Spell Trees Order – Player Resource

Thanks Craig Brown for whipping this one up for you guys. This will help you choose your spells more efficiently and quickly based on pre-requirements. Please note, this is designed with the older tiered books, which is why they are referred to additionally.

Storm Rider Specialisation

The Neverrans in Dragon Age are known for being dragon hunters. The following Specialization is my take on that fact.

This was going to initially be called a “Dragoon”, but as the potential for its further use opened up, Rob and I started seeing it as a “monster hunter” type generally. (The relationship between hunter and horse riding struck a chord of memory back to the delightful Team Ico game ‘Shadow of the Colossus’ – ed). It was then named Storm Rider, inspired by “storm chasers”, as in those who follow twisters – or the people driving in the opposite direction to the panicking people!

Staying on a monstrous creature: For each round to hold on, the character must pass a TN 15 Strength (Might) test. The monster can spend its minor action to increase the next TN required to TN 16, or a major action to make it TN 17. Otherwise, the monster can instead attempt an opposed Dexterity (Acrobatics) versus the player’s Strength (Might) as a major action, to shake them off.

Storm Rider

Class: Warrior

Requirements: Dexterity 4, Polearms Group and Mounted Combat (Journeyman)

Special: All Specialisation Talent degrees only come into effect while wielding a weapon from the Spear or Polearms group

Novice: As part of a charge action you can perform a Strength (Jumping) vs your target’s Dexterity (Acrobatics). If you succeed then your attack roll gains a +2 benefit and you gain +1d6 to damage to that attack. When on horseback, you must be adjacent to your target, it must be a monstrous creature and the Strength (Jumping) test is against it’s Defence, in effect, this latches the spear or polearm into the creature, making it unusable until removed with a minor action.

Journeyman: While wearing heavy mail or lighter, the Storm Rider reduces his armour penalty by 1, to a minimum of -1. In addition, they gain a +2 to Strength (Might) tests to remain on the back of a monstrous creature. If the spear or polearm remains stuck into the creature without being pulled out, the the Storm Rider gains a +4 to Strength (Might) tests to hold on.

Master: When performing the pierce armour stunt, the Storm Rider does penetrating damage instead. When on the back of a monstrous creature, this effect applies to all weapons, not just Spears or Polearms.

Fighting Fantasy To Age Conversion: Blacksand

The time came at last where I ran Blacksand for the group. Blacksand is another Fighting Fantasy book similar to Dungeoneer, in that it was made specifically for players to run for a group, as opposed to the usual FF staple of single player choose your own adventure style.

I have included my conversion notes, so hopefully they will be of some help to you.
Please note that you will also need a copy of ‘Blacksand’ to of course run it.

U.S. Blacksand

U.K. Blacksand

Here’s the conversion file. Best of luck!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sJdMciRL78MEympHNSc4FXQzv6XwjpV4Eq1J42-HGXU/edit?usp=sharing

Set 3 Specialisations

One thing I like about Dragon Age is the specialisations. Set 2 produced three for each class and Set 3 does the same thing. After taking the time to study the 9 new specializations from Set 3, I’ve come to several conclusions about each one. You will also see minor comments from the Editor who GMs our campaign.

Chevalier: By title and description this one is technically out of the question for any one not from Orlais. A master of mounted combat you’ll find that this skill set at Journeymen and Master will be mostly useless in a good majority of situations as mounted combat seems to have taken a back seat for a good majority of the modules, though your GM could easily modify them. (Editor – I feel it to be an oversight, after all, are you putting your party on horses all the time to make it fair? Even if you are, one of you will constantly have the spotlight “edge” so to speak. This would of course be perfect if the entire party were the same class…)

Force Mage: The force mage has a lot of power for only two spells, and while they may both work as extensions of the mind blast spell, when used in confined areas these spells can deal up to 2D6 points of damage. while in open areas this particular specialisation is not extremely damaging but it does grant the user some more breathing room when surrounded by foes. (Editor – The crux is their ability to pull foes towards a central point together, then follow that with area of effect spells. Control of swarms could buy a team some breathing room to stop them getting surrounded and picked apart by multiple small attacks.)

Guardian: As the name suggests, this specialisation is all about protecting your allies, however it has a very limited range which is to be expected as you are literally throwing yourself in the way of attacks.
The other powers give you immunity to stunts that would make you lose ground and allow you to get a single counter-attack once per turn. All these powers make the guardian a viable choice for any that wish to play as the defender.
(Editor – Seems like a good “meta” companion to the templar.)

