Review: Dragon Warriors Book 1: Dragon Warriors

[Thaluikhain]

"If I had found this back in the day, I would've dropped D&D for it." - Mike Mearls

Dragon Warriors is a British RPG created (primarily) by Dave Morris in 1985. You may remember Dave Morris for The Keep of the Lich Lord for Fighting Fantasy, a number of Virtual Reality gamebooks including Down Among the Dead Men and Heart of Ice, the Bloodsword gamebooks set in the same world as Dragon Warriors (though this isn't immediately obvious), and a number of other works including the Can you Brexit? gamebook with Jamie Thomson.

For me, this series has a certain nostalgic 80's British feel. Admittedly, I didn't get my hands on the books until after the 80s, and I've never been to Britain, but it holds a special place in my heart next to Cosgrove Hall's production of Wind in the Willows. Now, there's a number of minor issue with the series, and things that could be done better, but on the whole I think it's still pretty solid.

Chapter One
The book begins with explaining what an RPG is. Or rather, what an FRP game is, FRP standing for "Fantasy Rôle-Playing". It uses the example of the Mines of Moria bit from Lord of the Rings, and imagining each member of the Fellowship having a player for that rôle, then sticking a GM and some rules in the make it a game. And they keep spelling role as "rôle" for reasons I'm not sure about.

They then have a picture of a GM and some players sitting round a table with dice and maps and stuff, next to another picture of the players as adventurers in a dungeon.

The artwork throughout the book is of much the same quality, nothing to get excited about, but nothing to complain about. Also, everyone keeps their clothes on in Dragon Warriors, all very tasteful if forgettable. Generally I'd say they are illustrations of something the book is talking about, rather than intended as works of art.

Then there's stuff about how fantasy rôle-playing games differ from gamebooks and the dice you will need (the entire d4, d6, d8, d10, d12 and d100), how the d100 is made from rolling 2 d10s, what 2d10+1 means. Noticeable omission of the d3, which is used, seems odd they didn't explain how to use that. Obvious, but is it much more obvious than what 2d0+1 means?

Dave Morris would later say "I’m forever kicking myself for not listening to Oliver (Johnson) when he said we should dispense with the polyhedral dice."

Also I find it notable that he used LotR in his example, as he definitely tries moving away from LotR in feel. However, the influence of LotR in any Western fantasy work that followed it is something I don't need to explain, and sometimes Tolkien leaks into your setting. Though, this only really happens in a few places in this book, and they are easy to ignore, as indeed the rest of the series does, especially once it starts finding its feet and developing its own setting.

Chapter Two
This chapter is about creating a character. You've got 5 characteristics, very D&D, roll 3d6 for each. Just luck of the dice, though, no shuffling numbers round or anything, though it suggests the GM let you re-roll if your character looks rubbish.

Strength - you don't get a separate Constitution score, Strength covers this as well.
Reflexes - which should be called Dexterity or something, but I'm guessing they wanted to move away from D&D sounding terms
Intelligence - there's no separate Wisdom.
Looks - like Charisma, except utterly useless. As in, I don't remember off the top of my head anywhere in any Dragon Warrior book where this comes up. Sure, a GM could come up with situations where it does easily enough, but all the others come up all the time.
Psychic Talent - which isn't just rehashed D&D and seems such a good and obvious idea that I wonder why D&D didn't have something like this to begin with.

If you scores are outside average ranges they affect your other factors such as Attack or Evasion.

You then choose a Profession (which would be called Class in D&D). This book only has two of them, Knight and Barbarian. The Knight has better Defence, the Barbarian has better Attack, the Knight has Plate Armour, a shield and a one handed weapon, the Barbarian has Chainmail and a two handed weapon. They both get the same miscellaneous gear, dagger, backpack, lantern, flint and tinder. Strangely, the Knight begins with a fixed amount of money, 25 silver Florins, while the Barbarian begins with 6d6. No explanation for this is given.

[Emerald]

"If I had found this back in the day, I would've dropped D&D for it." - Mike Mearls

And D&D would have been much better for it.

This chapter is about creating a character. You've got 5 characteristics, very D&D, roll 3d6 for each. Just luck of the dice, though, no shuffling numbers round or anything, though it suggests the GM let you re-roll if your character looks rubbish.

