Dragon Warriors is an interesting British role playing game published in 1985 by Corgi Books, at the peak of the gamebook phenomenon. It was written by Oliver Johnson and Dave Morris and set in the world of Legend, already used for the Bloodsword multiplayer gamebook series. Its game system was simple and easy and the world of Legend, based on Middle Age Europe, coherent and fascinating. The Dragon Warriors line would have grown to six books and being published till 1986, when the game was cancelled. It was presented in mass market paperback form, the de rigueur format for almost all gamebooks, and mostly sold in bookshops, not game stores.
The first three books of the game were released in the same time but nothing informed buyers that they had to buy absolutely Book One first to use Books Two and Three. More, rumours at the time told that the Corgi Books' distributor sent the three books in different parts of the country so you could end up just with Book Two and wondering what was Book One and where to find it...
Perhaps to address these problems, perhaps to have a more 'prestigious' format (wow, a slipcase!) Corgi Books released a 'box set' of the first three books. The books inside are of course the very same sold separately but in the back of the slipcase there is a map of the kingdom where adventures take place. This box set is now rare and collectible like almost all of the books of the line, especially Book Five and Book Six. Books One and Two are quite cheap to find, especially Book One in used and very used conditions.
In 2008 Dragon Warriors was published by Magnum Opus in a new version, a hardback book with the classic A4 format, followed by a series of sourcebooks. In 2011 rights were transferred to Serpent King Games that sells sells the Magnum Opus books plus many others on the DrivethruRPG website.
The game was translated in French by Gallimard under the Les Terres de Legende (Lands of Legend) label while the hoped fr Italian edition never materialised (but we got an Italian translation of the Corgi Books edition of Tunnels & Trolls instead...).