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Dragon Warriors, for those unfamiliar with it, was released in 1985 and 1986 by Corgi books in a paperback book format, consisting (eventually) of six volumes totalling some 1260-plus pages in paperback size, some 290 thousand words, equivalent in my reckoning equivalent to around a 350 page A4 book. It is many, many years since I've played this beginner's RPG and my recollection was that there wasn't too much to the rules (although they were clean and simple), but the scenarios were great. Given the recent announcement that the game is going to re-released I took the opportunity to drag out my extremely battered copies (yes multiple) of the rules and give it another glance to see if memory served me correct.
The presentation of the rules in this format was somewhat modular; the first book ("Dragon Warriors") provided information for knights and barbarians, the second ("The Way of Wizardry") for mystics and sorcerers, the third ("The Elven Crystals") was a set of four adventures, the fourth ("Out of the Shadows") introduced assassins, the fifth ("The Power of Darkness") provided the Elementalist and the sixth the default campaign world ("The Lands of Legend") along with the Warlock profession (a warrior-mage). By 'somewhat modular' it is noted that when new rules were introduced previously characters had to retrofitted to match the change in circumstances. For example, when rules for Stealth and Perception were added in book four (released in 1986) characters - and monsters - had to have these new scores included. The "distributed rules" does not always make character generation easier.
The artwork throughout the six books was invariably quite good in both technique and imagination; the illustrators (Leo Hartas, Bob Harvey, Jeremy Ford, Russ Nicholson, Geoff Wingate) provided usually contextually appropriate black and white line-drawings and some rather good maps, although the repetitive filler art (a crossbow and a sword and morning star) in the fifth book was disappointing. The colour covers were quite skillful as well, with a giant Buddha-like horned demon with knight and wizard of the fifth book being particularly memorable.
Although the books come with no index, the table of contents in each publication is quite extensive, although only the chapter headings are referenced to actual pages. The writing is very simple and the game was squarely aimed for a younger audience who were probably playing a FPRG for the first time. It is impressive that the authors managed to keep this writing style consistent all the way through, although I did notice the occasional character/player confusion which often creeps into games; the first book, when introducing the 'creatures' chapters notes: "No fantasy game would be complete without a selection of bizarre and dangerous creatures for the players to fight" - hopefully it is the characters not the players who do the fighting!
Character Generation and Task Resolution
Character generation begins with 3d6 rolls for Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and Looks. If two of these scores are below 9 the character may be rerolled. Professions, as previously indicated, are from Knight, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Mystic, Assassin, Elementalist and Warlock. Character profession determines variable initial scores in Health Points, Attack, Defense, Magical Attack, Magical Defense, Evasion and, in later books, Stealth and Perception. Sorcerers and Elementalists will also have a number of magic points. In the cases of Attack and Defense (magical and prosaic) these scores are modified by high or low characteristics.
A character's rank can also determine increases in these abilities. For example, a Knight receives 1d6+7 initial Health Points, whereas a Sorcerer will receive 1d6+4. Every rank the Knight will receive one additional HP, whereas the Sorcerer will receive 1 HP every 2 ranks. These Health Points compare quite well with games of this vintage; a starting character isn't entirely hopeless (Knight average 10.5 HP, Sorcerer 7.5) but nor are characters hyper-powered when high ranked (10th level Knight, 20.5 HP, Sorcerer 12.5 HP). Ranks are achieved through experience point thresholds; experience points are gained with 5-10 for surviving an adventure and 1 experience point per rank of the opponent defeated, whether by wits or by the sword.
In general this is a simple level-progression system and in most cases the progression is obvious; gain a bonus of x every y ranks. There are some odd exceptions however, most prominently the experience point chart (30 experience points for ranks 2, 3 and 4 then 40 for rank 5, 70 for rank 6, 100 for 7, 150 for 8, 200 for 9 and 250 per rank thereafter), and the Magic Point progression for Sorcerers (which increases by 4 points per day for ranks 1, 2, and 3, then 3 points for rank 4, then 4 for ranks 5 and 6, then 2 points for rank 7, back to 3 for 8 and 9, and then finally 4 points thereafter).
The typical task resolution of adventure fantasy role playing games from the eighties was beating up monsters and Dragon Warriors is no exception in this regard. Action in the six second combat round is determined in order of Reflexes. The hit roll is based on a d20 check against the Attack score minus the opponent's Defense score, which can be split against multiple attacks. If a hit is scored then an Armour Bypass Roll is made (variable according to weapon, attempt to score higher than the armour value (e.g., a spear has an Armour Bypass roll of 2d4 against Plate Armour which has a Armour Factor of 5), which varies according to the weapon. If that roll is successful a flat number of HPs is subtracted according to the weapon used (e.g., a Spear does 4 points of damage). High strength gives a bonus to Armour Bypass rolls and damage; low strength has no effect. A shield negates all successful attacks on a roll of 1 on a d6; even critical hits. At 0 HPs a character is unconscious and at -3 they are dead. It's a fairly easy, although somewhat unusual and slightly clumsy system that dosen't always reflect the values that one would expect (e.g., a mace has lower penetration than a short sword). Note that there is little requirement for table referencing during actual play; die rolls provide most of the information required to generate results.