Strength - you don't get a separate Constitution score, Strength covers this as well.
Reflexes - which should be called Dexterity or something, but I'm guessing they wanted to move away from D&D sounding terms Intelligence - there's no separate Wisdom.
Looks - like Charisma, except utterly useless. As in, I don't remember off the top of my head anywhere in any Dragon Warrior book where this comes up. Sure, a GM could come up with situations where it does easily enough, but all the others come up all the time.
Psychic Talent - which isn't just rehashed D&D and seems such a good and obvious idea that I wonder why D&D didn't have something like this to begin with.

What's the 5th characteristic?

And D&D most likely didn't have a specific "do magic stuff" stat because every class already had its own "do stuff for this class" stat: Str for fighters, Int for magic-users, Wis for clerics, and Dex for thieves. The ability scores were originally ordered Str/Int/Wis/Con/Dex/Cha because the game started with just fighters, magic-users, and clerics, and thieves were added later, so it was class stats -> defensive stats -> interaction stat.

If D&D had started off with just one kind of spellcaster, or no spellcasting class and just random psionics that anyone could get like in 1e, it might very well have had a setup something like Strength/Dexterity/Magic/Constitution/Charisma instead of the classic six.

[Nath]

Strength - you don't get a separate Constitution score, Strength covers this as well.
Reflexes - which should be called Dexterity or something, but I'm guessing they wanted to move away from D&D sounding terms Intelligence - there's no separate Wisdom.
Looks - like Charisma, except utterly useless. As in, I don't remember off the top of my head anywhere in any Dragon Warrior book where this comes up. Sure, a GM could come up with situations where it does easily enough, but all the others come up all the time.
Psychic Talent - which isn't just rehashed D&D and seems such a good and obvious idea that I wonder why D&D didn't have something like this to begin with.

What's the 5th characteristic?

Thaluikhain forgot a jump for Intelligence.

Another thing missing in that introduction was the fact (easily overlooked as obvious for anyone who ever saw it) that it was published in paperback format, the same as the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. That paperback format makes Dragon Warriors stand out (In French, the only other famous example is L'Oeil noir, the French adaptation of Das Schwarze Auge).

Dragon Warriors, published in French as a serie titled Les terres de légendes [The Lands of Legends] (the first book is titled Le livre des règles), holds a very special place in my personal gaming history. That's basically the serie that got me into roleplaying at age 10, after one of my friend's mother mistakingly bought him the fourth book Out of the Shadows (Les créatures de l'ombre in French), thinking it was a standard Choose-You-Own-Adventure book because of the very similar cover (the top of the cover read "a game where you are the hero" instead of "a book where you are the hero" as the others did).

We were left puzzled by its content, especially since it would take years before I was able to find the first book. So my first experience with RPG was trying to guess Dragon Warriors rules based on books 2 to 6 that we managed to acquire.


So I think the image is close to real size

[Emerald]

Thaluikhain forgot a jump for Intelligence.

Ah, that makes more sense. I thought he was making a commentary on "D&D sounding terms" and typo'd something or left out a word somewhere.

[Thaluikhain]

And D&D most likely didn't have a specific "do magic stuff" stat because every class already had its own "do stuff for this class" stat: Str for fighters, Int for magic-users, Wis for clerics, and Dex for thieves. The ability scores were originally ordered Str/Int/Wis/Con/Dex/Cha because the game started with just fighters, magic-users, and clerics, and thieves were added later, so it was class stats -> defensive stats -> interaction stat.

If D&D had started off with just one kind of spellcaster, or no spellcasting class and just random psionics that anyone could get like in 1e, it might very well have had a setup something like Strength/Dexterity/Magic/Constitution/Charisma instead of the classic six.

That makes sense.

Thaluikhain forgot a jump for Intelligence.

Oops, I did, yes.

Another thing missing in that introduction was the fact (easily overlooked as obvious for anyone who ever saw it) that it was published in paperback format, the same as the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. That paperback format makes Dragon Warriors stand out (In French, the only other famous example is L'Oeil noir, the French adaptation of Das Schwarze Auge).

