Dragonbane TTRPG Review – Core Set

When asked to review the Dragonbane TTRPG, I’m ashamed to admit I was a little disappointed. Another generic fantasy Dungeons and Dragons clone? Oh, the joy. All that anguish disappeared in a flash, once I began to browse the PDF. The image of a Darkwing Duck character leaping through the air, brandishing two mean-looking knives, was the first thing I saw. With that one image, Dragonbane had suckered me in. With my disappointment forgotten, I wasted no time in devouring the rule book. For this review, I only received the PDF version of the Core Set. So while I cannot review the physical version of the Dragonbane TTRPG, I can offer that this is a Free League Publishing product, and they are historically high quality in nature.

In 1982, Scandinavia saw the rise of its first-ever tabletop RPG; Drakar och Demoner which is Swedish for Dragons and Demons. Fast-forward to 2021, Free League Publishing bought the rights to Drakar och Demoner. During the game’s 40th anniversary in 2022, Free League successfully crowd-funded a new edition. Dragonbane became the English title for the game, for obvious reasons. The publishers call the Dragonbane TTRPG a “mirth and mayhem” system, perfect for campaign and one-shot adventures.

What Comes in the Core Set

The Core Set is full to the brim with content. The box includes:

• 112-page rule book
• 116-page adventures book
• A solo play booklet
• A map of the Misty Vale
• Illustrated playing cards for treasure, initiative, and adventures
• Five blank character sheets
• Five pre-made characters
• A battle mat
• Ten dice
• Cardboard standees for players and monsters

You can’t review the Dragonbane TTRPG, without mentioning the artwork. Lead illustrator, Johan Egerkrans and his team, have done a marvelous job of creating some beautiful illustrations. The muted palette and expressive characters; ooze personality and can’t help but draw you into this world. The art is without a doubt my favorite aspect of this product. Suffice it to say, Dragonbane hooked me in with its gorgeous drawings and I stayed for its amazing rules.

Rules Overview

The Dragonbane TTRPG Dragonbane uses a D20, roll-under system, so the lower you roll, the better in this game. Players will select a “race”, known as kin, and then select a profession. There are six kin to choose from; Human, Elf, Halfling, Dwarf, Mallard, and Wolfkin. The ten professions to choose from are; Artisan, Bard, Fighter, Hunter, Knight, Mage, Mariner, Merchant, Scholar, and Thief. Creating a character is quite easy for the most part. Where I and my friends struggled was figuring out how the base chance system worked when setting your skill level. It isn’t poorly worded, but we all had to re-read that section a few times before we realized how simple it was.

There are 30 skills in the game, and players will need to roll under their skill level to pass a check. No more arbitrary difficulty levels in this game, your players will tell you whether they pass or not. This includes combat too, there’s no armor class or saving throws, if you don’t roll under your skill level in the weapon you are using, you miss. This brings me to the fast and snappy nature of combat. Players will get one action and can move on their turn. You can use your action when it isn’t your turn to perform a reaction instead; leading to some tough tactical decisions.

There are no levels or experience points in the Dragonbane TTRPG. Players will instead advance their skill levels at the end of every game session. You advance skills by rolling Dragons (natural 1s) and Demons (natural 20s). Rolling a Demon is bad in this game, and bad things will happen to you. While playing Dragonbane for this review, my players loved that rolling a Demon lets their characters learn from their mistakes and fail forwards.

Final Review of the Dragonbane TTRPG Core Set

I don’t want to compare this game to DnD 5e because I want to judge it on its own merit. There are a few things I want to mention first, though. The phrase “This is better than DnD” was said multiple times during our games. One of my players has even decided to put the start of his DnD campaign on hold, so he can convert it to Dragaonbane. With that out of the way, I can get on with the Dragonbane TTRPG review.

The rules in this game are expertly crafted, and it is clear from the outset that a lot of love and attention has gone into them. If you haven’t guessed it already, I love this game. I don’t put numbers on my Reviews here at PopGeeks, but if you told me I had to score the Dragonbane TTRPG out of ten, it would be a ten. This is everything I want my fantasy RPG to be. An elegant ruleset that is easy to learn and teach. Beautiful artwork that bleeds personality onto the page and that you can’t help but admire as you browse. Concise and challenging combat, that has players on the edge of their seats. Every rule in the book makes sense and is easy to find, as well as interpret.

No game is perfect, of course, and Dragonbane is no different. While the difficult combat was great for me and the people I play-tested this with, it will not be for everyone. Monsters automatically hit, they hit like a freight train, and characters are squishy. The book also features a lot of optional rules, we played with some and ignored others. This made me worry whether we were playing the game as the designers intended.

Dragonbane is now my go-to fantasy TTRPG, and it gets a huge recommendation from me. An amazing first product for the Dragonbane IP. The Core Set will retail for around $45 and is worth every penny. Thank you for reading my review of the Dragonbane TTRPG. If you want a more in-depth analysis of the adventure book, be sure to check out my review here on the PopGeeks website.