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Hey everyone,

I picked up the Dragonbane boxed set for Christmas and have been raring to get a game going with my friends, but I'm still closing out our current 5e campaign. Everyone is happy to give Dragonbane a go, but since I'll be GMing, I wanted to get a bit of experience with the system before committing to anything long-term.

A couple of players have expressed interest in playing a few short games to get a feel for it - but I do mean a couple! I have myself and two players, and I was wondering what sort of adjustments I would need to make to the adventures in the boxed set for a group consisting of only 2 adventurers? I did a bit of googling and didn't find much -- one suggestion was to reduce the Ferocity of monsters by 1 so the players would still "out-action" them. Would that be suitable? Or would more changes be necessary?

Thanks for all your help!!

Dragonbane combat can be quite deadly and some monsters are especially brutal. Perhaps have the player take two PC each. Also encourage the Player to rest often to recover conditions, WP and HP. Running away is allows an option as is negotiation - many of the NPCs can be reasoned with.

If you have the boxed set, then you have the Solo rules which give a couple of HAs that help a solo PC tackle challenges. Read through it and you'll see them.

I run a game with three players and the combats can be very dangerous, that said as the GM have a couple options to help the PCs out. You can have some NPC "meat shields" accompany the players, give the players the Heroic Abilities out of the solo adventure in the Base/box set, or you can reduce the HP or ferocity of monsters to give the players a fighting chance. Maybe all three. The players will pick up on the lethality after the first combat of two.

My players caught on to the lethality of DB in the very first encounter when the halfing rouge was mauled by the worg rider and out of the fight in a single turn. since then they are more likely to apply the "old school" approach of trying to avoid fights where they can't stack the advantage on their side. They also try non violent resolutions far more often and any time they can negotiate or talk their way out of an encounter they do.

Thanks for your help everyone - I haven't tried the solo adventure yet, so I'll give it a spin and see what I think about the Heroic Abilities on offer, and whether they would be a good fit for the interested players.

A lot of monsters have "Ferocity = Number of PCs -1 (minimum 1)". That seems a good guide, I'd suggest lowering most Ferocity 2 monsters to 1.
Most NPC groups are "number of players" maybe +1 or -1, occasionally "2 per PC" for eg goblins, again that should stay workable with 2 players, giving you encounters with mostly 1-4 NPCs. I think most unarmoured monsters are already very squishy and don't need their hp lowered. I would lower or remove the Armor Rating 6 of the basilisk in Dead Eyes Cave, it'd be fine with AR 0.
Still I'd suggest adding an NPC adventurer with a complimentary skill set. An NPC is good for GM exposition, too. And some NPCs in the adventure like Alfilia Shadowleaf may accompany the PCs on adventures.
With two PCs I wouldn't give out the Solo Heroic Abilities, but I'd suggest starting the PCs with an extra HA of their choice, and recommend Defensive or Fast Footwork.