H P Lovecraft would have been 135 years old today -- though, let's be honest, that's just an excuse to do something with the pun* on Dragon Warriors, celebrating only its 40th anniversary. (Incidentally, this is an abbreviated version of a post that appeared on my Jewelspider Patreon page; go there for more lively awfulness.)
Dagon Warriors uses a variant of the Dragon Warriors rules for Prohibition-era adventures. Characters are categorized into types depending on how they deal with adversaries. These are not descriptive of the character’s role in the game; a character could be a private eye, a cop, a war veteran, a gangster, a librarian, a scientist, a reporter, a sculptor, or whatever they like – and still be of any type.
- The Boxer (corresponds to DW Knight) fights scientifically.
- The Brawler (like the DW Barbarian) flings themselves into the fray with fists and feet.
- The Psionic (DW Mystic) has recourse to paranormal abilities.
- The Scout (DW Assassin) relies on stealth and observation.
The world of the Cthulhu Mythos is science fiction, not fantasy – at least, it is in this version. So there is no sorcery, even though the powers of the mind might sometimes seem uncanny. MAGICAL ATTACK and MAGICAL DEFENCE are renamed PSYCHIC ATTACK and PSYCHIC DEFENCE in these rules. We also recommend capping character progression at 10th rank to prevent the game turning into HPL-meets-the-MCU.
Boxers get the following special skills:
- Disarm (applies to any weapon, not just swords)
- Two-handed fighting (fists, improvised weapons or handguns)
- Marksman (equivalent to Master Bowman in DW)
- Quick Draw
- Haymaker (equivalent to DW Swordmaster but applies to a punch)
Brawlers get the special skill See Red (equivalent to DW Bloodrage)
Psionic powers (equivalent to Mystic spells) are:
Level One
- Invigorate
- Suspended Animation
Level Two
- Darksight
- Might
- Pursuit
Level Three
- Allseeing Eye
- Mind Cloak
- Nourish
- Telekinesis
Level Four
- Clairvoyance
- Hidden Target
- Telepathy
Level Five
- Force Field
- Truthsense
Level Six
- Purification
- Survival
Psionics also get the abilities of Premonition, ESP and Awakening (corresponding to DW Adepthood).
Scouts do not have the alchemical or special combat abilities (throwing spikes, shock attack, etc) of a DW Assassin. Unlike DW Assassins, their ATTACK and DEFENCE scores increase by 1 every other rank (at 3rd, 5th, 7th rank, etc) and their Health Points increase by 1 at 2nd, 4th, 6th rank, etc. Their special skills are limited to:
- Stealth
- Inner Sense
- Meditation techniques up to Void Trance (8th rank)
- Climbing
- Disguise
- Pilfer
- Picklock
- Track
- Memorize
Firearms
Player-characters do not wear armour. We have to be prescriptive about that otherwise you will end up with players like the guy in our Wild West campaign who insisted on tooling around town in a Conquistador breastplate. They may cite the gunfighter James Miller, but – no. Just no.
You could wear a bullet-proof vest. It’s encumbering (reduce ATTACK by 2 and STEALTH by 5) and when hit you first roll to see if the bullet struck the torso (indicated by 4-6 on d6) and if it does the AF is 8. The vest won’t stop you getting hurt – you’ll still take damage, and you’ll feel like you’ve been kicked by a Pierson's Puppeteer, but if the shooter didn’t make their armour bypass roll then you won’t be killed.
Revolver (d10+1, 5 points)
- Range (S/M/L): 20m/50m/75m
- Fires every round for six shots. Takes 6 rounds to reload completely.
Rifle (d12, 9 points)
- Range: 50m/100m/200m
- Bolt-action: requires 1 CR to load a single round or 5 CRs to reload a full magazine (5 rounds).
Firearms jam on an ATTACK roll of 20, requiring 1-3 rounds to fix.
Some examples of Mythos creatures are given below. It’s not anticipated that player-characters will go toe-to-tentacle with such beings, however. If they did, their adventuring careers would not be long. Adversaries will usually be cultists (deluded humans who imagine their prayers are noticed by powerful otherworldly entities) and servants who have been forced or hypnotized into doing the bidding of an alien creature – as in the scenario "Abnormal Growth" which accompanies these rules in the original Patreon post, and the title of this post gives a hint as to what that scenario is about.
* The suggestion was originally John Hagan's, it just took me nearly a decade to get around to it.
I like how the Boxer, Brawler, Psionic and Scout corresponds to the Knight, Barbarian, Mystic, and Assassin. Very imaginative! The book cover's typos look like what an AI would do. But the font looks exactly the same as a genuine DW book!
ReplyDeleteCall of Cthulhu ended up overtaking RuneQuest in popularity. Who knows, maybe this adaptation of the DW rules will do the same!
DeleteMerits of crossing over with an established brand!
DeleteNow, if you can just get a hit TV show to feature Dragon Warriors, you're all set!
But Dave, where are the Sanity points?
ReplyDeleteGood question, Nick. You could always use the DW madness rules (though personally I try to ignore those) but anyway it gives me an excuse to link to this old post.
DeleteThat's an interesting discussion Dave. Personally I always found the inevitability of your character losing sanity a refreshing change from other RPGs at the time (1e/2e CoC), and quite entertaining. I liked that your maximum SAN was 100 minus your Cthulhu Mythos skill. But I can see how that may not fit in a more modern setting.
ReplyDeleteCoC's approach certainly set the trend for almost all later Cthulhu Mythos RPGs, Nick. I get the feeling those games' designers got their inspiration more from Petersen than from Lovecraft. I should reassure Cthulhu gamers who like their adventures to teeter on the brink of insanity that in Whispers Beyond The Stars, my forthcoming gamebook with Pawel Dziemski, you take hits to both your physical and mental wellbeing and can lose the game if either gets too low.
DeleteI always quite liked the instakill Fright Attack in Dragon Warriors. Particularly apt for a game where Life and Death are Only a Dice Roll Away!
ReplyDeleteThe idea of having you going irrecoverably mad as a result of a Mythos Fright Attack is quite appealing - though it would be a sudden snapping rather than the more gradual descent normally represented. I quite like the idea that getting involved with the Mythos is a game of Russian Roulette: sooner or later you just snap!
Talking of instant death, Ray, I was rereading the rules for the water leaper's shriek. Yikes.
DeleteIn the game of Cthulhu Dark I played (expertly run by Ralph Lovegrove of Fictoplasm fame) my character breezed past half a dozen mind-warping experiences during the game, but then at the end I had to roll an Insight die for each of those moments as I reflected on what had happened -- and I went from sane to a nervous wreck in the space of minutes, which felt more realistic than breaking down in the midst of the action.
Oh, that's a nice way of doing it! Physically surviving is only the first hurdle...
Delete