Trudvang returns

Fria Ligan has acquired the publishing license for Trudvang, the Swedish fantasy rpg originally published as Drakar och Demoner. Riotminds created Trudvang, but the Swedish publisher sold the IP to CMON a few years ago. 

Trudvang is one of my favorite settings. Based on Kalevala, the Icelandic Sagas, and Beowulf, this is an absolutely awesome world, made even more interesting by the great art of Paul Bonner and Alvaro Tapia.

Fria Ligan plans to introduce Trudvang as a part of Dragonbane, a fantasy RPG. The game will be Kickstarted in early 2026, and backers will get four different books:

• World Book: A deep dive into Trudvang’s history, peoples, and regions – from Stormlands to Westmark, from Soj to the Great Ice Plains, richly illustrated.
• Book of Heroes: New Trudvang professions, skills, heroic abilities, and magic – wielded by vitner weavers and dimwalkers.
• Jorgi’s Bestiary: The classic monster manual for Trudvang returns, featuring beasts from braskelwurm and draugr to hrimtursir and yggdras, all adapted for Dragonbane.
• The Black Sun: A legendary four-part epic campaign in Trudvang, revised and published in English for the first time.

Note that you will need the Dragonbane Core Set or the separate Rulebook to play Dragonbane: Trudvang.

About Trudvang

The Trudvang brand and its original content were created by Theodore Bergqvist and Magnus Malmberg of Riotminds as a campaign world for their Swedish edition of Dragonbane (Drakar och Demoner) in the early 2000s. Trudvang later took a life of its own in the separate Trudvang Chronicles RPG and the board game Trudvang Legends by CMON.

The work of writing, editing, and adapting Trudvang to the current version of Dragonbane will be spearheaded by Magnus Seter, a veteran RPG writer (Cyberpunk 2020, Mutant Chronicles, Forbidden Lands, Dragonbane) who also worked on Trudvang in its early days.

Most Funded RPG Publisher on Kickstarter

Fria Ligan is one of the most funded RPG publishers on Kickstarter. Almost everything they publish is funded by Kickstarter. They have extensive experience running successful Kickstarter campaigns. The company has many brands, including Symbaroum, Things from the Flood, Mutant Year Zero, Alien, and more. Trudvang is yet another crown jewel for them.

However, I don’t know at what point Fria Ligan will have too many brands to satisfy all their fans. Can you expand your portfolio infinitely, or is there a limit? Many games published by Fria Ligan are licensed games and, as such, are based on well-established brands, such as Alien and Blade Runner.

Dragonbane RPG

Dragonbane is a translation of Drakar och Demoner, Scandinavia’s first and biggest tabletop RPG, originally launched in 1982. Riotminds had the publishing rights to Drakar och Demoner and published the game as Ruin Masters a few years ago. Riotminds sold the IP to Fria Ligan, who in turn launched it as Dragonbane.

The game uses a skill-based D20 system that is very easy for new players to learn. Each skill is rated from 1 to 18, and the player needs to roll equal to or lower than the skill level to succeed. In other words, this is a roll-under game system, like the games published by Chaosium and many other publishers. Rolling a natural 1 is called rolling a dragon and triggers powerful special effects.

The core Dragonbane game has ten professions, including the classic Fighter, Mage, Hunter, and Thief, but also the more unorthodox Artisan, Merchant, Mariner, and Scholar. The profession will impact a player character’s starting skills and give it a starting heroic ability. Still, once the game begins, the player is free to further develop their character in any way they choose, unbound by class restrictions.