Dragonbane vs Rock & Stone
Compare Dragonbane and Rock & Stone side by side. See differences in complexity, dice, genre, and more.
| Dragonbane | Rock & Stone | |
|---|---|---|
| Genre | Fantasy | Fantasy |
| Tags | Beginner-Friendly, Tactical, Classic Fantasy, Solo-Friendly, Fast-Paced, Mana Points | Classic Fantasy, Comedy, Dungeon Crawl, Fast-Paced, Heroic, High-Power, Random Tables, Rules-Light, Strong GM Support, Theater of the Mind |
| Core Mechanic | Roll d20 equal to or under your skill value to succeed. Boons roll 2d20 and keep the lowest; banes keep the highest. Six attributes (STR, CON, AGL, INT, WIL, CHA). Willpower Points fuel heroic abilities, class features, and spells across four magic schools. Combat uses initiative cards drawn each round for unpredictable turn order. Based on Drakar och Demoner (1982). | For a test, roll a d20 and add the relevant skill; a total above the GM-set difficulty succeeds, while an exact match succeeds with a complication. Natural 20s and 1s produce especially heroic successes and fatal failures. |
| Dice | d20, d4–d12 | d20 |
| Complexity | Low | Low |
| Availability | Free quickstart | Free core rules |
| Runnability | 4 of 5 book tools | 2 of 5 book tools |
| License | Free League Third-Party License | AELF Open License Version 1.0a |
| Third-Party Publishing | Not yet researched | Commercial publishing allowed — AELF Open License Version 1.0a |
| Summary only, not legal advice. Check current terms before publishing. | ||
| Publisher | Free League Publishing | Sebastian Hahn |
| Year | 2023 | 2025 |
| Languages | Swedish, English, German, Polish, French, Spanish | English |
| Best For | Groups who want approachable, fast-paced fantasy with a mix of adventure and humor: great for new players and veterans of classic European RPGs alike. | Groups who want a fast, rules-light dungeon crawl about unusually capable dwarven mercenaries, with a compact setting and a ready-to-run starting adventure. |
| Highlights | Approachable roll-under system, initiative cards keep combat dynamic, Willpower Points unify magic and abilities cleanly, solo play rules included, boxed set includes maps and cards | Gold committed to the dwarven hoard pays for levels, tying treasure recovery directly to advancement. Archetypes grant selectable active and passive abilities, giving each dwarf a distinct role within the shared skill system. Carousing turns a between-adventure roll into complications and opportunities that can seed later expeditions. |
| Considerations | d20 roll-under can feel swingy at low skill values, fewer character options than comparable fantasy RPGs, initiative card system adds components to track | Characters are built around the last-dwarves premise, although the rules permit other heroes. Advancement grants its largest skill and ability gains through level four, after which levels add only hit points and one skill point. Spells are fixed archetype abilities with limited daily uses, so groups seeking open-ended magic will not find it here. |