What's Dragon Age?

crkrueger · February 20, 2017, 10:45:36 AM

Quote from: Arminius;946554Re Sarkeesianism: I seem to recall reading a hoo-ha over an NPC making homosexual overtures to the PC and people alternately losing their shit and losing their shit over people losing their shit.

Jesus, is that what he's talking about?

Voros · February 20, 2017, 10:46:25 AM

Yep.

crkrueger · February 20, 2017, 10:49:14 AM

Quote from: Voros;946620Cool, hopefully it pops up on Bundle of Holding sometime and I can check it out. I know a couple of people who are really into the game and it would be a cool way to introduce them to TTRPG.

People are always talking about the new Red Box, the perfect introduction to RPGs for newcomers. There was one, but it's not D&D - Dragon Age Set 1 is that box.

RunningLaser · February 20, 2017, 11:19:47 AM

Quote from: CRKrueger;946627People are always talking about the new Red Box, the perfect introduction to RPGs for newcomers. There was one, but it's not D&D - Dragon Age Set 1 is that box.

It was that good?

crkrueger · February 20, 2017, 12:26:38 PM

Slim Players Book, slim GM's book. Gave a little bit of the setting, laid out the rules, gave some monsters and a couple GM tips, and an adventure.
No massive backstory, no million character options, no real GM ideology New or Old school. Here it is, go play it.

So as a starter Fantasy RPG, yeah it was that good.

The one, and arguably fatal flaw was that it did not contain Grey Wardens, and the second set with Wardens was long in coming.

Shipyard Locked · February 20, 2017, 12:50:18 PM

Quote from: CRKrueger;946647The one, and arguably fatal flaw was that it did not contain Grey Wardens.

Damn, that's almost "Star Wars without Jedi" in terms of audience targetting goofs.

crkrueger · February 20, 2017, 12:57:24 PM

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;946655Damn, that's almost "Star Wars without Jedi" in terms of audience targetting goofs.

Yeah, but in their defense, no one starts out a Grey Warden. There is no "trained from birth" or whatever. You're experienced and worthy of notice before you get recruited. To map to B/X, it's really an Expert thing, not Basic.

But, the video games are about Grey Wardens. I think the biggest problem was that it took so long to get the Set 2 through the Bioware approval process and out. If Set 2 was released a few months later it would have been different I think.

It's ironic that the very thing that made it the New Red Box is also what damaged it as a Dragon Age game.

cranebump · February 20, 2017, 01:44:26 PM

I actually hacked the FAGE stunts system to work with a D&D variant. Basically, when you roll over a 20, after mods, you get "Maneuver Points" to spend on various stunts. I used the MP system as a way to delineate the race/classes, i.e., Fighters get +1 MP's for combat maneuvers, Human get +1MP every time they generate maneuvers, Elves have +2 MP's when using bows, and so on. The key advantage to playing a human is the extra 2 MP's when you stunt (plus an extra skill). I also cribbed FAGE's flat +2 to a skill, though I eliminated Weapons skills from the tree to unclutter it a bit..

arminius · February 20, 2017, 06:37:24 PM

So if one were getting into this, what would be the advantage of Dragon Age vs Fantasy Age? Are the core books all that different? I assume DA has more setting/expansion stuff available?

cranebump · February 20, 2017, 07:01:12 PM

Quote from: Arminius;946712So if one were getting into this, what would be the advantage of Dragon Age vs Fantasy Age? Are the core books all that different? I assume DA has more setting/expansion stuff available?

FAGE does not come with a wide selection of monsters in the basic book. They released an ad-on monster book, but it's not incredibly thick. Also FAGE only comes with three classes, but you can get a white variety from the same classes by taking different sorts of paths and skills. It also has A relatively small selection of spells.

All in all, I'd say your guess is correct, but I haven't actively shopped for DA stuff.

dbm · February 21, 2017, 07:52:36 AM

Quote from: Arminius;946712So if one were getting into this, what would be the advantage of Dragon Age vs Fantasy Age? Are the core books all that different? I assume DA has more setting/expansion stuff available?

Here's a breakdown by the lead designer (link).

I picked up both a while back, and quite like the game system. It has a loose class system that provides a nice balance of structure and opportunity for customisation. I would say magic is the weakest point of the game. Spells are mostly variations on combat powers (attacks and defenses) with little in the way of non-combat spells. Similarly, it's quite hard to have a dabbler or warrior mage type, if that is the sort of character you like to play.

There is, now, another iteration of the AGE system, in the new version of Blue Rose. That may address some of the issues around magic, I haven't had the chance to look at it yet.

estar · February 21, 2017, 08:13:11 AM

Quote from: Arminius;946712So if one were getting into this, what would be the advantage of Dragon Age vs Fantasy Age? Are the core books all that different? I assume DA has more setting/expansion stuff available?

They are about as different as BECMI D&D was from AD&D. Broadly the same game, plays the same but has slightly different details. For example Fantasy Age rearranges the attributes slightly.

DAGE: Communications, Constitution, Cunning, Dexterity, Magic, Perception, Strength, Willpower
FAGE: Accuracy, Communications, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, Willpower

Overall AGE is thin on stuff (items, monsters, spells, etc) compared to other RPG. However the system very solid and plays very well. As well as having the virtue of being easily modified.

Kiero · February 21, 2017, 12:10:42 PM

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;946590As stated elsewhere on this forum, Bioware has decided not to ever bother with an official Mass Effect tabletop game. Having enjoyed the first one, but not enough to play 2 and 3, I can understand that decision. The most interesting conflicts and situations of that universe were pretty much depleted by the video games (a common problem with tabletop games that want to build off an existing IP).

Having played in an awesome Mass Effect game without even having to touch most of the video game canon after ME1, I completely disagree. There's a vast universe of all sorts of possibilities seeded just by the material from the first game, you don't need the games' metaplot at all.

I'd also note some of my queries on how to deal with various situations arising in the game generated really interesting threads on this very board.

RunningLaser · February 21, 2017, 02:44:53 PM

Quote from: estar;946818Overall AGE is thin on stuff (items, monsters, spells, etc) compared to other RPG. However the system very solid and plays very well. As well as having the virtue of being easily modified.

Not having a lot of stuff out isn't such a bad thing. Had some store credit and ordered it.

cranebump · February 22, 2017, 03:03:54 AM

Quote from: estar;946818They are about as different as BECMI D&D was from AD&D. Broadly the same game, plays the same but has slightly different details. For example Fantasy Age rearranges the attributes slightly.

DAGE: Communications, Constitution, Cunning, Dexterity, Magic, Perception, Strength, Willpower
FAGE: Accuracy, Communications, Constitution, Dexterity, Fighting, Intelligence, Perception, Strength, Willpower

Overall AGE is thin on stuff (items, monsters, spells, etc) compared to other RPG. However the system very solid and plays very well. As well as having the virtue of being easily modified.

Derrrr...you're right. I totally forgot about the different stats.

This is an apt comparison. Don't know if it's been mentioned yet, but there is a Mystara hack for DA, to include a monster manual.