At long last, the fey roads have opened! The gods don their masks, the Northern reavers sound their horns, and the dwarven forges burn like suns. The emperor of the ghouls rises from his dark throne, the wild elves leave the earth behind and ride the wind, and the mercenary armies of the Seven Cities march to war. Midgard Campaign Setting is here.

You can get it right now in the Kobold Store, in hardcover+PDF and softcover+PDF, and in PDF-only at DriveThru RPG.

Wolfgang Baur, along with Jeff Grubb, Brandon Hodge, Christina Stiles, Dan Voyce and the always-astounding community of Midgard patrons, have created a book that culminates years of Open Design adventures and sourcebooks, KQ articles, convention games, and the campaigns of countless GMs who took their players on epic adventures in this dark world of deep magic.

The 296-page book includes:

• Pathfinder RPG and AGE System rules for gearforged, kobold, and minotaur PCs
• 26 new backgrounds, 3 new schools of magic, and new specialties for AGE System
• New clerical domains including clockwork, moon, hunger, and beer
• More than 50 kingdom write-ups, with new feats and traits for each region of Midgard
• New spells, magical items, and incantations
• New gear and weapons unique to the setting
• Ley line magic and the secrets of the shadow roads

From the Northern fjords to the hidden tombs of the gnolls, from the raven-headed reavers to the ruins of the great mage-kingdoms: all of Midgard is yours!

We’re going to celebrate the launch with a party at AFK Tavern in Everett, WA on Saturday, October 13 from 6 PM to 8 PM, with a special menu of Midgard-themed food and drink, giveaways, and general merriment. We hope you can join us there! In that spirit of celebration, here’s a sneak peek at the Midgardian clerical domain of Beer:

Beer Domain

Deities: Ninkash, Sif

Granted Powers: Ninkash’s sweet nectar invigorates your mind even as it dulls those around you. The secrets of Ninkash’s faith grant you a +2 sacred bonus to Fortitude saves against ingested poisons. Also, Profession: Brewer is now a class skill for you.

Blessed Brew (Su): Once per day, with a touch, you may transform a container of non-magical liquids into a number of draughts of Blessed Brew equal to 3 + your Wisdom modifier, negating any special attributes those liquids might have previously had. Imbibers of this brew may choose to gain either a number of temporary hp equal to half your cleric level (minimum 1), gain a +2 sacred bonus to Charisma based skill checks, a +1 dodge bonus to AC, or a +1 to caster level to Enchantment (Charm) spells. This bonus lasts for an hour, then fades, leaving a warm buzz behind. A creature may benefit from only one Blessed Brew within a 24 hour period.

Aura of Inebriation (Su): At 8th level, you may emit a 30 ft. aura as an immediate action which does not provoke attacks of opportunity. This aura grants allies a bonus equal to your Wisdom modifier to morale checks and saves against fear.

All other creatures entering, and for 1 round after leaving the aura, must make a Will save (DC equal to 10 + one-half your level + your Wisdom modifier) or take a sacred penalty equal to your Wisdom modifier to Wisdom-based skill checks and suffer the effects of the spell touch of gracelessness (from the Advanced Player’s Guide). A successful save negates the spell effect but not the Wisdom penalty.

This aura may be active for a number of rounds equal to your cleric level and these rounds need not be consecutive. Dispelling this aura is a free action.

Domain Spells: 1st—bless water, 2nd—delay poison, 3rd—cup of dust*, 4th—neutralize poison, 5th—cleanse, 6th—hero’s feast, 7th— vision, 8th—euphoric tranquility*, 9th—miracle

*- From the Advanced Player’s Guide.

Subdomains: Family and Loss. The blessings of Ninkash can tighten the bonds of friendship and kin, but their abuse can lead to the failure of those bonds.

Family Subdomain Replacement Power: The Binding Ties power replaces the Blessed Brew power of the Beer domain.

