The VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Say, did anybody else get turned onto Dragon Warriors (Mongoose/Flaming Cobra/Magnum-Opus-Press) off of the Free RPG Day booklet? Or were you playing it before? (Or heck, did you have the 6 novel-sized rule books from the 80s?)
I just ordered it from my Friendly Neighborhood Gaming Store, and am eagerly looking forward to it. Blogged a little about why at: Tyler is Gaming..., but the long and short is that I dig the European, feudal, dark fantasy approach, especially the massive flavor text on even monster descriptions.
I haven't played it since college (and I still have the little books) and I love the Book 6 campaign setting, best ever quasi-historical setting, in such a small form anyway. Just love it, very inspirational. I got the new books as well, just for nostalgia.
But I would def recommend giving it a go. I don't really like answering 'No I'm not' to threads asking about a specific game but it just such a fondly remembered game that I had to pipe up with encouragement. Heck just use the world with any old-school rule-set, no probs!
Yes, we are playing a game of Dragon Warriors a little. One of the players has started a campaign. We are playing ... Hmm, I don't remember the exact name. "Return of the Old Gods" or something like that?
We have only two players in that campaign at the moment - I am playing a Warlock with a Noble background and the other one plays a Mystic, and we kinda model the interaction after "Knight Arthur and Merlin" or a similar Noble Knight with Spellcasting friend - though of course I can cast spells, too, and the "Arthur" (Once and Future King... ) myth itself is replicated with certain historical figures.
In the running campaign, we have already visited the grave of the Dragon Warriors Arthur equivalent, fought the spirit of his usurper and acquired two of the 12 magical swords of his Knights of the dinner table. The promised treasures turned out to be not so impressive, but at least highly symbolically...
The system is simple. I don't know about balance or anything. I can already predict weaknesses along the ride, but I am not sure we will ever get that far. The DM unfortunately doesn't have the habit of running long campaigns, but whatever he runs, he usually does make a good job at it, and so he does in this case.
Overall, the game feels how I imagine "old school" games.
It lacks the mechanical complexity I enjoy in so many games like D&D 3E or 4E or Shadowrun, but it seems to avoid clunkyness that I would also associate with older games. So they did a good job in cleaning the game up, I think.
The magic systems are interesting, too. I know only the Warlocks and the Mystics ones, of course. Warlocks have magic points to cast a spell, and each spell costs his level in points. As a Warlock, you get two new magic points per level. Mystics don't have points - instead, after each casting, they roll a check (depending on their level and the spell rank). If it fails, the Mystic can no longer cast spells for that day.
The Mystic loves his healing spells.
Spell durations remind me a little of 4E concept of saving throws. A spell has a spell expiry roll you make each round. A Mystic rolls 2d6, a Warlock 1d20. If you roll the highest roll possible (12 for the Mystic, 20 for the Warlock), the spell ends.
There are a lot more spellcasting and non-spellcasting classes, but these are the only two I have seen in action.
I haven't been playing for some time, but I picked up the DW PDF for nostalgic reasons. I used to play it and once owned all of th eoriginal books, and it is a great read. Simple rules, great campaign setting.
Been using the original books on and off for the last 20 years, and picked up the updated book over Christmas. It does a good job of tying things together, but I'm still wary of warlocks and assassins being somewhat overpowered.
Anyway, at the moment using house-ruled DW (variable damage & extra elementalist spells) to run some one-page dungeons and 1E D&D stuff from Dragonfoot, and I'm finding the system works really really well, with 1st level characters tending to survive, but gaining levels leads to only a subtle increase in power. No that anyone's gained a level yet - we've only had two sessions...
Best description that I've ever heard of the system is that it's what D&D would have been like if Gary Gygax had been British.
Those are the books that got me into D&D!
I was getting heavy into fantasy books, so in the local library, I saw the gorgeous cover fore Dragon Warriors Lands of Legend, picked it up, got interested in RPGs, hunted and found out about AD&D...
rest is history,
23 years later...
If you or the people you'd be gaming with are sticklers for balance in game mechanics, look elsewhere, or be prepared to house rule your heart(s) out.
However, what it does have, in abundance, is *soul*. Again, if that either doesn't mean anything to you or yours, or if y'all might consider it a silly / hilarious idea, even, there are probably better games out there for your tastes. But from your OP, I figure that ain't the case. So. . .
The setting is great. Nice and evocative, detailed enough where it needs to be, but with plenty of room for creation and alteration at will. And the system, for all its little flaws, moves along *very* quickly (compared with, say, D&D) - and it's decidedly more deadly than any version of D&D out there, IME. And I've run and played quite a bit of it, back when. Plus, tried out the new hardcover releases recently (which was a blast, as DW has always been!) Things like Attack v. Defence, Magical Attack v. Magical Defence, Stealth v. Perception and Speed v. Evasion are simple and elegant, and well, they just work. Then you've got some great spells, with fantastic names, a wonderful bestiary. . .
However, another thing to be aware of is that the game won't appeal to those who prefer their characters to be notably differentiated in terms of mechanics. For the most part, in game terms, a Sorcerer is a Sorcerer, f'rex. You can choose which spells you use at any given time, but your list is exactly the same, and your stats are likely to be nearly identical to another Sorc's, at any given Rank (aka level).
A bit like Basic D&D with a lot more history, folklore and myth, and without a lot of BD&D's more time-consuming and quirky game features (yes, this is highly subjective). Note: I actually have quite a fondness for BD&D too (it's what began it all for me).
It lacks the mechanical complexity I enjoy in so many games like D&D 3E or 4E or Shadowrun, but it seems to avoid clunkyness that I would also associate with older games. So they did a good job in cleaning the game up, I think.
My understanding is they didn't change any of the core rules or mechanics (no cleaning up) besides a few tweaks to the character classes. The actual lack of "clunkyness" that you report is something left over from the original game.
