Dragonbane: Mirth and Mayhem Roleplaying by Tomas Härenstam

[james_davis_nicoll]

A stroll through the latest edition of Sweden's venerable tabletop roleplaying game, Drakar och Demoner.

Dragonbane: Mirth and Mayhem Roleplaying by Tomas Härenstam

Comments

[roseembolism]

One would think that given the chances of summoning a demon or civilization ending disease, magic users would be prohibited, or at least restricted to some isolated updates with strict contamination protocols.

[vatine]

I don't actually recall what the current fumble rules are[1], but they used to be "roll 20, then fail a skill check", so at least highly skilled magicians are somewhat safe to have on inhabited planets. Untrained ones, though...

[1] I have an un-opened box of Dragonsbane within a few steps of me, and I HAVE read the PDF of eth English version (well, two pre-print versions), but I still don't recall what they say.

[james_davis_nicoll]

The magical fumble table is optional but if one is using it, it gets used every time a mage rolls a demon. I am thinking adding "and then fails their magic roll again" to avoid having to start a new campaign.

[kjn]

IIRC, the seminal editions of Drakar och Demoner (first the basic version very much based on Basic Roleplaying, and then the extensive expansion Expert Drakar och Demoner which basically rewrote the whole game) did not have fumble tables for magic. They did have rules for it, but not campaign-ending stuff.

[vatine]

Pretty sure there were magic fumble tables in Expert, but indeed no campaign-ending stuff (magic fumble was the easiest way of picking up a phobia, IIRC).

I'd also argue that the move from blue-box to black-box was a different version of the game, but (alas) I don't seem to have any of those rule books at hand.

[patrick_morris_miller]

A party lacking the requisite skills can very easily recapitulate the Donner Party or the events in ​"To Build a Fire."

At some point in gaming history, there must have been a Traveller party that managed to get a ship, then realize only when they got to the jump limit that none of them had Astrogation.

[james_davis_nicoll]

We spaced our navigator for cause, then discovered he had unique skills.

[patrick_morris_miller]

(insert video of Herr Doktor Strangelove asking what the point of having a doomsday device is if you don't tell people)

[roseembolism]

Given the way the skill generation tables work in Traveller, it's quite possible to create a merchant party with no skill in Navigation, Engineering or Admin (Admin being the skill used for trading). Pilot at least was granted by one of the ranks needed to get a starship.

Cepheus Engine is worse, as pretty much any merchant character can get shares in a starship.

[patrick_morris_miller]

Mongoose lets players choose a small number of skills, which is a good thing otherwise my current character would just be the ship's linguist.