r/DragonbaneRPG

So first of all, this text will sound kind of like a rant, but I hope that someone from FL will see that, take to heart what I say, and fix some issues in the upcoming "expert book".

So I very much like Dragonbane. I actually found it to be one of the best fantasy game systems I have played, if not the best.
I run two campaigns, and have for some time now (both of them, I think, have around 20 sessions already).

BUT I spotted some major problems in the system that, in the long run, are so annoying.
Mainly, the biggest problem is that the equipment list in the main book is so small and inconsistent.
Let's say you bought a sledgehammer, and you want to use it in battle, then what should it be counted as? "Blunt Object, Heavy"? It is not blunt for sure? So then as a warhammer? That doesn't make sense either.
Or let's say you want to repair a broken bow (Because of a critical fail) and you cannot do it by yourself? or you want to do it by an expert for roleplay reasons? Then what price should you pay? The book doesn't say.
Or you got a bunch of swords from goblins? What price should you sell them for? The book doesn't say either. This was removed for some reason from the Swedish version, which is stupid btw. It should be 50%.
Or you killed a mob, for example a wolf, got fur from it, and you want to sell it? What price should you sell it for? Again, the book doesn't say. What about different animals? Let's say a rabbit? And again, how many portions can you get from a single wolf or rabbit? What skill should you use for it?
Book of Magic somewhat fixes it by adding a list and rules about it, but again, the list there is for alchemy use only, and it is also ridiculously small.
You want to get a diamond? Yeah sure, it costs 100 gold, but the information is given only on the cards, not in the book per se. You want to buy a beer? There is none, there is honey only (for some reason there is wine, so it is not that it is meant to be "family friendly").

Btw, and don't get me started on how the prices don't make sense.

This whole section is ridiculous and should be fixed asap. I like that every object has its use, but not all objects need to have that. And I think that is main issue, with game design of this list. There should be a more complex list for it, with a complex list of ingredients.
Maybe somebody made a proper equipment list. I know there are already ones for armor and weapons.

One of my players was no hesi murdering some folks, and I gave her the option to accept a ring. Given to her by the in universe god of Blood and Misfortune.
After 3 killing blows it changes from a ring into a glove and allows her to cast Boiling Blood (an Unaqi attack) as a free action. It’s def strong, I’m trying to think of some downsides.

At first I thought a good option would be a mental corruption, as she doesn’t activate boiling blood she gets more and more unstable and volatile until she unleashes it. Thus far she’s fired it pretty much as it’s ready. Wondering if there are other mechanics or ideas people have that would be a little more consistent or common.

TY!

I'm not sure if the new schools of magic are balanced out against older content. What is your opinion on this?

If the weapon is aimed at the same target, does the target need to Evade each arrow (assuming they have Fast Footwork)?

Fast Footwork has a caveat that: "You may only try to dodge the same attack once." Does this apply in this case?

Also, since you only roll once to hit with Twin Shot, what happens if you roll a Critical Hit (double damage option)? Does each arrow (damage rolled separately) gain the double damage?

I saw it name-dropped more than a few times here and saw Dragonbane mentioned once or twice when I searched in the Dark Sun subreddit. I didn't find anything really substantive mechanically.

I have a deep and abiding nostalgia for my memories from getting to play the boxes with my friends years ago. I do not have a deep and abiding nostalgia for the granularity of 2e, or relearning 2e to play again. Dragonbane feels like the right kind of low-mid magic that's perfect for a conversion.

Can you help me brainstorm some patches and homebrews (maybe not even fully "brew" as much as "add a proper chaser") to put into place to make Dragonbane feel like Athas?

My goal would be to pull the fewest levers and tweak the fewest dials, and get something just good enough to go, "Here's Dragonbane and one A4 page of tweaks," and start throwing down with as much of the core game as possible, since I think DB can really capture the vibe.

Off the top of my head (using only the core, which is all I have)...

• Cold rules can apply for Heat, too, since desert cold is also a survival problem
• Bushcraft rules seem fine and can be reskinned for hot weather
• Thirst rules on top of p54's hunger rules? Including the water madness stuff
• Tweaking durability rules beyond just the parry notes on p46 to reflect fragile materials
• guidelines for replacing the kin is mostly a question of "what's a good level of power or ability for 3 WP without going gonzo or punishing casters/psions?"
• I don't think the classes need changing beyond a naming reskin? Even mariners are just silt skimmers.

That should cover most of the environmental rules and character creation stuff?

Addressing magic...

• either "animism is preserver, general and elemental is not" or "all magic can be preserver, but +1 action to preserve, using a grimoire still adds +1 additional action beyond that"
• Mentalism is Psionics: learn 1 trick from Mentalism or General (to be kind), and it casts based off INT as standard; Mentalism is walled off and is not a school of magic, can't be learned or grimoire'd like normal and Mentalists, dedicated ones, cannot dip magic "because lore."

This one's got me scratching my head. It's a way to keep true to the flavor, but I don't know how that'd feel in a long-term Dark Sun game.

But that could mess with certain things that make DB work in ways that I don't see, and I'd need you to set me straight on it.

...I don't know. I've got the itch again to go back, but I really don't want to Go Back, you know? I hope the idea isn't too at-odds with DB as a system, and these are only my first thoughts off the hip, which feels very much in a "toolbox" spirit, but I I feel like I need someone to stop me if I'm about to do something dangerous or inappropriate with the belt sander.