Dragon Warriors, published in French as a serie titled Les terres de légendes [The Lands of Legends] (the first book is titled Le livre des règles), holds a very special place in my personal gaming history. That's basically the serie that got me into roleplaying at age 10, after one of my friend's mother mistakingly bought him the fourth book Out of the Shadows (Les créatures de l'ombre in French), thinking it was a standard Choose-You-Own-Adventure book because of the very similar cover (the top of the cover read "a game where you are the hero" instead of "a book where you are the hero" as the others did).

We were left puzzled by its content, especially since it would take years before I was able to find the first book. So my first experience with RPG was trying to guess Dragon Warriors rules based on books 2 to 6 that we managed to acquire.

That's true, though I'd always been led to believe that it worked against Dragon Warriors, as the targeted audience was likely to miss it.

Myself, I got book 3 first, then 1, followed by 2 and only some time later finding out there was a second trilogy, getting 6 and then 4 and 5 at the same time later on.

[Thaluikhain]

Chapter Three
The rules for combat are simples (as insurance meerkats and British PMs would say). You subtract your opponents Defence from your Attack, and roll under it on a d20 to hit. 20 always miss, and 1 always hits (and bypasses armour).

Each has a given die for armour bypass, and set amount of damage. For example, a Sword (d8, 4 points) - roll higher than their armour factor on a d8 and they take 4 points of damage. A Morningstar is (d6, 5 points), so not as good as getting through armour, but doing more damage. Plate Armour as worn by Knights has Armour Factor 5, Chainmail that Barbarians have is AF4.

It's here where I start seeing issues with the rules. A Knight can pick from a Sword or a Morningstar when starting, and neither is obviously better than the other. So there's a decision to be made there, though nothing much stopping you from getting one at start and acquiring the other later and carrying both, using one or the other depending on what you are fighting.

But both are obviously better than a Flails or a Mace (d6, 4 points), or a Staff (d6, 3 points). I see no reason for ever wanting one of those. A Shortsword is (d8, 3 points), though there is an advantage over a Sword. It's just not written here, but 3 chapters later. There aren't many good dice and number combos for alternative weapons you can use. You could stick (d4, lots of points) and (d12, tickles) in for more options I suppose, but you'd be pushing it. You also have double handed weapons like a Battleaxe (d8, 6 points) or Two-handed Sword (d10, 5 points), Barbarians start with one of those two.

After that, we have a 2 page example in comic form about a Knight fighting a pair of Orcs. Which is fair enough, only it's talking about rolling for Reflexes for the Orcs, fighting multiple opponents and using Shields, which the book hasn't given rules for yet. Could have given this bit a little bit later.

Missile combat works much the same, except instead of Defence you take range and visibility modifiers from your Attack.

Then you get rules for Shields, a 1 in 6 chance; multiple combats, you split your Defence between up to three opponents; and barbarian going berserk, you lose an amount you choose of Defence and gain one Attack for each three you've lost.

It's then stated that everyone acts in descending order of Reflexes. Fair enough, but there's an issue here I'll get to later.

Chapter Four
Instead of Attack and Defence, for magic you use Magical Attack and Magical Defence. For dodging things you use Speed and Evasion. Only, instead of rolling a d20, you roll 2d10. Which changes things, though not sure I see the advantage. A 2 is still a hit and a 20 a miss.

Chapter Five
I think I'm obliged to link to this Order of the Stick comic. If you are familiar with the comic, and I mention the word "level", you know the one. If you aren't...huh, really? Go read Order of the Stick.

Anyway, this chapter deals with going up in level Rank. It takes 30 experience points to go from 1st Rank to 2nd Rank. When you do, if you are a Knight or Barbarian, you get 1 more Attack, Defence, Magical Defence and Health Points (for some reason, Health Points is written in italics). You only get 1 more Evasion when you reach Rank 5 or 9.

Meaning, when you get to Rank 5, you've gotten 4 more Health Points than when you were Rank 1. Which, if you remember, is the amount of damage a sword does if it hits you.

Also, when you defeat an enemy, you get it's Rank (or Rank-equivalent for monsters), divided amongst the party. All Ranks are in whole numbers, so defeating a Rank 1 human peasant with a Staff (d6,3) gives you the same experience points as an average Rank 1 Knight with a Sword, Shield and Plate Armour. Which gives you the same as a Rank 1 Knight with maximum Strength, Reflexes and Intelligence, which would have the same Attack and Defence as a average Rank 5 Knight. Though, it does say that completing an adventure gets you extra Experience, depending on how difficult it was.

