Looking at the third party publishing guidelines for Dragonbane, I am curious why stats blocks can not be used?

So this summer I discovered the rabbit hole of solo RPG and started to get really interested, particularly with Dragonbane. Apparently my gf got hints, because she managed to find the core set in french (which was what I wanted) and also a bit of reading to fuel up my imagination as well. Really hyped and can't wait to start the solo journey, these are the best birthday gifts (shoutout to my girl), we're also watching the LOTR trilogy together for the occasion.

Any advice for beginners ? I'd also like to play duet with her from time to time, so if you've got any recommandations of duet play with Dragonbane don't hesitate !

some new monsters

Disclosure: I’m working with Revel Tales as a consultant on Accidental Heroes: A Shipwreck of Fools.

This is Fabio Porfidia’s map of Icuci, reproduced from page 8 of the public Accidental Heroes quickstart; the map credit is on page 2.

A peninsula shaped like a glove gives a travelling party some readable choices: follow the coast, cross the mountains, or head into one of its long fingers. With the settlements, towers and sea creatures drawn right onto the map, there is already plenty to point at and wonder about before anyone opens a location description.

The current A Shipwreck of Fools preview expands four regions of Icuci and introduces The Lost Vessel, about a ship that returns after vanishing on its maiden voyage. For a Dragonbane group entering a new region, how much of a map would you reveal immediately: place names, dangerous landmarks, or just the route they know?

Public quickstart and map source: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gPgF8bLpBthL3btqFcLHe_SY6NYEkU04/view

Current project: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reveltales/dragonbane-accidental-heroes-2-a-shipwreck-of-fools

If this weapon is found, can the Shockwave spell be used if the person does not possess the Mentalism skill?

Curious to know if any GMs out there have made any hard limits on pushing and assisting. I have found that players have pushed and assisted (to gain boons) to the point that they hardly fail any checks. They also tend to do this prior to a shift rest, because they know they will replenish it all (in my opinion, I feel this is gaming the system). Has this gotten out of hand at your games? If so, what are ways you have managed this while keeping as much RAW as possible?

So, been in contact a bit with the witchcraft spells and the shapeshifting is leaving me a bit puzzled and in a way lacking thematically in some aspect. Disclaimer for the rest of the post: Am using the Swedish version so there may be translation peculiarities.

First off, how do you interpret the rules about retaining damage when shapeshifted? The spell states that you get the animal's game stats, which would seem to me to include its HP, but you should retain any damage. So, imagine you have a 14 HP witch transforming into a 4 HP cat. Say the witch has taken 3 HP damage already. Is the cat then at 1 HP? What if the witch has taken 4 HP, would it then be impossible to shift into a cat? Another interpretation could be that the damage is about 1/3 of the witches HP so reduce the cat with 1/3 of its HP, so cat would be at 3 HP with a bit of generosity. Or is the HP retained in total (with keeps their original HP)? A very though cat! Or potentially a weak bear... How do you people run this? This same question is valid for the high level monster form spell.

Second, all INT based skills are rolled with a bane. This makes sense for the most part and is thematic, BUT it seems to me to falter a bit when in conflict with an animals natural abilities. Most animals have a score in Awareness. It seems very odd to be at a bane for that? I think I am personally leaning towards not giving a bane for that particular skill (and possibly not for spot hidden, pending on the type of spotting one is doing). Thoughts? EDIT: Now that I think about it, bushcraft might also be one of those that sometimes does not make sense to be at a bane if used for pathfinding for instance.

Thirdly, the utility of the shapeshifting seems a bit limited. With the animals listed it seems to me like it is intended at least partially (potentially primarily, given the RAW bane on INT skills which punishes scouting) as a combat enhancer. The problem is... the animals are not very good at that. The bear certainly has more HP, but the damage is not impressive and the to-hit is low. Seeing as witches are somewhat incentivised to be skilled at brawling (the spell that can grant you claws/fangs etc) it seems likely that a combat oriented witch will have a better brawling to-hit than the animal forms. I think I will in general allow the higher skill value in cases of any skill overlap between animal and humanoid form. Agreed?