Family Replacement Domain Spells: 2nd—calm emotions, 3rd— create food and water.

Loss Subdomain Replacement Power: The Aura of Forgetfulness power replaces the Aura of Inebriation power of the Beer domain.

Loss Replacement Domain Spells: 5th—enervation, 6th—modify memory, 9th—energy drain.

This post expands on those rules by providing the Threat Level system for the adversaries found in Open Design’s Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1, which presents fifty new monsters for use with the Adventure Game Engine—the system that powers the Dragon Age RPG. But first, a quick recap is in order.

Every adversary from the Midgard Bestiary has been given a Threat Level that corresponds to the average combat scores of different levels of player characters. Those levels are noted on the accompanying table to make it easy to cross-reference a particular monster or adversary with the level of an adventuring party for which the game master is designing a combat encounter. Remember that at-level encounters, or a matchup between a group of adversaries whose Threat Level matches the experience level of a group of player characters, is considered a difficult fight, and one the players will win only about 50 percent of the time.

That’s why the table also provides a Threat Rating system, which allows game masters to see at a glance how difficult a fight between a group of players and a group of adversaries is likely to be. The ratings are expressed in four broad terms: Simple, Standard, Dangerous, and Deadly, and they reflect the level to which the adversaries’ combat scores match those of the player characters.

For the best results, game masters should be sure to read the first part in this series to better understand the math behind the Threat Level system, so they know how to best apply it to the situation at their individual game table.

High-Level Monsters

Sharp-eyed readers no doubt noticed that the table at the end of Part 1 of this article included only one creature with a Threat Level of greater than 5 despite the fact that the table has two higher entries. The truth is that few of the adversaries published in either of the first two Dragon Age boxed sets pose a serious threat to players of 10th level and above.

This is not so in the Midgard Bestiary, where several of the included adversaries have Threat Levels ranked either 6 or 6+, which are those that can not only challenge 10th-level characters, but actually stand a chance of ending their adventuring careers. Some of these monsters are so powerful that game masters might want to make an exception to the previous article’s advice about not using solitary creatures against a party of adventurers.

The young cave dragon, for example, not only has powers that can hinder the player characters’ abilities, but it also has attacks that can strike several opponents at once, making it better suited to one-on-four combat.

Another good example of this is the Bemmean wizard. The wizard’s Never Alone power is specifically designed to make sure it is a threat even to a group of stalwart heroes, and its spells and abilities are those of a mage above 10th level. As one reviewer mentioned, the Bemmean wizard makes a great recurring villain for a campaign, but be sure the players have the firepower they need to survive when it comes time for the final showdown.

It can’t be stressed enough that the Threat Level system is merely a rough guide to help the game master narrow down choices when crafting combat encounters for an adventure. Game masters who keep careful tabs on how easily their players make it through previous encounters will get the most out of the system as they are able to tailor the ratings to the strengths and weaknesses of their group.

What About Set 3?

At the time of this writing, Green Ronin had not released the playtest documents for the game’s third boxed set, which will finalize the rules by providing for character advancement up to 20th level. The Threat Level system will be revised once those rules are released and playtested, because there’s no way of telling how the rules presented in the playtest will change before they are in their final form. As a result, the revised version of these guidelines probably will not come out until after Set 3 is in stores.

For now, these guidelines should help game masters prepare for adventures for characters of 1st to 10th level, plus use monsters from both the game’s core products and the Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1 from Open Design.

Happy hunting!