Chapter Six
Here we get general rules for adventuring, being surprised, fighting in the dark, and how it's important to know what order people are walking in. All very standard nowdays, however, in that last part, it mentions that a character with a "sword, mace or other common melee weapon" needs about 1.5m of frontage. A Halberd, Two-handed Sword or Battleaxe needs 2m, and a Shortsword, Spear, Bow, Crossbow or spell needs 1.5m. So there is a reason to have a Shortsword.

You've also got rules for buying stuff here. I notice that that Halberd and the Two-Handed Sword are functional identical, but the Halberd is cheaper. Always wonder if a Barbarian could start off with a Two-handed Sword and sell it, buy a Halberd and pocket the difference.

Also notable is that this chapter deals with difficulty factors for attempting various things. The GM picks the relevant characteristic and assigns a number. If your characteristic is higher than that, you pass. If it is less, you need to roll under your characteristic on 1 d20. Which is nice and simple, but it does mean that if you have, say, 8 Reflexes, climbing a tree (difficulty factor 9) is the same as climbing a smooth stone wall (18), you just need to roll 7 or less on 1d20. The other reason this is notable is that the general rules for difficulty factors follow two specific cases, for climbing and for breaking down doors, which seems an odd way around.

You've also got poisons in here. If you get poisoned, you roll under your strength on a number of d6 (2 for weak, 3 for average, 4 for strong) or instantly die (unless it's a fancy non-fatal poison, which most aren't). If you don't die right away, fatal poisons still do some extra damage. Strong poison, for example, does 1d6 the first round, 1d4 the next and 1d3 the third. The book mentions that poison can turn a minor creature into a terrible foe, giving the Giant Spider as an example, which has mediocre stats but can instakill you if you are unlucky with Strong Poison. Though, if you've got 13 Str or more, you're totally immune to weak poison.

[Nath]

The rules for combat are simples (as insurance meerkats and British PMs would say). You subtract your opponents Defence from your Attack, and roll under it on a d20 to hit. 20 always miss, and 1 always hits (and bypasses armour). [...]

Instead of Attack and Defence, for magic you use Magical Attack and Magical Defence. For dodging things you use Speed and Evasion. Only, instead of rolling a d20, you roll 2d10. Which changes things, though not sure I see the advantage. A 2 is still a hit and a 20 a miss.

I am pretty sure the only reason for using 1d20 and 2d10 was to make combat feels different from magic. Mathematically, i means a one point increase in Attack or Defense increase your chances by 5%, while the same increases in Magical Attack/Defence increase your chances by a variable amount, between 1 and 10%, depending on your opponent relative level.

Though the numbers varies with attributes, a average Knight starts with Attack 13 and Defense 7, a Barbarian with Attack 14 and Defense 6, and both stats increase by one at each level. So two typical characters at the same level have between 30 and 40% chances to hit each other (before factoring in shields). Even the average Magician has Defense 5, so the Barbarian only has 45% chances to hit him.

The spread between Magical Attack and Magical Defense is a bit wider, but it only applies to curse-type spells. Fireball and the likes have a constant Speed stat, resisted with Evasion. So the former becomes more and more difficult to resist has a Magician rise in level, while the latter stay the same.

It's here where I start seeing issues with the rules. A Knight can pick from a Sword or a Morningstar when starting, and neither is obviously better than the other. So there's a decision to be made there, though nothing much stopping you from getting one at start and acquiring the other later and carrying both, using one or the other depending on what you are fighting.

But both are obviously better than a Flails or a Mace (d6, 4 points), or a Staff (d6, 3 points). I see no reason for ever wanting one of those. A Shortsword is (d8, 3 points), though there is an advantage over a Sword. It's just not written here, but 3 chapters later. There aren't many good dice and number combos for alternative weapons you can use. You could stick (d4, lots of points) and (d12, tickles) in for more options I suppose, but you'd be pushing it. You also have double handed weapons like a Battleaxe (d8, 6 points) or Two-handed Sword (d10, 5 points), Barbarians start with one of those two.

