The new Bestiary book includes rules for playing as frog people, cat people, lizard people, and a bunch of others too.

My No. 1 Solo RPG 🐉 🦆 ⚔️

Well great work on the pronunciation of Drakar och Demoner most English speaking youtubers botch it to the point of being complete gibberish. I see a lot of complaints of lack of content or lack of setting in the game but traditionally it was a module booklet driven and the "game" was the rules framework with the bare minimum of setting as it was assumed the module/adventure would have its own maps, history and setting as back then you played in the worlds of Elric of melnibone, middle earth or just a mashup of fairy tale knightly romance and whatever fantasy/pulp comic the GM had laying around. As in Sweden we did not have a large super RPG setting like Forgotten realms etc for the longest time and at most we got a setting box set with a few maps and a booklet but it usually left a lot for the GM to figure out on his own. So for me what little lore and tone is in the set in both the rule and adventure book is more than enough rail for me as a GM to flesh out the rest of the track on my own. Or just grab ed greenwood's forgotten realms or any other fantasy/fairytale/history book off the shelf to figure it out. After you have played the campaign you should have a pretty good idea of how you want the story to proceed if at all else you probably don't have a very good imagination for story telling to begin with. Alot of games put the GM as a glorified text to speech and math computer rather than a storyteller and judge.

I love the Mallards! I haven't played Dragonbane, yet, but when I do, I plan to play a Mallard!

Lol, I bought the book because of the mallard race. Also I think this is the best set ever. I wish D&D and other games would include so much for such a fair price.

A fantastic game. The box set is an amazing value. The included campaign is fun and there is a lot of variety in the adventures. For real though, you have everything needed for a lot of game play at the table and the included solo rules are a great way to learn the game. While it does include concepts like a three strikes death save and an advantage / disadvantage system, this can be far more brutal in terms of combats. Fighting NPCs is tense fighting things classed as monsters can be epic. Monster class foes can often go multiple times a turn and their actions are rolled on a table specific to the monster. You never just feel like it's a bag of hit points. Magic, given roll to cast mechanics, is powerful yet strange and not a guaranteed thing. Skills are really important in this game and the journey mechanics make use of many of them. Travel can be tough, and there is no dark vision. So yes, the duck people seem like they might be silly but the game is challenging and can be dark in wonderful ways.

The mallard might be a nod to the Duck race in Runequest. I remember playing RQ in 1982-ish, and my friend (was was almost always the GM) said "And you can play a duck!"

I want to play a mallard. I have Daffy and Donald in my DNA. Let's do this!

Dragonbane is my absolute favourite new TTRPG which I am playing with my Monday night group - it's also become my no 1 solo RPG as well.

I love all The Gaming Table videos!

Good review. I'll check it out. I love Free League Publishing, their books are of great quality. Wonderful pieces to have in a collection, and good games to play. Have you looked at Forbidden Lands?

Those cardboard cutouts are so nice! I think they would also be better than minatures

Looking forward to giving Dragonbane a try.

I'm having a blast running Dragonbane. It's hugely entertaining and the group I'm playing with love it! The Mallards are silly, but fun. Edit: Oh and the Foundry VTT module is outstanding!

The cardboard figures are really thick & high quality.

Another great reviews -- and I LOVE the short format! And thumbs down on the Mallards - but I can understand if they kept it for sentimental reasons:)

It's weird that nobody bats an eye at cat people, dog people, bear people, etc. But ducks? Folks lose their mind. I still need to pick this set up at some point.

Been playing Dragonbane a lot! 3/4 through the adventure book. Enjoying it tremendously. Works well solo too. All games need a monster attack matrix. Own the extra minis and bestiary too. Fights are so quick and dynamic and damage is scary. Keep it up. Best box set ever?

I recently got Dragons Bane. Haven't read it yet. Glad to see it reviewed

I'm very curious about this game. As the Forever DM, if I ever get to play, I want to try the mallard first (it might be my only chance).

Thanks for covering this - any thoughts on the solo-ability of this rules set? Or - do you have a rule set you have used solo?

You can play a fantasy Howard the Duck. I see this only as a win.

RuneQuest has duck characters, i believe they are called Durulz

Ducks rock!

The Mallard kin are fantastic - we have one in my group and just add something different to the game - making it unique

I like the inclusion of mallards. Their inclusion doesn't bother me also its not that weird given the wolf people .

Eleven adventures is “a couple”?

☮

I find mallards a bit surprising, that's not what I would expect from this type of setting, but that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Was this filmed in an old church? The window looks stained-glass adjacent.

I don’t understand why old school RPGs hate Mages and magic usage from players. Dragonbane looks good but honestly it is complicating Mages without any reason to the point they are being screwed. How difficult is to understand that Mages are just fighters with different weapons and fighting styles? In my games I house rule that and playing as a magic user is fun as any other class or profession.

I think your points are well made here. Dragonbane is truly refreshing, and honestly, I hated it when I first got it. Truth be told, it's as simple as: I am not a big fan of the color green as the primary color, and I also hated the Mallards. Those are two very stupid reasons to hate a game, but they biased my viewpoint and it really took me a moment to extricate my head from my backside and give it an honest go. I am so glad I did. This game is the "Goldilocks" game for me. It's not too crunchy or too light. They really found a great middle ground between the two poles. I also like seeing how the product of a country like Sweden will come out as opposed to its American counterparts. I am not at all surprised that the mechanic is elegant, it is adaptable to any source material you like, but it is clearly not built to accommodate future bonus content releases. And look, I'm American and I started in AD&D 2nd edition back in the 1990s, so I'm not hating on what I grew up playing, but let's be honest, if I could reorganize everything like IKEA, I bloody well would!

ducks are cool. D&D 5e had some playtest material that would have covered that. I’ve tried to get into Dragonbane, but I just find it too ruleslight-even with Shawn freaking Tompkins writing the solo rules. I don’t see the appeal, even when compared to OSR games. (blegh)