I'm intrigued by this as I've been looking for a rules-light OSE/C&C alternative with some interesting flavor. The mechanics are simple, but different enough, and I love the look and feel of the game. The character sheet, in particular, is great! I won't even bother with a game where the character sheet is longer than two sides.
I'm especially impressed by how the concepts are so easy to communicate to a 5e literate gamer, so while being it's own individual game, it's easy to get players involved from the first session.
Nice design & artwork. Looks like a good system for introducing new players or for younger players. I am curious to see how the main rulebook is different.
It looks really interesting, really good for introducing more recent players to the idea there are other games than D&D, without them having to relearn everything.
I like a few things here. Taking conditions when you push a roll is neat (and from what I understand, you could push any of your attributes 6 times, each time marking off one condition), armor having a bonus depending on which type of attack you're receiving is pretty good, weapons potentially getting banes when used to parry (but IMO they should break if you had to take a second bane), and Willpower as a resource pool for special abilities and for powering spells is also neat. Curious about how Motivation will work to help increase your skills, although it will probably be just like in Forbidden Lands (more experience points for those that pursue their motivations or something like that). Didn't like the rules for Dodging (you fall to the ground when performing it) nor to Parrying either, because it counts as you action. If they're using cards for Initiative (necessarily), then they could use the cards to indicate that you have done your action but not a reaction by "tapping" the card (rotating it 90 degrees as in Magic: The Gathering). And speaking of that, they could also offer some more elaborate rules for Initiative, like if your character has a certain Agility rating or above, you could select from a secondary deck of cards that has lower numbered cards in them (or face cards, jokers or whatever). That could slow down the game somewhat, though, and at that point it could be quicker just to roll the dice... But it would consider the quickness of the characters in choosing who goes in which order. "Waiting" is a weird mechanic as well... But it's fine considering that Initiative is completely random. Also, counting just the lower result as a success when performing opposed rolls is kinda weird. Because a character with a much lower skill but with a boon would have a higher chance of scoring a critical hit against a character with a higher skill and no boons. They would have a lower overall chance of hitting that character, but a higher chance of doing a crit. Only 5%, though, so not that much of an increase. All in all they went for simplicity and that worked in their favor for some things, against in some other things. EDIT: Re-reading my other comment on Dragonbane, I don't know why I thought Skills worked like those in BECMI D&D, maybe because it's a roll-under system. But in that game you didn't have skill ratings, you'd roll against the corresponding Attribute.
There's a lot to like in these rules. But they are rather simplistic in operation, even compared to D&D 5e, which is a worry (while I like other things in the system, I'm not a fan of the skill system). I get the feeling Dodging and Parry are things you "can" do, but they're just in there as an option for players, and in regular combat it should just be like D&D and you're attacking and doing damage. The conditions are one of my favourite elements of the system, and they take the rules for pushing in a rather more sensible direction than they are used in Twilight 2k or Alien.
Yeah, it's not great. While it might make sense in D&D where armor class takes into account a certain amount of dodging around in combat, so a dodge would be a full round action, it makes little sense here.
Do note that getting up from prone doesn't effect your movement in this game, so that only really comes into effect if you're dodging outside of your own turn. You can stand up or go prone for free on your turn but you can only do one or the other so dodging out of melee range and then running away as normal is perfectly possible. You just can't willingly go prone again on that same turn. Outside of your turn, as a reaction to getting hit, is another story. I assume it's meant to be a way to incentivize parrying since dodging is generally more useful than parrying and doesn't risk weapon breakage but parrying doesn't leave you as open to subsequent attacks.
Thanks for the breakdown. This game is exactly the result of smashing 5e and Free League's other fantasy game, Forbidden Lands, together. I like a lot of things about Forbidden Lands so this just seems like a worse version of that.
