Author Topic: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?  (Read 3572 times)

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archangel.arcanis

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Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« on: June 29, 2010, 02:06:37 PM »
Title says it all. I was wondering if anyone has tried out the Dragon Age PnP RPG. I'm currently playing the PC game and enjoying it and was considering running a game set within the world. In my research for resources and suggestions i found they had a PnP game for it already and wanted to know if it was even worth bothering with.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Nanshork

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #1 on: June 29, 2010, 02:48:57 PM »
All I know is that the video game is based on the PnP and not the other way around.
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #2 on: June 29, 2010, 03:08:00 PM »
that is interesting to know. I was under the understanding that it was the other way around or done in unison to cross promote.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Nanshork

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #3 on: June 29, 2010, 03:34:28 PM »
After some googling, you're right.  I was misled by things like "Based on the award winning rpg" that I saw around back when it first came out.
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2010, 12:12:39 PM »
Arise thread and be used once again.

So I've done lots of looking into this gaming system and just can't justify pulling the trigger on it. They released the initial box set that covered levels 1-5 but set 2 is apparently held up on licensing issues, and has been for months. Now I'm thinking I'll just use another gaming system to run a game with and use the world they have created. D&D just won't really fit this IMO so I'm going to have to try a different system. My current thoughts are GURPS with some reasonable limitations to keep it from getting out of hand. I have had very little experience with GURPS and would likely need to boil it down a lot as well as get enough information about the setting ready for players that may have never played the games.

Any thoughts on how to adapt the system to the setting? Any easy ways to make the enemies? If you have played the game, any good resources for reference materials? (I already use the wikia page for the game but may need something a bit better)
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Hallack

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #5 on: December 29, 2010, 12:20:49 PM »
I've not played either version of the game.  I assume the problem with using D&D for it is a matter of grit & magic?  Would E6 or similar variant do the job?
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #6 on: December 29, 2010, 12:27:19 PM »
I've not played either version of the game.  I assume the problem with using D&D for it is a matter of grit & magic?  Would E6 or similar variant do the job?
E6 may work, I'd have to look at everything closely. The big issue is magic should be rare but powerful with essentially a single caster class that can do it all. Mages in the setting are on a pretty short leash. They are either part of a group that agrees to behave and has the biggest church in the setting with an order of mage slaying knights looking over their shoulder to make sure that they do, or they are a loner that will be hunted down and either forced to join said group or killed.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Hallack

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #7 on: December 29, 2010, 12:36:12 PM »
So are mages to be an NPC only thing?

If not may consider some homebrew caster to get all appropriate goodies.  Heck, even some form of PRC might work well particularly given the apparent societal leash on casters.
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #8 on: December 29, 2010, 12:51:17 PM »
Caster's would be available to PCs, they just get stuck dealing with some extra hassle and hate/fear from the common people. They are treated in a very similar manor as Aes'dedai from Wheel of Time, except they once ruled with an iron fist and no one wants to let them ever do it again.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Hallack

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #9 on: December 29, 2010, 12:53:38 PM »
Approximately what level of magical power do they reach in D&D terms (if it even translates)?
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archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #10 on: December 29, 2010, 01:07:43 PM »
Hard to say since it is coming from an action CRPG. They have solid blasting, some self enhancers (mostly to ramp up how powerful their spells are), decent enough healing, a hand full of save or lose type effects. Several of the more powerful spells have rather long casting times in addition to costing more energy.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

Hallack

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #11 on: December 29, 2010, 01:21:06 PM »
So most of the magics could probably be mimicked by 3rd level spells, perhaps 4th plus various metamagics.   

If that is the case then I'd definitely encourage checking out E6 for a possible baseline. 
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Hida Reju

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #12 on: December 30, 2010, 05:42:19 AM »
I made the mistake of buying the box set on pre order I missed that it only had lvls 1-5 since they had not updated the Website with that info as of last year when I got it.

1. Dice system is weak no real improvement over playing Gurps or D20
2. Classes are boring from lvls 1-5, You get maybe 1 trick you can pull the rest depends on crit roles.
3. Mages have very little choices in spells and limited cast potential. (This is due to the fact that not even 1/3rd of the spells from the game were included.)
4. Traps, potions, and poisons were not included at all.

I will mention that I predicted that it would be a over a year for the second set and I was very much right.

If and when the whole thing is out then you can judge if its worth playing.

GawainBS

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #13 on: March 25, 2011, 02:36:49 PM »
My problems with the system are:

  • 3d6: The term is clusterfucked, I think?
  • Smple: You barely get any mechanics.
  • Undetailed: Nothing sets one weapon apart from some others, with certain weapons being obvious choices, so there isn't really a choice at all.
  • Boring: Combine points 2 & 3.

« Last Edit: March 25, 2011, 02:41:12 PM by GawainBS »

archangel.arcanis

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #14 on: March 25, 2011, 05:16:14 PM »
The biggest issue I've seen is that they never released any of the other books to follow up. So you can only get to level 5. After that you are just making stuff up since I really doubt they will ever get the rest of it off the presses.
Clerics and Druids are like the 4 and 2 in 42. Together they are the answer to the ultimate question in D&D.
Retire the character before the DM smacks you with the Table as the book will feel totally inadequate now.-Hazren

mortonstromgal

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Re: Anyone try Dragon Age RPG yet?
« Reply #15 on: March 25, 2011, 08:16:23 PM »
I can assure you Chris is working on it and its not a licensing issue (seeing how bioware asked him to write it in the first place). They were waiting for DA2 for some things to get more fleshed out before starting box 2 then Chris moved to Texas and its kinda on a back burner (because he has a day job) but the playtest for box 2 is going on. You can down load it from Green Ronin here http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=8913&start=100


  • 3d6: The term is clusterfucked, I think?


That would be a bell curve, it also does some interesting things with pairs similar to Unknown Armies and One Roll Engine

Dragon Age is designed as a rules light starter RPG for people who don't want to look at power cards and prefer to make up their own "I jump up kicking the troll in the face, then backflip over it to thrust my dagger in the back then jump to its arm and slide off performing another flip while pulling out my bow and shooting 3 arrows into its head" by having an improv stunt system similar to Exalted. It does have a few pre-written stunts as examples but your supposed to give it the flair of a Dragon Age critical hit yourself.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2011, 08:24:00 PM by mortonstromgal »