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The arcane arts are about to become much more powerful in the world of Dragonbane, with Free League Publishing about to release Dragonbane: Book of Magic. First included as part of a highly successful Kickstarter launched in June 2025, the book will now be available to the general public, with an expected retail release in August 2026. You can pre-order a hardcover and PDF version now from your local game store, Free League, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.
As the name suggests, the new supplement significantly expands the magical options available to both players and GMs, including new schools of magic, new spells, new artifacts and new lore. Below, we gaze into our crystal ball and look ahead at what to expect when Book of Magic hits.
What is the Dragonbane RPG?
Dragonbane is a fantasy TTRPG published by Free League. First released in 2023, it’s based on the original Swedish game Drakar och Demoner (literally translated as “Dragons and Demons”), which was first published in 1982 and is widely considered Scandinavia’s first and arguably most popular TTRPG, with the game far outselling Dungeons & Dragons.
In its earliest editions, Drakar och Demoner was essentially a Swedish-language adaptation of Chaosium’s Basic Role‑Playing system, with character stats and skills listed as percentages and players trying to roll equal to or under their skill value. Over the years, however, the system was further refined and moved between several different publishers, eventually transitioning towards a d20-based system and being renamed as Ruin Masters.
In 2021, Free League bought the rights to the game and made significant rules updates, in addition to releasing an English version under the name Dragonbane. Like D&D, you build a character by selecting a species (such as human, dwarf, elf, halfling, wolfkin or the more unusual duck humanoids known as mallards) and a profession (fighter, mage, hunter, thief, artisan, merchant, mariner, scholar, etc.). Your profession determines your skills and a starting Heroic Ability. You are, however, not locked into a strict class progression and can develop your character in any direction. Character advancement also emphasizes skills rather than traditional levels.
In terms of gameplay, the core mechanic is a roll-under d20 system. Each skill has a target value (typically between 1 and 18) and you succeed on a roll of that number or lower. Rolling a natural 1 is a critical success (“dragon”), and a natural 20 is a critical fail (“demon”). Combat is fairly simple (with just one action per turn) and initiative is handled via a deck of cards, which are numbered from one to ten, with a new card drawn each round.
What’s included in Dragonbane: Book of Magic?
Book of Magic is a new supplement for Dragonbane written by Mattias Johnsson Haake and Mattias Lilja (creators of the popular Symbaroum RPG) with additional writing and editing from Tomas Härenstam (who was also a lead writer on the Dragonbane Core Set). It also includes illustrations from longtime Free League artists Johan Egerkrans and David Brasgalla.
The book includes:
- Nine new schools of magic: The book expands options for Demonology, Harmonism, Illusionism, Necromancy, Symbolism, Witchcraft, Alchemy, Enchanting and Dracomancy. Each school also gets new background lore covering its members, reputation, familiars and guidance on where characters can seek training.
- 300+ new spells: The book includes new spells covering all five ranks, and introduces new options for General Magic, Animism, Elementalism and Mentalism.
- New magic items: The book also features a variety of new artifacts, along with several new magical “recipes.”
How much is Dragonbane: Book of Magic?
The hardcover will retail for $39.99 USD (not including shipping and handling). A PDF version will also be available through DriveThruRPG (although a price point has not yet been confirmed).
When is Dragonbane: Book of Magic coming out?
The book will be officially released on August 25th, 2026, at which point it should be available at local and online retailers.
Why we’re excited for Dragonbane: Book of Magic
- Massive Spell Variety: Adding over 300 new magical options dramatically increases customization options and combat tactics for spellcasting characters.
- Deeper Worldbuilding: We love when a crunch-heavy book also delivers on lore, and the background info on the various schools sounds like it offers a ton of roleplaying potential for both players and GMs.
- Crafting Mechanics: The book includes new magical “recipes.” While we’ll have to see how this works at the table, magical crafting is definitely something we’d love to see in Dragonbane.
Final thoughts
Free League has been on a roll with Dragonbane, with the once obscure Swedish TTRPG becoming a global hit and spawning new products like Dragonbane: Trudvang. With the Book of Magic now moving from Kickstarter to the general public, it looks like the game has plenty of arcane tricks left up its sleeve.
We’ll be keeping a close eye Dragonbane: Book of Magic in the days ahead and will do a full review closer to launch. In the meantime, you can pre-order it now from your local game store, Free League, DriveThruRPG and Amazon.