I don't know if there are many on the boards who remember this RPG, but Corgi Books in the UK released Dragon Warriors in the mid 80's as a series of six paperbacks,back when GW sold 5 minatures for £2.50 and Robin of Sherwood was on the Telly and Flesh and Blood was on in the cinema- if you could sneak in.
The system was an AD&D ultralite, but it was the dark, pseudo-European Folk Tales setting that made it a real gem: Diabolist Barons in crumbling keeps, spindly hobgoblins who roll puff balls across blasted heaths and Elves without souls who die at the touch of cold iron.
It died a premature and undeserved death and has been out of print since (I only managed to track down my copy of book six a few years back), but my question is does anyone else remember this game and what were your experience of it?
It'd be great if someone outhere reissued this series as an omnibus (not looking at anyone in particular, Erik).
Yep, I managed to pick up copies of Books Four and Five at my local op. shop for 50c each (Australian money). They're really good, have been adapting some of the stuff for D&D gaming, I even adapted the main plot of book 5 for a modern Shadow Chasers styler game last year.
I don't have any of the others though, I'd never even heard of them, and I wouldn't mind finding out how the rules were meant to work- It'd be like if I tried to work out the rules to D&D from picking up Complete Scoundrel and Spell Compendium... veeery tricky but oh-so-cool.
If anyone knows where you can get these, please let me know as well.
Dragon Warriors is a great game - and Dave Morris is currently working on a new omnibus edition, so we'll hopefully see that soon.
It's coming from Magnum Opus Press Real Soon Now. Andrew Law has done the cartography.
Dragon Warriors is a great game - and Dave Morris is currently working on a new omnibus edition, so we'll hopefully see that soon.
It's coming from Magnum Opus Press Real Soon Now. Andrew Law has done the cartography.
That's great news- I have a few relations coming up and to be frank, I can't think of a better kickstart introduction to RPGs
An omnibus edition. My cup runneth over.
That is awesome. I have 5 of the 6 books (I don't have the one about the assassins) - the adventures are just amazing in all of them.
YES!!!YES!!!ME!!ME!!
I love Dragon Warriors and played a campaign in the late '80s, altough I think it had already died a comercial death by then. Bad promotion and distribution apperantly.
It had a combat and magic system that placed it between DnD (as it was in 1986) and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. It was a system that was simple,flexible and easy to supplement by "ripping off" the above games. But the real jewel was book 6 - The Lands of Legend - perhaps the best (IMO) fantasy/medieval campaign world ever.
The new edition? Bring it on!
Never heard of it until now, but it sounds TOTALLY AWESOME:
"[...]mysterious trance-magic and the unstoppable power of the DEATH VOW."
It seems to be more grounded in European folklore than D&D.
Never heard of it until now, but it sounds TOTALLY AWESOME:
"[...]mysterious trance-magic and the unstoppable power of the DEATH VOW."
It seems to be more grounded in European folklore than D&D.
Ah wow- the DEATH VOW.
Assasins got it at 12th Level- he "sets" his mind on killing a single character and goes all Manchurian Candidate Killing machine. He doubles his daily travel distance, ignoring bodily needs or fatigue. Once he gets within three metres of the mark, he really gets on...That encapsulates what I love about the game- it's full of potential for good roleplaying and larger then life action, but not senseless munchkining.
Well, not much.
And yes, the tone is very dark and European, not gleaming Romatisicm; having more in common with Excalibur and Beowulf then then Krull and the D&D movies. It oozed atmosphere and it has to rate as one of the tightest written game books I've read- there's not a single paragraph of waffle- everything serves a point or illustrates one. As the character classes expanded with each book, the sample adventure showed how to create great adventures for these characters while not neglecting the earlier characters.
Take for advantage the description of the Troll:
"Glimpsed capering madly along a distant ridge, or loping sullenly in lonely places after the sun has set, a Troll could almost be mistaken for a wiry man...Blank eyes start from the Trolls awful face and an odour of spilled blood wafts from it's snaggle-toothed maw...(it) may have two or even three heads, and these heads will chatter horribly to one another".
