“You are a dragonrider. You were selected at a young age by the people of your home to travel to the Caldera, to bond with a dragon, and to train in the rigors of aerial combat. Whoever you were before you were selected isn’t important anymore. You fight for something larger than yourself.

You fight for your dragon. Thousands of feet up in the air, your dragon is all that keeps you alive. The bond between a rider and dragon is unlike anything a civilian will ever experience. You and the dragon will learn to form one mind. Once bonded to a dragon, you will never be alone as long as both of you live. 

You fight for your Warrenguard, a group of riders who will always have your back. No matter what petty arguments separate you on the ground, in the air, you must work as one. Learn from those more experienced, teach those who are new. Lay down your life for your fellow rider as they would lay down their life for you.”¹

First, Happy PRIDE! The first PRIDE was a riot and while I’ll encourage peaceful demonstrations – especially against our current regime here in the United States – I’ll also encourage you to be as loud, proud, and bright as you can be!

Speaking of being so proud… You may recall over a year ago I shared my excitement for this dragon-riding extravaganza of a game from Luck of the Harbor and my amazingly creative friend Natalie Pudim’s game called Warrenguard. It was a pleasure to playtest, a pleasure to play, a joy to see go well beyond its $5K backerkit goal… And now it’s my sincere pleasure to share that the digital PDF is now available for purchase! I’ve already got my copy and you can too! Want to know more about what you’ll find inside? Well it starts with a beautiful cover (see title page) and then there’s the wink into the world of a red page titling this book the Dragonrider’s Manual, 13th Edition. Time to learn, dragonriders!

The Rules

While of course the full ruleset is contained within, including how to play the aspects of Rider and Dragon in roleplay and combat situations as well as advancement. It’s both leveraging Fate Accelerated and the Belonging Outside Belonging rules. So you’ll roll fate dice sometimes, but also earn and spend tokens based upon your rider’s weak/strong moves. Details are given for session 0, reviewing safety tools – love to see it – and how diversity and representation matter. Dragon riders come in all sizes, shapes, cultures… I was actually very pleased with the How To Train Your Dragon live action movie, growing it from being just local vikings to tribes from all over the world converging. Go check it out! You will be doubly inspired to play Warrenguard after you watch it. That soundtrack is wonderful.

Anyway, the rules go on to express how you’ll portray your rider while predominantly the GM roleplays your dragon. There’s a deeper review of Aspect tapping (a la Fate), and what actions you can take as well. You’ll define your approach, roll, and then see what consequences, damage, or stress results. This is primarily tied to combat with your dragon, but you never know what could come up. Finally information for leveling up your rider as well as what a GM can do as formal Moves are covered when they’re reacting to weak moves your Rider makes. Everything you need, quickly defined but with space for the creativity of the game. And how creative the options get. Let’s dig into character creation.

Riders

When you build a Rider, you’re choosing a few things like name, pronouns, a few traits to define your appearance or style. There’s a few other questions tied to the archetype for things for you to choose like the Old-Timer has to choose something they’ll never let go of and one thing this dragon-riding life has never let them have. Your questions to ask your neighbors when you build connections are provided, as are your weak, neutral and strong moves. But I should get more into the archetypes. Last year I noted there’s 5 rider archetypes to choose from. Well, not anymore. Now there’s 7! You’ve got your Ace, the total hot shot. There’s the Caretaker, parental and loving. The Fresh Face is brand new to your Warrenguard. The Old-Timer I mentioned is that person nearly ready to retire, and of course the Outsider antihero type with probably a chip on their shoulder. 

The Vagabond is brand new as part of a stretch goal and was created by Jay Dragon (bsky) of Possum Creek Games and creator of Wanderhome fame. The Vagabond comes and goes as they please, not quite part of the Warrenguard or perhaps just an allied visitor for a bit. Meanwhile the Nobody was created by Sebastian Yue (bsky), who has contributed to Pathfinder, Daggerheart, and has games their own like the Model Minister! The Nobody may not seem like much, may get overlooked, but eventually their true value shines through as does their power. Both have chapters to unlock in their Level Ups, and I’m very curious about the Nobody’s tied to “A Promising Power.” Sebastian knew what they were doing with this one… So tempting!