Magic
The second book introduced two magic-using characters, sorcerers and mystics. The former were your standard fantasy magic users, the latter a psionic style of character. Sorcerers gain a number of magic points per day to cast their level-derived spells, which are recovered at midnight whereas Mystics must make a "psychic fatigue" check after each spell casting; if they fail they are mentally exhausted for the day. Sorcerers may also also boost their spells with each magic points but suffer the possibility of miscasting spells if they wear heavy and metal armour. Miscasting is taken quite literally here; apart from expending double magic points, the sorcerer randomly determines which spell they cast from the level grouping instead of the one the intended!
Spell resistance distinguishes from direct (that is, purely magical) and indirect (creating a secondary material effect, e.g., a bolt of fire), the former requiring a magic defense check and the latter usually something like evasion. For example, a character casting an "indirect" Dragonbreath spell rolls 2d10 under their magical attack minus their opponents evasion; whereas a direct "weaken" spell is based on rolling under the caster's magical attack minus the target's magical defense on 2d10. You may certainly wonder why nearly almost every test is based on 2d10 whilst combat is based on d20. Some spells have a duration and expiry; expiry is checked on a roll of 12 on 2d6 each round. Another matter worthy of noting is that sorcerers do not have to carry around spell books; it is assumed that they have learned spells to the level equal to their rank.
Introduced in the fifth book, the Elementalist takes one of five elements (Earth, Wind, Fire, Water - and the all-encompassing Darkness) as their main category and two 'adjacent' elements as their subsidiary. By adjacent the elements are arranged in a chart going from Fire, Earth, Water and Air on a clockwise extreme and Darkness in the middle. Thus a Water Elementalist could choose two of Darkness, Air and Earth and their subsidiary, but not fire. Elementalists, like Sorcerers, have magic points, but these are split into main category and subsidiary magic points; overall they have slightly more but their choice of spells is quite minimal, one per element-rank. Magic points for sorcerers are recharged through a "rite of recovery" which varies according to the element (Fire, sunrise; Air, noon; Water, moonrise etc). Darkness elementalists have slightly different effects with their spells and are somewhat more powerful - however they are considered outcasts from society. This does not change the fact however that overall Elementalists are generally considered to be somewhat underpowered as a class.
Spells are declared simply and a generally fairly balanced according to level. The magic rules also include other sorcerer skills such as Calligraphy (for enscribing scrolls), alchemy (for potions) and artiface (for amulets). Mystics gain the abilities of Premonitions and ESP. The various enchanting abilities are correlated with magic items within a treasure chapter, which is like a stripped-down version of AD&D's "Treasure Type" but one which, in its simplicity, ends up making a lot more sense.
Other Rules
Other rules for the game are largely introduced in Book Four: Out of the Shadows, which describes "The Shadow Warriors" (aka Assassins) plus additional combat skills for Knights, Bloodrage for Barbarians, Adepthood for Mystics, and Wands for Sorcerers. The Book also introduces two new abilities, Stealth and Perception, plus the characteristics for the same for various denizens of the game world which is one of the more notable "out-of-sync" rules that has come with the modular implementation.
The Assassin is an extremely versatile and somewhat overpowering character, with a range of special options: Throwing stars, unarmed combat, bonus stealth (starts at 18, compared to most characters at 13), shock attacks (surprise bonuses), inner sense and mediational techniques, climbing bonuses, some alchemy, disguise, pilfering skills, lockpick, tracking, memorize and a special "deathvow" at how level which provides special bonuses against specific, named, targets. It is perhaps much more reasonable to think of them more like a turbo-charged Japanese Ninja more than any other real-world analogous character occupation. A subsequent rule states that Elves have their starting Stealth at the same value as Assassins but this does not seem to vary for Elvish assassins. Stealth checks are made on a 2d10 roll against the sneaker's Stealth minus the opponents Perception (as a rule, Perception is typically several points lower than Stealth). A particularly attentive touch is made by describing the type of Perception that various creatures have with flavoursome descriptions; normal vision, elf vision, panoptical, gloomsight, and darksight are explained options.
Whilst the additional skills don't really help balance the existing characters against the Assassin, they do add some additional flavour and diversity to the game (alas, the poor Elementalist misses out here as the profession was not introduced until book five). At Rank 8 the Knight gets some fancy parrying abilities, including disarm technique (requires a critical miss by the opponent), improved shield usage (a 20% rather than 16.7% chance of stopping blows), two-weapon ability (dagger and shortsword), quick draw, and various weapon specialisation abilities. In comparison, the Barbarian may invoke Bloodrage at Rank 8 or higher which means the character gains all Defense abilities to Attack (reducing Defense to zero) and fights until dead rather than unconscious. The equivalent Mystic gain at 8th level is Adepthood, which increases Reflexes and Psychic Talent to 18, doubles the natural healing rate, provides immunity to disease, poison, and most mind-controlling magics. Finally, the Adept Mystic also gains the ability to always produce unflawed magic weapons. For the Sorcerer, the ability to produce wands grants bonus magic attacks and speed on specific spells; wands also regenerate their own magic points like a sorcerer themselves.
