Free League Announces Dragonbane: Trudvang

Free League Publishing has announced its next Dragonbane content - a four volume set featuring the Celtic and Norse inspired world of Trudvang. This week, Free League Publishing announced Dragonbane: Trudvang, which is based on the board game Trudvang originally published by CMON. The set will include the following books:

• World Book: A deep dive into Trudvang's history, peoples, and regions – from Stormlands to Westmark, from Soj to the Great Ice Plains, richly illustrated.
• Book of Heroes: New Trudvang professions, skills, heroic abilities, and magic – wielded by vitner weavers and dimwalkers.
• Jorgi's Bestiary: The classic monster manual for Trudvang returns, featuring beasts from braskelwurm and draugr to hrimtursir and yggdras, all adapted for Dragonbane.
• The Black Sun: A legendary four-part epic campaign in Trudvang, revised and published in English for the first time.

Trudvang has an interesting history. The IP was originally developed as a campaign setting for Drakar Och Demoner, the Swedish version of Dragonbane. RiotMinds sold the Trudvang IP to CMON shortly before selling the Drakar Och Demoner rights to Free League Publishing, and CMON developed Trudvang into a board game before its more recent financial troubles started. In some ways, this Kickstarter will bring Trudvang full circle.

A Kickstarter for the new campaign setting book will launch in 2026.

 

[Von Ether]

I was anti-duck until Egerkrans art. All the old Runequest stuff seemed more like nightmare fuel (probably because it was trying to be more realistic as compared to embracing the cartoony vibe.)

Mallards and Wolfkin are usually the most popular kin at my tables but players are seldom goofy about their RPing. The game setting also just treats the two kin as just another demographic no different than dwarves or elves.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Mallards and Wolfkin are usually the most popular kin at my tables...

Same here, until we got our hands on the Bestiary, which has "Cat Folk"...

 

[Bill Zebub]

By the way, I keep thinking that Dragonbane would make a great system for Middle Earth. Anybody agree/disagree?

I've toyed with a Middle Earth hack for it, and there really isn't very much to be done. New Kin, of course, and I'd probably want to replace more than half of the Heroic Abilities. But other than that, drop the Mage class, prune the equipment lists (e.g., no crossbows), and maybe think through the skills list.

The only mechanic I would change/add would be something analogous to Hope/Shadow in TOR.

 

[JohnSnow]

By the way, I keep thinking that Dragonbane would make a great system for Middle Earth. Anybody agree/disagree?

I've toyed with a Middle Earth hack for it, and there really isn't very much to be done. New Kin, of course, and I'd probably want to replace more than half of the Heroic Abilities. But other than that, drop the Mage class, prune the equipment lists (e.g., no crossbows), and maybe think through the skills list.

The only mechanic I would change/add would be something analogous to Hope/Shadow in TOR.

What new kin? Doesn't Dragonbane already have Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings? Or do you want to rework them somehow?

The only other "playable kin" would be Dúnedain, unless you wanted to get extra-whacky and add Ents or Beornings. A case could even be made that the Wolfkin could be used for Tolkien's "Werewolves," which are stated to exist, but never show up in the published annals of Middle-Earth.

I'm actually intrigued by a LOT about Dragonbane, although I'd have to rework its roll under mechanic to make my table happy, as I'm not the only "big number good" person in my gaming group.

 

[Staffan]

By the way, I keep thinking that Dragonbane would make a great system for Middle Earth. Anybody agree/disagree?

I've toyed with a Middle Earth hack for it, and there really isn't very much to be done. New Kin, of course, and I'd probably want to replace more than half of the Heroic Abilities. But other than that, drop the Mage class, prune the equipment lists (e.g., no crossbows), and maybe think through the skills list.

The only mechanic I would change/add would be something analogous to Hope/Shadow in TOR.

Funnily enough, back in the 80s Äventyrsspel (the creators/publishers of Dragonbane's predecessors) had the license from Iron Crown Enterprises to translate their MERP books into Swedish, and dual-stat them so they'd work with both MERP and Drakar och Demoner.

 

[Bill Zebub]

What new kin? Doesn't Dragonbane already have Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings? Or do you want to rework them somehow?

Yeah I mean reworked.

I'm actually intrigued by a LOT about Dragonbane, although I'd have to rework its roll under mechanic to make my table happy, as I'm not the only "big
number good" person in my gaming group.

I'm a "big rolls are better" kind of guy, too, but I'm still loving Dragonbane, even with roll-under.

This is what big rolls look like in Dragonbane:

 

[Von Ether]

Funny enough, I have a player who is big number good who dislikes subtracting for Cypher but enjoys rolling under for Dragonbane.

 

[Bill Zebub]

Funny enough, I have a player who is big number good who dislikes subtracting for Cypher but enjoys rolling under for Dragonbane.

Whoah, whoah, whoah....hold on.

Rolling under is one thing. But subtraction? Not in my house.