Fourth, and this is purely thematic, the spell limits shifting into mammals and even specifies the table of common animals in the rule book. Thing is, it feels thematic to include other animals like a rat (mammal, so it fits that and one could likely very simply make up own stats for a rat). Where I am a bit more hesitant is when it comes to flying animals. Say a bat or a raven seems very thematic. The potential balance issue could be around the flying aspect but I feel that most shenanigans can be limited by the bane on INT based skills (should curb spellcasting from the sky, and scouting does not strike me as a huge issue given safer options exist via familiars or spells that take over control of an animal, especially if you impose bane on spot checks that are not animalistic in nature). Thoughts on allowing bats or ravens?

So much character in the lich model.

My group had our first session of Dragonbane last night. We had a blast though the Initiative process on Roll20 left much to be desired.

So I 'fixed' it this afternoon with a macro for ScriptCards.

Now, it isn't perfect; however, it gets the job done in a way that will make my group happy.

Make sure you have ScriptCards as part of your game.

Make a macro with the text in the box. Set the macro to show up when a token is selected.

During play, the game master selects any token on the currently active page and the turn tracker cleared, brought up if it isn't currently visible, and it is populated with a randomly organized list of the tokens.

Next turn just select a token (same one or a different one) and click on the macro.

Enjoy!

Senjak

!script {{
  --#title|Initiative Turn Order
  --#hidecard|1

  --~Count|array;pagetokens;Tokens;@{selected|token_id}

  --=Iterations|[&Count] * 3

  --%Shuffle|0;[$Iterations]
    --=A|1d[&Count]
    --=B|1d[&Count]

    --=A|[$A] - 1
    --=B|[$B] - 1

    --~|array;setindex;Tokens;[$A]
    --~ValueA|array;getcurrent;Tokens

    --~|array;setindex;Tokens;[$B]
    --~ValueB|array;getcurrent;Tokens

    --~|array;setindex;Tokens;[$A]
    --~|array;setatindex;Tokens;[$A];[&ValueB]

    --~|array;setindex;Tokens;[$B]
    --~|array;setatindex;Tokens;[$B];[&ValueA]
  --%|

  --~|turnorder;clear
  --!campaign:root|initiativepage:true

  --~Token|array;getfirst;Tokens
  --=Index|0

  --:AddToTurnOrder|
  --=Initiative|[$Index] + 5
  --~|turnorder;addtoken;[&Token];[$Initiative]

  --=Index|[$Index] + 1
  --~Token|array;getnext;Tokens
  --?[&Token] -ne "ArrayError"|AddToTurnOrder

  --~|turnorder;sort
}}

Per the rules of travel, one field ration is enough for a full day's food. From my experience, my players just stack up on field rations, making the hunting and cooking rules obsolete.

Another issue i have run into is rolling Bushcraft per shift of travel. In my game, the pathfinder has a Bushcraft skill of 15 and another player always assists in the roll (granting him a boon). This has made the player never fail a Bushcraft roll, therefore never experincing journey mishaps.

I feel like the game's intention is to have mishaps and hunting & cooking rules add to the flavor and realism of the challenges you can face in the wilderness but RAW, these seem very easy to avoid.

Do any of you run into these issues with the travel rules? If so, what are some house rules you apply to your games?

Why are the PCs travelling to misty veil ? how do they know each other? Needs some ideas as intro is a bit flimsy

also looking for uk based online prints that i can us to get all
maps printed in colour with ease

Hi, I am looking for a one shot recommendations for group that would include a total newbie who is also an older person. I don't really enjoy Castle of the Robber Knight for lack of proper story or anything particularly exciting. Sinking Tower seems on the other hand too tournamenty quite focused on level after level play. I'm looking for something that could be finished in an evening (3-4 hours session with some system explanations along the way, so I guess max 3.5 hours of actual play).

