The Adventure Game Engine

Modern AGE’s rules system is known as the Adventure Game Engine (or
AGE). It was originally designed for the Dragon Age RPG, also by Green Ronin
Publishing. It has since been adapted into Blue Rose: The AGE Roleplaying Game
of Romantic Fantasy and the Fantasy AGE roleplaying game. The games aren’t
identical, but they share the same “game DNA.” Learn one, and the others
should be easy to pick up.
Modern AGE is different from other AGE games. It doesn’t use character classes,
it reorganizes stunts, and has a few other differences, all of which are easy to
absorb and will be noted throughout this book.

Playing Your In any event, you need to know who your character is.
Chapter 1 tells you how to make a character. That’s where
Character you’ll figure out their background, abilities, and what drives
them to get involved in the unusual situations that pop up
Every story needs characters to care about, and whose choices during the game. Think about the kind of character you want
propel events. To play a compelling character, you need to to play. The GM provides a range of possibilities based on
answer two questions. upcoming adventures, where they’re set, and the sort of
people who would embark on them. Create the kind of char-
acter that matches the decisions you want to make, and you’ll
”What Do You Do?” not only immerse yourself in the game world, but you’ll learn
to act in that role intuitively.
As you encounter challenges and curiosities, the Game
Master will ask this question constantly. Furthermore, ask it
of yourself, even when the GM doesn’t press you. The GM
describes the environment and the actions of any character
Adventure,
who isn’t portrayed by a player. It’s your job to react to these Campaign, & Setting
situations. The GM doesn’t decide if you return fire when
a sinister gunman takes aim at you. You do. Similarly, you An adventure is a discrete story and scenario in an RPG.
decide whether to examine clues, and what to say to people Think of it as a single novel or an episode of a TV show. There
you encounter. When it’s a matter of talking or gesturing, may be several plot threads, but in the end, it tells one story.
you can perform those actions yourself. Otherwise, describe The difference between a roleplaying adventure and a book
your actions: “I jump behind a barrier,” or “I pick up the or show is that you have authorship. The decisions made by
glove with a pair of tweezers.” The GM tells you what rules you and your fellow players drive the story to its exciting
apply, and whether to roll dice, and the results determine if conclusion.
your action succeeds or fails, or if there are further compli- A campaign is a series of interlinked adventures. If an
cations. adventure is a novel or TV episode, a campaign is a series or
a season. Some adventures have self-contained plots, while
”Who Are You?” others tie together to tell a larger story. During a campaign,
characters in the adventuring group earn experience points
When you play a character, you’re not yourself; you’re and gain levels. Over time they gain more powers and abili-
playing a fictional persona, like someone from a book, film, ties, face greater challenges, and gain reputations for good
or TV show. When you act in character, their background and or ill in the communities they move through.
experience should influence what you do. Beyond that, you A long Modern AGE campaign takes characters from levels
can approach your character’s background in any number of 1 through 20, and provides hundreds of hours of game-play
ways. and entertainment. Most games take place in our world,
Some players just view their characters as playing pieces or with some sort of a twist. The GM develops this “campaign
alter egos. They make decisions based on what they would do setting.” It might be set in a world like our own, but under-
in the same situation. You might look at it as a form of acting, neath the history we know spies, supernatural conspiracies,
instead, where you assume the role, imagine how your char- or underworld syndicates influence affairs. Some games
acter thinks and feels, and deeply consider their past expe- might be set during intriguing periods in recent history,
riences when you act. You can even do whatever you think from the Old West to the Great Game between Cold War
would be the most entertaining thing to do at the time, or superpowers. Your characters might be police detectives,
what plays to your character’s abilities. No approach is more counter-terrorist operatives out of a technothriller, or people
valid than any other, and you’ll probably switch between with the ability to enter strange fantasy worlds that lie
approaches or combine them as you play. But in all cases, alongside our own. The setting inspires the stories that take
everything you do in character should be consistent with the place, from individual adventures to the wider campaign.
character’s background and abilities, along with the world The GM can find out more about the possibilities in Chapter
they inhabit. 11: The Campaign Setting.

Introduction 5