The problem with D&D's extra d20 roll for Advantages and Disadvantages is that it's just a game mechanics "fix" for the failings and sheer randomness (5%) of a d20. Often when rolling two d20s, you will get a good separation of high and low results just because a d20 is so random. The more random the roll and the rolling range, the less of an impact or importance the skill level is. Only combined dice of say 2d6, 2d8, 2d10, 2d12, etc. create a median value range, therefore, making skill level a little more consistent and more meaningful. With a Skill level of 5 against a Medium DC (Difficulty Class) of 15 with 100 rolls of a d20 will be an average failure rate (1-9) of 45% and a success rate (10-20) of 55%. With a Skill level of 5 against a Medium DC (Difficulty Class) of 15 with 100 rolls of 2d10 will be an average failure rate (1-9) of 36% and a success rate (10-20) of 64%.
Absolutely. As a method of making tasks more or less difficult it's not great, especially for D&D which has target numbers built in to do that already. Makes me worry about it being the only way of increasing or decreasing difficulty in Dragonbane.
My first job was working in a shop beneath a 400 year old tower, which had statues of William Wallace wearing chain mail. So pretty sure it did exist. But you're 100% right about studded leather, it's a creation of D&D, and was probably supposed to represent brigandine armour (cloth base, with leather stitched onto it, with metal plates between), which would have many of the features that studded leather has in D&D (more silent than metal armours, but tougher than leather).
@@magnuswendin7924 True, but the issue is that D&D wants DMs to use and borrow from medieval culture and history. D&D leaves the burden on the shoulders of the DM to figure out. It also teaches DMs that chainmail and studded leather were actually historical when they weren't. At least 9 out of 10 DMs believe chainmail was real history. No, it was never called that. It was just called Maile.
I'm intrigued by this as I've been looking for a rules-light OSE/C&C alternative with some interesting flavor. The mechanics are simple, but different enough, and I love the look and feel of the game. The character sheet, in particular, is great! I won't even bother with a game where the character sheet is longer than two sides.
I'm especially impressed by how the concepts are so easy to communicate to a 5e literate gamer, so while being it's own individual game, it's easy to get players involved from the first session.
Nice design & artwork. Looks like a good system for introducing new players or for younger players. I am curious to see how the main rulebook is different.
It looks really interesting, really good for introducing more recent players to the idea there are other games than D&D, without them having to relearn everything.
As always a fair and wonderful take on a game. Good job.
Thank you kindly! Your kind comments as always are very much appreciated.
Another great video!
Any plans to present now the complete rules of Dragonbane?
Great idea, I'll put it in the list of options for the polls to see the interest in it. Thanks for the idea and the kind words.
I like a few things here. Taking conditions when you push a roll is neat (and from what I understand, you could push any of your attributes 6 times, each time marking off one condition), armor having a bonus depending on which type of attack you're receiving is pretty good, weapons potentially getting banes when used to parry (but IMO they should break if you had to take a second bane), and Willpower as a resource pool for special abilities and for powering spells is also neat.
Curious about how Motivation will work to help increase your skills, although it will probably be just like in Forbidden Lands (more experience points for those that pursue their motivations or something like that).
Didn't like the rules for Dodging (you fall to the ground when performing it) nor to Parrying either, because it counts as you action. If they're using cards for Initiative (necessarily), then they could use the cards to indicate that you have done your action but not a reaction by "tapping" the card (rotating it 90 degrees as in Magic: The Gathering). And speaking of that, they could also offer some more elaborate rules for Initiative, like if your character has a certain Agility rating or above, you could select from a secondary deck of cards that has lower numbered cards in them (or face cards, jokers or whatever). That could slow down the game somewhat, though, and at that point it could be quicker just to roll the dice... But it would consider the quickness of the characters in choosing who goes in which order. "Waiting" is a weird mechanic as well... But it's fine considering that Initiative is completely random.
Also, counting just the lower result as a success when performing opposed rolls is kinda weird. Because a character with a much lower skill but with a boon would have a higher chance of scoring a critical hit against a character with a higher skill and no boons. They would have a lower overall chance of hitting that character, but a higher chance of doing a crit. Only 5%, though, so not that much of an increase.