There is a scattering of rules in other books as well. Book One has spot rules for Climbing (Reflexes test against Difficulty), falling damage, poison (Strength test for reduced damage or take full effect). In book three one finds rules for Morale Checks (d20 check on opponent's Attack from the sum of Rank, Strength and Intelligence), a random curse table which affects characters on magic attack versus magic defense check, and a very simple disease table. Appropriately in Book 5 some time is spent on detailing the ten versions of madness that can afflict characters with game effects. Book Six includes jousting rules, social backgrounds - including crafts, language and literacy rules (which, combined with crafts, could provide a rules foundation for "normal" professions and skills), and travel (although random wilderness encounters are provided in Book One).
The Scenarios and the World
The default game world for Dragon Warriors was "The Lands of Legend" which was detailed in Book 6, although various scenarios were presented in Book Two ("A Shadow on the Mist", "Hunter's Moon"), almost all of Book Three ("Gallows Wood", "The Castle of Terror", "Wrecker Island", "The Dark Hill"), Book Four ("The One-Eyed God", "The Sins of the Fathers", "The Greatest Prize"), a seven-part adventure in Book Five that makes up approximately 2/3rd of the book ("The Prince of Darkness") and finally one in the sixth book ("Mungoda Gold"). A nice feature is that the scenarios tended to orientate themselves according to the new rules introduced in each book (for example, an Assassin is introduced in the first adventure of Book Four) and they are often loosely linked providing the opportunity for a lengthy campaign. Another feature is that the Adventures somewhat coincide with the expected Rank values of the player-characters; thus the adventures in Book Two and Three are designed for characters of 1-3 Rank, Book Four's adventures are probably best for Ranks 3-6, Book Five's for Ranks 5-7 and Ranks 6-8 for the adventure in Book Six.
As I recalled, the adventures themselves are excellent. Ethical ambiguity is the order of the day and all seem to have both an overt and covert agenda with the PCs being often treated as pawns in a larger game (quite literally in the second adventure) with each setting provided with historical background. There is invariably a good combination of wilderness and dungeoneering escapades with clearly marked sections to be read to the players and secondary notes for the GMs eyes (one of, in my opinion, the nicer features of D&D-style scenarios for beginners). Late medieval thematics are strongly endorsed with magic items such as saint's bones and gibbets making an appearance in the very first adventure, with the mystery and conflict between fae and mortal folk present in a number of adventures and the evils of corrupted and necromantic lords. Unlike many adventure scenarios of this vintage, there is little of the "funhouse" presentation of "monster ecology"; various denizens invariably are appropriate to their environment and indeed, the general environment and layouts are sensibly designed.
The world where these adventures are set is detailed to some degree. The map of these "Lands of Legend" could have done with a person with better cartographic skills and geographical knowledge, but apart from what could be a depressingly usual misunderstanding of river flow in one instance (The Gouge is a river - of sorts - that traverses from one sea, across a mountain range, some plains, then to a larger range, and finally then reaches another sea) there is good work here with a familiar pseudo-European/North African setting provided ranging from magi-controlled jarldom in the north, caliphates in the south and nomad khanates in the east. A conflict between old paganism and monotheism is presented in the region where the previous adventures are set, along with a conflict between the established feudal order and the rise of the merchant class. In a nearby neighbouring New Selentine Empire latent conflicts continue to exist between the new imperial order and old republican ideals. Mythologies, artifacts, geographical features, histories, cultural expressions (writings, calendar, crime and punishment) and major NPCs are described with quite a high degree of interest. To add further narrative tension Crusades have been organised to liberate the southern city of Ibrahim, birthplace of the Saviour, from the Ta'ashim caliphs. As per the European equivalent, the economic and political reasons are equal if not more important, than the theological.
Conclusion
Dragon Warriors is a very simple 'swords & sorcery' game with a very limited scope in a system sense. Although the core rules can be grasped quickly, easily and for the most part they make sense it is far from smooth sailing all the way. The actual physical production and layout could certainly be improved, and from all accounts the new edition makes significant amends in this regard which can easily push the 'style' value to the upper scores. The artwork is usually quite competent, especially the cover art, but unnecessary repetition proves annoying. What is particularly fun, cool and interesting about Dragon Warriors almost invariably comes down to the scenarios and setting. With an easy-to-play and understand game, coupled with some brilliant "actual adventures", the nostalgic appeal of Dragon Warriors for those who first encountered this game in their early to mid 'teens is going to be significant, and indeed those older and more experienced in gaming could likewise be impressed. For those beginning adventure games, I can certainly think of no better product that immediately comes to mind, for those with a great deal of experience bring out the beer and pretzels and have a great evening (or several) of 'fire and sword' gaming. It is no small wonder that the game has continued to have an active support community; it is very pleasing indeed to see that it will once again grace gaming tables and perhaps attract a new generation of players.
Style: 1 + .4 (layout) + .6 (art) + .8 (coolness) + .7 (readability) + .4 (product) = 3.9
Substance: 1 + .5 (content) + .4 (text) + .9 (fun) + .6 (workmanship) + .5 (system) = 3.9
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