As a side note, the magical loot table featured in the second book gives a 20% chance for a longsword, 10% for axe, dagger, shortsword, morningstar, shield or six arrows, 5% for two-handed sword, spear or ten crossbow bolts, and 5% for other weapons.

But the adventures featured in all six books are heavily biased toward two-handed swords. I did not count but I wouldn't be surprised if more than half the magical weapons to be found are two-handed swords. Since nearly all a the dventures are set in the equivalent of the British Isles, it looks like the author had a thing for claymores (even if the setting itself is closer to 1100 AD).

[Thaluikhain]

I am pretty sure the only reason for using 1d20 and 2d10 was to make combat feels different from magic.

Could be, though that seems a needless complication.

But the adventures featured in all six books are heavily biased toward two-handed swords. I did not count but I wouldn't be surprised if more than half the magical weapons to be found are two-handed swords. Since nearly all a the dventures are set in the equivalent of the British Isles, it looks like the author had a thing for claymores (even if the setting itself is closer to 1100 AD).

Possibly, I was thinking that it might be because a Two-handed Sword is better against PC Knights in Plate Armour, so a good choice for NPCs. Or maybe it allows you to skip the bother of rolling to see if your Shield stops an attack. Or maybe they thought Two-Handed Swords are cooler, yeah.

[Thaluikhain]

Chapter Seven
This is the bestiary, and it's this chapter in which, for me, Dragon Warriors stops being just another fantasy RPG (sorry, Fantasy Rôle-Playing game) rehashing Tolkien and D&D and goes on to do it's own thing. It's not a clean break, there's still a lot of Tolkien around, starting with the very first entry, that of Adventurers.

Adventurers can be either Human, Elves or Dwarves. The book hasn't mentioned non-human characters before this section, but if you look up the sections for Elves or Dwarves in the bestiary it does mention you can play as one of those. You don't get bonuses or penalties to your characteristics if you do, rather you need to have rolled certain results when creating a character. If your Strength is less than 12, and your Psychic Talent or Looks are more than 11, you aren't a Dwarf. While not listed in the Adventurer section, you can play as a Halfling, but can only be a Knight, have -1 Attack, and can't progress beyond 3rd Rank, so it's not really a viable option. No restriction on characteristics there for some reason.

So, you've got adventuring parties made of Humans, Elves, Dwarves and maybe Halflings. Elves are super special, though stated not to have souls. Fairly standard.

You've also got classic monsters like Dragons (well, it's half of the series name), Basilisks, Gorgons, Manticores. There's the usual Giant Rats, Giant Scorpions, Giant Spiders. Various familiar types of undead. You've got dangerous animals like Crocodiles, Bears and Sabre-Tooth Tigers.

There's Apemen (described as a offshoot of humanity's evolution) and Snow Apes (which are Apemen but good at hiding in snow, and that gives them their own section of 3 sentences, rather than 3 sentences in the Apemen section). There's Orcs that serve any evil master they can find. There's also the Volucreth, another race of sentient humanoids that has their own society and live in some jungle somewhere.

Volucreth

Again, all very standard. Not that that's a bad thing, nothing wrong with LotR or D&D trappings. Two examples of that, well, LotR and D&D. But apparently Morris wanted to go his own way and deliberately move away from that. The best example of that seems to be the Goblin.

Dragon Warriors Goblins don't have towns or nations or industry or serve dark lords. They are "malicious sprites" that cause trouble for people walking around in the wild, especially at night. They have "sorcerous pranks", no rules or stats but examples given, of a bat flying into a rider's face and knocking them off their horse, or a horse going lame. If you catch one, you can frighten it into making any sort of deal, and it will have to abide to the letter of the agreement, but won't abide by the spirit if it can twist your words.

They aren't a race or a culture, they are the things from fairy-tales (the old, dark sort) and folktales. I immediately thought "fae" while re-reading that, and apparently Morris uses the word "fay" nowdays, so I was close (especially on a QWERTY keyboard).

There's also the Pazuzu, described as being a monster from warm southern lands, some of which have snuck north on "ships returning from the Crusade". I personally like the Death's Head, a disembodied head with wings and a forehead horn (which fade away in sunlight) which will fly around, kill someone, eat their head, attach itself to their neck and use their zombie body until it decomposes.

A minus, though, almost no monsters have scores for characteristics like Strength or Reflexes. Which, as everyone acts in descending order of Reflexes, is a bit of an omission.

