Preface

Dave Morris must be credited with the design of one of the best roleplaying games of its time; Dragon Warriors is a true classic. (You can download Morris' books for free from www.the-underdogs.org.) Unfortunately, many of his rules were badly conceived and left room for improvement. But by the same token, I’ve found that, while DW is definitely in need of fixing, many alterations cost it its flavor. What I am attempting to do here is add some realism and playability to the game while leaving the style intact.

Attribute Requirements

Knights and Barbarians must have Strength of at least 9, since that level of Strength is essential to wield the weaponry and wear the armour they start off with. (See Exhaustion, below.)

Sorcerers and Elementalists must have Intelligence of at least 12, Psychic Talent of at least 9. Mystics must have Intelligence of at least 9, Psychic Talent of at least 12. Warlocks must have Strength, Intelligence, and Psychic Talent all at least 9. This enforces the rarity of Characters belonging to magic using professions. Assassins still require 12 for Reflexes and 9 for Intelligence and Psychic Talent.

Health Points

Health Points are completely removed. All damage is taken directly from the Strength Characteristic, and incurs penalties to combat effectiveness as follows:

Dropping to 18: -1 ATTACK
Dropping to 15: -1 ATTACK
Dropping to 12: -1 ATTACK
Dropping to 8:  -1 ATTACK
Dropping to 5:  -1 ATTACK
Dropping to 2:  Incapacitated
Dropping to -1: Dead

(Although you will have to improvise for monsters without Strength scores, you can generally simply use their Health Points score as if it were a Strength rating. For especially powerful monsters, such as Dragons, which can have Health Point scores over 20, note that every 3 points of damage results in a -1 penalty to ATTACK.)

Example: Fenric, a stalwart Knight with 17 Strength, is apprehended by a pair of rogues on the way to Axbridge. While he fights bravely, they manage to deal 6 damage to him, thus reducing his Strength to 11. He now suffers -2 to ATTACK, and prays God give him safety in his wounded state.

Wounds & Recovery

A Character who is wounded has Unstabilized wounds, until they are bandaged or a healing spell is cast on him. To successfully bandage another Character, you must spend 3 Rounds and roll your Rank or less on d10. Success means that the wounded Character will recover 1 Strength per night, and an additional Strength every day he spends resting.

Unstabilized wounds can become infected—if the GM rolls the Wound level or less on d20, they have become infected; the player loses 1d3 from a random Characteristic, permanently. Roll 1d3 twice, first for Characteristic, and again for points lost:

1: -1d3 Strength permanently
2: -1d3 Reflexes permanently
3: -1d3 Looks permanently

This process continues until the GM rolls above the Character’s Wound level, at which point the wounds Stabilize.

Magic Points

Magic Points are removed. All Magic Point loss is directly taken from Psychic Talent, and Mystics use the same system that Sorcerers do, but all costs for Mystics and Warlocks is double that shown here:

Casting a Spell of a level equal to your Rank:  -3 Psychic Talent.
… one or two levels below your own Rank:        -2 Psychic Talent.
… three to five levels below your own Rank:     -1 Psychic Talent.
… six or more levels below your Rank:           free.

Boosting a Spell’s effective Rank costs +1 Psychic Point per additional Rank; this is not doubled for Warlocks or Mystics.

Psychic Talent losses affect Characters as follows:

Dropping to 18:  –1 MAGIC ATTACK & DEFENCE
Dropping to 15:  –1 MAGIC ATTACK & DEFENCE
Dropping to 12:  –1 MAGIC ATTACK & DEFENCE
Dropping to 8:   –1 MAGIC ATTACK & DEFENCE
Dropping to 5:   –1 MAGIC ATTACK & DEFENCE
Dropping to 2:   Incapacitated
Dropping to -1:  Dead

To Hit Roll

To make a strike, roll a d20, counting 20 as 0; 0’s are considered critical hits, whereas 19’s always miss. If your roll was less than or equal to your ATTACK minus the target’s DEFENCE, you hit.

