Three quick points before I begin.
First, I received a review copy from Free League for this review. I have not, however, been given any sort of payment beyond the copy of the material. While I am grateful for the review copy, these are my free and fair thoughts.
Second, thank you so much to everyone who watches, likes, comments and subscribes. You all help make DM Tales go! If you like what you see, please subscribe to the channel and leave a comment. It helps DM Tales get seen by the almighty algorithm. And if you’d like to give DM Tales some direct support, would you consider becoming a coffee contributor? Channel Members help me continue making fun content for this channel!
Third, I’m not going to be going into huge plot points in this review. Why is that? Because I will be running this adventure path for my Dragonbane group at some point in the future. I don’t want to tempt them to discover spoilers I post!
A Bit of History
The Path of Glory is an updated set of adventures dating back to the original version of Dragonbane, Dragons & Demons, back in 1985. There is a short foreword in the book written by the author of those original adventures, Roger Undhagen, at the beginning of the book in which he expresses his gratitude for bringing their adventures to their “final form.” His comments highlight that this book is more than a port of old adventures to the present system, as there have been additions made. Dragonbane feels so fresh and fun that it’s easy to forget that the game itself is over forty years old!
The Set Up
This adventure path is not designed for brand new adventurers. If you roll up a character and toss them in without any upgrades, they’re going to die. Fast. Free League recommends characters have been played between 10-15 sessions, have a minimum of 16 in some core skills, and have at least three heroic abilities before tackling Path of Glory. The party should also have a couple of magic weapons, which will make their lives easier. If the group has gone through the Misty Vale campaign they should be equipped enough to tackle these adventures. If this is not the case the GM can run some sessions as the characters journey toward Path of Glory’s starting point, or give the players extra advancement rolls to bring them up to snuff.
This adventure path is set a good distance North of The Misty Vale—in a region split East/West by the impassable Heaven’s Rim Mountains. To the west of this range is the Dead Forest, where the story begins. To the east of the Mountains is The Eastern Lands.
The Adventure Background
Long ago there was a great war between the Dragon Emperor, allied with the four firstborn peoples (Elves, Dwarves, Orcs, and Halflings), and the Demon Sathmog. The Demon had established a demonic realm, and empowered his human servants to advance their technology and expand their territory—but the Dragon Emperor Eledain and his allies drove the demon back and defeated him. Not, however, before Sathmog was able to cast a curse on the forest in which he was defeated. This forest became corrupt and lifeless, and the blight began expanding. Many believe, unless stopped, this blight will expand to consume the whole world.
When the war ended the four firstborn peoples went their separate ways, not knowing that an ancient evil artifact had been saved by a demonic agent. 800 years after the war three mages became fascinated with the stories of this ancient artifact and began to search for it together. As is typical with quests for power, however, their friendship transformed into bitter rivalry. Eventually, with their friendship shattered, the three mages forgot all about the lure of the ancient artifact. Until just before the characters join the story, that is.
The adventure begins as the party arrives at The Dead Forest in search of treasure. In so doing, they get swept up in the current of history itself.
The Adventure Structure (Obfuscated)
Path of Glory is a single story in three parts. As such, there are certain elements of the adventures which can feel a bit like a rail road. To label Path of Glory a railroad would be, however, a misrepresentation. Each of the three adventures has an open-ended structure—players may explore the locations as they will and draw whatever conclusions they wish. There is no guarantee they will succeed, and their path through each adventure will impact what happens in the next. So, rather than label Path of Glory a railroad I refer to it as a progressive campaign. The path is sequential, but how the party moves through each step in the sequence is up to them. Also, as mentioned, there is no expectation that the party will succeed at reaching all their goals—which will create ongoing consequences moving forward.
The first adventure in the path, The Dead Forest, takes place in the eponymous location. The forest’s name is, however only partly true. The center of the forest is, indeed, dead but its outer ring is ripe with life. The characters arrive at an inn called The Hungry Hobgoblin as they arrive on scene. This inn serves as a base of operations while the party explores the forest. They may both rest and recover, as well as purchase equipment and provisions.
