42 replies to this topic

[Dave ST]

I'm not sure if any one has heard, but Green Ronin is currently working on a Dragon RPG system.  Supposedly it'll run off a 3d6 system.

http://greenronin.com/dragon_age/

[SalmonMax]

That could be pretty yum. God knows the setting is well-realized enough. It's got enough built-in mystery and conflict to run any number of games.

[Dave ST]

You know, I was thinking that too.  It seems to have as much political intrigue with it's warring nobles as it has 'hey, it's evil, lets kill it!'.

I'm not thrilled about the 3d6 system, but the built their SoI&F game around that motif and it seems to be alright.  I guess we'll see.

[Shae Mansfield]

Neat!!

[Dave ST]

So I've read the Dragon Age RPG stuff.  It took them 5 months to release the game, and it shows.  The Core books only take a PC to Level 5 and if you want to go higher you have to wait until they release more books that detail he next levels, this includes what abilities you get, spells, everything.

Oh, and you can't play a Grey Warden.  Those are going to be detailed in an entirely different book as well.

My overall rating is that it sucks so far.  The rules are well done and the content is solid and teaches you a lot about the world and the people in it but they're trying to hurry through something, and we all know how that ends up.

[Ouroboros]

They're trying to capitalize on a video game before it gets forgotten (i.e. by this time next year).  I can understand why they would rush even as I agree that the end result usually fails to meet expectations.

[Chosen]

Do my eyes deceive me or does it really say that it is 2 64 page books for $29.95?  And they only take you to level 5?

I never thought I would say this, but the more books I look at the more I realize that the standard D&D books seem fairly priced.  And yet I still don't think they are fairly priced.

[Ouroboros]

I haven't touched their books in ages but I always recall Palladium had a decent price point for their stuff.  And if you could stomach the 30 yr old system the settings were often rather interesting.

[Dave ST]

LOL You got it right.

The Players Guide is 64 pages on how to make a character and understand the world, along with skills, spells, and equipment.  It's actually not that bad, honestly.  It's 64 pages because it only takes your PC to what skills, stunts, or spells they might be able use by Level 5.  Dragon Age the video game went to Level 30, and take my word for it by Level 30, with the proper spells and skills, even the hardest setting was a cake walk.

Had they put all 20-30 levels in the book it would have easily been 175+ pages, which I would expect an RPG Core book to be.

The Gamemaster's Guide is a joke.  What they don't tell you is that 24 of those pages are an intro adventure.  You get 40 pages of how to run the game (using skills, how to RP the people of Ferelden, hazards, monsters, treasure, and exp).

Dolling out XP is about two pages.  It took them two pages to break down four basic ways to hand out XP: if it was routine for you, 0XP.  If it's easy, 100 points. If it's average 200 points, and oh, if it's hard for you the reward is 300 points.

Yep, that's it... 100, 200, 300... I feel like a purple vampire is waiting leap into the computer room and laugh while thunder booms.

Rewards, like treasure, are one page of magic items.  One page along with a chart that tells you how many coins you might find along the way too.

There's about ten pages of monsters for you to go through, but those are generic and easily set for 1-5 Level PCs.  Something whipped up so they at least had something to fight.

So, for $30.00 you get a map, three dice, and two books that are, in my opinion, not even completed yet.

[Chosen]

Do the dice at least have numbers on all six sides or do you have to purchase stickers to get 4-6?

[Dave ST]

I just choked on cherry coke... I hope you're happy with yourself. :P

[Ouroboros]

Bwahahaha!  That was great!

[SalmonMax]

Ahhh, Green Ronin...

Well, we'll always have Mutants and Masterminds.

*hugs the book*

[Kylie_OOC]

Priceless, Chosen... *still laughing*

[Dave ST]

The Dragon Age RPG is being released in a series of four boxed sets, each of which covers five levels of play. Set 1, available now, is for characters of level 1-5. Set 2 will cover levels 6-10, Set 3 will cover levels 11-15, and Set 4 will cover levels 16-20. Each set includes a Player's Guide and a Game Master's Guide, and other extras like dice and maps. The sets not only have information on characters, talents, magic items, spells, and monsters, but also source material on Thedas and adventures.

Each set is $30.00 a pop I think... making this the most expensive set of core rules ever I think... $120 for a Players Guide and a Gamemasters guide...

Wow.

[Damon]

What's sad, is that people will pay for it, opening the door for other companies to do the same.

[Dave ST]

I guess.  I have the first two book in the set, and as I said, overall the game isn't bad but the whole separating it into 4 sets is just ignorant.

Now, we all know why they're doing it.  They got the first part out, so that way people can be playing it while they're working on the next part and so on...  Had they released it all at once it would have taken them several more months to complete and they'd be losing money as the game's rage died down a bit.

