I'm a fan of the video game series but don't know that much about the Dragon Age RPG. The Midgard Bestiary/AGE support write-up on the front page references a "darker role-playing experience" embraced by fans of the RPG. For those familiar with the RPG, just how does the DA RPG capture that darker role-playing experience? Is it strictly through setting fluff & themes or are there RPG mechanics backing it up?
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Dragon Age RPG - Mechanics supporting DA themes
- Thread starter Azgulor
- Start date
Azgulor,
I'm the author of the Midgard Bestiary that was reviewed on the front page. As a huge fan of the system, I'll try to offer some explanations, but I highly recommend you spend some time tooling about the Dragon Age page at Green Ronin. you'll especially want to read through the three design diaries posted on the left-hand side of the page. Those are simply the best way to get up to speed with the design process behind the game, which was created by GR head honcho Chris Pramas. Also take a spin through the Dragon Age forums there, which has a highly involved if smaller community dedicated to the game.
Mechanically, the game supports a Dark Fantasy feel through its bare-bones design structure, brutal and fast-paced combat and chiefly through its adventure design.
First, if you're familiar, with the video games, then you already know all about the background world of Thedas. A place where elves are enslaved, or at best second class citizens, where mages are mistrusted and diabolic darkspawn threaten to snuff out all life in Fereldan. The game is very much hard-wired to that background world. For example, characters don't select a race and class such as in more common fantasy RPGs. Instead they pick a character Background which melds race, social class and upbringing into a single mechanic. Some playable character backgrounds you'll be familiar with from the CRPG include Surface Dwarf, Fereldan Freeman, Avaar, Chasind Wilder, Circle Mage, etc.
So each character comes ready made with role-playing hooks very much baked into the setting, which as discussed is a very grim place.
As far as combat goes, the game's core skill and combat resolution system is governed by a very simple 3d6 roll that is astonishingly robust without unnecessary complication. I won't go into too much detail because this is all discussed on the GR page I linked to, but one of the most innovative parts of the system is a mechanic that allows character who roll doubles on their attack dice the ability to perform fun and situation changing stunts such as knocking an enemy prone, making a second attack, doing more damage, or even changing their place in the initiative order. Again, this is all better covered in the Green Ronin material, but the end result is that it makes combat fast paced and unpredictable.
Also, healing is no where near as easy as in the CRPG, even with the availability of magical healing. Characters won't get all their hit points back after every fight or be able to wade through hundreds of foes. Characters can and will die at the table if the players bite off more than they can chew or in some cases make the wrong choices. For the game master, adjudicating combat at the table is a fast and loose affair, and the game can easily be played without the use of minis or maps, etc. (Though lots of players still like to do so -- but the system is not designed with them in mind.)
Lastly, Jeff Tidball, who has overseen so much of the adventure design for the game, has made the operating motto of the game's adventure design "Moral Choices the Matter." In most of the published adventures, players have to make tough decisions between equally bad options and then suffer the consequences of their actions. The adventure design really doesn't pull any punches and it encourages game masters to follow those guidelines when creating their own campaigns.
So that's my quick and dirty overview of why the game embraces a very dark fantasy feel. As many others have said before me, the game very much harkens back to the days of the original Red Box, but is built with modern design philosophies and attention to detail that really make it a pleasure to play and run.
If this has at all been a good tease, consider downloading the free Dragon Age RPG quick start guide from Green Ronin. It has all the rules you need to begin play and an included adventure. If you have fun with that, you can also download a free adventure from the folks from Kobold Quarterly, which I helped convert from 4E to AGE.
I really hope you consider giving the game a try. It's a great system.
Cheers.
- Josh Jarman
I'm the author of the Midgard Bestiary that was reviewed on the front page. As a huge fan of the system, I'll try to offer some explanations, but I highly recommend you spend some time tooling about the Dragon Age page at Green Ronin. you'll especially want to read through the three design diaries posted on the left-hand side of the page. Those are simply the best way to get up to speed with the design process behind the game, which was created by GR head honcho Chris Pramas. Also take a spin through the Dragon Age forums there, which has a highly involved if smaller community dedicated to the game.
Mechanically, the game supports a Dark Fantasy feel through its bare-bones design structure, brutal and fast-paced combat and chiefly through its adventure design.
First, if you're familiar, with the video games, then you already know all about the background world of Thedas. A place where elves are enslaved, or at best second class citizens, where mages are mistrusted and diabolic darkspawn threaten to snuff out all life in Fereldan. The game is very much hard-wired to that background world. For example, characters don't select a race and class such as in more common fantasy RPGs. Instead they pick a character Background which melds race, social class and upbringing into a single mechanic. Some playable character backgrounds you'll be familiar with from the CRPG include Surface Dwarf, Fereldan Freeman, Avaar, Chasind Wilder, Circle Mage, etc.