The forest itself is inhabited with a number of named NPCs the party may encounter throughout their explorations. Some are friendly, others hostile, and still more are indifferent to the party’s presence. Many of these NPCs can be encountered through a random encounter roll (which should happen once per shift) or in certain locations. As the party travels throughout the forest and explores different sites, they should begin to get woven into the web of relationships which has been spun throughout the area.
The ultimate draw which brought the party to the forest is the story of the curse in the center of the woods which threatens to cover the world, and the hint that there is an artifact under the mountain which can lift the curse. To acquire the artifact, however, they need to find out the location of the doors which open the path under the mountain. They also need to learn how to open them.
The first adventure in the path is a typical sandbox setup. The party has a goal and to fulfill that goal they need to explore the area and interact with its denizens. The second part of the adventure takes place under the mountains, and alters the game play more toward exploration and stealth. Part three moves into a brand new area, which I will not describe here so as to avoid spoilers. I will say the final act in the story will challenge the party in whole new ways.
Looming over each of the path adventures are the different factions, including the aforementioned mages, which are connected to the artifact for which the party is searching. A group’s chances at success will depend on how they interact with these factions. While players who crave combat will not be disappointed, role-play is every bit as important on this path.
Physical Product
Path of Glory’s physical build matches the other products in this line. It is a “full-sized” book 8 ½ x 11 inches, weighing in at 158 pages. It is printed on glorious non-glossy paper, and is stitch bound so it opens well. My only knock on the physical build is one that’s carried across the line, there is no book ribbon.
The cover is wrapped with some glorious Dragonbane artwork by Johan Egerkrans, who also did the cover art for the Dragonbane Bestiary. The two minotaurs, as with all Dragonbane artwork, is a perfect fit for the line. There are folks for whom Dragonbane’s art style is too cartoony and I cannot say they are wrong because personal aesthetic isn’t objective, we like what we like. I will say, for me, the artwork in the Dragonbane line is one of its biggest draws. I appreciate the exaggerated menace. A nice design touch is the blurb on the rear cover, which describes how the creatures depicted on the front cover may be encountered.
The interior cover pages depict two of the adventure path’s maps. The front cover displays the Dead Forest, while the rear cover is a map of the final adventure’s region. Included with the book is a two-side map which presents both the aforementioned maps in a larger format. This is a quality product.
Layout and Design
Path of Glory utilizes the design language common to the entire Dragonbane line. The body font is a pleasant-looking serif, while the Heading font is a decorative serif font with sharp edges and angles. The book also shares Dragonbane’s hand drawn decorative elements for call-out titles, labels, title pages, drop caps, table decorations,and footers. These common elements help draw the entire line together and make the book feel inviting.
The Header decorations, while still in the Dragonbane style, change for each adventure. Included in the center is a decoration which corresponds to current step on the path. These blend in well and they are a wonderful visual cue which identifies each of the book’s sections.
The location maps are also cut from the same Dragonbane cloth as the other books in the line. They are attractive, easy to navigate, and with enough detail to be interesting without being overwhelming. It’s an excellent design.
Interior artwork, again, fits in with the rest of the line. Each portrait and scene depiction feels like a watercolor image, but with stronger reds and greens instead of pastels. The different pieces each have distresses edges, which blends them into the background texture which adorns the pages.
This book is stunning, and I am glad to have it on my shelf.
Conclusion
I love this book, and the way the adventure path is designed. In fact, as I said, when my current Dragonbane table is finished with their adventures in the Misty Vale, we will be tackling Path of Glory. It’s going to be fun to see how they well they do!
If you want to give your players a challenging adventure path, which requires those at the table to interact with the world around their characters with both depth and wisdom, Path of Glory is a terrific pick up.
You can purchase Path of Glory from Free League’s website for about $44. As with other Free League products, purchasing the book also grants you access to the PDF. The PDF alone can be purchased through DriveThruRPG (affiliate link) for $15.99. If you run Dragonbane, this is worth a serious look.
