Dragonbane general thread

Staffan said:

Back in the day, they had 13 magic schools in the magic supplement for Drakar och Demoner Expert:
Animism, Demonology, Dragon magic (also worked a bit differently, dragons could innately use this but regular folks could as well but it was extra difficult), Elementalism, Harmonism (magic through musical performance), Witchcraft, Illusionism, Mentalism, Necromancy, Voice Magic (shouting words of power, invented by dwarves), Spiritism, Symbolism (based around drawing symbols, once activated they do things to those who see them), and Staff Magic (primarily an avenue to pursuing multiple schools at once which was otherwise difficult, but had some tricks of their own). They also had rules for alchemy (which didn't count as a separate school).

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I know that DoD never had "holy" magic - and I'm not asking for it per se - but it would be nice to see something more akin to white magic. One of the most common homebrews that I see for Dragonbane is basically something that scratches that "holy" priest or even paladin itch.

Staffan said:

Staff Magic, at least back then, was more Gandalf than monk.

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Ah. From what I recalled, staff magic in Symbaroum was more monk. Given the connections between Symbaroum and DoD, I made the assumption that staff magic in DoD would have followed similar lines. My bad. Thanks for the correction.

I bought the boxed set some time ago, but - until now - I really didn't have a chance to dive into it. Now that the lesson are over and my schedule is a bit more relaxed, I'd like to give it a try.

I probably will have the chance to play 4-5 sessions with one group. What would you suggest in terms of adventures? Start with the quickstarter one in the set?

I also have a rule question: if someone pushes a roll, can they argue to use a stat that already has a condition and then just pick a different one? If the answer is no, what happens when the only stats that could make sense for pushing already have a condition? Is pushing not allowed in those case? Or the player just have to get more creative with their explanation to the GM?

Aldarc said:

I know that DoD never had "holy" magic - and I'm not asking for it per se - but it would be nice to see something more akin to white magic. One of the most common homebrews that I see for Dragonbane is basically something that scratches that "holy" priest or even paladin itch.

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Traditionally, the closest have been Animism, as it is opposed to Necromancy and has things like healing magic. But it's not a great fit – in Magic the Gathering terms, Animism is Green, and while it is opposed to Black it is not the same as White. Other religious stuff has often been done as ad-hoc special abilities, usually in the hands of NPCs.

One of the later books from back in the day (early 90s) had Paladins as a profession with limited access to Mentalism, just like rangers in that edition had limited access to Animism. This was, I believe, primarily because most buff spells at the time were Mentalism.

Nikosandros said:

I bought the boxed set some time ago, but - until now - I really didn't have a chance to dive into it. Now that the lesson are over and my schedule is a bit more relaxed, I'd like to give it a try.

I probably will have the chance to play 4-5 sessions with one group. What would you suggest in terms of adventures? Start with the quickstarter one in the set?

I also have a rule question: if someone pushes a roll, can they argue to use a stat that already has a condition and then just pick a different one? If the answer is no, what happens when the only stats that could make sense for pushing already have a condition? Is pushing not allowed in those case? Or the player just have to get more creative with their explanation to the GM?

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The Quickstart has now had two different adventures as they keep switching it out every year. The current Quickstart has the Sinking Tower, which is better but has a tournament vibe to it - even to the point of having a score sheet. According to the popular DB fan discord, Troll's Spire adventure in the box works even better.

Almost everyone advises to not use the Riddermound adventure as it is a bit rough as a intro unless the group is very savvy/lucky.

As for pushing, the answer is in the book. Pushing Your Roll:
"You decide which condition you get from pushing a roll, with two important restrictions:
✦ You cannot choose a condition you already have.
✦ You must be able to explain how the condition results from the action you are trying to perform. The GM has the right to reject clearly unreasonable explanations."