Table 2.1 The Threat Levels of Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1 Adversaries

More AGE System sourcebooks, adventures and magazine issues from Kobold Quarterly and Open Design:

Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1

Who Watches the Watch Fires? – Free PDF adventure

Kobold Quarterly #17

Kobold Quarterly #18

Kobold Quarterly #19

Kobold Quarterly #20

Kobold Quarterly #21

Kobold Quarterly #22

KoboldQuarterly.com articles tagged AGE

One reason for this is that despite the game’s simple mechanics and easy action-resolution system, there are a lot of moving parts during a combat encounter: from each opponent’s average attack roll and Defense, to Health totals, unique powers and abilities, and lastly Armor Rating, which is subtracted from the damage done on almost every successful hit in combat. When these factors are added to the wide degree of variation between different groups of player characters, it’s certainly understandable why Chris Pramas, the game’s lead designer, has gone on record to say the game’s designers do not plan to release a static formula that can be used to determine whether a fight between a certain group of PCs and adversaries is balanced.

That hasn’t stopped fans from wanting such a system, however.

When Open Design released its Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1 last year for the Adventure Game Engine, the system that powers the Dragon Age RPG, it did so to some pretty good reviews. After all, the book provided 50 new monsters for game masters to use with the system, all drawn from more than five years of Open Design products. One of the consistent critiques, though, was that the book did not include a rating system for the monsters, even though such a mechanic is not part of AGE system.

Taking all this into account, earlier this year I started working on a way to give game masters a very rough scoring system to determine the average strength of published adversaries for the game and how they rated against the typical power level of a group of player characters. What I’ve come up with is a “Threat Level” system that while it cannot replace the good judgment of an experienced game master, should provide a starting point for designing combat encounters.

How it works is that every adversary from the first and second boxed sets has been given a Threat Level that corresponds to the average combat scores of different levels of player characters. Because Dragon Age characters do not greatly increase in power between any given experience level, the Threat Levels were grouped into common sense pairings—with a few exceptions.

The difference between level 1 and level 2 is pretty big, for example. This is because at level 2, characters get to boost a primary ability (usually the ability that drives their basic attack) and take a primary focus (also, usually the focus that aids their main attack). The combination of these factors makes the second-level bump to attack rolls and survival meaningful. The power increase characters get from their specialization talents at 6th, 8th, and 10th level also make those natural places to start a new Threat Level grouping.

Table 1.1 Threat Levels

The accompanying table clearly shows how a given adversary’s Threat Level corresponds to the average level of a group of player characters. It also further defines the adversaries’ threat by a Threat Rating system, which is a shorthand method for game masters to determine how difficult a fight between a group of players and a group of adversaries is likely to be. The ratings are expressed in four broad terms: simple, standard, dangerous and deadly, and they reflect the level to which the adversaries’ combat scores match those of the player characters.

As explained in the Dragon Age Game Master’s Guide from the second boxed set, developing a combat encounter starts with using a number of adversaries equal to the number of player characters and with similar combat scores to the player characters. Using the Threat Level system, this would be an “at-level” encounter, which as an example might include a group of four Threat Level 2 monsters facing off against a group of four 2nd- or 3rd-level PCs. As the Dragon Age rules note, this would be a fight the players would be expected to win about 50 percent of the time because the scores of the monsters and PCs are roughly equal and only the luck of the dice rolls would determine the winner. Most combat encounters should give the players a better than 50 percent chance to be victorious, however, or it can lead to a lot of dead characters and disgruntled players. That’s why the Threat Level system considers at-level fights to be Dangerous, or with a good chance of character death. Most fights should be fought against a group of adversaries one Threat Level below the player characters, which the system considers to be a Standard combat. A fight against a group of enemies two levels below the player characters is considered to be a Simple combat, and this type of fight is one the players are expected to win handily. Finally, a fight against adversaries one Threat Level above the player characters is considered Deadly. This is a fight where the players have less than a 50 percent chance for survival. These types of fights should never be random: if the game master does use adversaries of this level against the players, it should be for a very specific, story-driven reason.

As the preceding paragraph should make clear, the Threat Level system takes some things for granted. First, it’s based on a fight between an equal number of player characters and adversaries. Adding more adversaries to the fight can quickly turn a Standard encounter Deadly, as the extra attacks the enemies get every round can quickly eat up the additional Health of the players. When adding additional opponents to a combat, start by adding an additional number of Simple opponents (those two Threat Levels below the characters) equal to half the number of characters. For example, a good way to test out adding more enemies against a group of four 2nd- or 3rd-level characters would be to have them fight a group of six Threat level 0 adversaries. Use that fight to gauge future encounters before overwhelming players with opponents.