So each character comes ready made with role-playing hooks very much baked into the setting, which as discussed is a very grim place.
As far as combat goes, the game's core skill and combat resolution system is governed by a very simple 3d6 roll that is astonishingly robust without unnecessary complication. I won't go into too much detail because this is all discussed on the GR page I linked to, but one of the most innovative parts of the system is a mechanic that allows character who roll doubles on their attack dice the ability to perform fun and situation changing stunts such as knocking an enemy prone, making a second attack, doing more damage, or even changing their place in the initiative order. Again, this is all better covered in the Green Ronin material, but the end result is that it makes combat fast paced and unpredictable.
Also, healing is no where near as easy as in the CRPG, even with the availability of magical healing. Characters won't get all their hit points back after every fight or be able to wade through hundreds of foes. Characters can and will die at the table if the players bite off more than they can chew or in some cases make the wrong choices. For the game master, adjudicating combat at the table is a fast and loose affair, and the game can easily be played without the use of minis or maps, etc. (Though lots of players still like to do so -- but the system is not designed with them in mind.)
Lastly, Jeff Tidball, who has overseen so much of the adventure design for the game, has made the operating motto of the game's adventure design "Moral Choices the Matter." In most of the published adventures, players have to make tough decisions between equally bad options and then suffer the consequences of their actions. The adventure design really doesn't pull any punches and it encourages game masters to follow those guidelines when creating their own campaigns.
So that's my quick and dirty overview of why the game embraces a very dark fantasy feel. As many others have said before me, the game very much harkens back to the days of the original Red Box, but is built with modern design philosophies and attention to detail that really make it a pleasure to play and run.
If this has at all been a good tease, consider downloading the free Dragon Age RPG quick start guide from Green Ronin. It has all the rules you need to begin play and an included adventure. If you have fun with that, you can also download a free adventure from the folks from Kobold Quarterly, which I helped convert from 4E to AGE.
I really hope you consider giving the game a try. It's a great system.
Cheers.
- Josh Jarman
I've never played the Dragon Age video games, so I can't compare them to the tabletop RPG. I can say that the RPG system is fast, fun, and easy to learn. Character creation is quick and a variety of character types can be made just from the three classes.
Yes, the darker elements are there both in the writing and how the mechanics play out. Stunts work great to model "critical hits" and special maneuvers like knocking your opponent prone or disarming them. When I ran the Dragon Age Quickstart adventure, the players were genuinely concerned about their survival, especially after I rolled a few stunts against them.
The AGE system that is at the core of Dragon Age has also inspired me more than any other to create my own material. New talents, new specializations, and even conversions of other systems/settings are very easy to write for AGE.
I highly recommend giving Dragon Age a try.
Randy
Yes, the darker elements are there both in the writing and how the mechanics play out. Stunts work great to model "critical hits" and special maneuvers like knocking your opponent prone or disarming them. When I ran the Dragon Age Quickstart adventure, the players were genuinely concerned about their survival, especially after I rolled a few stunts against them.
The AGE system that is at the core of Dragon Age has also inspired me more than any other to create my own material. New talents, new specializations, and even conversions of other systems/settings are very easy to write for AGE.
I highly recommend giving Dragon Age a try.
Randy
It's very easy. Again, I would take a look at the forums I linked above, but so far, that I'm aware of, people have created "conversion" documents to play the game system in every setting from Mystara to Conan to Firefly.
You need to whip up some backgrounds that fit the new world you're going to play in and reskin some monsters. (Or buy the excellent Midgard Bestiary Volume 1 from Open Design and Kobold Quarterly! - shameless plugggggg) And you're pretty much ready to go.
I've also developed a system to play a more traditional fantasy RPG using the AGE system as a base and adding rules for race and class traits that model the choices players get from the Pathfinder game. (you can check out the progress on my site.)
Someone else on the DA forums has posted their work on a 4E system conversion using AGE, too.
I hope you check it out. It's a lot of fun.
You need to whip up some backgrounds that fit the new world you're going to play in and reskin some monsters. (Or buy the excellent Midgard Bestiary Volume 1 from Open Design and Kobold Quarterly! - shameless plugggggg) And you're pretty much ready to go.
I've also developed a system to play a more traditional fantasy RPG using the AGE system as a base and adding rules for race and class traits that model the choices players get from the Pathfinder game. (you can check out the progress on my site.)
Someone else on the DA forums has posted their work on a 4E system conversion using AGE, too.
I hope you check it out. It's a lot of fun.
