Dragon Warriors Solo with Tricube Tales: RPG Intro and Characters

Continuing a playthrough of British RPGs with Dragon Warriors, from the 1980s, using Tricube Tales. The intro covers a look at Dragon Warriors, Character Intros, Character Creation and first look at Tricube Tales.

Dragon warriors solo - intro | start | partway | finish

Disclosure - I'm a DriveThru RPG affiliate

Rolling Solo with British RPGs - Dragon Warriors!

rpg intro | characters | chargen | tricube tales

This is an old British, first published in 1985. The first format was in three regular-size paperback books. An attempt to get RPGs into book shops among the regular fantasy books

Dragon Warriors is a pay-what-you-want 256 page Book (PDF / Softcover, Hardcover) by Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson. Dave Morris has also written many gamebooks, such as half of the Fabled Lands. Dave Morris and Oliver Johnson also worked together on the Blood Sword gamebooks.

It includes character generation, rules, setting, a starting adventure and small bestiary. Dragon Warriors has an early medieval setting with a dark tone. You play Barbarians, Knights, Mystics, Sorcerers, Elementalists, Warlocks and oddly, Assassins. It includes the Land of Legends, a full setting, but gives guidelines for using your own one.

This game was also the first time someone (my friend Ben) ran an RPG for me (I think I was 12). And I ran it a while later for some others, as it was easy to get into and portable.

Lands of Legend, default setting for Dragon Warriors

Different dice are used for different actions. 1d20 for an attack roll, 2d10 for Perception vs Stealth (or Magic Attack vs Magic Defence), armour penetration of the weapon of the weapon to get past armour. Often one stat (Attack/Stealth) is modified by person opposing it (Defence/Perception). For a character with Stealth 17 trying to sneak past a guard with Perception 5, they would subtract Perception from Stealth (17 - 5 = 12), and try to roll that or under on 2d10.

Each magic-using class has a separate way of using magic / magic rules! Sorcerers and Warlocks cast spells from a list using spell points, Mystics can cast as much as they want until their power runs out for the day, And Elementalists specialise in one element, with two lesser ones.

Introducing the Adventurers

rpg intro | characters | chargen | tricube tales

Since I'm going to try using the included adventure (at least as background) and it says 4-6 characters, I've created four characters. Also lots of Dragon Warriors is about how the different classes play.

Modwen

Elementalist level 1, human female from Mercania Coast, speaks intermediate Elleslandic, native Latter Mercanian and a few words of Cabbandari, callous, friendly

Health Points 6, Spellcasting, Magic Points (Earth 3, Fire 1, Water 1)

Strength 13, Reflexes 11, Intelligence 17, Psychic 15, Looks 14,

Attack 13, Defence 6, Magic Attack 17, Magic Defence 7, Evasion 5, Stealth 13, Perception 5

Equipment - lantern, tinderbox, sword, staff, shield, padded armour, 14 florins

Elgan Blethen

Warlock level 1, human male from Albion, son of a jeweller, speaks native Elleslandic, literate (ancient languages - intermediate Bacchile, fluent Old Kurlish), aggressive, overconfident

Health Points 9, Magic Points 2, spellcasting, weapon groups, simultaneous casting

Strength 11, Reflexes 9, Intelligence 12, Psychic 14, Looks 9,

Attack 12, Defence 5, Magic Attack 12, Magic Defence 5, Evasion 3, Stealth 13, Perception 5

Equipment - lantern, flint-and-tinder, backpack, bow, quiver with six arrows, dagger, full mail armour, 2-20 florins, sword and shield.

Quentin l'Argent

Knight level 1, human male from Albion, gentry class, speaks native Elleslandic, restless, devious

Health Points 8, Track, Armour Expert, Ride Warhorse

Strength 18, Reflexes 12, Intelligence 7, Psychic 14, Looks 12,

Attack 15, Defence 8, Magic Defence 4, Evasion 4, Stealth 13, Perception 5

Equipment - plate armour, shield, dagger, lantern, flint-and-tinder, backpack, 25 florins, morning star.

Mai Storgaard

Barbarian level 1, human female from Haragorn Mountains, hates dwarves, cheerful, loud

Health Points 13, Berserk, track, ride warhorse

Strength 11, Reflexes 10, Intelligence 11, Psychic 7, Looks 15,

Attack 14, Defence 6, Magic Defence 2, Evasion 5, Stealth 13, Perception 5

Equipment - mail armour, dagger, lantern, flint-and-tinder, backpack, 17 florins, battleaxe

Character Creation

rpg intro | characters | chargen | tricube tales

The characteristics (Strength, Reflexes etc) are rolled using 3d6 in order. The other stats (Attack, Def, Evasion etc) are determined by your profession and level, modified by primary characteristics. A high Int can boost lots of stats!

Looks is the exception. It is mentioned once under characteristics and never talked about again in the rules.

The character’s Looks score reflects his appearance and personal charm; this has no bearing on his adventuring skills, but you should certainly take it into account when deciding how non-player characters (NPCs) would react to him.

After choosing profession, there is a roll for background (social class / nation), with separate tables for each profession. Finally there is a detailed languages section, including % chance for anyone literate to be able to read one or more ancient languages!

For a little more detail on the characters, I used Tri-Cube Tales to generate a Generatl Demeanor and descriptive tag for each character.

I'll fill in a bit more details for characters once there's a starting premise / scene.

Solo Tools - Tricube Tales

rpg intro | characters | chargen | tricube tales

For solo tools, I'll be using Tricube Tales: Solo Rules, for the first time. It is available for free (just by looking at publisher preview). It's a rules light roleplaying system / emulator, 12 pages long and packed with random tables.

The initial sections are about asking simple questions, scaled questions, complex questions and some general advice. Then a section on story, scenes, plot and some tips.

Then it has sections covering different adventures, each packed with random tables. Ones for Urban, Wilderness, Dungeon, Voyages, Planes, Crime & Mystery, Social, Names, Arcane and Descriptive Tags.