The premiere role-playing game of my high school years was without a doubt Dragon Warriors. Six paperback books written by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson and published between 1985 and 1986 contained a complete fantasy role-playing system and pseudo-Medieval European setting. The pre-generated scenarios (eleven in total) had a consistently moody and atmospheric tone that simply was not attained or emulated in other fantasy role-playing games.
My friends and I played Dragon Warriors in preference to 1st edition AD&D and D&D (hey, it was the 80s!) for much of high school. Eventually I took up AD&D, with its greater detail and numerous scenarios in White Dwarf, and then came to university and encountered Champions, source of many happy hours of gaming throughout the 90s. The Dragon Warriors books sat on my bookshelves, waiting for my attention to return. A one-off game at Briscon one year in the mid-90s was my last experience of Dragon Warriors, but when I set out to find a game system to use for one-off games at QUGS this year, it caught my eye.
After an hour or so re-reading the rules, my appreciation for the game setting was rekindled. I was interested to see how the system runs when played by experienced and practiced gamers (something that describes neither my friends nor myself back in the 80s). A decision reached, I set out to gather the game system rules together in one document for my future players (there’s no way I’m lending out my precious books!). Along the way, a few things stood out that I believe should be altered for play balance and to match up with common sense. I have listed these suggestions below.
In my opinion, the skills and abilities that increase with Rank should conform to the scale of the five primary characteristics and the seven derived characteristics whenever possible. That is, the player should have to roll less than or equal to the score on 1d20, the score should increase by 1 point with each increase of Rank, and so on. Having some abilities as percentage chances when they increase in multiples of 5% seems wasteful to me.
Premonition and Extra-Sensory Perception (the sixth and seventh senses respectively) are good examples of abilities that should, in my opinion, be changed to a 1d20 scale. Premonition would begin at 8 and Extra-Sensory Perception at 2 for a 1st Rank Mystic, and both would increase at +1 per Rank. Given the limited effects of these abilities on game play, I don’t see any problem with increasing the chances of success (quite dramatically in the case of mid- to high-level Mystics using ESP). Also, why don’t Mystics with exceptional Psychic Talent find it easier to sense danger or thoughts? Add +1 for Psychic Talent of 13 and up, increasing to +2 at 16.
The published chance for Mystics to produce a flawed item seems to have an error somewhere. Apparently, an Adept ability is that the Mystic cannot make a flawed item. However, Mystics must be 8th Rank to seek enlightenment and become an Adept, and at 8th Rank there is automatically no chance of failure! As a way of making this aspect of being an Adept more valuable, consider having a 30% chance +10% per magic bonus of producing a flawed item at 4th Rank, decreasing by 10% for each Rank above 4th. Thus, an 8th Rank character has a 0%, 10% and 20% chance of creating a flawed +1, +2 or +3 item respectively. Naturally, a Mystic always knows when a finished item is flawed.
Assassins, in my opinion, are grossly powerful when compared to other character classes. Certainly there’s a place for ninja-clones in any game, but I think they’re ridiculously good at what they do and unbalance a game too easily. That aside, my major concern is that anyone who wishes to play a thief in Dragon Warriors must play an Assassin. There’s no Profession in the published material for a character who wants to break into people’s homes, filch purses, and be dashing and daring without having the ability to enter trance states that make you a killing machine and without knowing how to concoct poisons. Thus, I offer the Thief Profession as a replacement for or alternative to the Assassin.
Climbing: Because learning to climb up to second story windows is part of every Thief’s training, Thieves subtract half their Rank (rounded down) from the Difficulty Factor of the climb. They also learn how to fall up to 4m without sustaining injury. A Thief who rolls less than or equal to Reflexes + Rank on 2d10 can fall up to 4m without taking any damage. A roll of 20 will always fail. Falling greater distances will cause the same damage to a Thief as to any other character.
Combat Penalties for Armour: Thieves take –2 to Attack and Defence in chain mail and –4 to Attack and Defence in plate armour.
Picklock: Padlocks are often used in the market towns and ports to secure cash or valuables, but are rare elsewhere. Other sorts of locks are rare: most doors are barred, not locked. Thus, only a Thief will know the tricks and techniques for opening a lock.
The published rules for Picklock are both time-consuming and use percentages where a 1d20 scale would do. Instead, I suggest that a 1st Rank Thief has a Picklock score of 5. This starting score is modified by +1 for a Reflexes score of 13 or more, increasing to +2 at 16, –1 for Intelligence of 5 or less and +1 for Intelligence of 16 or more.
The average lock has a Difficulty Factor of 12, and more expensive and complex locks may have a Difficulty Factor of 20 or more. Attempting to open a lock, whether automatically successful or not, takes one Combat Round. If the Thief does not match the Difficulty Factor of the lock and has to roll to open it, the GM will firstly roll to see if the Thief is capable of opening the lock.
If the GM has determined that the Thief is capable of picking the lock, a roll of 1 by the Thief will always succeed, and a roll of 20 will always fail. If the GM rolls greater than the Thief’s Picklock score or rolls a 20, the Thief cannot succeed at this time, and the GM will tell her so once the Thief rolls equal to or less than the Picklock score. The Thief can try again after one week has passed or on gaining a Rank, whichever is sooner.
