Dragon Age Tabletop 3.5: The Fereldan Rebellion

[Redshaw]

Howdy, giants! Redshaw here, long time reader, first time poster. I was lead to understand that I might get some assistance!

I'm putting together a Dragon Age tabletop for my bros. The setting: Ferelden. The time: The midst of the Orlesian occupation.

Inspired by the novel, The Stolen Throne (which none of my players have read yet, though they are very, very fond of the games), my players will begin the campaign as eager, Ferelden up-starts in the service Moira the Rebel Queen. The players tasks at this part of the game will range from trying to guard a young prince Merric whom has his heart set on a mischievous adventure in the woods, to poaching enough food to feed a camp of starving soldiers (and not just rolling survival checks). As this period of time is left rather vague in the lore, I want my players to face the trials and tribulations of the Rebel Queen, eventually working their own way up from strong-hearted common-peoples to knight-errants, the campaign leading up to Moira's eventual assassination in what I hope to be a most dramatic and memorable gaming session.

If the campaign still has life in it, following that, the players will continue on in a grander scale, where my players gain command of their own men and plot battles and win allies by submission or persuasion to fight the Orlesians (based on a victory point system that I design.) If all goes well, I will lead my players all the way up to the Battle of the River Dane!

I have every intention to try and keep the PC's to the canonical events of the Rebellion, however, I will not forcefully railroad them. If by some consequence of their actions, events shift, I will see it through.

As for the system, besides the fluff it provides, my friends have no interest in using Green Ronin's system (http://greenronin.com/dragon_age/) being the 3.5 purists that they are. But also don't want to just use default rules for this campaign either (most particularly, the magic system). One of the players in my game is personally doing conversions on the magic system to make it playable for 3.5 - he's good at that kinda stuff. Our end product will hopefully feel substantially different from our standard 3.5, but still recognizable and easy to pick up.

So, part of this thread is suggestions you folks might have on what we can do to take this beloved universe to 3.5 system. All I could find on these boards were Viladin's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=192567) races and un-statted Warrior talents (which are no use to me as I'm thinking I might just have ToB classes for this setting instead) and Titanium Fox's (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=193397) mage modifications, which actually catch my interest.

If you guys have any resources or other ideas that I might want to bring into this game, I would love to hear them.

[Redshaw]

But it's not just mechanics that I may require some aid in.

It's story-telling as well.

I know the overall epic I want this campaign to encompass: from recruitment into the Rebel Queen's army, to her death, to the great defeat-by-betrayal at the Battle of West Hill, and of course the massive, glorious victory at the Battle of the River Dane. It will be a campaign with time skips and one that spans over a few years in-game. I want my PC's to truly feel that they've risen from dirt and ascended to lordhood.

One of the things I've done to assist in this is create "Origin" campaigns with the PC's. In the same spirit of Dragon Age: Origins, I will be having a one-shot one-on-one game with each of my players that will establish their origin, why they became uprooted from their home and why they should join the Rebel Queen's army.

I have a number in my head, but I feel that one or two have a particularly larger amount of detail and craft than the others. I need 4 complete origin campaigns that will make the players excited and geared up to do what it takes to gain vengeance/honor/title/whatever it is that will be taken from them in these one-shot games.

Here is the opening to my more detailed origin story, tailored for the guy who wants to play an apostate. The other players in my game have yet to come to me with their character ideas, but I want to be prepared with ideas for when they do.


The year is 8:94 Blessed. You are a young man, barely of age, living on a farmland on the outskirts of Denerim, captial of Fereldan and throne of the usurper-king. Your family once owned the land you spend your days tilling and nursing, but that changed nearly a century ago with the Orlesian occupation. Your father does not seem to mind this; a lesson oft taught to you being that "Earth is earth. It does not care for the one who "owns" it nearly as much as it does the one whom tends it." Regardless, you live well, for commoners - your father yield an excellent harvest every year and your patron Orlesian noble keeps your family comfortable. You have two loving parents, a younger brother and an older sister, who is betrothed to a local boy and to be wed in a week.

Oh yes, and by the way, all the men in your family are apostates. Have been for generations. You were lessoned in how to control and most importantly hide your power by your father long before it manifested, as his father did before him and he before him. Your family specializes in regrowth magics - which has contributed immensely to the success of your farm's soil.

Despite being well-off and genuinely happy, an itch has begun to grow inside you. Anxiousness. Excitedness. You are fully aware of the honor there is to be found in tilling good soil and growing fine food, but you cannot shake this instinct that this life was not meant for you. Your father has seen to distract you from this anxiety by giving you the responsibility of overseeing the disciplining of your younger brother's magic abilities yet-to-come. It helps, but it's not enough...

(That is all he knows)

*********

Now, after I allow some introduction time for the PC, developing character and relationships with his current surroundings, an instance of jeopardy will be created!

It is the 70th anniversary date of Orlais' victory over Fereldan. There is a city-wide "celebration", which really means that the Chevaliers - the occupying Orlesian knights - are let off the leash to terrorize and loot as they please from the local populace. One such chevalier thinks that he might do so with the PC's sister, with he and his brother, alone, to try and stop him. Battle ensues! PC fights valiantly and in which his magic is revealed, but alas, the Chevalier's level is too high for him! And moments before the final blow, in steps dad with bad-ass druidy magic that sends the Chevalier a-gallumphing down the road. Panicked argument over whether they should leave or stay (PC's father will argue the opposite of whichever decision the PC thinks they should do) and finally they go to their patron lord's house and ask for protection from the no doubt impending retaliation by the offended Chevalier who of course promises all of this to them only to predictably turn them over to the knight himself.

I still have yet to figure out how to bring this around so that the PC can escape and stumble across the rebel forces, buuuuut you get the picture of what I'm looking for.

If you actually read all of this, you are a champion among men.



But even with epic openings and an understanding of the full picture of the story, I still need quests to fill the PC's time with. I have a few key battles and political intrigue scenarios to lead the PC's through that will be true deciders of the outcome, but they can't all come at once, on after the other. But neither can my PC's be sent on random, unrelated sidequests; they're driven and ambitious and desperate to take back their land. Now how do they do it?. Things that link and are done with the intent of working towards an overall goal: reclaiming Ferelden from the Orlesians.

I need ideas for story arcs, that blend gracefully.

If you have any comments, criticisms, etc. on what I might do towards this end, I beg of you to state them.

Thank you so much, giants.