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Dragon Warriors is not your typical fantasy role-playing game. Sure, there are warriors engaging each other in perilous combat, mages who flung fireballs and the good old dungeon crawl, but its theme and feel are noticeably different, making it stands out from the crowd.

To describe Dragon Warriors with a few words: gritty, lethal, immersive, evocative, written with soul and spirit and simple.

The Good: Simple to understand roll under system, distinctive classes, rooted in historical basis, writing is evocative, settings feel authentic and fantastic at the same time, elegant method of dealing with armour, detailed world with beautiful maps, an atmospheric introductory adventure

The Bad: Is 5 books put together as 1, rules are only explained in the middle of the book, a couple of classes imbalance, introductory adventure is heavily scripted, spot rules are inconsistent

The Quirks: Art goes from "meh" to "wow", uses comics to explain the rules, arguably a "complete book", some of its thinking may be considered "antiquated", sometimes you roll a D20, sometimes it's a 2D10

Introduction

For those who need an introduction, Dragon Warriors was a fantasy role-playing game that came out during 1985 and was sold in a set of "gamebooks" style paper-backs. I was fortunate to get my hand on the first two books as second-hand copy, and there's something about it that got me hooked. Now, all the books that make up the rules of the game (save for two campaign books) have been complied into one tome which is Dragon Warriors, the Mongoose edition.

What sets Dragon Warriors apart from other fantasy games at that time are the rules (it's simple and straightforward), the theme and an eerie familiarity with our world. Goblins are more fairy-tales than Tolkien, Elves more faerie than uber-races that some RPGs portray them as.

Even the classes' names tell something or two - the main fighting classes are knights and barbarians, two polar opposites. And the default setting takes place in a feudal land, and the core book goes on a great deal about setting the stage - what is it like to be in a feudal kingdom, the disregard people would have for adventurers who don't fit into society and why people still becomes adventurers.

System

Dragon Warriors have five stats - Strength, Reflexes, Intelligence, Psychic Talent and Looks, and are determined with a roll of 3d6. Your derived stats are Attack, Defence, Magical Attack, Magical Defence, Evasion, Perception and Stealth. High score in the core five characteristics give bonuses to the derived stats (sounds familiar?)

Combat is a straight forward D20 roll under your Attack minus your opponent's Defence. One of the shinning points about Dragon Warrior's combat system is that of armour. Each armour has an armour factor (AF) and each weapon an armour bypass roll. For example, plate mail has an armour factor of 5, while a two-handed sword has an armour bypass roll of d10. So if you strike with a two-handed sword, and you score a roll of 6 and above on the d10, your strike goes through the armour. All weapons does a fixed amount of damage.

Combat is lethal if the dice hates you. A two-handed sword does 5 points of damage, while an average rank 12 Knight has only 22 Health Points. 5 blows is enough to finish off a mighty opponent.

There are 4 variants of magic using classes but all are base on the same principle (see below). The Sorcerer has access to powerful spells but is limited in combat, and uses Spell Points to power his spells. The Mystic can cast spells till he failed to make a fatigue check. An Elementalist can pick up to three elements to learn and have a different MP pool for each of them. The Warlock is a fighter/mage who can cast two different 'buff' spells per combat round. Each of them is themed differently (Sorcerer - artillery, Mystics - self sustaining, Elementalist - druids and roleplaying magic, Warlock - sword wielding fireball throwing warriors)

Magic is grouped under two categories - direct and indirect. Direct spells affect your very essence and include spells such as Weakness, Petrify and Enthrall and are defended with Magical Defence. The same rules are used as per combat - roll 2d10 (not d20) under your Magical Attack subtract your opponent's Magical Defence. If you manage to do so, your spell affects your opponent.

Direct attack spells, on the other hand, include fire balls, lightning bolts and the like. They pit the spell's Speed score against the target's Evasion, and use pretty much the same roll as attacks and direct spells. Simple and easy to remember, except for the wrinkle about when to use a D20 and when to use a 2D10.

Rules for 'special cases' are pretty much the same. The GM decides the difficulty rating for an obstacle. If the characteristic in question is higher than the difficulty rating, then no roll is needed. If it is the other way round, the character must succeed in rolling D20 under his characteristic to overcome the obstacle.

The rules of Dragon Warriors, however, do run into some pitfalls. Spot rules are problematic in a sense that each is a mini-system by itself, and are inconsistent. For example, the Mystic has an ESP and Premonition skill and their success rate are represented as a percentile roll. The Warlock also has a psionic skill,but it requires a D20 roll under Psychic Talent

Assassins, or the thief of the game, has different spot rules for almost everything, from memorising documents to picking locks. Then there are rules for fright attacks (which uses a d12) and a cumbersome but "hey, it kind of make sense" system for gaze attacks. Basically, you have 40% of making eye contacts with creature like a Medusa (if you do make eye contact, you are subjected to a Magical Attack). For each 10% chance you drop from making eye contact, you take a penalty to your fighting skills.

All those varied system can be confusing at first, and to make it worse, Dragon Warriors is written in an old school style (well, it was written in 1985!) and the new all-in-one edition is just re-arrangement of the material. Stats, characteristics and classes' abilities are all described before the rules, unlike core books nowadays, which describe how the rules work (what is an ability, what is an ability modifier, how do you make a roll etc.) before going into the details.

