In the in greetings thread I mentioned that I’m working on converting my own setting/game to the BoL rules. And I figured that it might be interesting to hear what people more experienced with the BoL rules think about my efforts.
Some info about the setting: In ancient times some human families tamed dragons and started to use them as mounts. This gave rise to the Dragonblooded nobility and bonded dragons has ever since been the mark of noble blood. The goal of this setting is to have proper knights riding dragons, so jousting and lance combat should be central. This means that the dragons can’t be the huge, firebreathing monstrosities of D&D. I have never understood why dragons in these games bother with the useless human on its back, and have tried to make the knight relevant. In my setting dragons are “only” as big as warhorses and have scales, wings and deadly talons. Extremely deadly, but not the god-like monsters found in other fantasy games. It is a game about dragon riding knights, not dragons with a useless human strapped on their back.

Character generation: I want to use Mythic edition for the rules. In addition to attributes, combat abilities and careers a dragon knight is defined by his dragon. The dragon has four attributes: Head, Claws, Wings and Scales, and these are used while airborne. Head represents the dragon’s senses, skills and special powers, Claws is used for attacking, Wings represent speed and maneuverability and Scales represent armor and lifeblood. In addition there are different breeds of dragons like the firebreathing firewyrms, the aquatic seawyrms, the intelligent highwyrms and the huge greatwyrms. But that is for another post.

The things I’ve struggled the most with is defining careers. In this game every character is supposed to be a knight so careers have to represent different knightly roles. So far I’ve come up with the following list:
Alchemist – A knight dabbling in the science of alchemy.
Castellan – A lord of a castle. Knowledge of sieges and running the castle
Chancellor – Counselor and politician.
Constable – A knight tasked with upholding the law in his lord’s domain.
Courtier – Etiquette, romance and intrigue.
Trollblood – A knight that dabbles in the magic arts of old.
Errant – Knowledge of lands and people. Surviving off the land.
Justicar – The knight as judge
Hunter – The noble art of tracking and killing defenseless animals
Landless – A knight without the prospect of inheriting land or riches.
Tourney-knight – A knight specialized in tournaments. Jousting, duels and strutting about
Learned – A knight versed in knowledge, history, science and legends.
Marshal – A war-leader. Strategist and tactician.
Templar – A religious knight with the knowledge of how to make sacrifices to the gods.
Lord – A knight from high nobility. Both friends and enemies in high places.
Landed – The knight as landowner, farmer and leader of the commoners.
Man-at-arms – The knight as a professional soldier. Surviving campaigns, making assaults.
Oathbreaker – Masterless knight with contacts in the underworld.
Chirurgeon – A knight with knowledge of healing, setting of bones and surgery. Used on both on dragons and people.
 
Rules
The only new rules needed for this game are rules for aerial combat. Here I’ve let myself be inspired by the great game Warbirds: When dogfighting all combatants roll Initiative + Wings. This represent both initiative and position, so you can only attack a character who rolled lower than yourself. When you are attacked, you have to choose between holding your course and be able to attack yourself (Use only defence), or abort your own attack and actively defend against the attack (Defence + Wings)
 
Attacking with a lance uses Melee + Claws. And damage equals 1d6 + STR + Claws. Just using the dragon to attack uses Melee + Claws and damage is 1d6 + Claws.
 
To keep things simple, a dragon and a knight has combined Lifeblood total. This equals 10 + STR + Scales. Armor used in aerial combat is the sum of the armor used by the knight and Scales.
 
That’s about it, I think. So what do you guys think?

Last edited by Arkat (3/20/2015 3:51 am)