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 4th edition cover art byMichael Whelan featuringElric of Melniboné (1991). | |
| Designers |
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|---|---|
| Publishers |
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| Publication | 1982–present |
| Genres | Fantasy |
| Systems | Custom (based onBasic Role-Playing) |
| [2] | |
Drakar och Demoner (Swedish forDragons and Demons, in Sweden commonly referred to by the abbreviation "DoD") is a Swedish fantasyrole-playing game first published in 1982 by the game publishing company Äventyrsspel ("Adventure Games", later renamedTarget Games).
The latest three editions of the game have been localised into English under the names ofTrudvang Chronicles,Ruin Masters andDragonbane.[3]
Drakar och Demoner has its origins in the Swedishrecreational wargaming scene. Target Games, the company that went on to publishDrakar och Demoner, was founded in 1980 to import and sell wargames. One of the founders of Target Games, Fredrik Malmberg, moved to the United States in order to import wargames to Sweden, while also working for various game publishers. There he came in contact with the burgeoning role-playing game scene in the United States.[2]
Seeing that role-playing games were much more popular in the US than wargames, Malmberg got the idea that Target Games should publish aSwedish language role-playing game. (English language role-playing games likeDungeons & Dragons had made some inroads in Sweden at the time, but thelanguage barrier prevented them from reaching a larger audience.) Malmberg (who rented a room fromSteve Perrin during his stay in the California) was one of the game testers of theCall of Cthulhu andStormbringer role-playing games and had access to the unpublished manuscript of the upcomingWorlds of Wonder multi-genre set of three role-playing games.[2]
Malmberg states that he was influenced by working withChaosium's rules sets, and consideredDungeons & Dragons rules to be inferior and obsolete. Target Games bought a license to publishChaosium'sBasic Role-Playing combined with thefantasy-themedMagic World booklet fromWorlds of Wonder to create a new Swedish language role-playing game:Drakar och Demoner. Since Target Games was a reseller of games and not a publisher, Target Games' board decided to found a separate arm of the company that would publish games, and they named itÄventyrspel.[2]
The second edition was published in 1984, rewriting the text from scratch, fixing many translation errors, glitches in the rules, with no other major changes made. One of the available player races, theanthropomorphic ducks, was incorporated fromGlorantha.[citation needed]
A rules transition began in 1985, not with the third edition which mostly corrected spelling errors, but with the publication of an "Expert" rule expansion:Drakar och Demoner Expert. Among other things it introduced hit locations, and the use of a20-sideddie instead of thepercentile die for skill rolls.[4][citation needed]
The fourth edition in 1991 was a major revision of the rules, supersedingDrakar och Demoner Expert by incorporating it into the basic rules and then expanding them.[citation needed]
In 1994, Target Games released a fifth edition, calledDrakar och Demoner Chronopia. This edition came with an integratedcampaign setting. Changes to the rules were minor, mostly reflecting the new setting.[5][citation needed]
In the late 1990s, Target Games found itself in financial difficulties and discontinued their line of role-playing games. The rights toDrakar och Demoner were transferred toParadox Entertainment,[6] who in turn licensed them toRiotMinds. RiotMinds published a new version of the game in 2000. This sixth edition was a complete overhaul of the game rules, supporting a much less generic game world. The idea of "Expert" rules was reused, and many rules expansions followed.
When RiotMinds released theirDrakar och Demoner ruleset, it featured a concept very close tolevels ("yrkesnivåer"). It didn't take long before an official addendum appeared on their website, with optional rules on how to play without this feature. In the subsequent reprints (as well as later editions) little or no traces of "yrkesnivåer" remain.[citation needed]
In 2006, RiotMinds published the seventh edition, which has many rule changes to better support its campaign world. Among those were the removal of the basic character stats (grundegenskaper) which were replaced with 'exceptional abilities' (exceptionella karaktärsdrag), and the introduction of specializations of skills. This boxed edition is calledDrakar och Demoner Trudvang.[7]
In 2015 RiotMinds announced a re-release of the 1987 edition of the game featuring new art and minor fixes, but otherwise identical. A line of products including several new campaigns was planned after its August 2016 release.[8] On May 16, 2016, RiotMinds announced thatDrakar och Demoner Trudvang would be released in an English version, under the nameTrudvang Chronicles.[9][citation needed]
In 2019, RiotMinds successfullycrowdfundedRuin Masters, an updated and re-designed English version of the classic game, including new art and design.[10] It has cover art byAdrian Smith, and interior art from artists including, Jesper Ejsing,Johan Egerkrans and Alvaro Tapia.[11]The Ruin Masters Bestiary was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021.[12]
In August 2021, RiotMinds announced that it had sold the IP forDrakar och Demoner toFria Ligan (Free League Publishing).[13] RiotMinds stated they would continue to support theirRuin Masters game and its Caldarox setting with no connection toDrakar och Demoner.[14] Consequently, Free League successfully crowdfunded a new edition of the game in August 2022, called Dragonbane in English.[15] The new edition has English, Swedish, and German language versions.
Like many other early role-playing games,Drakar och Demoner started out without a fully developed campaign setting.
The first campaign setting ofDrakar och Demoner was called Ereb Altor (Ereb being the name of the continent where most – if not all – official adventures take place, Altor being the name of the planet on which Ereb is located). It was created bit by bit by different writers through adventures and source books creating a somewhat haphazard world;medievalfeudal states exist side-by-side with comparably advancedRenaissance-styled nations.
With the fifth version Target Games decided to introduce a new, darker campaign setting namedChronopia, thereby ceasing publication of new material for Ereb. After an outcry among fans of Ereb ensued, Target Games decided that Ereb and Chronopia both existed on Altor but on differenthemispheres. At this time, a tabletop miniatures game line was also started; see Chronopia below. In 2015, Cabinet Holdings acquired Paradox Entertainment Inc. and all subsidiaries and their properties, including Chronopia.
RiotMinds created a brand-new campaign setting calledTrudvang, which utilized cultures, creatures and monsters based onScandinavian folklore instead of the standard fantasy creatures.
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First Edition:Chronopia: Dark Fantasy Battles (1997) was a tabletop miniature game published by Target Games. Players would field an army composed of 25 mm miniatures which were composed of pewter, resin, or a composite of both. The game featured eight different armies for players to choose from.
Second Edition:Chronopia: War in the Eternal Realm (2002) was a tabletop miniature game published by Excelsior Entertainment.
In 2015, Cabinet Holdings acquired Paradox Entertainment Inc. and all subsidiaries and their properties, including Chronopia.
In 2022, German company Uhrwerk Verlag ran a successfulcrowdfunding-campaign to re-release thetabletop miniature game.
In 1999, a Drakar och Demoner video game was released by the name ofDrakar och Demoner: Själarnas Brunn (released asDragonfire: The Well of Souls internationally). It was made by then-defunct Swedish developer ComputerHouse GBG AB.[16] The game takes place in the original campaign setting of Ereb Altor six years after the events in the popular adventure trilogyDen Nidländska Reningen.[17][18]
In 2013, 28 minute short filmDrakar och Demoner – Tronländaren was released.[19]
(in Swedish)