Let’s Get Dangerous
A Dragonbane Solo RPG Gameplay
Content Warning:
Language, Discussion of Fantasy Races, Absent Parents, Social Difficulty Stemming from Introversion
Let’s Get Dangerous follows the story of Irondown, who braves the perilously deep rift of Deepfall Breach. Miles and miles of underground passages, caverns and ruins left by the ruinous strike of an ancient demon’s spear. On his explorations into the Breach, he’ll be guided by an old demon slayer turned hermit priest who watches over the place with an enchanted eye from a nameless chapel at its edge.
Dragonbane is self-described as a game of magic, mystery, and adventure. It has a very long legacy in Sweden (the game is exactly as old as I am) and this newest edition by Free League is meant to bring the old classic to an international audience. They advertise the game as fast and easy, something engaging that doesn’t take a billion years to jump into and have fun with. Based on what I’ve read, I’m inclined to believe it…but also, a lot of people make that claim. More and moreso in recent days, where the audience as a whole is tired from dealing with “unprecedented times.” So, I don’t know, we’ll see. Free League says that they’ve created a toolbox game which will allow room for a playstyle filled with what they call “mirth and mayhem.” And that, I’m less inclined to buy. Not because it’s not possible, but because every game I’ve ever played has room for one or the other of those. It’s a very generic claim that requires nothing mechanically in place to back it up. I’ve seen dnd players insist that that game provides all sorts of experiences that it doesn’t just because the people they were playing with did and they can’t seem to separate the two things. I mean to say, a game provides whatever experience you make of it and sometimes, sometimes, it will mechanically support and actively facilitate the generation of a certain emotional experience. But let me backtrack that a little, because it sounds so harsh. Those statements are taken from the introduction, written by a person who has a nostalgic connection to the game dating all the way back to when I was a toddler and is now the lead designer on what sounds like their very favorite thing. So I suppose I should try to stop being such a fucking buzzkill.
I’ll be playing through the published solo content for this one. There’s a bit in the core rulebook lorewise, the whole dragons versus demons in ancient times thing, and while it has certainly sparked some ideas (it’s very evocatively written and provides an approach to both creatures which is just slightly adjacent to my typical experiences) the game comes with a solo play mode and I want to see how that pans out. Plus, you know, energy levels and motivation and such makes this the easier and more attractive option at the moment. The only thing that provides a challenge in doing a published adventure is not copy-pasting the adventure text into my own presentation here. So, I guess, I’ll assume you have the text to refer to yourself and I’ll paraphrase those parts. This would probably be easier in video form but I don’t have the confidence to be like Trevor Devall. Which is funny because more than half of the solo projects he’s started on his channel, I have also started at the same time. So apparently I have a good sense of what makes for an entertaining solo gameplay. Now I just need to learn to be entertaining! I’ll also be using the Additional Treasures supplement to help make the reward system a little more interesting.
Character Creation: The Quiet Blacksmith
The first choice in character creation is Kin, which seems like an acceptable replacement for the word race. But I can see we’re still doing that racial ability thing to differentiate our races that all fantasy games seem to love. I still don’t know what the solution is for this but thus far, I’ve landed on racial abilities representing actual, measurable physical differences. This race has wings and thus can fly, that race has claws it can use in attacks or climbing or whatever. Abilities that represent cultural behaviors or dispositions seem wrong to apply to a single race, so I typically ignore that when I see it. I gotta imagine that zealously adhering to oaths and grudges, being super versatile, having a terrible temper, etcetera, are all things that anyone could develop and even hone into a quasi-preternatural ability. I don’t always get this right, either. I think this kind of thing is worth thinking about, though, and it seems like such a small change to any ruleset I don’t see how it can upset anything to just try to change it. So in this case, I’ll just toss all the abilities that make sense to do so into a melting pot and pick one that fits the character I want to build. I know the rulebook says these innate abilities aren’t allowed to be chosen by other kin (le gasp) but I don’t really care.