Chapter Eight
This deals with traveling and encounters. IMHO, the random encounter tables are a bit rubbish. There's a example of running adventures, and that mentions rolling a vampire in broad daylight and having to re-roll. Also, you'd have to re-roll trolls in daylight, pythons or sabre-tooth tigers in cold climates and Rank inappropriate stuff. The same tables tend to include Wolves and Dragons.

OTOH, there's also mention of disputation, which is where a Knight sets up a camp next to a bridge or crossroads or something and challenges other Knights to (generally non-lethal) combat to make a name for themselves. Which is a lot more interesting and says more about the setting.

Chapter Nine
Here we have general advice on running campaigns, NPCs, keeping track of important things and the like. It states that the setting they use is "an indistinct land and place, with perhaps a strong flavour of late Dark Ages and early Medieval Europe", but that you can choose others. Which would be a shame, because IMHO, the setting is the big selling point of the series. And, not surprisingly, the rules of the series lean towards the setting used by the creators of the setting.

It also mentions that you roll 3d6 for each group of monsters you run into to determine their Reflexes score. This doesn't seem a great place to put that, between "remember to check for surprise" and "intelligent monsters should act intelligently". Also, all monsters (barring a few rare exceptions) have the same 3d6? I'm guessing though, they don't get bonuses or penalties for exceptional Reflexes the same way PCs do. Are we supposed to re-roll for Elves who are stated to have a minimum Reflexes score, or is that just for Elf PCs?

Followed by an introductory adventure, intended to ease new players and GMs into things. Which, far enough, there's some groups of easy monsters to fight, some puzzles and puzzle monsters, a trap and a magical effect or two, an end boss. So you'll get used to rolling to hit, evading, resisting magic and a bit on how the party should work together.

The backstory isn't bad. A priest (of the "carries a cross" kind) in the town you are staying in is obsessed with the treasure supposed to be in not-King Arthur's tomb. If pushed for more exposition, he tells a story about how he went looking for it with a bunch of adventurers beforehand, who turned out to be unsavory types. One of them killed an elf, so the other elves killed the rest of them when they reached the tomb, but spared the priest because he was holding a cross and was "not one of them". So he ran away wearing a cloak given to him by the elf-lord to keep him safe, but unraveled it as he went to leave a trail of thread behind. Only it's one of those magic elves threads that can only be seen under the full moon, and as it happens it'll be the full moon soon.

After defeating the spectre of not-Mordred at the end of the adventure, they find the treasure: a silver crown, a handful of grain, a ploughshare, a wooden cross and and old book. If the priest is still alive, he will realise that they are the treasures of not-King Arthur's land: the King, the Land, the People, the Faith and the Law.

Ok, fair enough, but the things making up the adventure itself are a bit underwhelming. You've got things seemingly plunked in to challenge players without making any sense in context. There's a Gorgon (which is from another mythology to begin with) that presumably has spent the last 500 years sitting around in a corridor doing nothing. To get past her, you'll want to use the helmet with the mirrored visor that just happens to have been in a previous corridor for no reason, guarded by a Giant Spider that doesn't have any easy access in or out of the tomb. What does it eat? You've got 2 magic fountains, and one of them is full of acid, but if you drink using a silver goblet you found earlier it protects you from the effects of passing through a magic gateway. There's no clues to having to use the goblet for this.

Chapter Ten
The last chapter has a little more advice about fantasy role-playing. Not "fantasy rôle-playing" in this chapter for some reason. This is fairly basic stuff, about deciding on your characters attitudes towards things, and coming up with a backstory. It mentions that Dragon Warriors doesn't have tables for this, it's something PCs and the GM should come up with, something Morris seemed to have changed his mind on later in the series. It also mentions the worth of developing the local setting and talks a bit about strategy and tactics and hiring NPCs. Nowdays, this seems rather redundant, of course, but it also seems a bit redundant as the book already has included some of this before.

To sum up the book, the rules seem to be solid, if simple, there are some issues there but nothing game-breaking. It definitely could have used some editing, the organisation of the content isn't great, and there'd be problems if you were trying to look up certain rules which aren't in obvious places. However, most of those aren't important. I'd be nice if the information about securing lodging and how Sorcerors usually aren't allowed in monasteries would have been in the Chapter about travelling, but it's hardly essential.