Dealing Damage

Roll for armour bypass as usual, but if the armour bypass roll is a failure, the defender still loses 1 Strength from bruising and battering. If the armour bypass roll succeeds, full damage is dealt. On a critical hit (roll of 0) the armour bypass die is still rolled; if it succeeds, the damage is doubled, otherwise full damage is dealt.

Missile Combat

DEFENCE is used in place of ATTACK for missile attacks. (This is because DEFENCE is modified by Reflexes more than by Strength.)

Shots fired from close quarters are at +7, (Short). Beyond this range shots are at +4 (Medium). Past this shorts are at +0 (Long), which is the maximum distance reachable with that weapon. All other modifiers are calculated normally.

Shields

Do not roll d6 every time a shielded character is struck. Instead, increase his DEFENCE, as shown.

Small Shield: +1 DEFENCE
Large Shield: +2 DEFENCE, counts as 2 items.

MAGIC ATTACK and EVASION

A d20 is used, counting 20’s as 0, just as in melee and missile combat.

Exhaustion

All Characters have a variable Exhaustion Characteristic, equaling these three things added together:

The AF of his Armour, if wearing any
The number of items carried
The number of Rounds he has been fighting since he last rested (one minute of rest reduces this to zero).

If a Character’s Exhaustion ever exceeds his current Strength then it cuts his Reflexes in half (round up), and if his Exhaustion is more than double his current Strength his Reflexes is reduced to 0. Reductions to Reflexes affect Characters as follows:

Dropping to 15:  -1 DEFENCE and EVASION
Dropping to 12:  -1 DEFENCE and EVASION
Dropping to 8:   -1 DEFENCE and EVASION
Dropping to 5:   -1 DEFENCE and EVASION
Dropping to 2:   Immobilized

Falling

Characters suffer 1 point of damage for every 2m fallen, –2 damage for wearing armor. On a successful Reflexes roll, they may halve this damage; Assassins still take no damage for falling up to 6m.

Poison

Poisoned Characters no longer roll their Strength or less on Xd6 or die. Instead, they simply take damage over three rounds, as shown below; damage is suffered at the end of the round.

Poison   First Round  Second Round  Third Round
Weak:    0 Damage     1d6 Damage    1d6 Damage
Normal:  1d6 Damage   1d6 Damage    1d6 Damage
Strong:  2d6 Damage   2d6 Damage    0 Damage

Ability Checks

To make an ability check, roll d6 and add this to your ability score. If the total equals or exceeds the difficulty, the check is a success; otherwise, the check fails. Evidently, if your ability score already equals or exceeds the difficulty, you need not roll.

Fright Attacks

Make a Psychic Talent ability check whenever subjected to a fright attack. The difficulty for this equals the maximum die roll for the creature’s fright attack strength (so 12 for ghosts, 6 for spectres, etc). If the character fails this check, he dies of heart failure.

Assassins' Shock Attacks

On a successful shock attack against an enemy of lower Rank, do not roll; the defender is at 0 ATTACK, DEFENCE, and EVASION for the first Round, and all attacks against him are treated as critical hits for that first round; then he is merely surprised on the second Round.

Assassins' Lockpicking Ability

Lockpick attempts are made every other round on d20 rather than every round on d100; if the Assassin rolls his rank or below, either the lock opens, or he discovers it to be beyond his skill.

Experience

After each adventure, 1-10 experience points are awarded to every Character depending on the GM's evaluation of the difficulties faced, as usual. However, every player adds his intelligence modifier to the experience earned:

Intelligence 16-18:  +2 Experience Points
Intelligence 13-15:  +1 Experience Points
Intelligence 9-12:   +0 Experience Points
Intelligence 6-8:    –1 Experience Points
Intelligence 3-5:    –2 Experience Points

Attribute Gains

At 4th , 7th, and 10th Rank, Characters of all Professions gain 1 point to a Characteristic of their choice.

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Email the author at harkenbane@juno.com