Right out of the gate, I’m choosing Mallard. I saw a guy in a comment section saying he was going to throw the Mallard out and that this was an obvious thing to do. But that guy is a dumb-dumb doo-doo head and there’s no way I’m not playing as a duck person. Of note, I wonder if this sort of thing is where the idea of mirth and silliness in this game comes from. A lot of the playerbase, according to threads and comment sections I’ve seen, seem to think so. And I mean, I hearken back to Donald Duck, Darkwing Duck, and Ducktales (woo-oo!). I guess there’s a kind of silliness there, yeah. But also, all those IPs had some really cool stories, cartoon or no (this statement included for people who don’t watch “kid’s shows” and don’t know that cartoons can sometimes be really awesome and not just goofy extended toy commercials). For the Innate Ability, I’ll choose the Hobgoblin’s Fearless.
Next, Profession. I almost went Mage here but I do that often so I thought I’d try something else. Fighter’s heroic ability seems like it might gel well with the Army of One heroic ability presented in the Solo rules but I’m feeling uninspired by Fighter. So I think I’ll try something that feels a little off the wall and go with Artisan. As an Artisan, my key attribute will be strength, so we’ve got a buff duck here. I’ll have to choose six of my trained skills from Axes, Brawling, Crafting, Hammers, Knives, Sleight of Hand, Spot Hidden, and Swords. Which is only eight skills to choose from so it doesn’t feel like I have much wiggle room there. I’ll get to those in a minute.
The random tables in the profession section aren’t particularly endearing, either. I’ll take the Blacksmith set of starting equipment cause that’s the Heroic Ability I’m going to take: Master Blacksmith. Gives me a small warhammer, leather armor, blacksmith’s tools, torch, flint and tinder, d8 food rations, and d8 silver. A note on equipment in a bit. Don’t care for any of the nicknames, I’ll figure that out when I name this character later.
I’ll play an Adult, so I’ll get six trained skills from the Artisan list and four that I can choose freely. My attributes will remain unmodified when I choose them. Our blacksmith here is established in a nearby town, let’s say, with his own modest forge. He’s a community minded fellow, who assists his neighbors with his skills and helps the town to grow. I think he’s heard tell of strong materials that lie within the nearby Deepfall Breach, altered in makeup by the lingering energies of the demon spear which opened the rift in the land all those ages ago. He knows it’s dangerous, though, and so has taken some precautions and done some planning for the journey to find out if the rumors are true. I have no idea if anything even remotely like this exists in the published adventure but it doesn’t matter.
I hate dnd ass rolling stats nonsense. Listen, I know I’m a bit of a control freak but that’s honestly not it. Entirely. Random rolling can be fun in games, and especially good for getting right into the meat of the thing. Random rolling removes analysis paralysis, which is the most damned time consuming thing gamers face outside of getting caught up in bullshitting with each other at the table (the latter is fine, far less annoying to the self and others than not being able to make a stupid decision). Buuuut, I feel like I can take a few extra moments to determine the character’s baseline profile, since I’ll be playing him for more than a brief time. I’ll use the book’s suggestion for alternate generation, rolling all the stats into a big pool and distributing them freely. Except, I’ll do it more like, roll them and then push individual points around til I have what I want (which will be easier for me). Let’s see what I get.
11, 13, 16, 14, 14, 10.
Ok, quick analysis. Looks like Strength and Agility far and away affect more stuff, with Agility being favored across the board. Movement, damage bonus, encumbrance, 6 and 12 of the skills respectively (mostly combat), weapon reqs, the swimming, falling, and riding systems, and some other things. Intelligence is more important than I thought it’d be, outside of the expected required for Magic thing. Something like 8 skills, dealing with darkness and adverse temperature conditions. Charisma is, sadly to be expected, the fantasy dump stat, with only like 4 skills and probably an ability or two. Constitution and Willpower are less quantity and more quality, handling your HP and WP (which you use for abilities and to stay alive, I think). All in all, a little disappointing. I hope the other systems make up for this seeming lack. Or that I missed something vital and integral to the way these attributes are utilized.