Also, the benchmark for creating adversary Threat Levels is a group of four adventurers, including two fighters, one rogue, and one mage. This creates a fairly balanced snapshot of player abilities at a given level, but be cautious should your game group include an overabundance of any one class. A group of all warriors will have higher Armor Rating and Health than the baseline group used here. A group of all mages will have lower scores, but more healing ability and spells that can target multiple enemies, and so on. Finally, the benchmark group was created using a “low magic” campaign framework. Warriors did not gain truly heavy armor until after 6th level, and magic weapons and armor were not introduced until 7th level.  This was done to model the “dark fantasy” milieu of the base Dragon Age setting, and so game masters will have to account for differences in power level should they have been a little freer with the magical loot. If your 5th-level warriors are outfitted in magical heavy plate armor and flaming bastard swords, the basic Threat Level math is going to break down a bit. (Which, again, is the danger of trying to create a uniform system for combat ratings of adversaries.) If that’s the case, try adding half again as many adversaries to any given fight as a gauge of power level. If the players steam roll through the battle, you may have to adjust all Threat Ratings one category higher to match your particular group’s prowess.

A special note about solitary monsters: The Dragon Age game, unlike other roleplaying systems, doesn’t do a very good job of modeling fights between a group of characters and a single, extremely tough opponent. Either the brute has such high attack bonuses and Armor Rating that it overpowers the PCs, or, a string of lucky rolls by the characters who get to attack four times as often as the bad guy quickly reduce the enemy to a bloody smear, which is certainly an anti-climactic finish to an adventure. A good rule of thumb when trying to capture the feel of a large, significant threat is to mix Threat Levels within a group of opponents. Give your terrifying Big Bad Guy or Gal a small group of lackeys to help hinder the party and divide their attention. A good example of this in the Dragon Age game is the ogre. Players should almost never encounter a group of ogres equal in number to the player characters. But at the same time, four healthy adventurers of a comparable level will likely steamroll a solitary ogre if they can focus all their attention on it. Depending on the size of the party, give an ogre two or three genlock or hurlock companions that are one or two Threat Levels below the party. This ensures that the additional opponents shouldn’t overwhelm the characters, but at the same time make the ogre that much more of a threat when the players cannot focus fire on it.

The Threat Levels presented on the accompanying table of adversaries from the Dragon Age game are most often garnered from a direct comparison of combat ability scores to the averages of a certain level of player characters. Every monster is different, though, and while many might have two or three scores in line with characters of a certain level, they might have another score that tips the balance, such as a very high Defense or Armor Rating. In those cases, and in cases where the monsters have a special defense that makes them uniquely able to avoid players’ attacks—such as the incorporeal ability of the Shade or the special characteristics of a Cave Beetle Swarm—the adversary could be shifted into a higher Threat Level than its base scores would indicate.

So while the Threat Level system makes a good starting point for designing combat encounters, it is not meant to supersede the judgment of a skilled and experienced game master. Game masters are encouraged to use the system as a guide to a group of monsters that should make for an appropriate challenge for a group of characters at a certain level, and then further tweak the encounter based on their knowledge of the gaming group’s strengths and weaknesses.  No system could cover all the variables between different groups of players, but hopefully the Threat Level system will take some of the guess work out of building satisfying combat encounters for the Dragon Age RPG and AGE system in general. Happy hunting.

Table 1.2 The Threat Levels of Dragon Age adversaries.

* The Blight Owl appears in the Dragon Age RPG Quick Start Guide, available free from greenronin.com.

