ever and always! As you say - you are not a d20 guy. Could I ask you to make a series about the Star Wars - Edge of the Empire Rules system, especially with a "featureless great plane battle"...?? There are a few videos about SW ttrpg, but nobody explains the rules by showing dice rolls or doing an example combat. The sw eote ttrpg has much tactical and narrative option in game (and fight), but none of the vids are "show and tell", just tell and blablabla... So, smirk, do me a favor. ;-) Kind regards from Germany

[@johnberry5296]

Great video. I started my solo adventures last night….

[@ladyofpain]

To improve what has not manifest in D&D, I had to do what you said in the first couple seconds. Way to give the d20 a try. For example, scale from 1d20 to 5d20 and you match the d100.

[@ladyofpain]

This is very well done. I use some of these design features.

[@screenmonkey]

5d20 isn't the same curve as a d100, but 2d20 is, if you read just the 1s place.

[@ladyofpain]

@@screenmonkey 1d100 has no curve, go use anydice before you embarrass yourself lol

[@Tysto]

7:04 Gen X Americans were the ONLY generation to learn the metric system. I love it, but other Americans couldn’t tell you how many meters are in a kilometer. We're a broken country.

[@kalleendo7577]

Awesome!

[@paladinpariah325]

I prefer their Forbidden Lands game more. It's grittier and has a great campaign system. Great video though, if anyone was going to sell me on Dragonbane, it would be you. Between 5e, Forbidden Lands,and Five Leagues from the Borderlands (which I think your content for would be amazing if you ever did videos for it), I just don't have any more room for fantasy games. I like sticking with one or two games and don't like jumping around like a lot of people do.

[@himurogentoku7117]

Forbidden Lands you mean?

[@paladinpariah325]

​@himurogentoku7117 Yeah, appreciate the correction.

[@current9300]

My favorite is their new Twilight 2000. Amazing and easily adaptable to other military settings.

[@paladinpariah325]

@@current9300 I like it too, but the change in dice mechanics makes it a real pain to use with games like Alien.

[@Stephen-Fox]

This looks like it would work really well for soloing, particularly for folk with a more tactical leaning default style to myself - There are options, but everything's clean and there isn't much in the way of hp bloat going on. On cards - I haven't played RPGs that use cards, myself (outside of a couple of journalling games that use tarot), but I'm not opposed to them. In most cases I'd prefer standard playing cards (including tarot) to a specialized deck (although the improvised weapons is definitely something that works better in a specialized deck), and from my board gaming I know I actively dislike stuff that requires reshuffling after every draw (such as Arkham Horror in boardgaming and how initiative deck works in this)

[@symatt]

can we have more Dragonbane please

[@Mankcam]

BTW I think that was RQ2 you had in your hands. Pretty much the same cover, but RQ1 looks alot more amateur inside, especially it's tables and dodgy paragraph spacing at times. But whatevs, it was good you referenced it, RQ2 is really the classic edition that many love. Dragonbane runs much quicker than RuneQuest or Mythras (the later is really the successor of RQ, and Mythras remains my favourite 'crunchy' game for gritty combat and whatnot) Dragonbane looks pretty cool, things happen quickly and it seems to hum smoothly. I like the way you presented it 👍

[@AlternityGM]

I played the Dragonbane RPG QuickStart. Overall I liked it maybe better than D&D 5e in some aspects. I’m not yet sure about the rule that monsters always hit unless you use your action to evade/parry if available. That rule seems to favor monsters. Perhaps if the PC has 2 actions per round they could choose to use one action to evade/parry then it might even the odds.

[@mavfan21]

Are you certain Black Jay's real name isn't Simon? Those initiative draws were just horrendous.

[@Stephen-Fox]

I suspect Simon would have a better bushcraft (also hunting and fishing skills), leading him to attempt the roll for the wasp hive... And then bodged it rather than not bothering.

[@Mind_of_MATT]

Bring on Symbaroum!

[@williamatkins3465]

I really like the featureless grey plains tutorials. Could you do Shadowdark next. Thanks.

[@ppppppqqqppp]

We could just not have every youtuber play shadowdark, it's already very popular, we need to see more *different* games.

[@williamatkins3465]

​@@ppppppqqqppp Can you link me to a solo gameplay of Shadowdark, because I haven't been able to find one, which is why I asked.

[@lucasterable]

One-page character sheet ❤

[@Rich_H_1972]

Free League ace it... AGAIN.

[@reluctantartsy]

Last Boomer/1st Gen X Canadian and understood immediately the meter and kilogram reference ... I still don't know what a mile is and wtf is a UK mile??? Great intro to the game.

[@Squirrel-Hermit]

Note: advantage/disadvantage is the child of The One Ring rpg...not 5e...

