Anyway, Dragonraid is the first Christian RPG and was conceived as a tool for teaching/proselytizing. We’re going to set that aside – I’m a filthy heathen and have no business evaluating it on those merits. Despite generally giving the side-eye to the Christian versions of things (toys, rock, etc.) I have to admit I think it was pretty ballsy to produce a game like this in 1984, when RPGers and evangelical sorts were bound to find common ground in hating it (which is exactly what happened).

The monstrous, 3” box is jam packed with stuff. There’s 7 books – a player primer, a rulebook, a player’s handbook, a GM’s guide and 3 adventure modules. There are pads of character sheets and game worksheet, a bunch of character counters, dice and, originally, a tape cassette (the audio is online, but I have my limits and have not listened). Its all high quality for the time. There isn’t much interior art, but the color cover illustrations by Christian artist RJ Watson are rather lovely in an old fashioned illustrator way.  

The system is  simple and uses what is essentially a resistance table for all contests. A more involved combat system with crits is optional. The real interesting thing is what amount to the magic system called WordRune, which are Bible quotes that can be recited to, well, create magical effects. This is easy to make fun of, but it is also a really early example of the sort of dialogue-as-mechanic ideas that would crop up in story games and more narrative based RPGs years later.

Am I going to play it? Nah. Is it way more interesting than I expected? Definitely.

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