The stunt system was a fun way to make combat more dynamic, with out bogging down the rules. I’ll be especially interested in how they add new stunts as the box sets are released. I noticed even in our one session that people gravitated to the same stunts. Unfortunately the other day my dice weren’t in the mood to pair up, which made each time they did that much more exciting.

Otherwise the system was easy to pick up and didn’t seem overly intrusive in play. There was some discussion around the table on the Dragon Die and it’s place as the decider of success levels. Personally that didn’t bother me too much. If you succeed at a task, you succeed. The number of successes you have only matters occasionally. Using them in extended tests did seem a little cumbersome to me however. But as with all these things I’d just adjust how I used them so it didn’t get in the way.

I was playing a Dalish ranger type so didn’t have much to do with the magic system. there was quite a lot of discussion after the game on whether mages are ineffective. Reading through the rules I’m not sure it’s such a problem. The ability for people to turn aside a spell seems like a good one, especially going forward. Perhaps it could have been streamlined so that you have a Magic defence score rather than needing to do a roll every time to see if it gets through. But I’m sure that is the type of thing groups will house rule if they feel strongly about it.

I’d be a little reluctant to kick off any sort of campaign (even if I had the time) until I had a firm idea of when box set 2 will be out. I have a feeling that many of the gripes I’ve read in forums about the lack of setting info will be addressed in the up coming box sets. There are two releases already announced, the Blood in Fereldan adventure pack and the Dragon Age Game Master’s Kit. No release dates for these yet however.

All in all I liked the system and think it works well and has room to grow with the additions. If you have been looking for a light weight fantasy system then this might just be it. I’m planning on running an adventure at KapCon this month, so look out for the actual play report of that.

Ashelle Litwyn was born as just another of the Dalish Elves. Both her parents were well liked and active members of the Clan and she wanted fo nothing.

As she grew she was expected to take a more active role within the Clan and it was noticed by most that she had quite an abtitude with the bow. It is this that lead to her nickname, Ash. She was never seen with out her ash wood bow. She started ranging far and wide as the aravel made their stately way across Ferelden learning more and more as she went.

However it was her first meeting with humans that really started her down the path she is on now. Unlike many of her kind this meeting was not particularly traumatic and it didn’t end in the death of all her family. Rather, Ash stumbled across a human child lost in the forest and returned her to her farmholder parents. In gratitude the family invited the young Elf in for dinner and told her stories of their familes.

Since that day Ash has been fascinated with Humans, Human culture and Human history. Her parents dispair that it will inevitably end in her death and the rest of her Clan think her slightly mad to be interested in the race that almost caused ther distruction.

She is slightly short for an elf, but with her peoples natural grace. She is naturally inqusitive but it is her naivity that really amazes people. Despite having encountered the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity she still sees them as facinating creatures and wishes to know all she can about them.

After cracking it open and having a read a few things hit me to begin with.

1. There is a good amount of background info on the setting with out being too bogged down. As I mentioned I’ve been playing the Bioware game a lot, but due to playing on the Xbox I haven’t been reading all that much of the huge amount of setting info that they included in the game. So getting to read up on a little of this history in the Green Ronin RPG was great.
2. The character creation options are basically the same as the CRPG, but with a few differences. You still have only three character classes and three races, but the backgrounds have been opened up a little. The two biggest ones for me are the option to play an Avvar Hillsman or a Fereldan Freedman. Both of these are human backgrounds, but so culturally different that they are almost different races. I think from a campaign point of view that will allow for a lot of different adventures and tensions than just a Fereldan noble as in the Bioware game.
3. The game system itself is an interesting mix of a litte True20 and a little Song of Ice and Fire Roleplay with one major difference in the Dragon Dice & Stunts System. The basic mechanic is that you roll 3d6, add your ability and any extras and see if you’ve beaten the TN. The Dragon Dice is one dice in your three that is a different colour, it’s used to break ties and say how well you did a task (successes). It’s most important function though is to decide how many stunt points you get. Stunts are (as far as I can tell from my initial read throughs) basically extra actions you get to do in combat. They are triggered when/if you get a double on your 3d6. This is meant to make combat a little more dynamic and different than just “I swing my sword and hit”. I’m looking forward to see how this works in play.

Green Ronin have very obviously tried to make Dragon Age easily accessible for new RPG players with streamlined rules, a setting which is likely to b at least a little bit familar to people interested in table top gaming and from the outset plenty of adventures. They announced just the other day that one of their next releases will be a book of three adventures with another three adventure outlines (the other release wil be a GMs Toolkit. More here).

It is also being released in a series of box sets, this first one (due for release in Jan ’10) is to take characters from level 1-5. There is a Player’s Guide, a GM’s guide and (in the first box) 3 special d6. The GM guide ships with a pre-written adventure straight off the bat called The Dalish Curse. I haven’t read it, as I’m playing it next week, so I can’t give a review but I will certainly do a follow up actual play then.

All in all I think Green Ronin has started something good with Dragon Age and I look forward to seeing where it leads. At this stage, if I decide to run another high fantasy campaign I think it will be with this system. I just hope that the lengthy approvals process that stopped the table top game being released with the CPRG doesn’t stop the momentum in the same way that approvals for Green Ronin’s other current licenced product has.