The Dragon Age Tabletop RPG: Dark Fantasy Role-playing by Green Ronin

One of the ways I discover new and exciting things is by watching my Twitter feed.  Generally, I follow people who are geeky enough that most of what comes across is something I may possibly be interested in.  Also, the people I follow generally have useful recommendations and opinions that I find insightful, or at least amusing.  A few weeks ago, I saw some tweets about the Dragon Age RPG by Green Ronin on my feed.  Daniel Perez, known on Twitter as “Highmoon” was playing in a game and was live-tweeting it to the masses.  Said masses including me, of course.  What he said about it made me curious.  I’m a fan of the video game (though I haven’t finished it yet and here comes the second one) and I was loving some of the things Daniel was saying about how this game plays.  I was intrigued enough to pick up a copy of the game, or at least what’s been released of it so far.  I haven’t had a chance to play it yet, but I’ll be fixing that this weekend at SCARAB.

I liked it enough to add it to my GMing schedule for the weekend.

Daniel liked it enough to start Dragon Age Oracle, a blog dedicated to bringing user-created material for the game to the web.

Wolfgang Bauer is considering developing a version of his Midgard Open Design Setting Project using Dragon Age’s AGE System.

I’ve noticed a number of people online comparing this game to “old school D&D” and I definitely understand that comparison.  As I was working on this review, Jerry LeNeave’s review popped up on my Twitter feed.  He noticed that same comparison being tossed around.  For the most part, I agree with Jerry.

The more things change…

Dragon Age pushes a nostalgia button for many of us who have been involved in role-playing games, especially of the D&D variety, for a long time.  Particularly, this game reminds me of the old Basic and Expert sets from the early 1980′s.  Obviously, they are both boxed sets.  In recent years, other than Wizard’s of the Coast’s release of a 4th edition version of the “Red Box,” how many tabletop rpg’s come in boxed sets?  Not many.

If you look at the two boxes side-by-side, note the spellcaster on the right, light blazing from each hand.  That is where the cover art similarities end.

What about the contents of these boxes?

The contents compare most closely to those of the 12th – 14th printings of the D&D Basic Set (the well-known “red box”).  Those printings contained a 64-page Player’s Manual and a 48-page Dungeon Master’s Rulebook, along with a set of dice.  There was no adventure included (the classic B2 – Keep on the Borderlands was included in all previous printings of the set), but two scenarios were printed in the DM’s book.  The Dragon Age box comes with a 64-page Player’s Guide and a 64-page Game Master’s Guide, along with a set of dice.  There is no separate adventure included in the box, but there is a scenario printed in the GM’s book.  Though the original editions of the D&D Basic Set covered only character levels 1-3, like the Dragon Age set, all editions beginning with the 15th printing covered levels 1-5.

Once you actually open the books and start reading, the differences become readily apparent.  The Dragon Age set is much easier on the eyes and much more well organized.  The writers obviously took new gamers into account when they wrote the material, because it is clear, concise and newbie-friendly.  Even the Game Master’s material is written so that new game master’s have some extremely useful tips on game mastering at their disposal.

The Mechanics (sans Mike)

The basic resolution mechanic in this game is handled through the use of 3d6, rather than the old  D&D standby, the D20.  I like this change, as the use of multiple dice tends to even out roll results and leave slightly less to the whim of a single bad die roll.  Character abilities, instead of ranging from 3 to 18 like Basic D&D, range from -2 to +4.  This is similar to just using the bonus or penalty from Basic D&D as a representation of your ability score (the Basic D&D penalty/bonus range is from -3 to + 3).

The familiar 6 core abilities from Basic D&D (Strength, Intelligence, Wisdom, Dexterity, Constitution and Charisma) have been replaced by 8 core abilities (Communication, Constitution, Cunning, Dexterity, Magic, Perception, Strength and Willpower).  More often than not, the game’s AGE System has the feel of Fudge instead of D20, though to be fair, Basic D&D predated the universal D20 mechanic.  The system uses skills in a way similar to 3rd and 4th edition D&D, but they also feel a bit like World of Darkness skills/checks.  Instead of the complex feat system of the more recent editions of D&D, Dragon Age gives us stunts, which are much more streamlined in play than the 3e feat system.

Though the D&D Basic Set used non-human races as classes, characters in that game could be Humans, Dwarves, Elves or Halflings.  In Dragon Age, characters can be Humans, Dwarves or Elves (two different types of Elves exist in the game’s default world of Thedas).  Basic D&D character classes (other than the non-human races) are: Cleric, Fighter, Magic User and Thief.  Dragon Age narrows it down to Mage, Rogue and Warrior.

Your Mileage May Vary

Unlike Jerry LeNeave, I never made the switch to 4th edition D&D.  Yes, I see a number of problems inherent in the various incarnations of 3rd edition (which Paizo’s Pathfinder RPG does a wonderful job of patching).  I also see the rules-heavy and tactics-heavy natures of these two editions of D&D and that is one of the reasons I breathe a sigh of relief when I read through the Dragon Age rules.  The game is refreshingly rules-light.  It is easy to learn and easy to teach. It is a breath of fresh air and a respite from the edition wars that have plagued D&D for the past few years.  This game is a wide doorway through which new tabletop role-players may pass easily.

It is also a tie-in product to Bioware’s excellent and immensely popular video game series (the second volume of which is due out in February).  As a tie-in to an already existent game world, which already has an established tone and grittiness factor, we get possibly the biggest difference between this game and the old D&D Basic Set.  As a more general ruleset for building games, the Basic D&D did not attempt to impose or establish a tone for games using those rules.  DM’s could fill them with “unicorns & rainbows” if they so desired, or make them dark, lethal and gritty like Dragon Age.  Personally, I prefer dark and gritty systems (Jerry LeNeave and I have this in common), so the default settings of the game appeal to me.  It would be a fairly easy matter for a GM to lighten things up and write a new setting for this game, but we do need to remember that rulesets have their sweet spots and are not designed to do everything equally well.  Perhaps this ruleset finds a sweet spot in depicting gritty combat and adventures in a dark and dangerous world.  Only time will tell as people tinker with both rules and setting.

Right now, I’m just looking forward to playing this game.  I actually hope to have some players with no (or little) knowledge of the video games, to combat preconceived notions about what the game will contain.  I’ll let you know how it went after SCARAB this weekend.  Wish me smooth sailing behind the screen.

Has anybody else played the Dragon Age RPG?  Do you have any questions or thoughts about it?