Dragon Age

About a week ago, while wandering through my local Books-A-Million, I saw the Dragon Age starter box set and picked it up.

Unfortunately, I haven't had the chance to play the video game and I've only just finished the rules in the player's book. Has anyone else had a chance to try this game out? How well does it play for you?

I got to play in a Dragon Age campaign for a couple of months. It fell apart (like all that group's games) when the DM found his new shiney thing, but it was fun.

Cons:
Character creation is extremely restrictive. You have a very limited set of options to use, putting serious constraints on what a starting character can be.
Character progression is fairly slow. It takes 1500 + N*500 experience to reach the next level (N = current level). The most difficult of encounters are worth 300 xp, with many encounters worth zero. So it takes a while to level up.
The only real difference between low level characters and high level characters are a couple of options and some hit points (the number depends upon how well d6s roll at level up).

Pros:
Very simple, fast-playing system allows for rapid resolution of almost everything.
Character advancement is slow, allowing players to get a real feel for each ability. It also imparts an organic feel to the level progression.
The only real difference between low and high level characters is hp and a few options. This lets PCs of almost any level be big heroes.
Only PCs have levels. Everything else is just "the way it is" and the heroes deal as they see fit.
Character advancement is almost entirely under the player's control. This allows for characters to improve however the player thinks best.
Stunts are cool, and frequent enough to be fun, without being constant.
The rules make the world a dangerous place, though survivable. Any successes are that much more enjoyable, because they were seriously earned.
Environmental hazards are entirely at the GM's whim. So a fall off a cliff can be an inconvenience or it can be almost-certain-death, depending upon what you want it to be at that time.

Overall, I like the system. It has issues, as all systems do, but is generally pretty slick. Good luck.

I haven't played it but the dragon dice and stunt idea rocks. After looking though WHFRP3E and the lack of combat squares, I am looking to use the engaged-close-etc rules from 3E and the rest from DA for our next campaign. As to options it seems really easy to make cPC options so I will be making a homebrew campaign rather than DA... loads of options then!

Just a question for those that have played, how does healing go? Is a Mage with the heal spell pretty much required?

You need a healing mage about as much as you did in D&D 3.5.
Which means: for in-combat healing you need either potions or a healing mage. Between combats, you're generally fine with the "natural" healing (5 + Level + Con for a short rest, 10 + level + Con for a night's rest). And if you have someone with mundane healing, that can be really nice, too.
You can get by without a healing mage, but they are useful to have around. Especially if your DM likes to swing two-handed swords, and then stunt for six points (pierce armor, mighty blow, and lightning attack because the damn thing can mighty blow for 1 stunt point = 4d6 + Str that ignores half your armor and gets to attack again for 3d6 + Str).

What you really need a mage for is spells that bypass armor. Some of those foes are tough, and you need something that can penentrate to wear them down before the party dies.

Me and some friends ran a one-shot of this using the adventure in the back of the GM booklet.

Character Creation is fairly strict, particularly in regards to rolling ability scores, since it's the "roll 3d6 in order" (with the result compared to a chart to get the actual value), and what background you pick for your character doesn't give a whole lot of options.

Aside from that, the game generally plays very quickly, as the game structure is pretty built around "Pick an ability score and appropriate specialization and roll the dice." Combat gets a little funky where the dragon die and stunt combos are concerned, although the guy that ran it admitted that he didn't allow the non-boss monsters to make use of stunt points, so there was less chance of a random mook getting the super lethal shot. But otherwise, it's rather fun once you get into the swing of it.

And yes, having a Mage with healing magic is extremely beneficial.

Also, it's worth noting that Green Ronin is planning 4 box sets every 6 months, with the first box covering levels 1 through 5, the 2nd box (due out in July I think) will covers 6 through 10, and so on.

So think of the Dragon Age box set as being akin to the old D&D Red Box starter set.

I ran a one shot the other night as a playtest for NCGD.

I love the character creation. It was a snap to make my PC's and someday I will have my players make their own characters for any DA games I run. I think that would be part of the fun. (The book only offers what is available on the video game, and IMHO it makes character building easy.)

I LOVE the stunt system. I can not say enough good things about it. Although I opted not to use stunt points on my NPC's for my playtest. I was still pretty lethal.... The dwarf rogue almost bit it a couple of times.

I agree with Donovan Morningfire, the gameplay is fast.

I wasn't into gaming when the Red Box came out, but my husband told me that Dragon Age is very much like that.

SelahJadenCaldwell said:

Dragon Age: Origins is a role-playing video game developed by BioWare's Edmonton studio. The game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox

Click to expand...

That's totally irrelevant to this discussion.

It was spam.

How well is the setting presented? That was the best part of the CRPG, IMO.

Very well. Lots of good information, the tone is very well maintained, and any GM that reads it is going to have lot of great guidance on how to run an appropriate Dark Fantasy campaign.