Dragonbane general thread

[Bill Zebub]

So just getting down into some of the finer nuances and discovering a few things:

• Helms add 1-2 armor ranks and add a bane to Awareness and possibly ranged attacks
• Shield parry uses any STR weapon skill. Also doesn't count as inventory.
• You can carry an infinite number of Tiny items
• A Magic Talent Heroic ability is required for skill in each new college of magic (this one seems a bit steep, but ok)
• Characters can assist other characters in a check if it makes sense to do so. Gives a boon to the check.

I really like that up to 3 weapons and armor don't count toward the total number of items you can carry. It just reduces the number of items you have to keep track of.

 

[Aldarc]

I sometimes like to practice grokking systems by doing a little homebrewing. As my partner liked Numenera but bounced off the Cypher System, I was musing about modifying Dragonbane for a post-apocalyptic science-fiction/science-fantasy setting that is inspired by Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind with additional influences from Numenera, Thundarr the Barbarian, Dark Sun, etc.

So I decided to start by looking and reorganizing the skill list. Here is what I have so far.

GENERAL SKILLS

Merged Skills: Awareness (includes Spot Hidden)
New Skills: Piloting (operating mechanical land and air crafts)
Renamed Skills: Seafaring (from Seamanship), Folk Lore (from Myths & Legends), Natural Lore (Beast Lore, but includes all natural sciences), Tricking (from Bluffing), Thievery (from Sleight of Hand)

A lot of the renaming reflects more own aesthetic preferences for skill names than any real need: e.g., Tricking, Seafaring, etc. I also think that the change from Bluffing to Tricking is a little easier for some of the non-native English speakers I game with. However, Natural Lore and Folk Lore are meant to expand the scope of Beast Lore while also making Myths & Legends consistent with the naming.

I am additionally considering adding skills akin to Scavenging (INT) and Mechanical Lore (INT) that would, respectively cover (1) foraging for mechanical parts in ruins and (2) knowledge of advanced machines, devices, crafts, etc. Though these two could also be merged under the same skill. I was also thinking of Mystical Lore to cover magic or Alchemical Lore for chemistry. I don't want to overburden the game with additional skills, but I think that adding a few more skills would not be the worst, if only to slow down progression a bit.

• Acrobatics (AGL)
• Awareness (INT)
• Bartering (CHA)
• Bushcraft (INT)
• Crafting (INT)
• Evade (AGL)
• Folk Lore (INT): history, myths, legends, cultures
• Healing (INT)
• Hunting & Fishing (AGL)
• Languages (INT)
• Natural Lore (INT): biology, ecology, geology
• Performance (CHA)
• Persuasion (CHA)
• Piloting (AGL)
• Riding (AGL)
• Seafaring (INT)
• Sneaking (AGL)
• Swimming (AGL)
• Thievery (AGL): picking locks, picking pockets,
• Tricking (CHA): bluffing, deceiving, lying

WEAPON SKILLS (STR/AGL)

Merged Skills: Bows (Bows & Crossbows)
New Skills: Firearms (AGL)
Renamed Skills: Clubs (from Hammers)

• Axes (STR)
• Bows (AGL)
• Brawling (STR)
• Clubs (STR)
• Firearms (AGL)
• Knives (AGL)
• Slings (AGL)
• Spears (STR)
• Staves (AGL)
• Swords (STR)

General thoughts and feedback appreciated.

 

[Von Ether]

Thank you. Sorry, I should have been clearer. I meant a link to the spreadsheet.

I finally found it!

 

[TwoSix]

I sometimes like to practice grokking systems by doing a little homebrewing. As my partner liked Numenera but bounced off the Cypher System, I was musing about modifying Dragonbane for a post-apocalyptic science-fiction/science-fantasy setting that is inspired by Nausicaä: Valley of the Wind with additional influences from Numenera, Thundarr the Barbarian, Dark Sun, etc.

So I decided to start by looking and reorganizing the skill list. Here is what I have so far.

GENERAL SKILLS

Merged Skills: Awareness (includes Spot Hidden)
New Skills: Piloting (operating mechanical land and air crafts)
Renamed Skills: Seafaring (from Seamanship), Folk Lore (from Myths & Legends), Natural Lore (Beast Lore, but includes all natural sciences), Tricking (from Bluffing), Thievery (from Sleight of Hand)

A lot of the renaming reflects more own aesthetic preferences for skill names than any real need: e.g., Tricking, Seafaring, etc. I also think that the change from Bluffing to Tricking is a little easier for some of the non-native English speakers I game with. However, Natural Lore and Folk Lore are meant to expand the scope of Beast Lore while also making Myths & Legends consistent with the naming.

I am additionally considering adding skills akin to Scavenging (INT) and Mechanical Lore (INT) that would, respectively cover (1) foraging for mechanical parts in ruins and (2) knowledge of advanced machines, devices, crafts, etc. Though these two could also be merged under the same skill. I was also thinking of Mystical Lore to cover magic or Alchemical Lore for chemistry. I don't want to overburden the game with additional skills, but I think that adding a few more skills would not be the worst, if only to slow down progression a bit.

