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.
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The Boxer (corresponds to DW Knight) fights scientifically.
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The Brawler (like the DW Barbarian) flings themselves into the fray with fists and feet.
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The Psionic (DW Mystic) has recourse to paranormal abilities.
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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:
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Disarm (applies to any weapon, not just swords)
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Two-handed fighting (fists, improvised weapons or handguns)
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Marksman (equivalent to Master Bowman in DW)
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Quick Draw
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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
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Invigorate
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Suspended Animation
Level Two
Level Three
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Allseeing Eye
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Mind Cloak
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Nourish
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Telekinesis
Level Four
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Clairvoyance
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Hidden Target
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Telepathy
Level Five
Level Six
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:
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Stealth
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Inner Sense
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Meditation techniques up to Void Trance (8th rank)
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Climbing
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Disguise
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Pilfer
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Picklock
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Track
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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)
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Range (S/M/L): 20m/50m/75m
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Fires every round for six shots. Takes 6 rounds to reload completely.
Rifle (d12, 9 points)
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Range: 50m/100m/200m
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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.
Creatures
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.
