The Inside Scoop on Gaming

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I first came across this neat little series. You get a complete roleplaying game with the first two books, and it cost about $20 (Aus, that is) - very good value for money.

The series consists of six books:

Dragon Warriors, which gives you the combat rules, creatures, basic mechanics, equipment, and the two warrior classes (Knight and Barbarian).
The Way of Wizardry, which gives you the magic rules, including magical items and the two wizard classes (Sorcerer and Mystic).
The Elven Crystals, a series of linked adventures for low ranked characters.
Out of the Shadows, with rules for Assassins (a new character class), more creatures, and new stealth and perception rules. Also contains rules for "mighty heroes" (8th+ rank characters).
The Power Of Darkness, with rules for a new class (Elementalists), rules for Madness, and a good series of adventures.
Lands of Legend, a campaign world with a new character class (Warlocks) and an adventure for higher level characters designed to introduce some of the more exotic races in the world.

The game is a definite D&D clone in many ways (the dice, the hit roll) although it has a few quirks (armour is handled differently, for example). It works pretty well as a replacement for the "Basic" D&D (it falls far short of Advanced, though).

I suspect it's about book 2 where most experienced roleplayers will start to feel constrained. While the magic using classes in Dragon Warriors are able to create all sorts of magical items (yes, yes, I know that technically this is the case with D&D, but it's always been an afterthought; here, there are rules for it), they can't create new spells. So all 8th rank Sorcerers have the same repetoire of spells, for example. Furthermore, there's very little difference between one 10th ranked Barbarian and another, for that matter, as magical items are far less important in Dragon Warriors than (say) D&D.

The only real waste in the series was book 5 (Elementalists are completely unplayable except for Darkness Elementalists, which are NPC only), and even there you get some nice adventures.

The major attraction of the game is the price. You can mine all of the books for introductory - advanced adventures that are pretty easy to adapt to the fantasy system of your choice, and Book 6 contains relatively little system specific information.

The major pitfall of the game is that it's showing it's age: random 3d6 character generation (with lasting effects; just like D&D, you're pretty much stuck with that 5 Strength for life), levels and experience points, and the old "kill this monster to improve my ability at spellcasting" paradigm. Makes a reasonable introductory game, if you can find it second hand somewhere, but more experienced gamers will want something meatier.

Style: 2 (Needs Work)
Substance: 3 (Average)

Topics	Author	Date	Latest Reply
Review (1) new	Wayne	04-17-2001 11:49	04-17-2001 11:49 new
Dragon Warriors WebPage (1) new	Justin	03-02-2001 01:14	03-02-2001 01:14 new
Dragon Warriors = The Ultimate Roleplaying Game! (1) new	Bryndll	08-10-2000 18:56	08-10-2000 18:56 new
Correction (3) new	Jim Dyer	08-08-2000 07:15	08-09-2000 04:50 new

Dragon Warriors
Author: Dave Morris Category: game Company/Publisher: Penguin Books Line: Dragon Warriors Capsule Review by Gary Sturgess on 07/27/00. Genre tags: Fantasy	A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away, I first came across this neat little series. You get a complete roleplaying game with the first two books, and it cost about $20 (Aus, that is) - very good value for money. The series consists of six books: Dragon Warriors, which gives you the combat rules, creatures, basic mechanics, equipment, and the two warrior classes (Knight and Barbarian). The Way of Wizardry, which gives you the magic rules, including magical items and the two wizard classes (Sorcerer and Mystic). The Elven Crystals, a series of linked adventures for low ranked characters. Out of the Shadows, with rules for Assassins (a new character class), more creatures, and new stealth and perception rules. Also contains rules for "mighty heroes" (8th+ rank characters). The Power Of Darkness, with rules for a new class (Elementalists), rules for Madness, and a good series of adventures. Lands of Legend, a campaign world with a new character class (Warlocks) and an adventure for higher level characters designed to introduce some of the more exotic races in the world. The game is a definite D&D clone in many ways (the dice, the hit roll) although it has a few quirks (armour is handled differently, for example). It works pretty well as a replacement for the "Basic" D&D (it falls far short of Advanced, though). I suspect it's about book 2 where most experienced roleplayers will start to feel constrained. While the magic using classes in Dragon Warriors are able to create all sorts of magical items (yes, yes, I know that technically this is the case with D&D, but it's always been an afterthought; here, there are rules for it), they can't create new spells. So all 8th rank Sorcerers have the same repetoire of spells, for example. Furthermore, there's very little difference between one 10th ranked Barbarian and another, for that matter, as magical items are far less important in Dragon Warriors than (say) D&D. The only real waste in the series was book 5 (Elementalists are completely unplayable except for Darkness Elementalists, which are NPC only), and even there you get some nice adventures. The major attraction of the game is the price. You can mine all of the books for introductory - advanced adventures that are pretty easy to adapt to the fantasy system of your choice, and Book 6 contains relatively little system specific information. The major pitfall of the game is that it's showing it's age: random 3d6 character generation (with lasting effects; just like D&D, you're pretty much stuck with that 5 Strength for life), levels and experience points, and the old "kill this monster to improve my ability at spellcasting" paradigm. Makes a reasonable introductory game, if you can find it second hand somewhere, but more experienced gamers will want something meatier. Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 3 (Average)