Dragon Age: Blood in Ferelden
Blood in Ferelden is an adventure supplement for the dark fantasy system Dragon Age published by Green Ronin Publishing and written by Walt Ciechanowski, Kevin Kulp, and TS Luikart.
By Aaron T. Huss
Blood in Ferelden is an adventure supplement for Dragon Age consisting of three unrelated adventure modules at varying character levels. Each one presents a different approach to the system and setting, giving the GM a look at some of the different themes that are possible within the Dragon Age RPG. While seemingly unrelated, the first two adventures could actually be placed within the framework of the third adventure as part of a larger campaign.
Blood in Ferelden is not only a great collection of three unique adventures, but they are excellent representations of the dark fantasy setting and what’s possible. You shouldn’t feel obligated to simply combat darkspawn creatures as there are so many other problems that could arise. The three adventures presented herein are Amber Rage, Where Eagles Lair, and A Fragile Web.
AMBER RAGE
Amber Rage is a time-sensitive quest designed for characters of 1st – 2nd Level. The characters are quickly thrown into the seriousness of the Dragon Age setting and have to learn quickly that the decisions they make can have dire affects elsewhere. There are tests to their morals and many chances for dramatic tension. Amber Rage contains a great blend of exploration, roleplaying, and combat. But more importantly, it contains a great blend of decisions where no matter what you choose, someone will suffer.
WHERE EAGLES LAIR
Where Eagles Lair is a two-part adventure containing a location-based group of encounters and a quest-based group of encounters. It is designed for characters of 3rd – 4th Level and is filled with decision points allowing the players to create the overall direction of the adventure. However, these decisions do not always have detrimental affects but rather layout the order in which the events occur. Some decisions could cause bad things to happen, but overall the encounters can be shuffled around into a different order. Where Eagles Lair contains a great blend of exploration and roleplaying with the amount of combat being dependent upon what decisions the PCs make. Not that they have a higher chance of failure, simply that they could be spending more time keeping themselves alive if they don’t always follow the most ideal path. The overall feel is brighter than Amber Rage, but the setting still shines through.
A FRAGILE WEB
A Fragile Web is a role-playing heavy adventure designed for characters of 4th – 5th Level. It is not designed to be used as a stand-alone adventure (even noted as such in the description), but rather as a framework for a campaign series. This is not a result of the amount of role-playing, but rather the intention of the storyline. A Fragile Web offers GMs the opportunity to give the PCs someone they can work for and perform quests for to fulfill adventures like Amber Rage and Where Eagles Lair. It’s hard to describe without giving away its secrets, so I won’t delve much further than that. The major point of note is that characters will need to use their mental prowess more than their physical strength. Players will do well to pay attention to non-combat focuses and talents.
OVERALL
These three adventure modules are very different from each other and may not please everyone (especially those who like a lot of combat). However, it is obvious that they are designed to take full advantage of in-game mechanics of Dragon Age in many different ways. If you frame the first two adventures with the third adventure, bringing about a full campaign, you are bound to have many sessions worth of fantastic game-play. And with so many role-playing opportunities, players are given a chance to become fully engrossed by the system and setting. There are also many fantastic loose-ends and adventure seeds that can lead to new adventures in subsequent character levels (using Dragon Age Set 2 for instance).
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
The Dragon Age line of publications (so far) have all conformed to a very high publication quality standard. They are wonderfully laid out and all exhibit easy-to-follow presentations. Their adventures take this one step further by breaking down every single encounter (exploration, roleplaying, and combat) into a given and numbered section making them easy to read and even easier to quickly reference. In addition, every single major NPC is presented in the content directly where they come into the storyline. This allows you to read the book from front to back and never really need to flip back-and-forth to find the information you need (unless you’re quickly referencing them). To complete the publication, there is a collection of beautiful illustrations and some even more beautiful maps (some appear to be hand-drawn).
Storyline: 10 out of 10
As the adventure modules are unrelated, there are three unique storylines, all of which are interesting in their own ways. These storylines are very distinct from one to another and each developed beautifully throughout the course of the adventures themselves. One key to these storylines is that they are written in a way that allows for flexibility depending upon how the players react to the given encounters. This gives the GM the ability to alter the story according to the direction the PCs take with applicable notes for various troubleshooting. As far as interesting goes, I found the storylines to be very interesting and actually tell a story rather than simply being used as a background to standard adventuring.
Desire to Play: 10 out of 10
Considering the system, setting, and the purpose of these adventures, they make great additions to anyone’s tool-kit. They can be used as-is, placed within a larger campaign, or even used as a campaign framework (specifically A Fragile Web). However, if you desire a lot of combat or significantly less interaction between PCs and NPCs, these adventures will need a lot of change. But as I see it, the system, setting, and storylines are not developed for that style of play. The adventure modules are really written to take full advantage of all of Dragon Age’s core mechanics.
Overall: 10 out of 10
This little more to say other than this is a fantastic set of adventure modules for Dragon Age that covers many aspects of the system and setting and really takes full advantage of its design. Plus it covers characters from 1st – 5th Level. I highly recommend it.
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