More AGE System sourcebooks, adventures and magazine issues from Kobold Quarterly and Open Design:

Midgard Bestiary Vol. 1

Who Watches the Watch Fires? – Free PDF adventure

Kobold Quarterly #17

Kobold Quarterly #18

Kobold Quarterly #19

Kobold Quarterly #20

Kobold Quarterly #21

Kobold Quarterly #22

KoboldQuarterly.com articles tagged AGE

Those of you who have already peered closely at these artifacts can jump in and vote right away: Go to the KQ Forums and vote for your favorite entry from Relics of Power!

Of the ten finalists, the one that receives the most votes will receive the title “Relic of Power” and will appear in the next issue of Kobold Quarterly, fully illustrated. Who will you vote for?

• Coffer of the Uninvited Guest by Chris Harris
• Crystalline Chrysalis by Gary S. Watkins
• Deck of Hellish Delights by Carlos Ovalle
• Gnomeskull of the Kobold Kings by Nicholas Milasich
• Golden Tresses of Sif by Jarrod Camiré
• Gordian Knot by Mario Podeschi
• Izellia’s Branch by David Adams
• King’s Mirror by Joel Dehn
• Liberty by Robert E Drouin
• War Band of the Last Mead Hall by Josh Jarman

Thank you, everyone, for entering the contest! On behalf of the judges and KoboldQuarterly.com, we had a great time doing this contest. Please, show your support of events like this by voting for your favorite artifact. Voting ends this Friday (07-29-11).

Characters powered with divine magic are common in fantasy RPGs. Rather than treat them as a divine magic-using class, Steve Kenson introduces the Divine Gift talent for the AGE System. Characters with a Divine Gift can belong to any class, and their gifts are defined by areas of divine influence such as Law, Chaos, Protection, Nature and Fate. Yes, you can finally play an official cleric in the AGE gamers!

Tim and Eileen Connors bring us “The Exorcist” for Pathfinder RPG, where a desperate plan to raise legendary heroes from the dead doesn’t go quite right. “Silus and the Red Dogs” is a modern update of the choose-your-own adventure books, with a fun solo adventure for a halfling thief suitable and simple rules. Finally, the excellent “Who Watches the Watch Fires?” is a 4th Edition D&D race against time to alert a sleeping city that reavers are on the way!

Kobold Quarterly #18 is available now in print and PDF. More features, columns, and articles after the jump:

• New and variant characters: savants, cavaliers, dragon hunters and beast masters for Pathfinder RPG by Ryan Costello, Jr., Mike Welham, Adam Daigle, Marc Radle and Adam W. Roy

• Ecology of the Minotaur by Tracy Hurley for 4th Edition D&D
• Siege weaponry by Matt James for 4th Edition D&D
• Synergistic magic by Phillip Larwood for Pathfinder RPG
• 10 reasons why your characters should be in jail by Russell Jones
• Heroic flaws by Philippe-Antoine Menard
• Feats and auras for dragon lairs by David Schwartz, for Pathfinder RPG and 4th Edition D&D
• Creating great mysteries in RPGs by Paul Baalham
• Soul brokers by Anthony W. Eichenlaub for 4th Edition D&D
• Monte Cook on explaining the inexplicable, and
• Skip Williams’ regular Ask the Kobold column for Pathfinder RPG

Pick up the 100-page mega-issue of Kobold Quarterly #18 in print or in PDF, and we’ll hope to see you at Gen Con in just a few weeks!

Because of this, it was important to me as lead designer that the book pull double duty as both a great addition to the AGE system and as a great introduction to the world of Midgard for AGE game masters and players. So how did we do it?

With monsters, lots and lots of monsters.

Original Adversaries
At its core, the bestiary is a monster book. But because of Open Design’s rich heritage of fiendish monster design, the creatures presented within its pages make for some truly original adversaries. One of the greatest challenges — and thus most rewarding successes— of designing the monsters for this book was taking creatures and their unique special abilities from three editions of the world’s most popular role-playing game and making them compatible with AGE.

