[Fantasy Friday] Free League’s Dragonbane Two-For-One Kickstarter.
Mein Gott, ISC followers!
The the new year and most industry professionals and promoters et al. all settled in from post-Christmas break, there is a veritable tsunami of content flying at us from every direction! I get why people drill down into super-niche topic scope, because this is just plain whack.
It’s a wonderful problem to have, though. Especially when many of us could use a really good distraction not only from the three-ring circus that has been the years’ geopolitical climate, news-feed cycle, rapidly-but-inexorably deteriorating digital app ecosystem, etc.
Sometimes it’s great to just take pause and find a hobby medium that isn’t completely tethered to a screen. As one who endured the worlds’-longest-lockdowns back in Melbourne during the Really Spicy Days of Spicy Cough, I’d pinpoint that time as particularly motivating in orienting me towards new hobbies like board gaming/solo board gaming, more pen-and-paper RPG’s, arts, et cetera.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like the speed, volume and intensity of all things digital is hitting a brick wall VERY hard against a concomitant decline in quality. AI-slop reigns supreme, our primary forms of social communication online are slowly splintering as we realise the folly of decades in walled-garden app ecosystem oligarchies, etc - phew.
Hence, let’s literally break away from that and, rather than roll our eyes at the 800 billionth Tweet about Orange Man or whatever, enjoy some things that’d received care, passion and finesse as much for the sake of the craft as the finished product.
So yes, that’s my ADHD thought-disordered way of saying in essence - we be doing Fantasy Friday in place of Tabletop Thursday this week, lol.
Let’s get nerdy. Begin.
Peace, Love and Grindcore xoxo - Brady.
THE GREAT NEW ONES: Some Cool New Stuff!
Secrets of Luvaatan - Two New Supplements for DragonbanE:
A third party adventure and a campaign book for Dragonbane!
Were I one who wasn’t copping the life and blog-admin double-thrashing of a lifetime and had some time, I’d be very keen to give this system a go, personally. From all accounts across the blogiverse, the reaction to the redo of a classic Swedish TTRPG canonical title by Free League Publishing has been a critical-hit smash success in the tabletop RPG scene.
Quoting the publishers directly from the mouths of Svenska babes, via the official website:
“Dragonbane is a classic fantasy tabletop roleplaying game full of magic, mystery, and adventure. It is designed from the ground up to facilitate fast and furious play, with very little prep time and adventures that are a breeze to run. This is a game with room for laughs at the table, while still offering brutal challenges for the adventurers. We call this playstyle “mirth and mayhem roleplaying” – great for long campaigns, but also perfect for a one-shot.
Dragonbane is a translation of Drakar och Demoner, Scandinavia’s first and biggest tabletop RPG, originally launched in 1982. This new and reimagined edition has one foot firmly planted in the heritage of decades of Swedish gaming and the other in the modern and innovative game design for which Free League Publishing is known worldwide.”
My brother in blackened, folkish death-metal - JUST LOOK AT SOME OF THIS ART FFS!:
“And what of Secrets of Luvaatan, dearest Blog-GM?”
Weary traveller, I’m glad you asked!
Secrets of Luvaatan is an adventure with horror influences. The characters must unravel a mystery while staying alive on the inhospitable island.
From the content:
• A detailed description of the island of Luvaatan
• Background and synopsis of the adventure
• Several well-described adventure locations on the island
• Lots of suggestions for events
• An open ending that you create together
• Handouts in the book (and as a pdf) in the form of letters and diary entries for the characters
• About 84 pages, all in color
• The adventure is written by Daniel Lehto with the help of Abraham Jidah and illustrated by Peter Svärd.
This Kickstarter page is so metal-coded that I had to write this promo-piece to Waking The Cadaver and 1349 just to keep up with the Gruumsch vibes. For real.
[Author’s Note: My biggest Vince McMahon meme grin]
In Hardships of the Wilderness, both the player and the Gamemaster are given tools to help them play. From the content:
• Wilderness Magic - a new school of magic with 19 spells
• 10 different herbs and plants that can be useful to the Mage or wanderer
• 3 new abilities
• 1 new Profession
• 1 new Kin
• Tips for the wilderness magician
• Table of events for the wilderness
• Table for weather and wind
[Author’s Note: Flag a very extensive review of the Forbidden Lands RPG system for a later blog piece and podcast episode. It’s too good and there’s too much to cover. Suffice to say, the fact there’s crossover here with the Dragonbane series as an OSR-esque d20 system with one of my fantasy d6 faves is just… oh lordy. Also, I’ve gotta get my grubby mits on the ‘Bane corebook already!]
(Ja, förresten, jag använde bara Google Translate för den här delen - förlåt Sverige) - de har till och med skrivit halva Kickstarter-sidan på svenska, vilket är en fin nationell pride touch enligt mig! Free League ger också regelbundet ut sina nyhetsbrev på både engelska och svenska.
Average based ISC-Enjoyer, peering keenly at the Kickstarter link with Conan blasting at full volume (naturally).
To quote our Svenska-darls directly about the stellar contributors to the current product/s:
Abraham Jidah - Writer
Writer with a keen interest in fantasy, mythology, science fiction and horror. Has written the book Reaper's Origins Hellfire: Ignited and has more in the pipeline. Abraham has a degree in Literature and Creative Writing from Umeå University and is also an avid gamer. His passion for both cosmic horror and game design made him a perfect fit for Secrets of Luvaatan.
Daniel Lehto - Writer and Editor
Daniel runs the company, writes and does the layout. He has been a roleplaying enthusiast for 40 years, and his first roleplaying game was Drakar och Demoner (Dragonbane) in 1983. He has been active in the hobby with his own games, but has also worked for other games such as Call of Cthulhu Sweden, Chock - åter från graven and done layouts for Helmgasts Kult.
Marie Östling - Editor
Marie is an author and editor. She is a roleplayer since childhood, a literary scholar, and extremely well-read. Her favorite game is Dungeons & Dragons. She has previously worked on the texts for our Swedish game Sagospelet Skräck and the supplement Tornedalens mysterier, as well as the Swedish editions of the third-party Dragonbane books Den brända jorden, Vildmarkens varelser and Bordonius öde, as well as written the adventure Durgaz arvtagare.
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