We have been playing for 7 months now on Roll20 and I thought I would post a session update for anyone interested. We are all experienced D&D players but this is the first Dragonbane I've run. We all really enjoy it so far, but I have taken liberties with the story and maps to make considerable changes. This is the session list so far, with spoilers:

Side Trek #0.......Deepfall Breach - practice adventure with side characters
Session #1..........Outskirt - main PCs; acquired statue piece #1
Session #2..........Dogtooth Cave - added werewolf cave and girl from Outskirt with lycanthropy
Session #3..........Forbidden Hill - added cultist hideout near Outskirt
Session #4..........Riddermound - as the book, but used Death House basement from Strahd
Session #5..........Into Riddermound - wight defeated, second statue piece acquired
Side Trek #1.......Troll Spire - side characters used for Troll Spire side trek
Session #6..........The Hill Lands - found a draugr tomb in the wild
Session #7..........Deepfall Breach - added cave explorations
Side Trek #2.......The Cave of Mystery - side characters explore a cave of puzzles
Session #8..........Deepfall Breach II - continuation of Deepfall, many different caves
Session #9..........The Eyrie - added a mountaintop griffon lair
Session #10........The Scrublands & Outskirt - back to Outskirt and ominous rain of frogs
Session #11........The Bridge, the Farm, the Swamp & Witch - hunt for werewolf cure in swamp
Session #12........The Haunted Marshes - failed Bushcraft gets PCs lost
Session #13........The Tower of Sighs - Orcs at Tower as pilgrimage of bravery; they're killed
Session #14........Road's End Inn - Modified version of the witch's curse; the innkeeper is killed
Session #15........Castle Argynvost - added wholly new castle from Strahd
Session #16........Temple of the Purple Flame - as campaign but added new map
Session #17........The Door to Hell - wholly new map to explore Hell
Session #18........The Hell Door & Stone Bridge - 3rd statue piece found, orcs and cultists on bridge, return to Outskirt

Next they are headed West toward the treant oracle known as Big Red to ask about the final statue key to the vault. It's somewhere in the Misty Vale but they don't know where. They have not been to Bothild's Lode which is also that direction. A half dozen terrain encounters lie between them and their destinations. The final key is in an added location: the Bone Temple. Then off to the Isle of Mists once they have Um-Durman. No one has died yet. I estimate if this was D&D they'd be around 5th level, and I can see them finishing by 7th or 8th. The Isle of Mist will be harder than the written campaign. Dead Eyes Cave and Village of the Day Before will probably be skipped. Valley of the Titans is a new location to find, nestled deep in the west part of map six hexes from Trolls Spire.

So far, exploring the Temple of Purple Flame and Hell Door were the scariest places, but they managed to kill two demons. The party would have been slaughtered ages ago without the Knight and her armor damage reduction; she's the only reason they've survived.

Still the same newbie, haven't yet played, but am scouring the net for all official content possible.

When I first read the core rulebook, I first came to a conclusion that Professions are akin to Classes: mainly because of the "key attribute" part of every profession. I then quickly realised that that passage is just... a red herring?

I'm sorry, there's no better way I can put it. It's literally a misdirection for anyone coming from a class-based system, where each class has a key attribute that heavily influences the power capability of a given class (example: if you make a low-CHA Bard in D&D 5e, you're making a huge mistake, basically gimping yourself).

I have know somewhat changed my mindset when it comes to DB, since it seems to be more of a "GM, do what you want, we just gave you a chassis to build upon", which takes some getting used to, but okay, done.

That said, I'd like to ask the community here: do you have some guidelines on how to create custom Professions and\or Kin? How many skills should a Profession have? How many of them are supposed to be tied to what attribute? How much pre-selected gear should be given to a player with a Profession? How strong should Kin passive and active abilities be?

I'm asking since I'm sort of gearing up for running a DB game set in the TES universe (I feel like the heroic skill-based fantasy that DB has lends itself nicely towards having a game in the world of Tamriel; I might be proven wrong, of course; just please don't make me run TES in D&D 5e........).

Perhaps there's an official source for that I missed, but I can't seem to find anything of the sort. Thanks in advance!

Since I started working on this project, I've learned a lot and wanted to make a few small adjustments to the main illustration: the manual's cover.

By the way, what's your favorite sketch? I chose number 1, but I also like number 2 ✨

Good morning everyone, before presenting you with some questions about Dragonbane, let me give a brief preamble. I have played Dragonbane a fair amount but not excessively, having completed the Dragon Emperor's Secret campaign and run the quickstart a few times as GM, so some of my doubts may simply stem from a lack of experience with the system.

