Yet even more thoughts on Dragon Age

Thanks again to Banesfinger for being an inspirational muse. Folks who have stopped by here over the years probably have realized that I like settings that are both just a little off kilter from the norm and morally gray like Winterweir for Savage Worlds.
I’m not going to go into too much detail on the setting. There’s plenty stuff out there on the Internet like the Dragon Age Wiki, Batgirll III on the Green Ronin Forums put together a really nice document containing the Codex entries from the video game and psychodrive (also at Green Ronin’s Forum) made a nice little intro doc for new players. So there’s plenty of the fluff out there and available for folks to make their own calls whether it is a setting for them.
I like this setting. It’s both familiar and new at the same time. Players are accustomed to the usual load out of elves, dwarves, humans and a variety of beasties. Some reviewers have compared Thedas to Warhammer Fantasy’s Old World and to be honest it’s been years since I even looked at anything by Games Workshop. I did move a dusty box of Imperial Marines a couple of months ago if that counts for anything. Since I don’t remember that much or really care about GW’s stuff, I’m just going to look at Thedas on its own. Like I said before it has many tropes common to fantasy RPG’s with a few changes. Clerics don’t magically heal or cast any spells at all. Mages are kept on short leash the Chantry (the Church) and hunted down by Templars if the go off the reservation. Elves aren’t these noble, near immortal magical wonders (at least not any more). They’ve been reduced to second class citizens or wanderers struggling to regain their past glory. The dwarves take time between drinking and Machiavellian politics to defend their home against continuous Darkspawn incursions. And they live by a strict caste system. No upward mobility for you. And the humans are well humans with all their failings and strengths.
Now here’s the important question with all the fluff out there do you really need the Dragon Age RPG to play in Thedas? No not at all. Pretty much what ever your game of choice you could port it over. Personally, I think the Action Game Engine (or AGE, the system designed by Green Ronin for DA) stands fine on its own. Combats should be fun and dynamic. No piles of hit points standing toe to toe grinding it out. I like it as a rules light-to-medium system and if I run DA, I’ll probably use it. But here’s some thoughts for those of you thinking of converting.
Obviously, Pathfinder/d20 will be one of those systems that folks will want to use. Enjoy. to capture the setting’s magic feel you’re going to have pretty much re-write all on the classes and write some up from scratch. Remembers, clerics don’t cast spells, There aren’t any Paladins or Monks. Rangers are much different. There aren’t any Druids. There are so many monsters for d20, you could just file off some serials numbers and have a hoard of Darkspawn ready to go.
Another idea would be to use Gurps or Hero. Both those systems have the crunchy bits and the flexibility to build the world and keep pretty much the feel of the setting. Cortex could be OK but you’re stuck coming up with a decent magic system and having to build it from the ground up.
And you knew that I could write this post without mentioning Savage Worlds. This would be a fairly easy translation just by making up some new Edges and Arcane Backgrounds. It’s almost a no brainer.
This may be the video game talking but while I have enjoyed the hacking, slashing, looting and questing. The real entertainment from the game and what really gives it a visceral feel is all of the moral decisions your character faces. And sometimes there may not be a clearly right/good option. This is something you can interject into your own game no matter the genre or rules. But for Dragon Age: Origins this plays a key part in the story and the mood. There’s nothing like this in AGE. There’s not even an alignment type system. (Yes, I know it’s an introductory game and something like that might confuse the n00bs.) This morning I was thinking about this and I started reminiscing about one of old favorite games, Pendragon, and I remembered the Vices/Virtues system for that. Chances are I’ll probably house rule something like that into the system. But that’s a post for later.
Overall, Thedas is a setting that I actually look forward to either playing or running as a table top RPG. The things to focus on are the things that make the video game popular (IMHO) and that’s having the characters face difficult moral choices and then having to live with the consequences. If you don’t do that it’ll just be another fantasy setting amongst the plethora that is already available.