Dragonbane RPG Announced

Free League Publishing has announced plans to release the Swedish RPG Drakar och Demoner in English for the very first time under the title Dragonbane. After purchasing the rights to Drakar och Demoner in 2021, Free League has announced that they will release a new edition for the popular tabletop RPG, which was first released in 1982. The new edition of the game will be based on the original rules for the game and funded via a Kickstarter campaign, which will be released later this month. The game is described as a "mirth and mayhem" roleplaying game, in which both laughs and brutal challenges are commonplace. Adventures are designed with minimal prep time expected. 

Drakar och Demoner was originally published as a translation of Basic Role-Playing, the ruleset used in RuneQuest. The game underwent several revisions and editions over the years, with several spinoff games. English-speaking players might be familiar with Trudvang Chronicles, an RPG that was released in Sweden as a version of Drakar och Demoner but with a new campaign setting based on Nordic and Celtic Myths. 

Swedish RPGs have become a major part of modern tabletop RPGs, with games like Mörk Borg, Tales From the Loop, and Mutant all finding wider audiences in English-speaking languages. Some of this is thanks to Free League Publishing, which has pushed original Swedish RPGs alongside licensed games like The One Ring and Alien: The Roleplaying Game.

"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," said Free League CEO Tomas Härenstam in a press release. Härenstam will serve as the lead designer of Dragonbane, with art by Johan Egerkrans. The core rulebook for Dragonbane will contain at least one full adventure, with Free League noting that more adventures could be added via stretch goals for the new campaign.