By Sean Winningham

on August 16, 2023

“The hostility between dragons and demons brought death and ruin upon the ancient civilizations. However, it created the conditions which allowed humans and other kin to flourish. But as sure as night follows day, the time will come again when dragons and demons fight for power over humanity, nature, and the eternal mysteries.”

A legend is reborn – Free League Publishing today officially released the higly anticpated fantasy RPG Dragonbane, the new edition of Scandinavia’s first and biggest tabletop RPG Drakar och Demoner.

The reimagined version of the classic fantasy RPG is full of magic, mystery, and adventure. Dragonbane was voted one of the most anticipated RPGs of 2023 at EN World and made quite an impact at the this year’s Gen Con, where both the demo sessions and the pre-release copies quickly sold out.

The Dragonbane core set is now available via the official website and at retailers worldwide, along with extras like a printed quickstart guide, a custom dice set, and a GM screen. The PDF version of the game can be found at DriveThruRPG, and full content modules on the virtual tabletop platform Foundry are also available. A Dragonbane Quickstart PDF is also available for free via the official website and at DriveThruRPG.

Free League invites creators to design and publish their own supplements for Dragonbane, using the third-party license for the game.

Dragonbane is designed from the ground up to facilitate fast and furious play, with very little prep time and adventures that are a breeze to run. This is a game with room for laughs at the table, while still offering brutal challenges for the adventurers. We call this playstyle “mirth and mayhem roleplaying” – great for long campaigns, but also perfect for a one-shot.

The Dragonbane boxed core set packed with content, enough for dozens of gaming sessions:

Rulebook with fast and effective D20-based game rules for character creation, skills, combat, magic, and travel
Adventures book with eleven complete adventures, to be played separately or tied together in the epic Secret of the Dragon Emperor campaign
The booklet Alone in Deepfall Breach letting you play Dragonbane solo
Huge full-color map of the Misty Vale created
Illustrated playing cards for adventures, treasure, and more
Ten transparent polyhedral dice, including two custom D20s
Five pregenerated characters
Five blank character sheets
Cardboard standees for characters and monsters
Double-sided battle mat

The Swedish Heritage

For several years, there has been talk about the “Swedish wave” in the RPG world. With the Swedish tabletop roleplaying scene being strong ever since the early 80s, the incredible passion for the hobby and the extensive heritage has helped Swedish game creators being at the forefront when it comes to innovative and creative game design. Drakar och Demoner is the game that started it all and laid the groundworks for the vivid scene today.

Drakar och Demoner was the very first Swedish roleplaying game when it originally launched in 1982 and and is still the most beloved RPG in Scandinavia. The first edition of the game was a translation of Magic World by Chaosium, but the game soon took a life of its own, evolving the game world through a dozen various editions over the decades. Now, for the very first time, Free League is bringing Drakar och Demoner to an international audience under the title Dragonbane.“Drakar och Demoner is part of the DNA of Swedish tabletop roleplaying, and we’re thrilled to offer our version of this legendary game to an international audience,” says lead designer and Free League co-founder Tomas Härenstam.