Dark Ages Campaign Guide

Dark Ages: A Campaign Setting

Dark Ages is a fantasy role-playing game set in the centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire and the growth of the barbarian kingdoms of Europe. The Empire has all but abandoned its holdings in the west; the Saracens have advanced across the coast of Africa and into southern Italy and Spain. This is an age of heroes like Beowulf and Charlemagne, of vicious Huns squabbling over the ruins of the great empire of Attila, of Emperors hatching plots and intrigues in the fabled city of Byzantium, of Saxons and Britons fighting for dominance in the former Imperial province of Britannia.

Unlike other fantasy games, which borrow folklore and character classes from a host of different sources and toss them together in a bewildering hotchpotch, Dark Ages uses character classes, magic systems, and monsters from those game systems to bring to life a forgotten real moment in history, and imbue it with magic.

Dark Ages is not a world created from scratch, where players need to be informed of all the knowledge they commonly hold, in both history and myth. They already know something about this world, though what they expect from their “knowledge” of history might not be what they actually encounter.

This opens up exciting new possibilities in gaming. Players can meet, and interact with, the real legends of history—Theodoric the Ostrogoth who imprisoned and murdered Boethius; Aetius, the great Roman general who defeated Attila only to be treacherously knifed himself by the boy-Emperor Valentinian; Clovis, the fierce warrior-king of the Franks whose timely conversion assured his status as the mightiest king of the barbarian west and set the stage for the reign of Charlemagne 250 years later. These great figures might enter the lives of the PCs as employers, allies, rivals, or villains.

Even class and equipment becomes a roleplaying opportunity. Character classes, availability of arms and armor, and magic are all to be encountered in their home settings. Knights and Paladins have not yet come into existence. Great sorcerers are said to dwell in the Moorish city of Salamanca, while the alleys and sewers of Byzantium, the world’s greatest city, are the haunts of professional thieves. Bards can be found only in predominantly Celtic areas like Wales, Ireland, and Brittany. The Northmen are feared for their terrible berserk warriors.

The same holds true for monsters and mythical beings. The race of dwarves is said to dwell in the great mountains of Scandinavia; beyond is a land of trolls and giants. In the exotic lands of the east, men want to summon djinn and ifrit. Instead of being located within an alignment system, otherworldly creatures act according to their own motives and needs. Players can no longer be certain that elves will always be trusted allies and goblins bloodthirsty enemies. Encounters must be played out.

Players do not adopt characters from mythic races like elves, half-elves, dwarves, and halflings. Rather, they are Saxons or Cymbrians; Franks, Danes, or Saracens; Germans, Romans, or Greeks. Each of these races of men is just as different from another as the traditional elves are from the dwarves. Just as the gigantic blonde Fafhrd seems to come from a separate race of beings than the quick and deadly Mouser, so is the emotional Danish skald distinct from the devious Byzantine thief, or the rough-hewn Frankish warrior from the cosmopolitan Saracen of Córdoba.