A long time ago, the Gods appointed the Elder Dragons to be the Guardians of the World. But secret forces, hiding in the shadows, sprinkled envy and greed amongst the dragons and a civil war unleashed during which the Elven and Dwarven suffered the most. But in the end, the Elder Dragons successfully restored order and peace entered the land. After the last battle, the Elven left their burning cities and moved to the forest to leave the fight for power once and for all behind. The Dwarven on the other hand could never forgive the dragons for their betrayal. In their veins runs the lust for vengeance and they hate the dragons more than anything else. This was also the time, during which a third race entered the world. Out of the ashes of long forgotten empires, the Humans claimed the lands and, thanks to the intervention of the Elder Dragons, they flourished and began to worship the Elder Dragons as the Keepers of Balance.
But the Keepers are long gone and the races don’t even suspect that again dark forces foment betrayal and conflict. Not everything is lost though. There is a sword, forged by the last person to remember the tales in the hottest fires of Aventurien. Named Drakensang, deep inside a mountain it awaits the one true warrior. The one who will find and use it to complete the Dragonquest. The one that will prevent the next great war.
And the one is the hero the player creates at the beginning of the game. He can either chose from seven pre-defined characters like a Elven Mage or a Human Warrior or enter the advanced mode and define every single skill and talent himself just like he would if he played the German Pen & Paper RPG “Das Schwarze Auge”. Besides the eight basic attributes like courage or dexterity, there are dozens of other talents in which the player can invest his valuable points for example herbalism or aimed shot.
Every action in the game depends on these values and even if you are talking to someone, dice are being rolled in the background. These samples, as they are called, determine if the hero successfully influences his partner and gets e.g. additional choices in the many multiple choice dialogues. But for these samples not only the points in the relevant talent are a factor but also the skills that this talent uses and to make it even more complex there is sometimes the possibility that a dice roll has a handicap perhaps because the hero is injured or something like this. If the player wishes, he can see all these numbers in a chat-like window on the screen.
But besides the very extensive and complex rule-set, the game is a very classic RPG in which the player travels through a small part of Aventurien, talks to all kinds of peoples, fulfills main- and sidequests, gathers resources to make potions or forge items, kills enemies and overall just gains enough experience for the next level which defines how high he can raise a talent and advance along the story. On his way he will meet several other heroes which are more or less willing to join in on his quest and help in the many battles that await them. These battles are basically fought in realtime, but even a single wolf requires some tactics so the player can pause the game at any time to give every adventurer specific orders on what to do next.
