Donjons & Drakes: Fantasy Heartbreaker Intro

 I have been working on my own Fantasy Heartbreaker, currently named Donjons & Drakes, for some time.  Many of my early musings are in this blog.  Starting to play again has spurred me to get the game to a playable state.  I'm not quite exactly where I want it to be (especially with higher level stronghold management), but it is certainly playable.  The game is heavily based on The Original Fantasy RPG from the 1970s, but I have pulled in ideas from other editions and other games throughout where they make sense.  Especially now that 5E is in a Creative Commons license, there is a lot of flexibility to borrow material.

I intend a series of posts about core mechanics and rules.  This is an excerpt from the front material that lays out what its all about.

Premise

In this game, characters begin as eager adventurers eager to find their way in the world.  After some introductory adventures where experience is gained, they find themselves deep in the depths of a fantastic dungeon.  Success brings riches, magic and power.  Failure brings ignominy or even death.  Eventually, successful characters have the opportunity to establish strongholds, raise armies and vie for control of the known Realms.  Will your character bring an age of weal, be a harbinger of woe, or maintain the balance?  How will the journey change them?  Adventure on to find out…

Scope

The game you hold before you is based on the Original Fantasy Role Playing Game (OFRPG) and its earliest basic versions.  However, this version is unique for it adds emphasis in several areas.

• Incorporation of elements from the Original Fantasy Miniatures Wargame.  The Original Fantasy Miniatures Wargame was used in a number of places for inspiration to round out the capabilities of player characters and monsters alike.
• Modern, streamlined mechanics.  Universal saving throws, an ascending armor class system leveraging the base attack bonus, and other such mechanics have been incorporated to greatly reduce the need to constantly reference tables in play.  Mechanics have been designed such that only D20 and D6 dice are generally needed.  The emphasis is on relatively fast play.
• Historical accuracy.  Where possible, the game draws from historical sources.  For example, prices have been adjusted to a silver standard, where one silver coin is a groat and three silver pieces equal a historical medieval shilling.  This allows easy conversion of new items from real world sources into the game.  Another example has been to further develop the details of domain management for high level characters, looking to historical examples as a guide.  Units of weight and measure are another example, where historical real world measures such as weight in “stones” provide a simpler and more flavorful method than the OFRPG.
• Heroic mythos.  The alignment system has been modified to include elements of heroic mythology, borrowing from astrology, tarot, and other arcana.  These elements add a bit of depth to heroic character development, allowing the players to draw inspiration from a rich tapestry of mythic inspiration.

The author has been able to benefit from modern statistical analysis tools to analyze the OFRPG and other games, as well as years of personal experience with various editions of role playing games games, to develop this set of rules.  It it is a never-ending labor, but one that has finally resulted in a codified set of playable table rules with a unique spin on a familiar genre.  I hope that you enjoy these rules.