This means monsters in this book do things no other AGE adversaries do, presenting new challenges for players and new opportunities for game masters. From the opponent-controlling powers of the Spark, to the Gilded Devil’s ability to turn items of wealth against their owners, these monsters offer much more than orcs and goblins. The creatures in this book push the limits of AGE system’s innovative stunt system, providing game masters with plenty of inspiration for expanding the game’s possibilities.

Why AGE System?
Heralded as an old-school game with modern sensibilities, gamers around the globe have fallen in love with the fast and furious combat and simple game play of the AGE system. With the system only part way through its initial production phase, however, the core rulebooks present just 36 detailed adversaries to challenge your players. Compare this to the literally thousands of monsters in print for older game systems, and it becomes easy to see why this book adds so much to the game. With more than 50 detailed and exciting creatures, the Midgard Bestiary more than doubles a game master’s arsenal of adversaries. While the book was designed to allow AGE players to move their game to Midgard, game masters can with little effort drop them whole cloth into their existing AGE campaigns no matter the setting.

10 Hooks Right Now
To showcase how the monsters in this book can spark adventure in any campaign, here are 10 quick adventure hooks drawn from specific adversaries from the bestiary:

1. Fishermen from a small village have gone missing, and those that do return are struck with a strange fever that kills them within days. (Bone Crab)

2. A constant, grieved wailing echoes in the boughs of the queen’s labyrinthine garden. It’s said the prisoners are free to leave if they can find a way out without their eyes to guide them. (Eye Golem, previewed on the Green Ronin site)

3. The deaths began after a powerful storm shook the forest. Now the mutilated corpses of woodland creatures and a few of the more reclusive villagers have been found in the at the edge of the forest, and even the trees seem to shiver in fear when night falls. (Ala)

4. A strange, cloaked figure carrying finely wrought blades has been seen in town asking for information about a powerful artifact. The rumors say he’ll pay any price. (Arbonesse Exile)

5. The singing stone is just another spot on the river for many. But lately the shoals at its base have become littered with the bones of shattered ships, and fewer merchant vessels seem to be making the journey to the city. (Lorelei)

6. The king has been acting strangely, and lately has begun draining the treasury to present gifts of expensive jewelry to courtiers. (Gilded Devil)

7. The howling started a fortnight ago, a terrible baying that shakes the nerves. Certainly the sound convinced the villagers to lock themselves inside their modest homes, and those caught out of doors when the howling starts are found dismembered in the morning. (Lich Hound)

8. The gnome traveler was a friendly sort, sharing songs and good stories for a bite to eat and bit of wine. The way his eyes shone as he spoke about “lost treasures” and “untold riches” were enough to make any man want to head into the forest to see such wealth for himself. (Niemheim Enchanter)

9. Three woodcutters have met quiet deaths in the forest, but their bodies betray no obvious signs of injury. Only their staring eyes betray the stark horror of their deaths. (Death Butterfly Swarm)

10. No one travels the old swamp road much anymore, though its the shorter route. Stories say the souls of those who died lost in the trackless mires protect the swamp’s secrets from the living. (Putrid Haunt)

11. A lair of thieves in the city catacombs was ransacked and the guild members slain. While the watch captain cares little for the brigand’s loss, he’s worried what new threat has taken their place beneath the city streets. (Roachling)

12. A master of the arcane is seeking adventurers for a dangerous journey into the wastes. None have returned so far, but that hasn’t stopped him from making more offers or adventuring parties from taking the job. (Bemmean Wizard)

That’s just the first 12, there’s dozens more creatures for new adventures waiting in the Midgard Bestiary! What’s your favorite?

That’s how Jeff Tidball, AGE System Lead Developer at Green Ronin, calls it in the introduction to the new Midgard Bestiary: Volume 1 by Josh Jarman. Between its covers lurk some of the greatest monsters that Open Design has unleashed on players over the last five years — ready to deploy in your AGE System adventures. Originally created for the Midgard campaign setting, all of them are easily adapted to your homebrew campaign or another published setting.