Add to this that they turn to stone in sunlight and that their rubbery hides deflect all non metallic weapons, and you've got a memorable encounter, especially for an inexperienced GM.
The setting was great, creating a fantasy/folklore medieval Europe by way of Marco Polo, Prester John and Robert E Howards non-Conan stuff.
***Bump*** for the information about the omnibus. Anyone heard ANYthing new on Dragon Warriors?
Nothing from me, sorry.
Bump away, though.
Googled it. Found all 6 .pdf collections...(wait for it) for free! The Under-dog site has the information you seek...
Yeah, found those- I'd love to see a proper, unified 2nd Edition book though.
The Magnum Opus site just has had a holding page for the past few months, so that's not encouraging.
I'd like to see how well/easy character creation would be comparred to current 3.5 rules/Pathfinder. Why re-invent the wheel on some of the systems (understanding the copyrights and such, but what COULD work)?
Well , as mentioned above, the system books are available to download as scanned pdf.s
The character creation/system is comparable to Red Box D&D with all it's simplicity and flaws. Character Races are standard- Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling. Professions are more expansive- Knight, Barbarian, Mystic (cleric), Monk, Assassin and Elementalist. The setting (The Lands of Legend) and monsters are very much back to source material and so are very close in spirit to Pathfinder, especially the Goblinoids.
I'd recommend it as an introductory game for folks totally unfamiliar with RPGs and for old hands who want a simple system that won't clutter up the roleplaying aspect.
There's my two cents- I'd be really interested in hearing what you'd have to say once you taken a look yourself.
I first heard about this game on the 'Little Known Games You Love Thread' and I want to find them really bad now. I've known about the books for three days, so it may take a while. It sounds awesome!
I first heard about this game on the 'Little Known Games You Love Thread' and I want to find them really bad now. I've known about the books for three days, so it may take a while. It sounds awesome!
No it won't- linkified!
It's hard to find hard copy versions of most of these, and you need the books in order, since book one covers fighters and the basic rules, book two magic and so on.
Your best bet for print copies is probably e-bay. I've had the first three books since I was a kid and always craved getting the remaining three. About a year ago this became an obsession so I scoured every op-shop and second hand bookshop. Eventully I tried an e-bay search and was lucky enough to find someone who was selling a complete set! So you never know your luck.
Tried e-bay. Couldn't find anything on the role-playing game. The .pdfs serve just as well, and I made copies of the parts players needed.
I first heard about this game on the 'Little Known Games You Love Thread' and I want to find them really bad now. I've known about the books for three days, so it may take a while. It sounds awesome!No it won't- linkified!
It's hard to find hard copy versions of most of these, and you need the books in order, since book one covers fighters and the basic rules, book two magic and so on.
Thanks for the link firbolg. I've downloaded the pdf's. Though I'm making it a goal to find the six books. I actually checked Ebay when I first read about them here on the boards. There was one copy of book four I believe. Sadly I'm not in a financial position to play the bid game at the moment.
But with the pdf's at hand, I'm stoked to look through them.
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It had a combat and magic system that placed it between DnD (as it was in 1986) and Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.
Funny you should put it that way. That’s exactly when I discovered this game, between Fighting Fantasy (which I started playing at around age 7 or 8) and D&D (which I first played at about age 11 or 12).
My local library had three of the books (1, 2 or 3 and 4 think) of Dragon Warriors. I never played it as such, but I loved the feel of the adventures and adapted a couple of them to FF and later D&D.
What initially drew me in was was Leo Hartas' artwork and especially the spread showing the actual concept of roleplaying and the two page comic used to illustrate combat- it always reminded me of the visuals of Noggin the Nog, a childhood favorite. Always thought the covers were a bit of a letdown, though.
Rejoice, for the old dragon warriors books are downloadable on the site: Home of the Underdogs, under their game book tab. All scanned PDFs. http://www.the-underdogs.info/gamebook.php
Finally, the official announcement from Magnum Opus- looks like they're going with Mongoose as a partner and will be releasing Baron Munchausen (a real classic) too.