The re-arrangement may also befuddle beginners. For example, in the first book of the 1985 series, the fighters class were introduced. Later down the series, new abilities and skills were given to those classes. In the new edition, those 'expansion' were placed in the early chapters, leaving one wondering what on earth is an Armour Bypass roll even before that term itself is mentioned.

One glaring omission is that there are no rules for social interactions. As far as I can tell, after the first chapter, the Looks characteristic is never mentioned again, except for a list of curses later on.

Classes may also be imbalanced. The Knight at higher rank is nearly invincible in melee, and a Sorcerer at 12th rank can clean the clock of a whole legion of Knights with his spells if he is well prepared.

Biggest Good: Core system is a simple roll under
Biggest Bad: Rules are rather disorganised.
Biggest Quirk: The spot rules for each and every different thing

Mood and Setting

Dragon Warriors is set in a quasi-historical version of medieval Earth. The world is called Legend, and it has our versions of Britain, King Author, the Roman Empire and the like. This is a good thing, for it give a sense of grounding to the campaign. At the same time, it is not a direct analog. Lots of fantastical elements were added, such as the mage-legions of the New Selentine Empire, the various wight-kings of Ellseland and even the infamous blasting of the Spyte. Myths in our world are probably truth in the world of Dragon Warriors.

This helps a GM, in my opinion, to get ideas for adventures and to plan encounters. No one knows what is the relationship between a blacksmith and the government in Minas Tirth, but Dragon Warriors set this out explicitly: the blacksmith is likely to be the vassal of a liege-lord. His obligation is to him first so do not expect just to swagger into a castle and buy a suit of full plate mail just because you have the coin.

The backgrounds section describe a feudal way of life in an accessible manner, and in a writing style that is casual and informative. One of my beefs with the new A Song of Ice and Fire Roleplaying is that certain background materials are lazily given away in bullet points form. Not in Dragon Warriors. Well-written paragraphs describe the people's way of life, while subscripts lead you to footnotes where interesting details are explained. You have the feeling that you are reading a treatise written by a real life scholar (who is having fun while at it), instead of a game-book.

Though the history aspect of the setting lend weight and gravity, it also lead to what some may consider as "antiquated" advice, such as that the assassin is not suitable for a PC class (it makes sense, but I doubt my players would be happy with that) and of course, the importance of marching order and having a light source! Dragon Warriors has no qualms describing adventurers as being primarily motivated by looting old tombs and fighting off monsters for a sum of silver.

Lending more authenticity to the 'historical feel' of the game is that of languages. The authors have even include a family tree of languages! In those chapters you catch a glimpse of far-off exotic places, such as Zinj and Khitai, which are probably Legend's analogue of India and China. That languages are an important part of the game make it feels decidedly old-school. There are also spot rules for learning languages, whether it is to hire a tutor or to live among the community for a while.

One of Dragon Warriors' best point is the setting. It writes of the world from the eyes of a wonder-filled traveler. Without using the real world per se, it opens up possibilities. By basing introducing elements that reminds me of a historical Earth, it helps me to set expectations and fill in the gaps where the authors do not mention. It's not as restrictive as Mythic Europe in this sense.

Biggest Good in Settings: Evocative and hauntingly familiar but different

Biggest Bad in Settings: Some may dislike it because it is just not fantastical enough and impose some restrictions (a female PC, for example, has been pointed out as a liability)

Biggest Quirks: There is no rhyme or reason as to the order of how each region is presented, and the amount of details differ. Ellseland, a feudal England-like island, is given lots of attention, while some places are just "no one ever dwells at this god-forsaken place. Period. Next stop!"

Other Stuff

There is a minimal bestiary at the end of the book, with stat-blocks but with most of the fluff removed. Sorcerers can craft magical items, Mystics can forge magical weapons while Warlocks can create some incredible armour and swords. There are rules for poisons, diseases and insanities, but nothing mind-blowing, yet are usable in their simplicity ( a strong poison is a 3d6 roll under your Strength to resist, for example).

It is not those stuff are 'meh' or badly written. They are just pieces of a bigger part (to me); a bad setting can't be saved by charts after charts of poison. A clumsy rule-sets cannot be amended by having lots of crunch.

There is an atmospheric introductory adventure, which besides introducing the rules, also teaches about the cultural influences of the setting, such as feudalism. At the beginning, the party comes across an old man who was unfairly placed in stocks. But he refused to be freed, for he was placed there under proper authority (even though it was an unfair punishment) and he should remain there lest he gets into even bigger trouble.

Unfortunately, the adventure has one loop-hole. It requires the PCs to get hold on a certain MacGuffin or else they barely have a slim chances of getting the best outcome. There are also too little clues, too little the players can do besides visiting the all-important NPC, to ensure a good outcome.

Look and Feel

I am of mixed feeling here. Some of the black and white art are painted in different hues of grey, and are a wonder to behold. Then there are some drawn in just black ink and looks like outcast from a clip art library. Finally, there are a series of comics used to present the rules in the game. Honestly, it is cool idea but was better implemented in the 1985 books. The new comics look jagged and unpleasing to the eyes, but perhaps I am not used to this style

And the maps are pretty. Enough said

Final Scores

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