Duck! It's a Manticore.

Thursday Session of Dragonbane...

Our regular Sunday/Thursday group take on the new-old Free League game, Dragonbane. Our GM threw down a Duck Fighter for me, to then join the others who were already a session into the game.

Dragonbane

There was a bunch of stuff that had happened in the last session that I glazed over a bit, thinking, this will sink in more as I play. As a high preparation (Preparation H?) GM, I'm much more of a "I'll do it on the night." as a player. The first thing I recognised was the simplicity of the system and the fun elements of how conditions can link with special abilities... I had a Duck ability of "quick to anger", this allowed me a boon (advantage - roll two dice and take the best result) on my fighting dice rolls. These abilities are powered by Willpower, more of that later. But the ability can only be activated if I have the Angry condition. So, after getting the group lost, when I picked up navigation duties, I pushed my roll, leading to taking the Angry condition.

So armed with a fierce temper, brought on by the frustration of leading the group through dense scrubland until it was clear we had no idea where we were, my duck blundered into a clearing with a Manticore. A fierce battle, with one of the other players close to death, but my duck was having none of this and used his spear and his quick-to-anger ability to deal some hefty blows, which, eventually, drove the Manticore off.

 

It wasn't all positive though, we'd travelled over 40km to get to an old Dwarf Mine, in search of the something of something, a McGuffin by another name. During this time we'd failed to get much sleep (so we're now sleep deprived, meaning we couldn't refresh our willpower) and had exhausted a lot of our rations. The Bushcraft roll of 6 or less on d20 was a harsh target for most of us to get sleep, but after the battle, I gained an extra point in it, I guess at higher levels this becomes more of a hand-wave but felt tough for low levels.

All in all, it was an excellent session, a journey split into a series of encounters - a turnip salesman (Roleplay, Rumours and Rations), quicksand (Hazard), a wild boar (Easy Combat plus Rations) and a Manticore (Hard Combat). Where we just about got from our home town to the Dwarven Mines in a two-hour session.

Fantasy RPGs are not my first choice, but I was intrigued by the buzz around this RPG, given it's been going for a long time in Sweden and only recently made its way to an English language version via Kickstarter. What is it that has made it so popular?  What does the Mirth and Mayhem tagline on the box mean, should we be making up wisecracks and throwing custard pies at monsters? What of the art too, at times both sinister and comedic?  

I can see the appeal of the system, lovely Roleplay hooks that link boons/banes to your character's abilities and a simple enough system that means you're not constantly looking for tables and slowing the game down. After one session, I think I had a good enough handle on the skills, abilities and combat mechanics.  Looking forward to what the setting holds and in particular what McGuffin we'll drag out of the Dwarven Mines...