A Game of Choice
Moreso than most standard tabletop roleplaying games, this Dragon Age campaign will depend heavily on the choices made by the players of the game.
Most conflicts in this campaign will not resolve simply (the party killed the roving troll horde and therefore the town is safe, hurray), but come down to a choice. Often with allies on opposite ends of that choice.
These choices will test or change allegiances, affect standing with different factions, and ultimately shape the world around the players. That said, there is no wrong choice. No bad choice. All of them are earned by the decisions made by players and all of them will have unforeseen boons and unforeseen consequences.
Butterfly Effect
We’re all familiar with the principle of the Butterfly Effect. A butterfly using its wings to fly has an increasingly larger impact on the things around it until its the reason there’s an earthquake 470 miles away.
Dragon Age: The Black Divine runs on this concept of a Butterfly Effect. Everything that that the players do in a campaign has merit. It’s important because the heroes of the game chose to do it. No matter how small or insignificant. The Butterfly Effect pays off that importance.
Let’s say the players engage in a fight with what they assumed was just a card sharp cheating people out of coin a the local tavern. Maybe the card sharp gives the party a surprisingly good fight full of high dice rolls that make him a memorable opponent. It makes him important enough to become a rival of the party as they travel across Thedas.
Maybe the party stumbles across a town drunk who is neglecting his pet dog, and the party won’t stand for it, so they wallop the drunkard and bring the dog home with them. The dog is treated well with the party, fed, kept happy, and becomes a trusted companion in combat and social encounters.
Recruits
Dragon Age does not deal in quaint conflicts. It’s usually a hole being ripped open in the sky with demons spilling out of it as the inciting incident. That holds true with The Black Divine.
Which is to say, the party is going to have to build an army in order to take on what’s coming. The best way to build that army is to make friends. In high and low places.
Anyone the party runs across could be a potential recruit, or point of light. Not everyone is a hulking Qunari skilled with a battle axe, but everyone can be useful in their own way. How the party interacts with those around them determine just how willing others might be join the cause.
Rivals
Often choosing who to befriend is at the expense of someone else. A potential rival. Choosing to help the Antivan Crows would put the party directly at odds with the Antaam. And that’s perfectly good! The players may have ideological reasons to choose one over the other, or they might need something from one and not the other. These inciting incidents continue to add to the cause and effect that shape the campaign’s landscape. It also makes it more fun! Finding out who to befriend and confide in, and who to make a rival just contributes to the Butterfly Effect!