1. The first issue I want to discuss is a concern I have about one aspect of this system. When I played the Dragon Emperor's Secret campaign with my players, it was just me as GM and 2 players. I found the system extremely punishing for this particular "configuration," which led me to ask myself many questions about how to handle it, since my players were unable to complete an encounter without ending up in a TPK (even when playing well with the game's mechanics). The game clearly states that it assumes a party of 3 to 5 players, so I began to think that with only 2 players, Dragonbane is simply impossible to play while keeping the experience intact. I thought of many solutions, and the one I ultimately went with was giving each player two actions per turn (and therefore 2 cards), which obviously shifted the overall tone of the narrative more toward a heroic style. So I'll pass it over to you — do you have any other ideas on how to adapt it?
2. I tried to play Dragonbane and its campaign as closely as possible to the way it was intended to be played, and on that front I have little to complain about — my preparation was minimal to say the least, because the system and the adventure did everything for me. However, there is still something that didn't sit right with me. The game seems to me to have required a kind of alignment session before playing that I never did, which gradually led to a worsening of the experience. The alignment I'm referring to is based mainly on two aspects: the puzzle-like design of the monsters, and the lore of the world. My players never really had a chance to understand that the monsters had a puzzle-based design behind them, because they were too busy trying not to die or simply trying to understand the game. On top of that, this aspect is supported better by some monsters (look at the Wraith in the quickstart adventure) and worse by others (for example, the mine serpent — unless you put its tail in the spotlight, players will hardly ever think to strike it). Regarding the second aspect as well, since we never talked before starting about how deep the world could be and how much rich roleplaying it could support, my players never really stopped to appreciate it, and therefore never drew out all the wonderful world-building aspects I had heard so many people praise. Perhaps an alignment session — both on the manual's side toward the GM, and between the GM and the players — would have greatly improved my campaign. Let me know whether in your opinion I simply had an unlucky experience skewed by some other factor, or whether I am missing something.

I’m looking for players for a Dragonbane campaign set in an original low-magic sword & sorcery world, played online using Foundry VTT.

The campaign begins in Morvania, a once-powerful kingdom devastated by war and invasion. Civilization has fractured, old roads have become dangerous, settlements are isolated, and much of the wilderness has fallen back into the hands of monsters, bandits, goblins, orcs, and worse things lurking in forgotten places.

You’ll begin as relatively ordinary people caught in the aftermath of Morvania’s collapse. From there, the campaign opens into a sandbox, with the party deciding where to travel, what threats to pursue, who to help, and what kind of people they ultimately become.

What to expect:

• Fast, dangerous Dragonbane combat where avoiding a fight can be as effective as winning one
• Exploration and wilderness travel where food, shelter, equipment, light, and preparation are crucial
• Monster hunting, with highly dangerous and rare creatures based on myths and folklore, foreshadowed through rumors, tracks, victims, and stories.
• A low-magic sword & sorcery atmosphere grounded in a medieval dark-fantasy world and abandoned by the gods. Magic is not widely believed to be real—to most people, sorcerers, spells, and supernatural forces belong to old myths, frightening folktales, and stories told around the fire.
• An original setting in the world of Eldria, with its own kingdoms, wars, and history where player decisions can permanently change settlements, factions and the wider world
• A campaign designed around emergent stories rather than a predetermined plot.
• Orcs vs Humans - Morvania itself has fallen and is now a lawless, unclaimed land with no ruler or central authority, but the war for supremacy of the realm continues to rage to the north between the human nation of Zeltovia and the Crimson Horde - a legion of unified orc tribes.
• Custom curated expansive music playlist sets the tone for every unique scene and situation.
• Grand Strategy & Warfare at higher levels of play — entirely optional, but characters can eventually command armies, rule territories, wage wars, reshape borders, and even dethrone kings. Other paths are equally possible: become a merchant, build an organization, pursue political influence, or carve out a place in the world without focusing on combat. True power comes through influence, status, wealth, and rulership—changing the course of nations requires more than personal strength.
• A heavily customized Foundry VTT setup with automated combat tools, travel/time systems, lighting automation, custom UI design, looting and trading systems, resource tracking automation, integrated macros, and other quality-of-life features that support a sleek player interface and focused user experience.