Dragons

The Dragons section starts with a lovely treatise by one Liberge, i.e. Brian Liberge, who contributed to this tome. I’ll get to one promising contribution of Brian’s later. I do always love a splash of in-world lore, coupled with some narrative details and of course the amazing art. The art and layout of this book are really quite enjoyable. Anyway, the treatise mentions the mental bond you establish with your dragon, which can make for a lot of fun when playing. I really love love love the aspect of a dynamically generated dragon color to match your rider. An outcast with a black dragon is far different than an outcast with a pink dragon after all. The black dragons are interested in winning above all else with a fiercely independent streak, while the pink are flashy, playful, and interested in fun before work. I played an outcast twice, once with a black dragon but also with a gold, a dedicated leader out to protect and serve. It makes for quite the different story, especially when the GM is whispering something in character through the bond. So not only can you build riders in many different ways, but the circumstances of building your dragons and then the warren details are sure to change it up every time! The easiest way to get that random dragon is rolling a d12 and rerolling on a duplicate. The First Session section of the Ruleset goes into this.

The Dragons are the ones with ability scores effectively, your Approaches you’ll use in combat. Maybe you’re careful like a Gold Dragon or Sneaky like a Black dragon. Each dragon has every approach: careful, clever, flashy, forceful, quick, sneaky. They range from 0 to 3, though only one approach will have a 3. Every dragon’s array is different and can provide varying influences to how you approach combat. Of course, you can always choose an approach you’re not good at but tagging Aspects with the tokens you’ve collected can more than offset a low score! They also each have a special stunt, something they’re quite adept at. The Green offers a +2 bonus when working with their rider to Cleverly overcome an obstacle. Meanwhile, the Flashy Pink (below) gets +2 when taunting someone that’s attacking. I mean look at that face? How could you attack a Pink dragon?

Creating Your Warren & Hold

Worldbuilding is where you design what your world is like, and more specifically your warren and the Hold. You’ll have to choose which character is the Commander from one of four archetypes: Old-Timer, Ace, Outsider, or Caretaker. That’s sure to spin how your Warrenguard behaves. There’s trait of what to bring to your warren like pranks or chores and you get into what’s available at your warren including who is the caretaker. Rules Against Romance can create some fun as maybe dating warrenguards have to hide their true feelings until that dramatic moment. Who doesn’t want callsigns eh? You’ll also select some of the areas available in your warren like Dragon Stables or a garden. Steamy Baths can be a relaxing place to converse post-combat, or maybe a place of flirtation even when there’s rules against romance!

Full rules, or more like selection guidelines, are given for building up the Hold your Warrenguard is part of as well. This includes how is your Hold defended, maybe by massive ancient walls or my raging rivers around it. You get to add exciting features like tall towers or canals, as well as how your dragons are feed and how the Hold is governed. I remember one of the playtests I did was very Game of Thrones with leading families tied to gems. It definitely had a She-Ra, Stephen Universe vibe and I adored it. I think that was the Monarchal Leaders governorship. It should be said all the prompts in Warrenguard are just starting points to help your group get going. Take it wherever you will!

Chapters

In Chapters, a number of story plots are detailed. The game suggests choosing two to four for the GM to bring players through, but you can obviously do more. Some are noted as great for starting like Inspections, where the Dragonmaster General is coming to check in on the Warren. Great way to meet the Warrenguard characters during a time of stress. There’s also Warren Wars, where you’re competing with a rival Warrenguard in a friendly competition. I tried that one and it was quite fun; I think we won? There’s locked chapters too. But let’s jump on down to Dragon Train because I know who came up with that idea!