All in all they went for simplicity and that worked in their favor for some things, against in some other things.
EDIT: Re-reading my other comment on Dragonbane, I don't know why I thought Skills worked like those in BECMI D&D, maybe because it's a roll-under system. But in that game you didn't have skill ratings, you'd roll against the corresponding Attribute.
There's a lot to like in these rules. But they are rather simplistic in operation, even compared to D&D 5e, which is a worry (while I like other things in the system, I'm not a fan of the skill system).
I get the feeling Dodging and Parry are things you "can" do, but they're just in there as an option for players, and in regular combat it should just be like D&D and you're attacking and doing damage.
The conditions are one of my favourite elements of the system, and they take the rules for pushing in a rather more sensible direction than they are used in Twilight 2k or Alien.
One thing i don't like is that dodging will have you prone lying on the ground.
Yeah, it's not great. While it might make sense in D&D where armor class takes into account a certain amount of dodging around in combat, so a dodge would be a full round action, it makes little sense here.
Do note that getting up from prone doesn't effect your movement in this game, so that only really comes into effect if you're dodging outside of your own turn. You can stand up or go prone for free on your turn but you can only do one or the other so dodging out of melee range and then running away as normal is perfectly possible. You just can't willingly go prone again on that same turn. Outside of your turn, as a reaction to getting hit, is another story. I assume it's meant to be a way to incentivize parrying since dodging is generally more useful than parrying and doesn't risk weapon breakage but parrying doesn't leave you as open to subsequent attacks.
Thank you for the superb breakdown.
My absolute pleasure!
Thanks for the breakdown. This game is exactly the result of smashing 5e and Free League's other fantasy game, Forbidden Lands, together. I like a lot of things about Forbidden Lands so this just seems like a worse version of that.
I kind of liked what they did. But it does seem rather simplistic even compared to 5e, and that's saying something.
@@BanjoSick yes, it was opposite day when I wrote that.
The problem with D&D's extra d20 roll for Advantages and Disadvantages is that it's just a game mechanics "fix" for the failings and sheer randomness (5%) of a d20. Often when rolling two d20s, you will get a good separation of high and low results just because a d20 is so random. The more random the roll and the rolling range, the less of an impact or importance the skill level is. Only combined dice of say 2d6, 2d8, 2d10, 2d12, etc. create a median value range, therefore, making skill level a little more consistent and more meaningful. With a Skill level of 5 against a Medium DC (Difficulty Class) of 15 with 100 rolls of a d20 will be an average failure rate (1-9) of 45% and a success rate (10-20) of 55%. With a Skill level of 5 against a Medium DC (Difficulty Class) of 15 with 100 rolls of 2d10 will be an average failure rate (1-9) of 36% and a success rate (10-20) of 64%.
Absolutely. As a method of making tasks more or less difficult it's not great, especially for D&D which has target numbers built in to do that already. Makes me worry about it being the only way of increasing or decreasing difficulty in Dragonbane.
Historically chainmail and studded leather did not exist.
My first job was working in a shop beneath a 400 year old tower, which had statues of William Wallace wearing chain mail. So pretty sure it did exist. But you're 100% right about studded leather, it's a creation of D&D, and was probably supposed to represent brigandine armour (cloth base, with leather stitched onto it, with metal plates between), which would have many of the features that studded leather has in D&D (more silent than metal armours, but tougher than leather).
@@RPGGamer Yes, mail or "maille" existed, but not the name chainmail. D&D ignorantly popularized the name chainmail.
@@andynonimuss6298D&D isn't a historical game though.
@@magnuswendin7924 True, but the issue is that D&D wants DMs to use and borrow from medieval culture and history. D&D leaves the burden on the shoulders of the DM to figure out. It also teaches DMs that chainmail and studded leather were actually historical when they weren't. At least 9 out of 10 DMs believe chainmail was real history. No, it was never called that. It was just called Maile.