• Acrobatics (AGL)
• Awareness (INT)
• Bartering (CHA)
• Bushcraft (INT)
• Crafting (INT)
• Evade (AGL)
• Folk Lore (INT): history, myths, legends, cultures
• Healing (INT)
• Hunting & Fishing (AGL)
• Languages (INT)
• Natural Lore (INT): biology, ecology, geology
• Performance (CHA)
• Persuasion (CHA)
• Piloting (AGL)
• Riding (AGL)
• Seafaring (INT)
• Sneaking (AGL)
• Swimming (AGL)
• Thievery (AGL): picking locks, picking pockets,
• Tricking (CHA): bluffing, deceiving, lying

WEAPON SKILLS (STR/AGL)

Merged Skills: Bows (Bows & Crossbows)
New Skills: Firearms (AGL)
Renamed Skills: Clubs (from Hammers)

• Axes (STR)
• Bows (AGL)
• Brawling (STR)
• Clubs (STR)
• Firearms (AGL)
• Knives (AGL)
• Slings (AGL)
• Spears (STR)
• Staves (AGL)
• Swords (STR)

General thoughts and feedback appreciated.

Seems like a solid entrenchment of the "future fantasy" themes you're aiming to hit.

 

[pyrix137]

I finally found it!

Any chance of a link/download option for this?

 

[Wolfpack48]

Any chance of a link/download option for this?

Halfway down the thread:

 

[Sir Brennen]

On that note, last week my players were breaking new territory with no map and the our short session was nothing but the consequences of failing Bushcraft rolls.

In our session last week the party decided to try their hand at hunting for their own food, which involves several checks.

Suffice to say, the final outcome was them buying a donkey and loading it up with rations to try and avoid ever having to do that again.

This was all after rolling a demon setting up a tent to camp, and I ruled it had a tear big enough to be useless

 

[Von Ether]

As a continuing note, I went to ignoring random monster charts for decades of D&D, to new found respect for them in OSR, to loving them in DB:

• In D&D, they were just entries of what/how many wandering monsters with no clues to Mr. New GM (me) on how to use them beyond challenges to the party's resource (and famously a result of "vampire" in a dungeon was Ravenloft's origin story.) And retroactively, the answer of "But Morale rules!" doesn't impress me much.*
• With the OSR explicitly stating these random charts can be short hand for the surrounding ecology or a theme you want to reinforce in the game, I got it. (While acknowledging TSR did a mediocre job with that concept.)
• With DB, the smaller Journey tables offer adventure hooks and single encounters in the random entries, with at least one being a direct lead into the adventure in the area.

Even my players are on the edge of their seats to see what calamity comes their way next.

*An excellent example is a DB entry where you meet two skeletons still walking a patrol long after their death. The extra information prompted me to present them differently and the encounter never became a combat. Oddly enough in AD&D, it was probably would have been a guaranteed hostile encounter as it would have been just "1d6 skeletons (who never fail morale checks.)"

 

[overgeeked]

As a continuing note, I went to ignoring random monster charts for decades of D&D, to new found respect for them in OSR, to loving them in DB:

• In D&D, they were just entries of what/how many wandering monsters with no clues to Mr. New GM (me) on how to use them beyond challenges to the party's resource (and famously a result of "vampire" in a dungeon was Ravenloft's origin story.) And retroactively, the answer of "But Morale rules!" doesn't impress me much.*
• With the OSR explicitly stating these random charts can be short hand for the surrounding ecology or a theme you want to reinforce in the game, I got it. (While acknowledging TSR did a mediocre job with that concept.)
• With DB, the smaller Journey tables offer adventure hooks and single encounters in the random entries, with at least one being a direct lead into the adventure in the area.

Even my players are on the edge of their seats to see what calamity comes their way next.

*An excellent example is a DB entry where you meet two skeletons still walking a patrol long after their death. The extra information prompted me to present them differently and the encounter never became a combat. Oddly enough in AD&D, it was probably would have been a guaranteed hostile encounter as it would have been just "1d6 skeletons (who never fail morale checks.)"

Yeah, exactly. They can be done really badly or made to be incredibly boring. But once you see them done well, most people are off to the races. But it’s mostly down to the referee. They can make random encounters as interesting or boring as they want. Knowing that they can be interesting and how to make them interesting is definitely a separate, acquired skill. I absolutely love that the Dragonbane Bestiary provides adventure seeds and random encounters for most of the monsters. Such a great addition.

 

[Aldarc]

Seems like a solid entrenchment of the "future fantasy" themes you're aiming to hit.

Thanks. Yeah, the goal is ecological post-apocalyptic science-fantasy, but instead of the usual fantasy monsters, the characters are facing giant insects and other monstrous mutant beasts. There will likely also be weird kin like mushroom men, moks/wookies, insect humanoids, etc.