Review: Core Boxed Set – Dragonbane

Overview

Concise rules book, good/very good adventure campaign (10 short adventures), and lots of extras
The tactical battle may appeal to some and turn off others. While I don’t think I’d want to make a steady diet of 5-foot grid movement and combat, it’s a nice mental change of pace from Shadowdark’s near/far units.

The Dragonbane rules are very concise and have covered 90% of our questions that arise during game. Comprehensive without being bloated.
The Secret of the Dragon Emperor campaign is very good so far. We’ve run Dead Eyes Cave and the intro goblin fight, and it’s been fun.
Coming up on our sixth session. There’s been a wait list for a lot of sessions, which indicates lots of eager Dragonbane players who haven’t been able to find a game locally.
The boxed set materials are top-notch. Standees, color pre-gens, dice. Whatever you need to run a Dragonbane intro campaign, this box set has it.

Not all the adventures in the Dragon Emperor campaign are equally good, and the adventures suffer a bit from a plot disconnect. Each adventure was written by a different author, so there’s some frayed edges.
The Lost Inn, especially, is a weak link. I watched the Adventure Archive’s actual play of this specific adventure, and everyone seemed lost re: the plot and storyline. Plus, a large, ornate inn doesn’t fit with the frontier Misty Vale.
Dragonbane focuses in dice rolls way more than Shadowdark. Characters can generally assume some competence with a few skills, but it’s much more akin to Call of Cthulhu, Elfquest, or Runequest, where each character has a niche or subset of skills they are good at, and are incompetent otherwise.