On the definite plus side (or at least the definite not minus side), the book at no time tries to be "edgy" or otherwise makes you grab for the brain bleach. No child abuse, rape, racism, use of real atrocities in offensive ways or unnatural acts with animals. Ok, damning with faint praise there, but that's hardly a given in RPGs. Good, wholesome, malicious sprite hitting fun.

As mentioned, the selling point of the series is the setting and world-building, and that hasn't really gotten going yet, but will develop over the next few books. And almost entirely forget you could choose an Elf or Dwarf character.

[Whipstitch]

But both are obviously better than a Flails or a Mace (d6, 4 points), or a Staff (d6, 3 points). I see no reason for ever wanting one of those.

They're probably just covering their bases with some bullshit civvy weapons in case the PCs get in a pissing match with some shit covered peasants. Not a bad goal, really, but all too often old school games of this sort get exhaustive where a broad category or two would have done just fine.

[Thaluikhain]

They're probably just covering their bases with some bullshit civvy weapons in case the PCs get in a pissing match with some shit covered peasants. Not a bad goal, really, but all too often old school games of this sort get exhaustive where a broad category or two would have done just fine.

Mostly, yeah, NPC weapons, but in later books some other Professions either have sub-optimal weapons or the option of taking obviously worse equipment (or both).

[amethal]

[quote="Thaluikhain]There's Orcs that serve any evil master they can find.
[/quote]
There was an interview with Dave Morris where he said he included Orcs because he felt he had to, but he never used them in his home games as they didn't fit the feel of the game.

[Thaluikhain]

[quote="Thaluikhain]There's Orcs that serve any evil master they can find.

There was an interview with Dave Morris where he said he included Orcs because he felt he had to, but he never used them in his home games as they didn't fit the feel of the game.[/quote]

I'd have guessed it was something like that for Orcs, and certain other creatures like Dwarves and Halflings and the PC Elves.

[angelfromanotherpin]

To sum up the book, the rules seem to be solid, if simple, there are some issues there but nothing game-breaking.

There actually is a game-breaking issue, which is hard to quote because it's a simple absence. The stealth and perception (or rather, STEALTH and PERCEPTION) rules don't exist until book 4, which wasn't published until the year after Book 1 came out. An adventure game of this kind can't afford to return 404 to the question 'Do I see orc?' It's too fundamental.

[Thaluikhain]

To sum up the book, the rules seem to be solid, if simple, there are some issues there but nothing game-breaking.

There actually is a game-breaking issue, which is hard to quote because it's a simple absence. The stealth and perception (or rather, STEALTH and PERCEPTION) rules don't exist until book 4, which wasn't published until the year after Book 1 came out. An adventure game of this kind can't afford to return 404 to the question 'Do I see orc?' It's too fundamental.

True, though I think he was going for "everyone sees each other unless otherwise specified or someone gets surprise, cause this is rules-lite". Excepting, of course, that apparently he changed his mind and stuck those rules in later.

[Nath]

[Elves are super special, though stated not to have souls. Fairly standard.

Rule-wise, the lack of a soul prevents elves from being resurrected by most techniques. Not a big difference before level 8-10 when such spells become available.

Once a magician reaches level 10, resurrection is rather cheap. It requires no reagent or anything. It only prevent the magician from casting spell above level 5 (*) for the rest of the day and the resurrected character suffer from reduced Strentgth and Reflexes for a week. So besides the fact that it must be performed within 28 days, dead is not a big issue. Unless the body is destroyed, that is.

(* Unlike D&D, character level and spell level are the same thing in DW: you can cast 10th level spell when you're a 10th level magician)

[Thaluikhain]

Once a magician reaches level 10, resurrection is rather cheap. It requires no reagent or anything. It only prevent the magician from casting spell above level 5 (*) for the rest of the day and the resurrected character suffer from reduced Strentgth and Reflexes for a week. So besides the fact that it must be performed within 28 days, dead is not a big issue. Unless the body is destroyed, that is.

And 1d3 health points permanently, though. Not huge, but you don't have too many of those.

Also, a Rank 10 character probably means you're running a campaign with way less instant kills in it that the authors seem to like.