"Will we continue the game now?" my oldest asked, putting down the VR headset that he also got for his birthday.
I gifted him the Dragonbane Starter Set for his 13 year birthday last week. My plan was for him to play it with his friends, but when he asked, I of course volunteered to run a game for them. Dragonbane is a tabletop roleplaying game by Free League based on the original RPG Drakar och Demoner. The game took Sweden by storm in the 1980s, beating Dungeons and Dragons to the Swedish market.
Dragonbane is basic roleplaying with roots in Chaosium’s Runequest. It’s still about pillaging murdering hobos: The players are travelling adventurers that venture into dungeons and defeat traps and monsters to loot arcane and mundane treasure. The setting is more cheesy than D&D, for instance you can play humanoid ducks with a bad temper.
We played the first session this week (we play the Swedish version). Creating characters and the first encounter as the players set out to explore Misty Vale, the campaign included in the starter set. It took two hours after which we made pizza together. I had skimmed the rule booklet taking note of the little quirks and details. It’s a long time since I last facilitated this type of game.
I trusted the instructions and played the first encounter without reading the complete adventure book. I really like how easy it is to get to the table. The starter set is nicely organised. The map and cards with adventure seeds and the little cardboard stands are grabby and catch the attention of the players while you as game master dive into the rule booklet.
Character creation is really smooth. You get a nice juicy selection of professions and races to play with little tables everywhere that lets you roll for names and equipment but also allow you to just choose what you want.
Players were Oldest (13), Youngest (10) and Friend (12). Oldest created an elven fighter and had no hesitation to dumb a poor roll of ‘5’ into charisma. Youngest wanted to play a fox. I said yes and modelled it on the wolf born. Friend chose a duck huntsman, that is, a duck that is a hunter. Together with the special abilities and the personal items, we soon got a party of colourful adventuring characters together.
The campaign starts you right off with an encounter that ends in violence. Players are rewarded with a piece of a statue and a map that hints there are other parts of the statue to be found.
The fighter with his chain mail and battle axe was a tank and killing machine. The hunter and the bard had fun shooting arrows, throwing knives and tripping enemies so they could not run away with the McGuffin. Great to see players improvising and embracing the encounter.
One thing we did wrong that I later checked in the rules was movement: You calculate a movement stat in meters when creating characters, I missed then that the grid square is 2x2 meters. It also took us a few attempts before we found the intended places to record heroic abilities and armour value.
"Let’s continue in two weeks when your other friend can also join," I answered. Looks like kids these days can also get hooked on tabletop role playing games, in spite of all the competition of digital online games.
Fastaval pitch time
It’s that time of year. The deadline for submitting games to Fastaval is coming up. Fastaval is a game convention in Denmark with a great community of game designers and players. A great place to find an audience for all your fun or weird little games. This year I will submit my two latest boardgame designs. Holmgang: Duel at Eider and Draw, stranger!
Holmgang is a card-driven viking style duel where the saga hero Uffe the Meek plays out the dual against the Saxon prince and his best champion.
Essentially rock-paper-scissors. A shared deck of 20 cards and a board with seven spaces for the fighters to move around create exactly enough constraints and options for this to be a fast paced and fun game for two players. Players have enough information to make qualified bets and bluffing each other about what cards they will play.
I created the game around Easter. I did some refinement since but fundamentally it’s the same game. We still play it regularly at home and when friends come over.
Draw, stranger!
Draw, stranger! is a micro game with 19 cards. You play gunslingers in the old west duelling it out at high noon. Who draws first? Who hits? Who brought a knife to a gunfight?
The seed for the game came after having played Holmgang with a friend. Could you do a gunslinger duel as well?
The classic myth of the gunslinger duel is that the conscious action is slower than the reflex action. You want your opponent to go for his guns first in order to shoot first. But you also want to make sure to hit. Sometimes it is the slow aimed shot that makes the kill. Good stuff for a game design. Even if more myth that fact.
At first I got derailed thinking that I need the gunslingers to move around as well as in Holmgang. But then on the long boring drive home from our vacation in Denmark, I returned to the idea. I realised that the narrative is different. You have the slow buildup where the fighter takes stock of each other. Then the shooting starts.
Like the scene introducing Harmonica in Once Upon a Time in the West. Water dripping from a water tank. The steam train coming to a screeching halt. Boxes being unloaded onto the platform. Until the fighters are face to face with each other.
Harmonica stops playing. Frank?
-- Frank sent us.
-- Did you bring a horse for me?
-- Looks like we're shy one horse.
Harmonica shaking his head slowly. You brought two too many.
I created a prototype of Duel, stranger! that I brought along on our hiking trip to Kebnekaise. 19 cards is perfect to pack when travelling. You need table space to place three cards face down and a draw pile. It plays in 5 minutes. We played it a ton. I also pitched it to fellow travellers waiting as we waited for trains and busses. It works great!
Let’s see if it gets picked up for Fastaval 2026. Then I have an excuse to go to Fastaval next year.