Dragon Age PnP
Dragon Age, coming soon!
Well perhaps not as soon as we hoped. A couple of weeks ago it was confirmed that Dragon Age’s release date had slipped into November. As disappointing as this is it does give me a little more time to save up for what certain looks like a ripper of a game. To keep things interesting here is the most recent trailer (via GameSpot) that was released at GameCom in Germany.
Enjoy!
Comics and the movie biz
On a plane yesterday I watched the really, really terrible Wolverine movie. I mean the worst comic movie I’ve seen in years – like comic movies used to be. That said it reminded me how there are some pretty cool things about Wolverine as a character.
But what to buy if I wanted to get into Wolverine? This link is all about how the comics business interacts and fails to win from successful movie tie-ins. And a key reason is a lack of obvious starting points for characters – especially characters that have been going since before I was even born. This is similar to the complaints that are made about the lack of a good introductory RPG – attempts Chris Pramas and Green Ronin are trying to solve with their Dragon Age RPG.
I don’t have the time or inclination to get seriously into superhero comics, especially big name ones from the big two publishers, so I’m glad the films like Iron Man, the first 2 X-Men and Spiderman movies and the recent Batman movies are getting made – they allow me to get my big super hero fix without spending wads of cash on comics of variable-quality comics. I just hope that they re better than Wolverine…
Some video game links
I’ve been collecting links but had no time to post them. So here you go!
- Regular readers know that Sophie and I are pretty excited about upcoming PC/console RPG Dragon Age and may have even picked up that we’re both planning on playing it on the Xbox 360. Good news for us then because the Kotaku writers have had some time with the 360 version and say the controls work fine!
- There was also an interesting interview with video game designer Tim Schafer about the need for games to expand their subject matter beyond sci-fi and fantasy if the medium is going to grow larger. I could give a fuck about it getting bigger, but he’s probably not wrong.
- Finally, magicians Penn & Teller have dedicated an episode of their show Bullshit! to violent video games – pretty funny stuff.
I need to read a video game blog other than Kotaku. Any suggestions?
Thoughts on console games
I’ve often wondered why it is that in recent years my interest in computer gaming has dropped off. It usefully had something to do with not being able to keep my PC at the tech level it seemed it needed to be in order to play the games I was most interested in. Then there was that I was getting all of the fun gaming experiences I was after from my table top games, and I didn’t need to sit alone in my room squinting at the screen. Oh and I also had a partner who wasn’t so keen on me doing that either.
But with the arrival of “next-gen consoles” (as they are still sometimes called) suddenly all those games I used to want on my PC could be played through a console. All I needed then was to just pay the $500 (rather than $2000) for the Xbox 360 and I’d be playing like the old days.
Except it also drew my attention to the games that were out there. And even though there were pretty and action packed they lacked something important that I have come to love in table top gaming. And that is deep character interaction. I know that to create a game with that kind experience would be so hard, it almost isn’t worth it but I think some games soon to be hitting the shelves might be getting close. Games like Mass Effect 2, Alpha Protocol and Dragon Age seem to be pushing that roleplaying experience one step further.
This feeling is summed up very nicely in a Kotaku article just after E3
I’m not sure what it says about me, that my biggest game moment of E3 2009 was a dialog decision. Maybe I’ve seen too much over the years to be impressed by simple game announcements or the promise of technology still a good year away. Maybe I’m just a science fiction roleplaying dork. Either one works.
I guess being a roleplaying dork just means I like complex human interactions, even in my pre-scripted games. So in anticipation of this glut of CRPGs coming out in a few months I’m going to take the plunge and buy my first console. Just as soon as I can get over my internal, PC game loving snobbishness.
I guess I’ll be getting Dragon Age for Xbox then…
Because the PC specs are out and I don’t meet them!
Bah! No time for thinking, only for linking!
So I’m in Singapore for work and had a bit of time to look around but not much. Bu I do have some links to share!
Chris Pramas has done a Dragon Age PnP RPG interview here. It sounds like a simple, introductory system which gels with what Pramas has said before and could be interesting. Also surprising was that Bioware approached them, not the other way around.
Our first release is a boxed set and it presumes no previous experience with tabletop RPGs. It’s designed to teach people how to play, so it has lots of advice and examples.
In less promising news, the Kuzui’s (producers of Buffy) are planning another Buffy movie, without Whedon. Fran Kuzui was the director of the original movie and there’s obviously some terrible, complex rights issues here. Needless to say, I can’t imagine the new movie would be any better than the first without Whedon’s input.
The Dragon Age PnP RPG and Nick’s thinking
As Sophie’s posted, Green Ronin have announced that they’re producing a pen-and-paper version of Bioware’s upcoming CRPG Dragon Age. This was hyped by a series of clues on the GR twitter feed and now Chris Pramas has updated the thinking behind these clues on his blog.
GR have done a bit of a closet Mongoose thing of late, publishing increasing numbers of licensed properties alongside their original settings: A Song of Ice and Fire, Wild Cards (George R. R. Martin’s shared world superheros setting), Thieve’s World and the Black Company. More than anyone, they must know how to make this work for them financially. And Dragon Age will expose them to a great new mass of potential customers – there’s already a page up on the official Dragon Age site and presumably there will be mentions in the manual and possible even load screens and the like. Pramas specifically says that:
As for “something needed,” I was talking about a really good intro game for new roleplayers. I don’t think D&D has had that since the early 80s (hence “something overdue”) and the tabletop roleplaying hobby needs new blood. It is not a coincidence that the first release is a boxed set.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think that this is going to bring in these new gamers in large numbers, box set or not. The vast majority of video gamers don’t care about tabletop games – if you look at the offical forums, you’ll see that near everyone commenting on this is an old tabletop RPGer. No one has popped in to say “I’ve always wanted to play a table top RPG and now here’s my chance!”
One other concern I have is that Bioware’s best work has been with other people’s settings. Star Wars and the Forgotten Realms in particular. Mass Effect is the only game of theirs I know with a totally original setting (Jade Empire is pseudo-historical) and I was fairly under whelmed.
I have every faith that GR will do this well and that it will be an interesting game , and I’ll probably pick it up if I like the setting from the game, but I hope no one thinks this is going to make RPGs mainstream again.
Game design in CRPGs – some links
I’m on a Kotaku link buzz here, but these were interesting.
First up is how uber-CRPG designer Chris Avellone hates CRPGs and their clichés.
Second up is how horses change the design of CRPGs and why Dragon Age won’t have any.
Both of these are reasons that as long as I’ve got friends and dice, I’ll keep playing table top games.
No homosexuality in Star Wars?
Given Sophie’s coverage of the Dragon Age PnP game Green Ronin are putting out, I thought it was worth pointing out some rather silly stuff Bioware staff have been doing lately.
A mod on their forums for upcoming MMO closed a thread discussing discrimination against gay and lesbian forum members by saying that gay and lesbian are terms that “do not exist in Star Wars”.
Oh dear.
Bioware apologised and made the staffer apologise, but what a stupid move. One good thing was that it helped raise the issues surrounding gay and lesbian gamers and their treatment online. Kotaku ran a good history of these issues that hopefully a lot of people read. Just try to stay out of the comments…
Dragon Age Pen and Paper
A quick update on my previous post. It seems that there is already a heap of info about the Pen and Paper game up on the offical Drago Age site.
Including this cover image. Check it out.