Keeper: Again this is another one that I believe is out of the question for you unless you’re a Dalish elf mage.
The powers and spells for this specialisation are not overly powerful, but when used in conjunction they can cause continuous damage to any foe nearby. In a drawn out battle, these spells can make a difference so long as you’re willing (and able) to spend the mana to keep them going, plus as an extra bonus: if your journeyman spell kills anyone, you gain a D6 of  health back.
(Editor – Often you will find that developers will favour the less powerful or subtle in this system, just because of the disparity of balances between different types of groups. The smallest things can send this game’s mechanics into a breakage. I think what we also have to remember is DA as a world theme isn’t as highly powered as say D&D. Characters are on a more balanced and equal footing, closer to realism in fact. One example of this is the minor gains to be found from becoming a grey warden. It’s nothing flashy after all is it? But it is a certain something extra, which implies a minor edge to make the difference.)

Marksman: One sentence: ABOUT BLOODY TIME!
Rogues had to deal with a lot of messing around with back stabs, pierce armour etc, and all of this had to be done in melee due to the previous set’s specialisations favouring the assassin and duellist.
Now the marksman makes the ranged option viable, adding some extra punch and versatility to the powers the rogue has at their fingertips, as well as keeping them out of the action and more able to exploit the foes’ position and to be honest, I always preferred my party’s rogues in the computer games to be ranged, so seeing this as a choice pleases me greatly. (Editor – At least in ‘Dragon Age Origins’ it was always more viable to play ranged rogues, due to their annoying habit of running through laid traps if they were a melee spec. You also have the issue of template AOE spells causing friendly fire, which in the tabletop would of course be deadly.)

Ranger: This one I’m unsure of what to say, as its main power is calling upon local wildlife for a short duration or a single combat. Outside of combat this isn’t really a problem, but trying to use the power in combat will knock you out of usefulness to the party for a number of rounds, if not the entire combat. This achieves a small pay off comparatively.
The only benefit in my opinion is the journeyman power, but even then that is situational as you won’t always have initiated a surprise round on the first turn of combat.
(Editor – Yes, they put an extra bit of power in there to make the character a bit less passive. I must say though, this specialisation really needs some strong consideration to homebrew elements. For example, the animal summoning. Of course it should take a while and it’s a no brainer that anything they meet should be fair game to attempt control, but I also think that it lasting only 30 minutes would be a total pain. After all, consider the elements of travel and how time is burnt. I think it would be fairer to rule that the ranger can either release the beast, or control it for a day, with perhaps increasingly difficult tests to extend this per further day.)

Shadow: Compared to the ranger, the shadow feels like a more appropriate step forward and one I would definitely consider running with. Focusing on stealth and guile, this specialisation makes it hard for your foes to land blows and even generating decoys to force an automatic fail on the attack roll – plus for all you melee rogues, there is the benefit of the Shadow master power gaining a bonus to backstab damage equal to their cunning. So stack up on your sneaking abilities my stealthy cohorts, this one promises much, but can it deliver?
(Editor – Depends on whose hands it’s in. A player that can utilise this well will prosper. It also sounds like a proper rogue type behaviour – relying on smarts to survive.)

Shapeshifter: The animals in DA can be deadly and giving a player the ability to transform into a select set of these creatures can cause some interesting and complex situations.
Each level of this specialisation grants a spell that allows you to use the forms of animals and more monstrous creatures, though certain ones might need your GM’s approval. Whilst in these forms, the mage can’t perform any of their normal abilities, but they do have access to the powers the creature has. This grants some new tactical choices but can could generate a whole new bunch of problems as our own group found out when Pete transformed into a wolf, walked around a town and used his new bite attack… yeah that ended well.
(Editor – It’s a dog’s life for Pete isn’t it? But aside from our tragically comical player Pete, I’ve never really seen the point in having this specialisation. After you’ve spent the time changing into the thing, you may as well have stayed as a mage and performed all of those damaging and (most importantly as a distinction) situation changing spells. Yes you can become a bear, but who cares? The party aren’t scared of bears, so why should the NPCs? This system encourages player characters to be strong, (especially at higher levels) than most wild animals. Once your party are that strong you would need to throw multiples of a creature at them to make a difference, and of course the shapeshifter brings only one…)

Spirit Warrior: This specialisation is again situational as its powers work best against demons, denizens of the Fade and incorporeal creatures, and while you may think templars would jump at the chance to fight back against these creatures with power like this, you’ll find that the Chantry would more likely treat you like a possessed mage. This could be an interesting roleplay point of course, as the warrior would have to obtain a spirit that would be willing to cross over from the Fade, yet also sharing a motivation that is in line with the spirit’s own alignment, such as a warrior who wishes to see wrongs put right, and being vengeful in his undertakings being a good fit for a spirit of justice.
(Editor – This is absolute roleplay gold for a character. It helps define the crux of your PC, which is a handy thing to do sometimes, as you can get away too far from the concepts that you set out for. With that said of course, you also don’t want to feel stifled by the limited choices of spirits available, feeling pressured into fitting the bill and getting shoe-horned just for the sake of taking the specialisation. I think it’s better to let your character’s specialisations come about organically, based on revelations they have, people they meet and so on.)

