Chane, Studio Agate, and partners are funding Draconis, a game about befriending dragons. It uses 5e rules and angles towards non-violence.
There are several game modes, and one is all about pacifism without even dangerous spells. Will it fly? There are hundreds of backers on Kickstarter, and the target goal of $20,000 is well and truly met, with more than $60,000 pledged so far. You can see progress on the pitch page.
The game adds creatures, dragonic familiars, items, new spells, new classes, events and even five adventures.
I do not doubt that ‘taming’ is better than killing when it comes to the karmic scale, but this campaign did make me wonder about the ethics of magically bonding familiars and whether using supernaturally enhanced characters to tame dragons or other creatures was much better! I’m overthinking it!
Draconis uses four stages to deal with adversity and drama. Firstly, Objective to determine what the goal is, then Motivation to characterise why there’s someone in conflict with that goal, then a Dramatic Lock to list those things that can be acted on and lastly the Dramatic Key to isolate what people will do to overcome the challenge.
These rules allow for a wide range of situations and game tones, and are sufficiently adaptable to meet the multiple challenges posed by Draconis‘ benevolence.
The use of violence will have moral and social consequences for the characters. These are emphasized in the book and the scenarios, both by the mechanics and the storytelling.
Backers get access to the pledge manager for a $10 pledge, and that money can be spent on items available in the system.
The PDF edition of Draconis and digital stretch goals unlock as the reward at $25.
The printed book plus stretch goals but minus VAT and shipping are the rewards at the $50 tier, popular among backers.
There are many supporting books such as the Deep in the Valley game book, an artbook and others, and backers at $80 get the lot in PDF.
The collector’s edition of Draconis, in print, and other rewards unlock at $120.
The deluxe edition swaps in at $180, along with all the PDFs and other goodies.
The PDFs are slated for January, and the books for June 2025. Jim Searcy and the team are running the Kickstarter until November 23rd.
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