''Drakar och Demoner'' (

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

for ''Dragons and Demons'', in Sweden commonly referred to by the abbreviation "DoD") is a Swedish fantasy

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

first published in 1982 by the game publishing company Äventyrsspel ("Adventure Games", later renamed

Target Games Target Games was a Swedish publisher of role-playing games active from 1980 until the year 1999 when they went into bankruptcy proceedings. Until the mid-1990s they published their Swedish roleplaying games under the brand name Äventyrsspel (me ...

). The latest three editions of the game have been localised into English under the names of Trudvang Chronicles, Ruin Masters and Dragonbane.

Development history

''Drakar och Demoner'' has its origins in the Swedish

recreational wargaming A wargame is a strategy game that realistically simulates warfare. Wargames were invented for the purpose of training military officers, but they eventually caught on in civilian circles, played recreationally. History Early German wargames (178 ...

scene. Target Games, the company that went on to publish ''Drakar 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. Seeing that role-playing games were much more popular in the US than wargames, Malmberg got the idea that Target Games should publish a

Swedish language Swedish ( ) is a North Germanic languages, North Germanic language from the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family, spoken predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland. It has at least 10 million native speakers, making it the G ...

role-playing game. (English language role-playing games like ''

Dungeons & Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by TSR (company)#Tactical ...

'' had made some inroads in Sweden at the time, but the

language barrier A language barrier is a figurative phrase used primarily to refer to linguistic barriers to communication, i.e. the difficulties in communication experienced by people or groups originally speaking different languages (or different dialects in ...

prevented them from reaching a larger audience.) Malmberg (who rented a room from

Steve Perrin Stephen Herbert Perrin (January 22, 1946 – August 13, 2021) was an American game designer and technical writer/editor, best known for creating the tabletop role-playing game ''RuneQuest'' for Chaosium. Early life and education Perrin earned a ...

during his stay in the California) was one of the game testers of the '' Call of Cthulhu'' and ''

Stormbringer Stormbringer is a magic sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. It is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes, created by the forces of Chaos. The sword has a will of its own and it is ...

'' role-playing games and had access to the unpublished manuscript of the upcoming '' Worlds of Wonder'' multi-genre set of three role-playing games. Malmberg states that he was influenced by working with

Chaosium Chaosium Inc. ( ) is a publisher of tabletop role-playing games established by Greg Stafford (game designer), Greg Stafford in 1975. Chaosium's major titles include ''Call of Cthulhu (role-playing game), Call of Cthulhu'', based on the horror fic ...

's rules sets, and considered ''Dungeons & Dragons'' rules to be inferior and obsolete. Target Games bought a license to publish

's ''

Basic Role-Playing ''Basic Role-Playing'' (''BRP'') is a tabletop role-playing game which originated in the ''RuneQuest'' fantasy role-playing game. Chaosium released the ''BRP'' standalone booklet in 1980 in the boxed set release of the second edition of ''RuneQ ...

'' combined with the

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

-themed ''Magic World'' booklet from ''Worlds 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 it ''Äventyrspel''. 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, the

anthropomorphic Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics to ...

ducks, was incorporated from

Glorantha Glorantha is a fantasy world created by Greg Stafford. Overview It was first introduced in the board game '' White Bear and Red Moon'' (1975) by Chaosium and then in a number of other board, roleplaying and computer games, including ''RuneQ ...

. 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 a 20-sided

die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

instead of the

percentile die Dice notation (also known as dice algebra, common dice notation, RPG dice notation, and several other titles) is a system to represent different combinations of dice in wargames and tabletop role-playing games using simple algebra-like notation suc ...

for skill rolls. The fourth edition in 1991 was a major revision of the rules, superseding ''Drakar och Demoner Expert'' by incorporating it into the basic rules and then expanding them. In 1994, Target Games released a fifth edition, called ''Drakar och Demoner Chronopia''. This edition came with an integrated

campaign setting A campaign setting is a setting for a tabletop role-playing game or wargame campaign. Most campaign settings are fictional worlds; however, some are historical or contemporary real-world locations. A '' campaign'' is a series of individual adve ...

. Changes to the rules were minor, mostly reflecting the new setting. In the late 1990s, Target Games found itself in financial difficulties and discontinued their line of role-playing games. The rights to ''Drakar och Demoner'' were transferred to

Paradox Entertainment Cabinet Entertainment, previously known as Paradox Entertainment, is a company dealing in intellectual properties and making motion pictures thereof. All business is conducted from the main office in Los Angeles, United States. The company was fou ...

, who in turn licensed them to RiotMinds. 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 their ''Drakar och Demoner'' ruleset, it featured a concept very close to levels ("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. 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 called ''Drakar och Demoner Trudvang''. 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. On May 16, 2016, RiotMinds announced that ''Drakar och Demoner Trudvang'' would be released in an English version, under the name '' Trudvang Chronicles''. In 2019, RiotMinds successfully

crowdfunded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance, to fund projects "without standard financial ...

''Ruin Masters'', an updated and re-designed English version of the classic game, including new art and design. It has cover art by

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, and interior art from artists including, Jesper Ejsing,

Johan Egerkrans Johan Egerkrans (born 1978) is a Swedish illustrator and author. Egerkrans has described himself as interested in mythology and animals from a young age. His first book as writer and illustrator, ''Nordiska Väsen'', was published in 2013, and de ...

and Alvaro Tapia. ''The Ruin Masters Bestiary'' was successfully funded on Kickstarter in 2021. In August 2021, RiotMinds announced that it had sold the IP for ''Drakar och Demoner'' to Fria Ligan (Free League Publishing). RiotMinds stated they would continue to support their ''Ruin Masters'' game and its Caldarox setting with no connection to ''Drakar och Demoner''. Consequently, Free League successfully crowdfunded a new edition of the game in August 2022, called Dragonbane in English. The new edition has English, Swedish, and German language versions.

Campaign settings

Like many other early role-playing games, ''Drakar och Demoner'' started out without a fully developed campaign setting. The first campaign setting of ''Drakar 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;

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

feudal states exist side-by-side with comparably advanced

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

-styled nations. With the fifth version Target Games decided to introduce a new, darker campaign setting named Chronopia, 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 different

hemisphere Hemisphere may refer to: In geometry * Hemisphere (geometry), a half of a sphere As half of Earth or any spherical astronomical object * A hemisphere of Earth ** Northern Hemisphere ** Southern Hemisphere ** Eastern Hemisphere ** Western Hemi ...

s. 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 called Trudvang, which utilized cultures, creatures and monsters based on

Scandinavian folklore Nordic folklore is the folklore of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands. It has common roots with, and has been under mutual influence with, folklore in England, Germany, the Low Countries, the Baltic countries, Finland and S� ...

instead of the standard fantasy creatures.

Other media

Miniature games

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 successful

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

-campaign to re-release thetabletop miniature game.

Computer game

In 1999, a Drakar och Demoner video game was released by the name of ''Drakar och Demoner: Själarnas Brunn'' (released as ''Dragonfire: The Well of Souls'' internationally). It was made by then-defunct Swedish developer ComputerHouse GBG AB. The game takes place in the original campaign setting of Ereb Altor six years after the events in the popular adventure trilogy ''Den Nidländska Reningen''.

Film

In 2013, 28 minute short film ''Drakar och Demoner – Tronländaren'' was released.

References

External links

Free League's Dragonbane pageRiotminds website (holding page)Fan website (Danish)
{{Authority control Basic Role-Playing System Fantasy role-playing games Role-playing games introduced in 1982 Swedish role-playing games Target Games games Video games developed in Sweden