Friday, July 17, 2015

Dragon Age Quickstart Rules

Until the Dragon Age hardcover comes, I downloaded the Dragon Age Quickstart Rules and have been looking them over. This looks like a solid introduction package, and after our Laughing Moon play test I want to give this a try.

I have seen some concerns this is a rules-light and customization-light system, and I want to see if those hold up in our testing. I like rules-light games, but they need to provide several methods of character customization. We shall see when the full book gets here.

I don't mind rules-light, and in fact, I like elegance and a nod towards simplicity in my role playing games. I don't like big, complex affairs where the intimate knowledge of hundreds of pages determines your success in the game. I believe gaming should be about character choices, and character builds are tools to determine how you approach those choices. Do you prefer to solve problems with an axe or do you solve them with magic?

That said, the quickstart rules are free, so it doesn't get any better than this. I am really interested in comparing our experience with this set of quickstart rules with the 5th Edition D&D Starter Set which we playtested last year.

I'm feeling a reluctance to play this RPG from some because it is based on a video game, as if that somehow makes this game a less-than fantasy game. Or that it isn't somehow Pathfinder or D&D, and that makes it less worthy of attention. Let me ask you this, would you play the following if they were pen-and-paper RPGs:

  • Mass Effect
  • Grand Theft Auto 5
  • The Witcher 3
  • Skyrim
  • Fallout 4

I would play those in a heartbeat, any one of them or all of them. I can enjoy and immerse myself in non-d20 fantasy worlds, and I look forward to diving into this and seeing a new world that I only experienced through a computer screen. I can't wait to see how players reacy and where they choose to go in the vast and interesting world within this game.

So on the docket is more Laughing Moon playtesting, and hopefully by next week we can give this a run and let you know how it goes.

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