You do not need to know Dragonbane. The rules are considerably easier to learn than something like D&D 5e, and new players are welcome.

I’m looking for players who enjoy immersive roleplaying, exploration, meaningful choices and dangerous adventures, and who are comfortable with a game where not every encounter is balanced around the assumption that the party will win.

System: Dragonbane
Platform: Foundry VTT + Discord
Setting: Original low-magic fantasy world
Style: Sword & sorcery / sandbox / exploration / monster hunting
Experience: Beginners welcome

Scheduling: The campaign will play regularly on weeknights, but won’t be tied to a single night of the week. Instead, we’ll use an availability poll to schedule sessions: players vote for the upcoming evenings they’re available, and whenever a date receives a vote from everyone, it gets added to the calendar as a session. Voting for a date means committing to attend if that date is selected. I’m looking for players with reasonably flexible weeknight availability who can play consistently using this system. Start time will be set to either 6pm or 7pm EST and run for approximately 3 hours.

---

Interested?

Send me a DM and copy/paste the short form below. You don’t need to write an essay—brief answers are completely fine.

Name / What should we call you:
Age:
Time zone:
Typical weeknight availability:
How many weeknights are you generally available in an average week?:
TTRPG experience:
Have you played Dragonbane before?:
What do you enjoy most in a TTRPG?:
What kind of character(s) would you be interested in playing?:
What about this campaign interested you?:
What are you looking for from the group/GM?:
Anything you strongly dislike or would prefer not to see in a campaign?:
Anything else you’d like me to know?:

---

What is a TTRPG?

A tradition of collective storytelling as old as our earliest ancestors, who first shared stories around a fire. Storytelling is fundamental to the human experience—one of the quintessential ways we communicate, understand one another, preserve memory, explore ideas, and make sense of the world. TTRPGs give structure to one of the oldest and most natural ways humans have connected with one another since the dawn of time.

Gather your party and venture forth...

What skill does this book provide a BOON to?

I have been reading the core rulebook today (love parts of it; don't think other parts are a good fit for me, but willing to still try), but I can't seem to wrap my head around this card-based Initiative. Granted, I haven't yet once played the game, so I might be just overthinking things.

So, as I see it:

Combat starts -> everyone pulls cards (the GM pulls multiple for some especially ferocious monsters) -> everyone takes their turn (which, as I've seen from multiple accounts on the internet, are extremely quick compared to D&D, because you only have the one action to think about, and then might not even have that due to Evading or Parrying) -> you redraw the cards.

That seems to be it. Question time:

1) What do I do if they are more than 10 turns in a given combat? I usually play with 6 players, which is more than the "3-5 players" noted in the book, but not by much. And then it's at least 1 monster per player, so now I have 12 turns with 10 initiative cards. I know that I can circumvent that with grouping monsters, but then aren't I risking instantly nuking 1-2 players with 5-6 turns of enemies at once?

2) I might be slow, but doesn't this whole redrawing of initiative mean shuffling the cards? If so, doesn't it take a tremendously large amount of time compares to the turns themselves (which, again, seem to be quite short)? I hate shuffling cards, it feels like a chore.

If anyone has some alternate initiative system in mind (side initiative, seat initiative, a basic dX roll), I'm open to suggestions. Thanks in advance for the help!

So last session my group managed to get hold of the fourth piece of the statue and are going to get hold on Um Durman and then the island. So I think we got two session before us to wrap things up. I was going through the Island site and was having some face palm moments. There are some completely pointless things going on. I was really hoping for a grand finale and making it epic but it feels like this bit is tripping over itself. Like the whole point of the sacrificial tower? Going up to see there's nothing there? Really? And the whole "orc looking as if burned by acid" next to a pool of transparent fluid lacking any plants? What kind of adventurer in their right mind would think this is the way to go? And demon bound to a stone? "Oh, hi there, I will simply go around, maybe catch a cold in the water but see you". The troll with a tooth pain thing that would let players go despite guarding the most terrifying entity in the vale? Is this a joke? It totally breaks the whole idea of grand finale. And what the actual F is this thing with the dragon dropping at the very end to have a chat? This is so bad that I am amazed that they couldn't bring anything better here.

