So, after the Green Ronin announcement, I am...

[Krensky]

I would be much more interested in a Mass Effect RPG. Maybe as a sequel?

Honestly, I don't get this general sentiment.

I thought Mass Effect was a great game, with a decent story and an interesting world, with generally mixed science. Nothing compared to an actual science fiction story, but considering the design team's snarky commentary on science fiction, that's not suprising.

Nothing about it is really that innovative. You could do Mass Effect with little effort in D6, Star Wars Saga (since, mechanically, Mass Effect is Knights of the Old Republic), GURPS, Spycraft 2.0, BESM/Tri-Stat, Fuzion, and probably a few others. With a little more work you could use SilCore, Traveller, Basic Roleplaying, and others.

Now, the same could be said about Dragon Age, which is why I'm generally meh about it. I know I'll be buying the CRPG, and I'll probablyt pick up the main box set, assuiming it's not priced rediculously. However, I think biggest weakness is that Dragon Age doesn't have NWN-style GMed mulitplayer. If it did, this would be astounding, especially if the dev tools were capable of rapidly setting up an encounter. You could use the game as a virtual tabletop, as a graphical combat visualizer, convert characters from the computer to the tabletop and back, all sorts of nifty things.

PS: Mass Effect 2 is coming out the beging of next year.

 

[TerraDave]

Dragon Age: My first reaction was 'huh' but reading The Rouse and the rest and seeing that it might be the biggest fantasy CRPG of the year, I guess I can see why they might be excited. For me it will give GR (yet) another crack at fantasy, and I am curious to see what they do with it.

Harry Potter RPG: I liked that card game...interesting analysis.

One more thing: I am Chris Pramas.

 

[Khairn]

Green Ronin has a proven track record for publishing good to great TTRPG's and Bioware has a good to great track record for publishing CRPG's.

I really don't see anything but an upside for the gaming community.

The countdown timer may have been cheesy, but hell ... I'm stoked.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Yeah! KotOR and Mass Effect were terrible... no wait... they were both made of awesome.

Yeah, well, you know, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

I had a big thing written here on why I disagree, but that would be a waste, so I'll just leave it at that.

 

[ProfessorCirno]

Nothing about it is really that innovative. You could do Mass Effect with little effort in D6, Star Wars Saga (since, mechanically, Mass Effect is Knights of the Old Republic), GURPS, Spycraft 2.0, BESM/Tri-Stat, Fuzion, and probably a few others. With a little more work you could use SilCore, Traveller, Basic Roleplaying, and others.

Now, the same could be said about Dragon Age, which is why I'm generally meh about it. I know I'll be buying the CRPG, and I'll probablyt pick up the main box set, assuiming it's not priced rediculously.

That's why a lot of people are "ehhhh" about this. Regardless of how good - or terrible - you think Dragon Age will be, it doesn't change the pnp perspective of "Ok, so how is this different?"

We're still waiting for a reason to believe this will be something outstanding or out of the ordinary.

 

[Krensky]

That's why a lot of people are "ehhhh" about this. Regardless of how good - or terrible - you think Dragon Age will be, it doesn't change the pnp perspective of "Ok, so how is this different?"

We're still waiting for a reason to believe this will be something outstanding or out of the ordinary.

I will say I'm happy for GR, it is a big deal and will probably make them a pile of cash and a lot of publicity. It's also nice to see the return of box sets. I'm confident I'll enjoy the CRPG enough to justify the $50 it will cost, but I don't know enough about the world to decide if it's, as The Rouse put it, deep and broad enough for a RPG. The demands of a game (or movie or tv show or novel) plot and world building are somewhat at odds with the needs of a game setting. It IS possible to do both, especially if you're willing to accept metaplot and world changing events on the RPG side. Heavy Gear is a good example (the TV show suffered from network interference). Whether GR and Bioware can balance these things, I don't know.

 

[Ktulu]

Yeah, count me unimpressed. I kinda figured since Kotaku mentioned something about a Dragon Age P&P; but since I don't have any interest in the video game, it didn't jump at me.

Would have much rather seen a DC or Marvel tie-in with M&M. Oh well.

 

[Derren]

That game will certainly be interesting.
Honestly, how many "great settings" have been published in the last few years? Not many. Even WotC just reuses what TSR created and had to make a contest to create Eberron.

Imo Bioware is probably better than most, if not all, PnP RPG companies in creating interesting settings.

 

[mearls]

I don't think it's just another D&D game, of course. But until we've got a game out there to show people, there's not much beyond "No, really, it's good!" to back that up.

It's funny, because at first I was a bit disappointed at the announcement. I thought GR was announcing a new game, rather than a license.

However, the more I think about it, the more excited I've become. I *love* KOTOR and Baldur's Gate. I can't wait to dive into Mass Effect.

The bigger picture, though, is that if the DA RPG does well that's a very, very good thing for the RPG hobby. If you look at licensed games, the successful ones have served as the primary way for fans to learn more about a setting (MERP and Star Wars during the 80s).

That's what the DA game is poised to do, and if it succeeds maybe we'll see lots of new games and new gamers.

In a way, I think people (and I'd put myself in this category until I thought about it for a bit) look at it as an RPG licensed from a videogame. That's been done before.

A better way to look at it, IMO, is that it's a new fantasy setting that's launching with a tabletop and a digital game. That's really, really exciting for the tabletop hobby.

 

[Mournblade94]

I put dissapointed, and I put it because I do know what Dragon Age is. It's another boring crappy RPG just like every other game that Bioiware has done in their feeble attempts to win back their Baldur's Gate glory. Protip: none of their games are at those standards, and so long as they keep their team, none will. Bioware didn't make the Baldur's Gate series, Black Isle did. They've just been claiming the glory to sell their trash.

Oh wait, now I have tabletop rules to play in cliche generic medieval Europe. That's new and fresh, right...?

You want to make a tabletop setting/rules based on an RPG? Wake me up when they make a ruleset for Arcanum or Morrowind P&P. You know, something unique.

Bioware has made some of the best RPG's on the market. I will give you that Oblivion and Morrowind are my favorites, but you cannot tell me that bioware has made trash.

The WORST game they did was the NWN2 expansion. NWN2 itself I did not feel lived up to its predecessors (sp.). Mass Effect was incredible, and I would say on story could easily compete with Baldur's Gate. I knew nothing of Dragon Age before this, and now I am looking forward to it.

After Jade empire and Mass Effect they have proved their quality several times over.

Morrowind would be a great lisence, though I would prefer other places in Tamriel. Morrowwind, when I first played it had DARK SUN written all over it. Morrowwind is great but it is not that far removed from other fantasy settings.

Iron Kingdoms seemed a pretty good analog to ARcanum.

Speaking of Dark Sun: Did anyone ever play the old TSR DARK SUN video game? I think SSI released it in the early 90's. That game was awesome. Only problem is the game bugged out for me on the LAST battle of the game so I never got to complete the story.