Dragonbane general thread

It's not the wasted word space, imo, but it takes more time to read at the table. Each second suspends the action.
I think it’s a six-of-one or half-a-dozen of the other situation there. One causes the other.

I’m all for replacing pointlessly verbose and repetitive language, and it will speed up play. I’m just not sure where the line is for me. It’s different places for different people, granted. I wouldn’t mind a monster card that had “2. Fear, AOE, 20m.” as the whole of a monster attack. But I don’t know if many would. Or how quickly I’d want a more fully fleshed out version.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Agreed. "Not affected by armor" is another.
Ignores armor.

The monster attacks spend a lot of words repeating things like "does not take your action" after forcing you to make a roll. If only there were some easy to use game-speak term to save them from having to write out "make this kind of roll as an automatic and free reaction when faced with this circumstance" dozens of times.
A blanket (single) statement in the Monster Attack section saying "any roll forced by monsters is a Free Action" would cover it.
 

The problem is that they defined reactions as consuming your action, and then every time this isn’t the case they have to list an exception. But my reading is that only parry and dodge consume your action and every other reaction seems to be a ‘free’ reaction. If they hade made ‘does not consume your action’ the default and then made parry and dodge the exceptions the language would have been a lot easier.
 

Ignores armor.

Alternatively, a couple of sentences in the section on armor could have defined the type of damage that armor does protect against, and then only the exceptions to that rule would need to be noted.

Also, I just realized that I'm not sure I fully grok all the benefits of having a shield. Is it just:
  • You can parry ranged attacks in addition to melee attacks
  • Has high durability, so better resists parry
  • Protects your weapon from getting damaged on a parry (better to lose your shield than your weapon)
Is there anything else? (Aside from having shield-related Heroic Abilities, magic shields, etc.)
 




The problem is that they defined reactions as consuming your action, and then every time this isn’t the case they have to list an exception. But my reading is that only parry and dodge consume your action and every other reaction seems to be a ‘free’ reaction. If they hade made ‘does not consume your action’ the default and then made parry and dodge the exceptions the language would have been a lot easier.
Right. Or include something like the term "save" or "free reaction" in the rulebook and use that. Something.

I found similar hiccups like that in several places in the monster attacks. Some others are blinded, bound, and swallowed. They also use CON, WIL, and Evade saves regularly but insist on writing the whole thing out.

But it's very likely a translation thing. It's not written in English as far as I know. It's written in Swedish then translated. So the language can be a bit stilted at times. Like how they barely use contractions and never refer to player characters as PCs.
 

Right. Or include something like the term "save" or "free reaction" in the rulebook and use that. Something.

I found similar hiccups like that in several places in the monster attacks. Some others are blinded, bound, and swallowed. They also use CON, WIL, and Evade saves regularly but insist on writing the whole thing out.

But it's very likely a translation thing. It's not written in English as far as I know. It's written in Swedish then translated. So the language can be a bit stilted at times. Like how they barely use contractions and never refer to player characters as PCs.
2nd edition here we come. I also think the Heroic Actions header is used twice and one of those sections should be titled Weaknesses instead.
 

Sorry I am late to the party. I am thrilled to see a 30 page thread DB thread on a forum! My 2 cents so far.

I've run one DB campaign and perhaps two-thirds through a second one. I've even made a "zine" with a fantasy adventure and monsters along with a sci-fi kaiju setting.

Overall, in no particular order:
  • We use all the optional rules except damage vs armor because I keep forgetting about it :ROFLMAO:
  • I put the core box adventure inside Free League's Forbidden Lands map to create a bigger canvas and to provide two different bad guys to stop
  • My players who know how to game 5e are excited again
  • My min/maxer had to interact with others and the environment to get boons as he couldn't min/max his PC
  • I generally like to do quick and dirty conversions and DB lets me do that for both OSR and BRP.
  • I am a believer in random encounter tables again. Then again DB table entries are much more than just "2d6 goblins here."
Insights:
PCs with Attributes between 14 to 17 can emulate different genres. A fighter with a STR 17 can be Hercules while a fighter with a STR 14 is dependable but still just a human.

I take the Magic Mishap table as ... guidelines. Like in both both games, the mages mishap was to summon a demon within a Shift on their first adventure. I spun that into more of a "demon puts your whole party into a funhouse dungeon for a session," and that was much more fun.

 

Trending content

Remove ads

Top