Anyway, let’s put that 16 in STR and push it to a 17, drop the 10 to 9. The max is 18 but I don’t see an immediate reason to push it that far. Probably because it is, by default, based on a 3d6 random roll system and the 18 has to be there to account for the max roll. Hope I don’t find out there’s more to it later, I guess. I’ll put WIL at the 14 and push it to 16, dropping the 11 to 9. The other 14 goes in CON and the 13 goes to INT. The two remaining 9s each go in AGL and CHA. Am I being needlessly defiant? I hope not. You know what, let’s drop CONs 14 to 13 and move that point to AGL. So final statline:
STR 17, CON 13, AGL 10, INT 13, WIL 16, CHA 9.
I read this that he’s tough and savvy sometimes. I’ll call that worldly experience more than book learning. He’s got his own modest trade and he gets along just fine in the world. So competent, capable. I’m seeing him as resilient but more stubborn than he really has the endurance for. He succeeds through persistence and brute force. Solves problems the same way. Shapes them like he would a sword at his forge until they resemble a shape that pleases him. I don’t think he’s ugly or an asshole or anything. In fact, I think his neighbors quite like him. Rather, I think he’s just kind of introverted and quiet. A little rough around the edges because he doesn’t have a whole lot of practice people-ing. Seems fitting for a solo character, too. Maybe his emerald green feathers are usually ruffled from the heat a little too and that gives him a slightly disheveled appearance I don’t think he pays much mind to. I think he’s methodical and spends a lot of time sitting or standing in a single place. Even moving around is within a limited environment most days, so I can’t imagine that he ever overly developed any significant manner of quickness. Whatever he needs to manage materials with his work but little more than that. I think he’s fond of taking long, meandering walks on off hours to stretch and appreciate the world around him
In terms of Derived Attributes, that puts his Movement at an unmodified value of 8 (which is slow), his Strength Damage Bonus at +d6, his Agility Damage Bonus at nothing, his Hit Points at 13, and his Willpower Points at 16.
For Trained Skills from Artisan, I’ll choose Axes, Crafting, Hammers, Knives, Spot Hidden, and Swords. For my four additional, I’ll choose Awareness, Bushcraft, Healing, and Hunting & Fishing. He’s a blacksmith, so he knows his weaponry and how to make it. And like I said, he’s not a mover, so no need to focus on those skills. Rather, no desire. Need is relative. Filling in the skills is about as simple as dnd 5e but the one extra step they take in converting attribute to base chance seems to give the system a slight bit more robustness. That could just be an illusion, though. He spends a lot of time alone, so I think he’s developed the skills to take care of himself and see to his survival needs. Adjacent to that is being aware of his surroundings to avoid dangerous areas and predators.
As I said, my heroic ability is Master Blacksmith and I’ll take Army of One from the solo rules (solo characters get two heroic abilities to start with, they don’t have to take these but increasing action economy seems like a solid plan). This’ll be more of a stand and deliver thing than a speedy thing.
For my Weakness, I’ll make one up and call this guy Stubborn. He rarely gives up, even when it’s well past time to do so or to try something else. He has solved most problems in life with methodical brute force and this or that problem, whatever it may be, is no different. We’ll get there in the end, he reasons.