You’ll find lots of old favorites here: foes and allies from the Free City of Zobeck, the empire of the ghouls, the courts of the shadow and river fey, the Old Margreve forest, and the Ironcrags. AGE system GMs now have a toychest that includes the steam golem, kobold slyblade, ghost knight, imperial ghast, bonepowder ghoul, roachling, free canton siegebreaker and the spark.

There are also brand new foes from the Midgard campaign setting, including the dust goblin scavenger, harem assassin, and Bemmean wizard.

Grab the Midgard Bestiary at the Kobold Store today! As a sneak preview, here’s an elf you don’t want to meet along the forest path – or anywhere else…

Arbonesse Exile

The approaching figure’s features are hidden within a deep cowl, but his fey blade and aura of crackling energy mark his elven heritage.

Rarely seen outside their ancestral homeland in the foreboding Arbonesse forest, the elves of the old Valeran Empire still train in the martial and magical traditions that once made them rulers of most the known world. Arbonesse exiles travel the roads of Midgard either because they were forced out of the River Court for some slight, or because they’re on secret missions for their lords – typically to recover a lost artifact of the ancient empire that has fallen into mortal hands.

Knowing well the mistrust and hatred for their people still held among many members of the empire’s former servitor races, traveling Arbonesse often guard their appearance with heavy cloaks and deep cowls. They are unmistakable in battle, however, wielding fey blades and arcane magic in equal measure to destroy their opponents.

ABILITIES (FOCUSES)
2 Communication (Deception)
1 Constitution
3 Cunning
4 Dexterity (Bows)
2 Magic (Arcane Lance, Primal)
2 Perception (Hearing, Seeing)
3 Strength (Heavy Blades)
2 Willpower (Morale)

COMBAT RATINGS
Speed 14
Health 54
Defense 14
Armor Rating 7

ATTACKS
Arcane Lance – Attack Roll: +4 Damage: 1d6+2
Long Bow – Attack Roll: +6 Damage: 1d6+5
Long Sword – Attack Roll: +6 Damage: 2d6+3
Short Sword – Attack Roll: +5 Damage: 1d6+5

POWERS
Spellpower: 14
Mana: 52
Favored Stunts: Lightning Attack (2SP), Seize the Initiative, and Skirmish.
Fey Weapons: Arbonesse Exiles can channel spells through their blades.
Spells: Arcane Lance, Frost Weapons, Heal, Lightning Bolt, Shock, Stone Fist, and Winter’s Grasp.
Talents: Armor Training (Novice) and Dual Weapon Style (Journeyman)

EQUIPMENT
Heavy Elven Chain, Long Bow, Long Sword, and Short Sword.

You might have noticed this book is Midgard Bestiary Volume 1. What’s your favorite creature in this set, and what might you like to see in a future volume?

[Designing as a patron] is a fun, creative process, and the collaborative nature leads to the development of the best ideas presented.

As far as Dragon Age, Wolfgang … has made a definite commitment to be the leader in third party Dragon Age support. Kobold Quarterly #13 was the first place to carry an article by Chris Pramas on alternative Dragon Age backgrounds that could be used to play the Dragon Age system with Green Ronin’s Freeport setting. And there have been Dragon Age support articles in almost every Kobold Quarterly since, including an excellent recent article by Jeff Tidball about using the ridiculously fun Stunt system from Dragon Age in other game systems.

Check out the full post, A Match Made in Adventure.

Of course, the fact that Midgard has multi-system support (primarily Pathfinder RPG, though 4E D&D is getting some love from a patron side project as well) is sort of the point. With fans taking Midgard campaign setting into their favorite rules sets, it’s easy to find the resources to run the setting with the rules you favor.

What do you think of multi-system settings? The Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Star Wars have all been released under many sets of rules….