Tabletop Review - Against the Faerie Queene

Developer: Adder Stone Games

Publisher: Modiphius

Available on: Hardcover and PDF

Review system: DnD 5e, Legends of Avallen

Dare You Stand Against the Faerie Queene?

Welcome Adventurers, to Against the Faerie Queene, a fantasy setting that transports you to the Celtic-Roman-inspired lands of Avallen. This setting, combining the cultures of the Vallic (Celts) and the Raxians (Romans) in various ways, takes you through a 15-part adventure that includes political intrigue, heists, dungeons, and the ever-present threat from the Faerie Queene and her forces.

Three Intertwined Worlds

The Raxian Empire has occupied roughly half the Isles of Avallen. The native Vallic, in their various tribes, have hosted them as friend, enemy, or with relative indifference. The Raxians bring order, trade, and science to the Isle while most of the Vallic maintain their lives around the seeming chaos that is nature and tribal politics. Finding your way through these distinct cultures will be no easy task. Meanwhile, the machinations of the Faerie Queene, her ilk, and the mischievous Fae move ever towards their own goals.

This setting, written for both the Legends of Avallen TTRPG and loosely converted for d20 TTRPGs (such as DnD) spans five main chapters, spread across 370 beautiful pages, taking players from levels three to ten. Included in this adventure are five new Legendary Paths for 15 total Legendary Paths for both game systems.

Against the Faerie Queene brings Avallen to vibrant life (including pronunciations for all the Welsh used throughout) and presents unique challenges for players. New rules for Parleying with NPCs, Journeying abroad, and Stealthing around the world make this particular setting more challenging and interesting than systems based on binary outcomes. Also, boss enemy types have powerful attacks with distinct tells to allow players to prepare for a huge attack in whichever way they see fit.

Play a New Way

Players love choices. Against the Faerie Queene gives players 15 new subclasses, including a subclass for Artificer. Each of these subclasses is flavored perfectly for the setting. Subclasses like the Automaficer (Artificer), Gladiator, and a Philosophy Domain Cleric favor the rational, organized, and scientific Raxians while the Vallic subclasses harness the mysterious energies embodied by Circle of Oak Druids, Oath of Swyn-Pict Paladins, and the ever mysterious Faceless Rogue subclass.

All subclasses have campaign-special abilities that make playing that character feel pretty good. The reduced amount of overall magic makes spellcasters of any type feel powerful and mysterious and allows martial characters to shine in meaningful ways.

Rules Lawyer

The new mechanics presented here allow players and GMs to run unique social encounters. The pass/fail mechanics of a lot of TTRPGs are tweaked here to make for more interesting social interactions, exploration, and a heightened sense of mortality.

Parley THIS, Filthy Casual

Parleying gives GMs a few powerful tools while running NPCs. This setting gives certain NPCs social profiles that include an NPC’s objections, incentives, and patience for player bull…“strategies.” Facing a merchant? Appeal to their greedy nature! Have an NPC that is afraid of being caught? Offer them protection. The included backstories are just waiting to be delved into for crucial information for players and GMs to utilize. Just be wary not to ask too many questions or approach the encounter in the wrong way. Patience may be a virtue, but in Against the Faerie Queene, it’s a limited resource. This system is also easily applied to any other NPCs you’d like to run as well.

I Can Show You the World

Journeying has been given its own mechanic to make travel feel more meaningful and it also allows for players to feel useful in even more useful ways. The route taken, time of travel, and resources brought and available all have a say while trekking across Avallen. During travel, players can assume Journey Roles to help mitigate difficulties while traveling. Guides, Scouts, Gatherers, and Lookouts are all key to keeping the party healthy and alive. GMs can use a standard card deck to draw cards during travel to see if the players encounter dangers or opportunities which range from spoiled food to hunting opportunities to running into Fae, for good or ill.

Must Have Been the Wind…

Finally, no TTRPG is complete without stealth. NPCs follow a tiered awareness structure in order to sense players committing dastardly deeds. Ranged from zero (Unaware) to three (Alerted) players know where they stand while Stealthing.

Big Bad Evil Guys

What’s a campaign without memorable big bads? Each of the baddies in this setting has the usual stuff like attributes, health, and abilities, but what makes them feel special are ability tells. If an enemy has recharged their special ability, they will let the players know. Think of it as seeing a dragon taking a huge intake of breath at the end of their turn. The dragon knows what’s coming, the players should know what’s coming, or they’re about to find out the hard way. Taking damage in Against the Faerie Queene brings its own troubles.

One of my favorite things about running this adventure is that healing is a more drawn-out process. While I realize that we are playing a fantasy game, almost dying one day, taking a decent nap, and being A-OK the next day makes players feel incredibly superhuman, throwing caution to the wind. Using the optional rules for slow natural healing gives encounters more weight and helps dissuade murder hobo-ness.

Game Master Opinion

Game Masters can rejoice with the Legends of Avallen system and setting as a lot of the work has been laid before you. The accompanying (and free) Caer on the Borderlands PDF allows the GM to introduce all the new mechanics and take players from level zero to three over a three-part adventure.

The book is well laid out, color-coded, and, where needed, even provides appropriate references to sources utilized outside the Core Rules or the setting. Within the setting, important NPCs have pages where they are present annotated in their stat block.

Each chapter of the adventure has boxes of different colors that represent different aspects of the game. Purple boxes for social profiles, blue boxes for narratively setting scenes, gray boxes for GM notes, green boxes for lore and in-world insights, mauve boxes for characters in the Legends of Avallen system, and red boxes for d20 converted characters. There is even a chapter the players are allowed to read and take notes on as things they know about the world.

I’ve run a few sessions of Against the Faerie Queene (the ever-lurking Scheduling Monster notwithstanding) and my players love the setting. It’s refreshing as both a GM and a player to know that choices matter, grave injuries do not instantly heal, and that life is in fact, fragile. As written, there aren’t really playable non-human races available to players, magic is more wild and less widespread, and true danger can be around every corner.

Towns, the environment in between, and NPCs are written well, as is the story, and the players really have taken to the setting. After a certain bear attack (no spoilers) my players (all of DnD 5e, Pathfinder, and Daggerheart backgrounds) had their eyes opened to the fact that their characters are mortal.

My gripes are relatively few, but I feel validated. First, buy the Core Rulebook (I ended up doing this). Trying to leap from a d20 system to Legends of Avallen (if that’s the route you choose to go) without the Core Rulebook was a little difficult. Maybe it was just me. Second, spend some time really converting the Core Rulebook to your preferred system, again, if you plan on rolling math rocks with your players. After these steps are done, you’re in for as much smooth sailing as any TTRPG can be.

Verdict

Overall, I love this setting and, more importantly, my players love this setting. I routinely run DnD 5e, Daggerheart, and I’m stepping into Pathfinder 2e, among other tabletop games, and my most ferociously loyal and excited players are my Against the Faerie Queene players. They love their characters, they love the world, and I love running it for them. The elbow grease put into the Core Rulebook was well worth it for the outcome.

AGAINST THE FAERIE QUEENE IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I want to thank Modiphius for providing Against the Faerie Queene for the purpose of this review.