And here we are on Day 18 of the 2026 #Character Creation Challenge and I’m using a game that I had a chance to play at a previous SaltCON. This is Dragonbane, a fantasy roleplaying game that originally came from Scandinavia and was called Drakar och Demoner. It was brought to the US by Free League Publishing that also released some of my other challenge entries such as Tales from the Loop and Twilight: 2000 4th Edition. I still have two more games from this publisher scheduled for later in the month. What are they? You’ll have to return to find out.
As I mentioned in my SaltCON report, one of the races that you can play in this fantasy game is a Mallard. Come on, I want to make a freeking duck character (look at the art above). And yes I promise he won’t be Howard the Duck, Count Duckula or Darkwing Duck. But I’m making a duck.
Ok, yes I’m calm. The rulebook that I had picked up on DriveThruRPG came from a boxed set. The rulebook has 116 pages on the PDF and the character creation starts on page 9 and contains 13 steps. There is only one page in the character sheet.
The first item on the checklist is to select (or roll) your Kin. Mallard. This is the race of the character. Mallard. There is a random table that you can roll a D12 on to decide. Mallard. An you can choose from Human, Halfling, Dwarf. Elf. Mallard or Wolfkin (which is a non-monster wolfman). Gee, what should I pick? Yea, the Mallard. But I will say I played a Wolfkin in the one-shot at SaltCON and he was very kewl. There is a list of possible names that I can randomly choose from, but I pulled some online options together to make Drake Grandfeather.
Step two is about the innate ability that each Kin has that is unique to themselves and uses a Willpower Point to activate. And the Mallards have two of them, so I wrote them down in my notes. One of them is called Ill-tempered. I wonder if this is for all the times we see Daffy Duck or Donald Duck wig out?
Next step is the character’s profession. This is something that they were before they started on their adventures. The ten options are Artisan (like a blacksmith or another type of builder), Bard, Fighter, Hunter, Knight, Mage, Mariner, Merchant, Scholar and Thief. I can randomly roll if so desired, but for some reason, I’m getting pulled towards the Mage. Probably because all of my other fantasy characters so far in this challenge have not been magic users. As a mage, there has to be a school of magic that Grandfeather follows with the options being Animists (everything has power), Elementalism (the four elements) and Mentalism (magic comes from within). All of them look good when I read the description, but eventually I went with Elementalists. I’m suddenly getting the thought that Drake Grandfeather is going to turn into an Obi-Wan type character. I wrote down the skills for this school of magic. There was another random chart for gear, but I decided to go with the one that had the staff. Now, the other professions get a heroic ability, but with the power of magic, mages do not have this. I was also instructed to pick three rank 1 spells and three magic tricks (which sounds like cantrips).
There are three age ranges for step four. Young, Adult or Old. Each one has a different number of trained skills and possible attribute adjustments. There is another random table and for the first time I’m going to let the dice decide. It came up with Adult, so no attribute changes, but 10 trained skills.
Despite the names already being listed under the Kin (and I picked one above) the next step is to select a name and a possible nickname (suggested by the profession). Or you can let the nickname come up in play. Well I already have a name in my notes and I’d be willing to let the nickname come when the time is ready.
Step six is the attributes of the character. They are Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Willpower and Charisma. The primary attribute for the Mage is WIL. The book instructs me to roll 4D6, drop the lowest die in order of the attributes. Once this is done, I can swap two scores of my choosing. Had there been some age adjustments, they would have been made at this time.
On to step seven and the Derived Ratings. This included Movement (decided by Kin and AGL score), Damage Bonus (one for melee and one for ranged weapons), Hit Points and Willpower Points. WP is used for magic and the abilities of innate and heroic. This is the same as the WIL score.
Next comes the Trained Skills. I can pick six trained skills from my profession (there are eight to choose from) and four more other trained skills. Every skill has a base chance that is determined by the attribute score (chart provided). The trained skills are twice this base chance. It took me a second to confirm what went where, but I think I got them all down.
Step nine is the Heroic Ability, which the Mage does not have due to his magical powers. but there is an optional step ten to choose or roll a weakness. I’m going to go ahead and roll just because I haven’t dropped a lot of dice so far. And if fate was with him, his weakness is Craving Knowledge. Sometimes this can be distracting or more important than his friends.
Now we are onto the starting Gear. This was already determined back with the profession. There is also an optional Memento, or an object of great sentimental value. Normally it may not be very helpful, but once a session a memento can be used to recover and additional condition during a stretch rest. Randomly rolling a D20 resulted in this being an old pewter tankard. Sure, why not. Perhaps it has the name of his favorite tavern on the side.
Not on the list for character creation, there was a brief discussion on encumbrance, then we moved onto the last step of Appearance. There is another random D20 chart if I elected to use, which came up with Thin and Wiry. Sure, why not. He’s a scrawny duck. Also not on the list is now a description of the Experience the character may gain during the adventures. I think I’m done with the process so I transferred everything over from my notes to the sheet.
Afterthoughts:
I kind of liked the ability generation instructions listed above. While I was rolling in order, I kept wondering which roll I was going to swap out for the character’s primary attribute. I had to make a decision instead of stat dumping.
I also liked that every skill had a base stat based off of the ability score. Sure my mage may not be acrobatic, but he can still try if needed.
I remember enjoying this game when I played a one-shot at SaltCON. Things made sense. The character sheet made sense. We were able to run the combat without feeling confused or frustrated. So now I wonder how this would work in a campaign? This is probably one of the few non-D20 based fantasy games that I’d probably play (don’t know about run yet). Rolling low on a D20 is the goal in this system.
Additional Notes:
I’ve noticed a few trends in the other 2026 #Character Creation Challenge entries. The first is that fans of the 80’s Masters of the Universe cartoons are making characters based off of that series. The second is a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars characters. Some are using officially licensed products (Like Star Trek Adventures), but others are making characters from these universes using other systems. All of these have been interesting reads.
Coming Up Next:
Rocket Age
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