[@markbruno72]

It's even older than that. The advantage mechanic was first used in the 4e Avenger divine striker class, and disadvantage is just an extension of that. 5e definitely popularized it, as Trevor mentioned, but it's also strikingly similar to Gary Gygax's DM guidance in AD&D.

[@Kunstdesfechtens]

@@markbruno72 A friend of mine used it as a house rule decades ago in the 2e era.

[@luyandolove]

XD is this Orc a cousin of Mord (Don’t think we forgot about Mord Trevor!)

[@wilywonky]

I do like this Featureless Gray Plane series. Do you have a plan for when season 4 is gonna start, Trevor?

[@keldin9303]

So I listen to a lot of ttrpg shows. There's always 1 player that I don't care for. I always think "I wish Trevor was playing that character."

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

🤪

[@UmouMais]

The game seems really fun

[@CavernadoLekkis]

Dragonbane is awesome! I just don't like to play as a duck. 😅

[@NefariousKoel]

Regarding a counterattack after rolling a crit parry, I've always seen it listed as requiring an attack roll in most, if not all, of the other games with this rule. I don't have Dragonbane so it may be different. That was generally the norm that I've seen, though.

[@veggo74]

I do think you need too roll for The free attack. We do it do anyway

[@tobarstep]

I'd houserule that rolling a demon on a parry attempt results in a damaged weapon/shield. And I think the riposte still requires an attack roll. Improvised weapons would be cool for a more skill-oriented/rogue type character. edit: on further examination, the rulebook does say that a riposte (counterattack) is an automatic *hit,* so I guess you don't have to roll. I think I'd houserule that as well to require a roll, but maybe with a boon.

[@f.a.santiago1053]

I think the rule says that you automatically hit with the Counterattack.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

It implies that, but it’s not absolutely clear.

[@f.a.santiago1053]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG Yeah, there's a few times in the book that I was left confused. I think the character creation process could also have been a bit clearer. I'm really digging it, though... But the writing could use a bit of help.

[@Apache_Cox]

This would be great for the next season of the show, by the way when is that ?

[@swordsnstones]

kinda crunchy

[@johnfrancis3203]

So this is like golf? Small number good, big number bad? Durability... Botw style

[@omegaomtv]

You think Monsters auto hitting is too much? Would be hard to get an attack in if you have to parry all the time.

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

I haven't had a chance to test it yet.

[@sithianempire7445]

One thing that made my blood boil, was the by now "classic" FreeLeague move of having a 'This rule MIGHT be explained in a later expansion...' That is IF fans sponsor the expansions KickStarter. They pulled this shiz a lot in Symbaroum :( Still a lot of promises they never delivered on.

I don't think I could ever use this, a d20 under system makes is like playing an FPS game with inverted controls, some would say... unnatural.

[@luizricon]

I got my eyes on this box set, although I don't like roll under systems that much. BTW, Dragonbane also borrows some mechanics from the "Year Zero System" also used in Forbidden Lands, and other Free League products.

[@xavierdoesntmatter]

I saw another video and had to agree with her on one of the biggest issues with Dragonbane. The fact that if you have an opposed role then who ever rolls lowest wins which creates a situation where player A has really low skill and player B has really high skill but player A wins simply because they rolled lower. Example: A: succeeds on anything less than an 8 B: succeeds on anything less than a 15 (because they are more skilled so have more leeway Well if A rolls a 3 but B rolls a 12 then A wins? Seems like it should be "who rolled higher but still within their success range" which would make B the winner instead.

[@Ryuuuuuk]

Yeah, I was thinking the same while reading the quickstart. Cthulhu has for this the success ratings: rolled below 1/2 of abilities score and 1/5 of abilities score. The more skilled Player will have a higher Chance for a higher success rating.

[@Squirrel-Hermit]

fun stuff...

[@jacobc8019]

So I guess we’re never getting season three?

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

Me, Myself and Die! Season Three kzbin.info/aero/PLDvunq75UfH_-YonccIeAiTNv108vRVgi

[@jacobc8019]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG fuck I meant Season 4 my bad 😔

[@MeMyselfandDieRPG]

@@jacobc8019

[@jacobc8019]

@@MeMyselfandDieRPG is that an angry emoji lol

[@ArtsAndTactics]

So what you're saying is you're the absolute biggest fan of D&D ever?

[@DaveThaumavore]

You’re making me lazy by putting out videos like this.

[@Putsili]

The only bad thing about Dragonbane is the lame name... Drakar och Demoner is so much cooler. Even Dragons and Demons would be better than Dragonbane.

[@afBeaver]

Dragonbane actually has roots from Runequest. It started as something of a reskin of Runequest back in the 80s (that’s why there are ducks in the game). Later editions moved over to a d20 rather than a d100.