What's Dragon Warriors and is it any good?

vomitbrown · March 02, 2009, 10:59:14 PM

I recently stumbled into Dragon Warriors while checking up on Mong Traveller. It seems pretty interesting, I was wondering if any of you guys have played it? If so, is it an old-school dungeon crawler or something a bit more Runesquesty?

arminius · March 03, 2009, 01:55:08 AM

It's more D&D-y than Runequesty mechanically, but the atmosphere is a little more consistently Dark Ages--like a serious version of Monty Python & the Holy Grail, if you can imagine that.

Drew · March 03, 2009, 06:10:13 AM

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;286882It's more D&D-y than Runequesty mechanically, but the atmosphere is a little more consistently Dark Ages--like a serious version of Monty Python & the Holy Grail, if you can imagine that.

I use elements of John Boorman's Excalibur as my primary visual reference - namely the parts before Excalibur is found and after it's lost. Wild-eyed knights in dirty plate armour, brutal combat and dark, folkloric sorcery informs much of the setting as I read it.

In system terms it plays like early Basic D&D without the steep power curve. The fighting classes start at around twelve hit points and gain only one point per level thereafter. Defence scales upward, so combat is more about not getting hit than being whittled away by a dozen cuts.

mhensley · March 03, 2009, 10:34:06 AM

I just read up on this game over on some rpg.net threads- it sounds interesting and I'm tempted to buy it now. Does anyone have an example character they can post?

other threads here-

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=13064

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=12674

vomitbrown · March 03, 2009, 01:34:04 PM

Can Dragon Warriors work as a competent Dungeon-crawler? Kind of like Labyrinth Lord.

Drew · March 03, 2009, 02:50:51 PM

Quote from: mhensley;286925I just read up on this game over on some rpg.net threads- it sounds interesting and I'm tempted to buy it now. Does anyone have an example character they can post?

Not to hand, but there's a copy of the character sheet at the bottom of the page vomitbrown linked to above.

Drew · March 03, 2009, 02:56:47 PM

Quote from: vomitbrown;286976Can Dragon Warriors work as a competent Dungeon-crawler? Kind of like Labyrinth Lord.

It can, although DW dungeons tend to be smaller and more focussed than their D&D counterparts. Barrows, shrines, small cave complexes etc. They're not traditional underground complexes built by wizards or dwarves but thematic relics of the pseudo-historical setting.

mhensley · March 03, 2009, 04:24:43 PM

Quote from: Drew;286988Not to hand, but there's a copy of the character sheet at the bottom of the page vomitbrown linked to above.

No problem, I found this great preview of the rulebook here-

http://www.magnumopuspress.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dragon-warriors-rulebook-sampler.pdf

arminius · March 03, 2009, 06:43:19 PM

Quote from: Drew;286902I use elements of John Boorman's Excalibur as my primary visual reference - namely the parts before Excalibur is found and after it's lost. Wild-eyed knights in dirty plate armour, brutal combat and dark, folkloric sorcery informs much of the setting as I read it.

It's funny, for some reason I never thought to link the two films. Unless I'm misremembering, they even use some of the same music.

QuoteIn system terms it plays like early Basic D&D without the steep power curve. The fighting classes start at around twelve hit points and gain only one point per level thereafter.

I was going to say something about this but I've only read through the rules once and I wasn't sure. I've noticed this is a common feature of early D&D follow-ons--give about 2-3x the HP at first level, but then a slower rate of increase after that.

BTW the rules used to be available at Home of the Underdogs, but that site has gone down not long ago. (About which more here.)

Drew · March 03, 2009, 07:01:49 PM

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;287026BTW the rules used to be available at Home of the Underdogs, but that site has gone down not long ago. (About which more here.)

I hope they get up and running again soon. Underdogs was a great resource for obscure, out of print gaming books.

arminius · March 03, 2009, 07:12:53 PM

It looks like a group is reorganizing as we speak.

BTW I guess I am misremembering the music thing--I had a scene firmly embedded in my mind of the ship voyage up to Castle Aaargh with Siegfried's death march (Wagner) as the music. But while that was used in Excalibur, MPatHG used something else (a bit more bombastic but otherwise similar in feel).

Soylent Green · March 03, 2009, 07:15:41 PM

Quote from: vomitbrown;286976Can Dragon Warriors work as a competent Dungeon-crawler? Kind of like Labyrinth Lord.

Probably not. One of the features of classic dungeon crawls is the vast assortment of critters and treasures. From what I remember, DW was pretty basic on that front.

The selling point of the system is the setting which is more rooted in Medieval British folklore than Tolkien which may or many not appeal. The system is just put there to allow you to explore this setting rather than strong game engine its own right, if that makes any sense.

Drew · March 03, 2009, 07:21:31 PM

Quote from: Elliot Wilen;287026It's funny, for some reason I never thought to link the two films. Unless I'm misremembering, they even use some of the same music.

Yes, I consider Excalibur to be the forgotten classic of early 80s fantasy movies. I still find it enormously compelling, particularly Nicol Williamson's portrayal of Merlin, which I consider to be a work of minor genius. His performance had a huge impact on how I thought about wizards in my early gaming career, and helped me realise that they could be far more varied and nuanced than Gandalf the Grey.

RandallS · March 03, 2009, 11:22:12 PM

Quote from: Soylent Green;287033Probably not. One of the features of classic dungeon crawls is the vast assortment of critters and treasures. From what I remember, DW was pretty basic on that front.

The 4th volume of the original set added a large number of monsters. The ones in the first book were fairly similar to the variety in the original OD&D set as I recall, although there were not quite as many monsters.