Yes, yes, Mrs. Liberge knew we needed a way to move things between the Holds and thus the Dragon Train was born. Sometimes the young Warrenguard that protects the train would stay at your warren every so often. Makes sense right? Well what do you do when they were due to arrive yesterday and they did not!? In this Chapter aventure the Warrenguard leaves the area of the Hold, possibly being exposed to unfamiliar threats. Hope you can save those young riders and maybe whatever’s on that train…

The locked Chapters are special adventures tied to the various archetypes, unlocked with a Level Up. Each archetype has one and as I mentioned, A Promising Power for the Nobody is quite tempting. The Outsider has a duel to fight, which is sure to draw some attention. So might the Ace’s Chapter: Statue. If the HOld puts up a statue of just the Ace that’s sure to cause some interesting intra-warrenguard drama or at least drum up some emotional responses. Adorably, Jay Dragon gives us Wanderlust for the Vagabond. The road calls, will they answer or might the Vagabond have finally found a home?

Threats & Appendices

The Threats are your monsters and challenges pre-designed for your GM to use. I won’t give away their details but there’s everything from a giant centipede to a rogue Warrenguard to Roks (above) to Sky Jellyfish (below) with some psychedelic art! Again, beautiful job art team! You can find links to the artists in references by the way. Living Lightning is a dangerous thing and a giant octopus that lives in the ground is probably going to be a real issue for dragons. Watch out for those tentacles, lest you wind up earthbound. Obviously you can make your own Threats but now you’ll have a framework of how to balance them

The Appendices hold a few options. The first provides additional Chapters to take your warrenguard through. The Medical Leave one might be particularly helpful if a rider gets particularly injured during a combat at the end of a chapter.  Running that Rogue Warrenguard chapter? Well then special pre-made characters to use for it can be found in Appendix II.  Appendix III offers you a beautifully floral example of a Hold. Want to try playing Warrenguard solo? Well then look to Appendix IV. And last but not least is Appendix V with a tasty treat for all, more like an actual biscuit recipe! Sometimes you get down to rations and you’ll be thankful for a good biscuit! Someone has to make these and tell me how they are. Maybe I’ll make them when my friends and I play. The lemony white chocolate apricot almond Erismos Desert biscuit option is quite enticing.

As is probably clear, I find the entire book enticing. All the exciting diagrams, side notes scribbled in, and of course the narrative pieces make this truly feel like the Dragonrider’s Manual it starts out with. You should most definitely invest in Warrenguard! You will have a grand time soaring the skies with your friends, your dragon, and your friends’ dragons! And in further celebration, Natalie and her team have launched their next project on backerkit: Can You Host? A Game of Messy Queers. Make no mistake, this is an LGBTQ+ supportive game as is all of Luck of the Harbor’s works. Sometimes people want to spend some time together and that inevitable question arises, even for our heterosexual allies. But where?

Investing In:

I wasn’t quite sure what to name my article series when I first started but the idea of showcasing or discussing things that make me excited, that I find new and interesting, or maybe I’m otherwise passionate about seemed to fit with the idea of Investing In something like the Pathfinder 2E mechanic. To use some magic items you have to give that little bit of yourself, which helps make these things even better. I like the metaphor of the community growing and being strengthened in the same way!

I also want to hear what you’re Investing In! Leave me a comment below about what games, modules, systems, products, people, live streams, etc you enjoy! You can also hit me up on social media as silentinfinity. I want to hear what excites you and what you’re passionate about. There’s so much wonderful content, people, groups (I could go on) in this community of ours that the more we invest in and share, the better it becomes!

Sources

Banner – Warrenguard cover, Luck of the Harbor, Natalie Pudim, art by Natalie Chenard

1. Introduction excerpt, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor
2. Town Below, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Shan Bennion
3. Fresh Face, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Monica M. Magaña
4. Bronze Dragon, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Andre Rivera
5. Pink Dragon, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Kaden Collins
6. Blue Dragon, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Kaden Collins
7. Roc, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Andre Rivera
8. Sky Jellyfish, Warrenguard, Luck of the Harbor, art by Shan Bennion
9. Can You Host? Banner, Can You Host? Backerkit, Luck of the Harbor