Lock picks are needed to use the Picklock skill effectively. If the Thief is using tools other than a proper set of lock picks, the Picklock score is halved (rounding down). It is not possible to pick locks without an implement of some kind, and it may not be possible to open a complex lock without proper tools.
Circumstances may reduce the Thief’s chance of success. If the Thief is moving or uses Defence in combat, the attempt to Picklock will automatically fail.
| Condition | Modifier to Die Roll |
| Pitch Darkness |
+4
|
| Extraneous Noise or Bustle |
+3
|
Thieves gain +1 Attack, Defence, Magical Attack, Stealth, Perception, Picklock and Health Point every Rank, plus +1 Evasion at 5th and 9th Rank and a bonus +1 Stealth and Perception at 7th and 12th Rank. They do not gain new abilities at high Ranks, but become increasingly adept at using Stealth and Perception.
All characters other than Thieves and Mystics begin with Stealth 13 and Perception 5. Mystics have a bonus of +1 to both scores. Stealth increases by +1 every three Ranks (i.e. at 4th, 7th, 10th, etc); Perception increases by +1 every two Ranks (i.e. at 3rd, 5th, etc).
Furthermore, all characters can use the Disguise and Pilfer skills, not just Thieves. However, Thieves are much better with these skills because of their much higher Stealth and Perception scores.
The following modifiers apply to the Stealth Roll when using Disguise. Do not forget that the circumstances must allow a plausible explanation of how the character is being disguised.
| Condition | Modifier |
| Inadequate Time to Prepare | –1 to –5 Stealth |
| Unfamiliar with Type of Person | –1 to –5 Stealth |
| Very Familiar with Type of Person | +1 to +5 Perception |
Example: Johannes, a young Thief from Albion, finds himself on the run from the guards of Baron Nikolaos of Analika. He finds a group of fishermen returning from the docks, and uses the Disguise skill to attempt to pass himself off as one of them. As a foreigner, Johannes is unfamiliar with the type of person he is impersonating: however, fishermen are similar the world over, so the GM sets the penalty to his Stealth score at –2. Johannes isn’t really dressed as a fisherman and hasn’t time to chance into something more appropriate, so the GM adds a further –2 penalty to his Stealth score. Things will only get worse for Johannes if one of the guards insists on questioning him: his foreign accent will make it impossible to pass himself off as a local fisherman.
In most circumstances, the character trying to avoid being seen will make a Stealth Roll. However, sometimes it’s important to know if a character noticed some small detail or something happening nearby (e.g. when a character fails an attempt to Pilfer something). In such cases, the character may attempt a Perception Roll by rolling less than or equal to Perception on 1d20. A roll of 1 always succeeds, and a roll of 20 always fails. If there is a group of characters, the one with the highest Perception score makes the Perception Roll. If that character does not spot the detail, the others will not either.
The Professions system falls down alarmingly when it attempts to cover characters with other skills. A quick search on the Internet came up with several home-brewed Professions, including Herbalists. Browsing through the published scenarios brought forward a number of characters like Jenk from The One-Eyed God: hunter, tracker, and unranked human. All of this raises two questions. Firstly, what should and shouldn’t be a Profession in Dragon Warriors? Secondly, how can additional skills be handled for unranked characters (i.e. how do they get better at what they do)?
To my way of thinking, the first is simple. A character belonging to any of the published Dragon Warriors Professions is a capable fighter and adventurer. Advancing a Rank in a Profession improves the character’s combat, spell-casting and adventuring skills. Thus, if a particular skill or set of skills isn’t associated with fighting or adventuring, it shouldn’t be a Profession as such, but a skill or ability. That way you avoid Professions where the combat skills and Health Points never improve and Professions where they improve without good reason to do so.
As for the second question, one approach I’m mulling over is to assign Rank-equivalent scores in each specific skill or skill group to characters with non-combat skills. Thus, the 0th Rank normal human can be a 6th Rank-equivalent apothecary, with whatever abilities that conveys (e.g. the Alchemy skill possessed by Sorcerers). Could a character in a trade be considered an apprentice at 1st Rank, a journeyman at 4th and a master at 8th? Perhaps a base score of 10 can be assumed for each skill, modified by the appropriate characteristics (e.g. Reflexes for acrobats, Intelligence for doctors) and increased by +1 for each Rank-equivalent? If most tasks are assigned Difficulty Factors, suitably experienced characters will not have to risk making a mess of a loaf of bread or thinking that sowing the fields in mid-winter is a good idea, no matter what they roll on the dice.
Under this model, characters who spend an appropriate amount of time and money learning a new skill would start as 1st Rank-equivalent in that skill, no matter what their Rank. Their Rank-equivalent could increase as they gain Experience Points for adventuring, or perhaps the GM will require them to practice or use the skill and give out dedicated Experience Points. It's all starting to sound terribly complex, but that’s what happens when you take a class- and level-based system and try to add non-combat skills to the mix. In any case, I think it’s a better approach than multiplying the number of Professions many times over.