Dragon Age; the Heroes of Blackhill, Session 1

This blog is rather dead. However, I've decided to start posting again, seeing as how I'm finally in a decent gaming group, though it will probably only stay together for the summer. We're currently playing two games, Star Wars Saga and Dragon Age, which I'm running. I'm posting Actual Play accounts of my game here so that, firstly, I'll remember better what I did the previous week, and secondly, because there doesn't seem to be a dearth of DARPG material out there on the net.

Dragon Age is, after several readings and one session of play, one of my favorite systems for fantasy gaming. It satisfies some of my tastes in newer gaming styles as well as my penchant for old school games. There are only three classes, Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, and your Background, which encompasses race and some element of personal history, does a nice job of keeping two characters with the same class and race from being alike. Backgrounds grant some base abilities, such as +1 to an ability score or a skill, but players also roll twice on a chart to see what their Background grants them.

It's a neat, tidy little system that covers character levels 1 to 5, and while it is sparser than most newer games, as a veteran player of B/X D&D, I really don't mind. I like lighter systems, especially those that can be summed up in as few pages as possible without being as paper-thing as, say, Wushu or Risus. The system isn't entirely tied to the setting, which is nice, though I love Ferelden, and I've given thought to writing up a homebrewed set of rules for using the AGE System in R.E. Howard's Hyborea, or in Lankhmar.

It's a great system, and my group loves it. Speaking of my group, our cast of characters is as follows;

• Benedict, a former Templar-in-Training, and resident moralist
• Keiran, an apostate mage from the Forgehold clan, who hates the Chantry with all his might
• Gabranth, a rogue, also from Forgehold, a narcissist and smuggler
• Genevieve, an Orlesian noblewoman fallen on hard times, who has turned to petty theft to survive
• Branta, a dwarf exile, more than handy with an axe, and less than ladylike, despite what she thinks of herself

The heroes first met, perhaps by chance, in the ruined town of Blackhill, torn apart by ravaging Darkspawn. Some of them knew each other, and they decided to band together and help the residents of Blackhill relocate to Redcliff.

Branta the Dwarf found herself in the bed of Ser Vaughn, captain of the watch, and Keiran made sure to terrify the locals with his magical power and enter religious debates with anyone who would listen. Benedict was left to try and pick up the tattered pieces of pride he still had as an adventurer and take on responsibility for the motley bunch he was now working with.

Among the people of Blackhill was an old woman by the name of Mother Marta, who took care of all the town's orphans (of which there were many, thanks to the Blight). As the game progressed and the players interacted with more NPC's, and eventually began travelling with them to Redcliff en mass, they discovered that she was far older than she seemed, and that something terribly wrong might be occuring. While scouting ahead in the forests, Gabranth was cornered by a group of Dhalish Elves, who told him about a Witch of the Wilds they had been hunting, and that he and the people of Blackhill needed to leave as quickly as possibly.

That witch was, of course, Mother Marta. She slipped away that night in the form of an owl so that she could read from a Maleficar's tome, and bring down a horrible curse on the descendants of an old foe of hers who had spurned her love some three hundred years ago. She would have done so, if one of her orphans hadn't woken up to find her gone.

The heroes, not certain of Marta's status as a Maleficar, ran through the woods towards her campfire where she held her ritual. At her feet were the corpses of the Dhalish hunters Gabranth had encountered earlier that day, badly scorched. Angered, Benedict ran her through with a spear before she could finish, but her blood triggered the last few parts of the rite, and a Demon of Vengeance found a way through the Fade and into the clearing where Marta had called it.

The heroes did battle with the demon, and though some were badly injured, they managed to send it howling back to the abyss from whence it came.

They returned to the people of Blackhill's camp, and told them all that had happened. Feeling betrayed, they marched on to Redcliff when the sun rose.