Hi all, I’ve been finding the default wilderness camping rules unappealing and want to get your thoughts on my issues and the solution I came up with.
My understanding is that every character rolls bushcrafting and a failure means they get no rest or healing for that shift. Even with pushing rolls or other characters helping (and delaying their rest to the next shift) characters that don’t specialize in bushcrafting tend to fail often. It leads either to journeys that can boil down to a series of camping failures before reaching an adventure site or it leads to every character specializing in bushcrafting and the party becoming a bit more homogeneous.

My solution has been to have everyone but the pathfinder roll some ability to help the pathfinder set up camp - like watching for signs of monster activity, serving as a look out, searching for traps or hidden environmental dangers. Each success gives the pathfinder a boon on the bushcrafting roll to actually set up the camp, and each failure or inactive party member adds a bane to the pathfinder’s roll. The idea is that the pathfinder is taking extra effort to find and set up a camping spot for every other companion, and their help or lack of support changes the challenge of the task. If the pathfinder’s bushcrafting roll ultimately fails, a random event or mishap occurs related to the failing rolls of the party. So long as they survive that event, they can then gain the benefits of camping. 

What do you all think? I’m also toying with applying roughly the same approach to wilderness journeys.

I'm looking at the tiny map preview in the Ereb Altor Kickstarter but can't make out any details. Arkand is supposed to be the easternmost city of it's continent but I can't find anywhere that looks like a likely location.

Does anyone know if they share a setting cannocially?

Hello everyone,

there are HAs for scouting, setting up camp and cooking.

But no HAs that support the 3 methods for acquiring food in wilderness.

Has anyone come up with homebrew HAs for these actions?

Basically what the title says. I’m running The Sinking Tower tomorrow for 2 players and it’s our first time playing Dragonbane (but not our first time playing rpgs, it’s a regular activity for the group)! I’ve got my map and minis and I’m rereading the adventure but I also wanted to see if Dragonbane reddit had any advice on how to run this adventure. I’ve run a lot of D&D but dungeon crawls have always been tough for me to run compared to social/exploration-based games. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Edit: Game went great! We are planning to turn this into a homebrew campaign so while I don’t need any more advice on Sinking Tower I would love to hear some tips on GMing Dragonbane as an ongoing thing.

I understand that this game is not class-based (unlike D&D) but just curious how would you go about building a cleric or paladin type using the Book of Magic?

What would be the best School of Magic and choice of weapons to represent a Holy Warrior type character?

Hi all, we are searching people that likes to interview writers, artists and creators of content for dragonbane.

We are italian and know no One that does It in english but we would love to do interviews to explain and talk about our next project to people.

Are you a podcaster, a youtuber or a content creator that likes to interview people? Write us :)

I've been GMing Dragonbane for about a half year now, starting with the Croaking Tower homebrew module and then the DE adventure. While it's gone fairly well, players are starting to chafe at certain elements of the system.

The primary issue is the randomness of advancement. We had five players, two that rolled really good, one that rolled so and so, and two that rolled very poorly. I was given the impression that, while poor starting stats aren't great, they're not as much of a killer as in DnD and the like since advancing skills you're bad at is easier than those you're good at. Unfortunately, those unlucky players have continued to be unlucky. The blacksmith has only advanced their weapon skill once over the course of months, with similar poor luck being a running theme for all but two players, one of whom is close to getting his second HA as he got wrestling to 17 and hammers to 18.

The party fought the boss of the Village from the Day Before, and two of the players couldn't do much direct damage to the monster, since they lacked the stats for it, with one being locked in a fear status loop. Since a player is leaving and being replaced by a new player who rolled downright ludicrous stats, I'm thinking the stat roll system was a bit of a mistake for a long campaign. Does anyone have any advice for effectively rerolling statlines mid campaign, or adjusting stats to a certain baseline (16, 14, 14, 12, 10, 8) for example?

Secondly, we find most of the talents kinda lacking, either due to being extremely niche or ineffective (catfall, master chef), or so extremely good you're practically obliged to pick it (fast footwork). Does anyone know of good homebrew or 3pp stuff that feature interesting or well designed talents (like, for example, does Amaranth have those? I haven't read it!). Thank you for any advice you may have.

Ok, feel free to correct my perception on this.. but isn't necromancy pretty dang weak? Of the 20 spells presented, 10 9 of them do not effect monsters, and 10 do not effect undead.. that is half of all available spells. Corrosive darkness is the only offensive spell that does effect monsters and undead.. but it's damage output is pitiful due to it's lack of scaling. Injure will effect monsters but not undead.. though is a fairly solid spell. None of it's debuffing effects monsters and undead and it can't even create an undead minion to do damage until you get to rank 2 spells. Once you DO get to higher rank spells the undead you can create are pretty strong... but the bodies are ingredients and not focuses.. so they are consumed when you cast meaning you don't get them back when the spell ends. The requirement of it needing to be a ruler or mighty warrior means you'll need to somehow divide downtime between hunting down bodies to be able to later animate.. or learning new spells since Necromancers need to spend their downtime in service for lunar cycles.

This feels really bad.

Edit: Thank you to u/cairnwill for pointing out Rank 2 Injure will effect monsters. That is a silver lining at least.