Let’s talk about Gear for a quick second. I’m…not a hundred percent sure why Artisans have the equipment packages they have. If I’m a blacksmith, I’m taking Master Blacksmith as my heroic ability. And starting heroic abilities are not affected by prerequisites, so the Crafting 12 requirement doesn’t affect me (even though I totally meet it anyway with a 14). But I say that because I can see how the prereq has been used as a balancing mechanic. Because, as far as I can tell, the Master Blacksmith ability replaces the gold cost for an Artisan with a Willpower point cost. You can spread this cost over time if you run out, crafting over days, weeks, and months. Putting aside that you regain WP throughout the day during your round rest and your stretch rest (I mean, hell, I’d get about a third of my Willpower back to spend again each day), you get it all back during your shift rest. So, in terms of making weapons and armor, all an Artisan character needs is time. And the iron and a forge to do it in, I guess. But what’s weird is that, while we have specificity in how much bloody iron we need to craft things (weight 1 gives us a direct link to limited inventories, or how much we can transport), we don’t have any specificity for, say, how much a forge costs, how much an anvil costs, or even how much iron costs. And like, if you’re going to be handwavy, then friggin be handwavy. I’ve just assumed these costs as part of my background. What’s a blacksmith without a forge? I guess an adventurer blacksmith could build one out of clay like those bushcraft videos on youtube, lol. So it seems like the Artisan’s big class ability is that he’s fully fucking equipped on start, right? Hell, in a party, you could outfit everyone given enough backstory time. Games with downtime systems are often notoriously silly in that you can never be sure when the downtime is going to come exactly. Get something episodic like Blades in the Dark, sure, fine, downtime after each mission. But otherwise, you’re at the mercy of the adventure and the GM. So if my only ability is that I can make things, it doesn’t feel too far out of the realm of possibility that being well equipped at the start is beyond the spirit of the class. I recognize that this many words on the subject feels like rationalization but it isn’t. I’m really just thinking out loud here. After all, it’s my gameplay, I can do whatever I want without the need for justification.
Now, that said, I can certainly see some arguments against it. It might make the early game combat too easy (I’m not sure, the game seems pretty brutal and fast, so I’ll reserve judgment on that til I see it in action). Maybe you’re supposed to be making these rolls in-game and the backstory is off-limits. But I don’t really hold truck with that as a general philosophy. I’m not super willing to put common sense aside just because it might toss the balance (a thing which famously does not exist, actually) off a little.
Ok, so whatever. On average, I figure the blacksmith with 16 WP here can forge a set of Plate Mail in about 20 days (that’s average regen throughout the day each day and a full restart the next). I figure he can make a Morningstar in about half a day, a Longsword (for damage diversity) in a little over a day, and a small mastercrafted shield in about 2 days. Maybe an hour and a half for a dagger, or 45 minutes to crank out a knife. Can’t actually do a dagger and carry it around at hand, so I’ll just make a Knife and put it in my Inventory. I’m strong af, so I have plenty of slots. I’ll use it for bushcraft stuff and field dressing type stuff. That gives him two weapons, a shield, and a set of armor. For a combined total of about less than a month's total worth of work. I said he had taken the time to prepare before, so let’s capitalize on that here and say he spread that over the past year, working on his own gear near the end of each work shift. Really taking his time and never doing too much at once that didn’t have to be done all together. Especially taking time with that shield (which, by the looks of it, is going to break in a couple of hits anyway unless I much misunderstand parrying). He’ll recycle the metal and leather of the equipment package’s weapon and armor into this too, to “keep his costs down” (purely for narrative’s sake).
Lastly, for my Memento, I rolled a “Copper coin from a treasure sought by your mother or father.” Let’s say both were treasure hunters and disappeared when I was young. Leaving me a bit of a duck out of water. The only clue I ever found as to their possible whereabouts was this odd looking coin. I still don’t know where it comes from (it has a foreign stamp design and a triangular shape, totally unlike the simple round coppers I’m used to in my homeland) but I wear it on a cord around my neck. I don’t need to. At this point, I’ve memorized every bit of its surface. But I wear it nonetheless, hoping one day I can cash it in.
That’s it. I’ll call our self-sufficient blacksmith duck Frishberg Waddlemeyer. Nickname, uhhhh, Irondown. Not really because he’s a tough duck but moreso because he’s not a particularly good swimmer.
Works Used
Next: Issue One, Into the Breach, Part 1
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