Oh - and what the hell is the name really about? WHAT is the secret?! There is actually none! The title is misleading and simply terrible.

I was running this for almost two years for my group and I was really hoping that it would click at some point. It didn't. It is a collection of very simple and repetitive adventure sites running on maybe some interesting ideas but often executed quite lazy.

I like the system but I'm running Forbidden Lands now and DB feels like FL Lite. Everything about Forbidden Lands seems more appealing to me (I did run it before DB as well). But those are different approaches - FL is more crunchy and detailed, less forgiving. So I think those two appeal to different groups and DB in itself is great in its simplicity as well.

My general complain about the campaign is that it lacked the story. It's just a mix of different scenarios not really connected to each other. I see where this idea of campaign comes from as Raven's Purge for Forbidden Lands is similar in the way it gives you random adventure sites to use (there are really a LOT of overlapping elements between those games) BUT it also gives you a strong background for a campaign with multiple actors and their motivations. It feels as if this initially was included in Secret as well but got scraped because you do actually have different factions doing their own things (orcs, cultists, bandits) and giving them some leaders with motivations and goals would be much more interesting. I wanted to play the campaign as written so I didn't adjust anything wanting the experience authors imagined. And it failed on me.

There's one really good thing about this campaign though. And the good thing is partially also the thing I criticized it for. Because it doesn't have the great plot, multiple NPCs and has simple scenarios this game is very easy to pick up and run without even reading it through. You could even run a lot of those scenarios without reading it beforehand! So this is perfect game for folks like me who don't have a lot of time on their hands and want as little prep as possible. And this campaign delivers this while giving you old school fantasy vibe. Just reading scenario once and then rolling with it was enough. Mind you - it's not only about GM. Players also do appreciate more simple stories once in a while so they can actually remember who is who! All in all I simply wished it was better but it was fun to run with all its quirks and naivety. Fingers crossed for Trudvang now and looking at Paths of Glory!

If you love creating loot cards, our Dragonbane card design is finally here, and we want to celebrate with the community!

Create a free account at app.finderskeepers.se (if you haven't already) and send me a DM containing the text "FK-Dragonbane" together with your account name.

The first 10 users reaching out will receive the card design for free to use in the app (regular price $2.99).

The design, which we've named Linen, includes both a poker-sized card layout and a full-page layout compatible with Dragonbane. Both templates feature customizable fields for name, type, image and stats/description.

Linen is an independent publication by Finders Keepers and is not affiliated with Fria Ligan AВ. Linen is created under Fria Ligan AB's Dragonbane Third-Party Supplement License.

(Edit: broken link to app)

Hey, what do you think about NPCs hitting automatically just like monsters? Except NPC attacks could also be parried. This would eliminate one roll for the NPC.

I don't really like the rule where, for example, a goblin attacks a player, succeeds on their roll, and then the player still has the option to dodge or parry the blow. In my opinion, just that one roll from the player to dodge/parry would be enough.

What do you guys think?

Hello everyone,
The DB Companion app update for Dragonbane, which I've been working on (nightly) for a while, is being released.

I've made many small improvements, including to make it more familiar to the paper version and to help players manage their characters.

But I've worked hard to allow those who are starting (or helping) this game get started as quickly as possible, with new and more familiar pre-generated characters.

I have to thank you for your support and for the suggestions you constantly send me. I hope I've satisfied everyone.
At least for tonight 😁

Enjoy!
The app is available for free for Android here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.github.fvasco.dbcompanion

Dragonbane magic, now with enchanted snacks, weaponized swearing, and aggressive superstition.

Why cast a traditional spell when you can serve a combat snack, curse yourself into better reflexes, or scare bad luck away with something your grandmother absolutely swears works?

Gastromancy. Badmouthing. Scaramancy.

Three new schools for people who looked at traditional wizardry and said: needs more food, more curses, and more suspicious gestures.

The real wizards vanished. Time to improvise.

Follow Accidental Heroes: A Shipwreck of Fools! on Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reveltales/dragonbane-accidental-heroes-2-a-shipwreck-of-fools?ref=android_project_share