Apparently Dragon Age 2 is due out soon anyway... so we'll get to buy 4 more boxed sets of rules updates after that occurs. :p

[Goro Kondo]

I'm guessing GR paid through the nose for that licence

[Chosen]

Did the books for higher levels ever come out?

[Kultra_DM]

That´s a good question, it interests me too.

[Dave ST]

So far, no.  Set 2 has yet to be released.

[jameson (ST)]

Dragon Age Set 2 Playtest Press Release

[Chosen]

Why can't they publish it now?  Is the design not finished, do they have some restriction keeping them from releasing it, did Dave threaten their lives if they rushed it out?

[Dave ST]

Simply put, it's because everyone is getting pissed off at GR.  Set two is quickly escalating into the Pen and Paper Duke Nukem: Forever.  They keep announcing it, talking about it, tossing little tid-bits about it to the players on the forums and not actually delivering anything.

They noticed that the entire project was quickly entering a risk of losing it's entire fan-base because the forums and those who love the game were all in agreement that they didn't need Set 2 (or 3, or 4) since with Set 1 all the info on the game was right there for them to just make their rules.

Once people said 'Screw you, we're sick of waiting' they decided to 'do us a favor' and open the game up to 'beta testing'.  This appeases the geeks who are now all excited about it and are blind to the fact that GR only did it to save their profit margin, not because they were apologetic over their failure to produce something other than empty promises.

[Kultra_DM]

Well, it´s sad to see that analogy die, but Duke Nukem Forever will actually come out >_> (2K Games producing, Gearbox development same team that made Borderlands)

In other news, Hobby production companies are greedy, more at eleven.

[Chosen]

I saw that the Set 2, detailing levels 6-10, is finally set to be released in May.  Set 3 will contain levels 11-20.  They said that Set 3 will be out by the end of the year, but considering the timeline so far I wouldn't bet on that.

[Travis Kincaid]

Where did you see this?

The most recent GR press release to mention Dragon age was from back in January and didn't give any specific dates.  This is standard practice for Green Ronin, no dates until they know they can hit it, especially with licensed products since the approval process can delay things.  I've included an excerpt from that release below, and I would strongly suggest that you ignore any dates you have seen (or at least take them with a large grain of salt), especially from Amazon.

Quote:

Now let's go from four color superheroes to dark fantasy with Dragon Age. This is our RPG that ties in to BioWare's terrific video game franchise of the same name. Last year we released Set 1 (an introductory boxed set that covers characters level 1-5), the GM's Kit (a hardback screen and adventure), and Blood in Ferelden (a collection of scenarios). We also did an open mechanics playtest for Set 2, which covers levels 6-10. We know people are hungry for Set 2 and it is indeed on the way. We are trying to release it shortly after the debut of the Dragon Age 2 computer game, so we can take advantage of the new wave of DA enthusiasm. We'll support that with another adventure collection called The Deep Roads. We're also planning a Quick Start for Free RPG Day to give gamers an easy way to check out what Dragon Age has to offer.

The biggest news for Dragon Age is that we've decided to re-work our release schedule for the game somewhat. We had originally planned to make the game four boxed sets that each covered 5 levels of play. We are keenly aware, however, that the arrival of Set 2 has taken too long so we've decided to accelerate the pace. Set 3 will now provide the rules for levels 11-20, so all the core material can get out to you faster. Even better, we are trying to get Set 3 out this year.

[Chosen]

The end of what you quoted says that want to release Set 3 by the end of the year.  It also says that Set 2 should be released shortly after DA2.  Jeff Tidball, the Dragon Age RPG developer, said on Green Ronin's forum that they are aiming to have the products in stores in May with the PDFs out earlier in this thead:

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=93456#p93456

[Travis Kincaid]

I've no doubt they'll try their hardest but to give you an idea, the DC Heroes and Villains Volume 1 was originally slated for a late Fall 2010 release.  Due to delays on the DC end of things with artwork and approvals that product is not yet released.  GR is a good company, and they put out quality products, but with their size, and the number of licensed products they run, firm release dates are not something you'll ever get.

[Chosen]

I get that.  I just figured that people that have followed the thread may be interested in the intended release date.  Knowing what the company hopes to do is better than no idea.

Green Ronin Publishing plans to release the second part of the Dragon Age RPG in May. This will be the second boxed set for the game (for the first set releases, see “Dragon Age”).

Dragon Age: Set 2 starts where Set 1 finished, by providing all of the rules needed to develop characters through level 10. It includes rules for Grey Wardens, new role-playing and exploration stunts, 40 new spells, and expanded information about the game world.

The boxed set will include two full-color 80 page books: a “Player’s Guide” and a “Game Master’s Guide.” Two heavy-duty reference cards and a poster map of the game world are also included.

Dragon Age: Set 2 was written by Chris Pramas, Jeff Tidball, Steve Kenson, and T.S. Luikart. It will have a suggested retail price of $39.95.