Like yesterday, I finished off a booklet while at lunch. This time it is Dragon Warriors by Magnum Opus Press. The booklet took me through the basics of character creation, but only detailed two of the seven possible professions. The two they detailed were Knight and Barbarian, which are very similar. I wished they had provided me with Knight and Warlock or Knight and Sorcerer, just to get a bit of flavor of how the magic system worked. There was no mention of the magic rules other than to say they were in the main book. I needed a taste of the magic system, but maybe it’s too complex to fit into a freebie booklet. I’m not sure.

Free RPG Day 2009 - Dragon Warriors Cover

After stepping through the relatively simple character creation process, the Knight and Barbarian classes were detailed, but none of the rules for using their skills were provided. It was all just the flavor text. This makes it very hard to play the introductory adventure that comes in the back of the book. I guess the creators expected everyone to just hack their way through all obstacles since the next portion of the book went through, in good detail, the combat system.

This brings me to my beef with the system. After you roll to hit (lower is better), then you have to roll to penetrate the armor of the target. Each weapon has a different die to try to pierce the difference defense ratings of the various armors. Too complex for me. I’d rather roll to hit and roll for damage. In this case, there is no damage roll. If you hit and get past the victim’s armor, you do a set amount of damage depending on the weapon. I don’t like this. This doesn’t allow for “glancing blows” or “precise strikes” or anything like that. All stabs with a long sword are identical. With this system even critical hits do the same amount of damage. All they give you is automatic piercing of the armor.

Follow this was five pages about the world. They did a great job with world creation, and I wouldn’t mind using their setting in a different system. Perhaps Magnum Opus Press could have dropped the world information (since it’s not really used in the introductory adventure) and replaced it with some information about the magic system. This would have given a greater flavor for the game, I think.

Then two pages were dedicated to three monsters (one without a stat block) that were not used in the adventure. I’m not sure why they were in the booklet other than to just fill some space. It didn’t grab me as something that should be in there.

Lastly, the booklet ended with a two page adventure that is very linear, but this is OK for an introduction to the game. It’s hard to do a “sandbox game” in a mere 24 pages while still explaining the rules and regulations of the game system.

All-in-all, this freebie did not do its job. I’m supposed to be wowed by the content to such a degree that I want to run out and buy the full version (and a few supplements) and run the game right away. Instead, this booklet will go on one of my many bookshelves and will probably stay there for years until I accidentally stumble across it and wonder why I still have it.

Grade: C. I’m sorry to give such a low grade to any product, but this one is well deserved. Perhaps the full game system is much better. I don’t know. I won’t go find out, either. If they do another booklet for next year’s Free RPG Day, then maybe they’ll listen to me and forget trying to detail the world and give us more of the magic system. Some sample characters would be nice as well since the character generation rules were scarce in the booklet.