Last week, we asked about collectible elements in games and how they made you feel. Virtually deadlocked were those of you who can get into them depending on how awesome they are, and those of you who hate them with the fury of a thousand ever-burning suns. Not too far behind that were those of you who were indifferent or had mixed feelings. Not a great sign overall for those kinds of games, though clearly, people are buying them.
Last weekend, while at synDCon, I managed to get into some quick demos of the Dragon Age tabletop RPG run by Hal of Green Ronin. I left with boxed set in hand, so expect a full review coming sometime soon after I get a chance to pour over it, but suffice it to say we couldn’t help but swap some stories about playing the video game.
Not only that, but Mike of Sly Flourish brought up Dragon Age in a seminar we were on and how it was a great source of inspiration for DMs (and he wrote a great article about it too). I can point to it as an example of something along the lines of the 5×5 Method, where various quests intersect both in location and plot.
Obviously, Dragon Age has made an impact upon us RPG gamers. Now that it’s been out for a while, I just wanted to ask:
[poll id=”155″]
I made a Human Noble Rogue, who I specifically designed to eventually become a Duelist. (Also, I played him as kind of a bastard without being sadistic evil). I hacked my way through the game wielding two weapons, got it on a few times, and survived to slay some Darkspawn at the end.
How about you?
I played an elven magi who became an arcane warrior. Lots of fun. I’m a little stuck at the moment however, after a certain character decides they’re not entirely happy being my friend. Still, awesome game.
Really engaging and engrossing, but like all Bioware RPGs magic-use is just way better than other options.
I’ve been playing a Human Noble Rogue for about 120 hours now. I’m about 80% done. I’ve romanced both Morrigan and Leliana, while keeping Alistair and Wynne happy and not losing Zevran. I didn’t like giving up having golems in my army, but at least it kept Shale in the party. Sten is grumpy, but still here, Ohgren is always drunk, and Muttsley (my pooch) just sits around howling all the time.
I built my PC into a dual-wielding assassin/duelist. Flanking with Alistair while Morrigan spams Temptest and Blizzard, and Wynne just plays healbot is crazy fun.
I can’t wait for Awakenings next month! If I don’t finish Origins quickly I may never get to Mass Effect 2 before Easter.
I named my dog Sir Chompsalot.
I named mine “Vecna” and put points into his magic skill. It didn’t help very much.
Played a bunch of the origins through during a solo drunken evening (ACHIEVEMENT+).
My dog is named Alistair, but I also have a Mabari warhound named Fleabitten.
One of my players (i’m running DA RPG at the moment) has a tracking hound named Bones of indeterminate lineage. I’m thinking a storyline where he has to choose between his basically useless lifelong friend and a Mabari would be intriguing.
I finished the game as a female human mage (elemental focus), I’ve got a male human noble warrior (sword & shield focus) that’s around level 10 (and just finished the first town after Ostagar), and I’ve completed the origin stories for a male dwarf noble warrior (two-handed focus), a female dwarf commoner rogue (two-weapon focus), a female Dalish elf rogue (archery focus), and a female city elf rogue (two-weapon focus). I am also near the beginning of the battle of Ostagar with a female human noble warrior (also sword & shield focus) and have a female elven mage still working on her origin story. I started the latter two because I got some appearance mods I wanted to play with, things like new hairstyles and eye colors (PC version FTW!).
I got involved in console games, though. I went back with my main character to run through Return to Ostagar shortly after it came out, but otherwise I haven’t played DA:O in a couple of months now. I had Assassin’s Creed 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum (which still needs finishing, actually), and Mass Effect 2 come along and eat up my gaming time. Now I’m actually going through Mass Effect 1 with a new character.
I’m really hoping the community starts to deliver some good custom storylines soon. As much fun as the official campaign is for DA, the thing that has the potential to keep me playing it is the community. I played the original Neverwinter Nights on and off for more than 5 years because of the custom modules people made–the sequel made by Obsidian never really took off in the same way, either for me personally or for the community at large.