Adventure Feedback for GMs

Perhaps one of the worst things for new and old game masters alike, is the lack of feedback you can get on all your hard work.  For game masters (GMs), new ones in particular, they can begin to question their own worth to the players.  This in turn leads to despair, then to fear of not being the best thing for the group, and then either the Dark Side or the end of the game…I’m pretty sure it’s the latter.

Regardless, simple steps can be taken to ensure the GM’s spirits are buoyed and the campaign is both rich and worthwhile to all with the likes of an Adventure Feedback Form.

This form can be given to willing players (in return for a little game experience points if need be) and ask at least 3 simple and short questions; What worked for you in this adventure?  What didn’t work for you in this adventure?  and What would you like to see in the future, any ideas or suggestions?  Then ask them to rate this adventure on a scale of 1 to 5.  If you make this a word doc form you print out for each player and hand out, perhaps at the bottom you could politely finish the form with, “thank you for your time, I will reward you with X experience points for helping me out” or some such.

I hope this helps both game masters and players alike.  Long may your adventures throughout Thedas continue…

But what do you think about such things?  Do you find you question yourself as a GM?  Do you think this feedback form idea will help?  Do you have ideas of your own to help resolve such concerns?

Please feel free to share your thoughts and leave a comment…

(Editor – Thanks Martin, I just made a video about this subject of GM uncertainty, you can find that below)

‘Tier 1’ Suggested Adventure Path (Levels 1-5)

A good many RPGs assume one of two things: The PCs have known each other for a long time and have been travelling together for almost as long, or the PCs just decide to adventure together on a permanent basis after coming together for a single mission.
A good way to get the PCs to stick together is to give them a patron to work for. In Dragon Age: Blood in Fereldan, the PCs will run into Bann Nicola Baranti but more on her part in this set-up later.

The first adventure you should consider running is ‘An Arl’s Ransom’ which can be found in the free PDF Quick Start Guide: http://grfiles.game-host.org/dragon_age_rpg/DragonAgeRPGQuickstartGuide.pdf
We moved on to “The Dalish Curse” next.
This sets up the PCs to at least arrive in Denerim where you can run a scaled down version of ‘A Fragile Web’ up to the point where the Party deal with the Chantry of the Stilled Tongue, as it is here the PCs meet Bann Nicola who proceeds to offer the Party a position in her household as representatives, with the Bann acting as their sponsor or patron. At this point you can feel free to run the remaining adventures as you see fit to match your group’s Levels in game. From there, you can run the adventures by their recommended level order. See the recent Oracle post: https://dragonageoracle.wordpress.com/2014/07/12/welcome-to-dragon-age-explore-the-adventures/ containing a list of all the adventures, both Official and fan made. After all of that, you can return to and finish ‘A Fragile Web’ hopefully with your players being Level 5 if not bordering on 6.

(Editorial Note: Thanks Lory, and I would like to add as I GM’d this campaign, that this plan serves to build a proper relationship up between the Bann and the party, rather than it simply being over and done with in one mission. This makes the twist connected to her all the more meaningful and shocking to the players!
Also bear in mind that the new collected edition book (all three sets rules together) will contain a new and different mission to the Dalish Curse, so this will factor into your tier 1 plans mentioned above as it becomes available. The hope is that Green Ronin will also make this adventure available separately, at the very least as a PDF release – but I know for a fact that they are making internal enquiries about doing that very thing.)

Flashback Adventures

I recommended running lower-level adventures, that your group had surpassed in level, as flashback adventures, and some of you were left scratching your heads no doubt.
Nice idea Martin, just how the flames do I do that exactly? Well, bare with me and I’ll tell you.

First, set the scene of how this flashback adventure begins. If you’re Carac and Tanadil in Robert Freemantle’s game, I bet you’re in the pub drinking and bragging to anyone who’ll listen. I’m also willing to bet you’ll exaggerate your prowess and victories in the past. Huh, it’s almost like meeting Varic at the very beginning of Dragon Age 2…

“It all started when…”

Now then, you’ll need each of your player characters re-adjusted back to the level of the adventure, either exactly if you keep records of these things, or as best as you can remember (even the most honest of storytellers exaggerate a little), or your players can exaggerate a lot. Ask your players if they wish to be honest about regaling others with this tale or exaggerate.

Please note that for flashback adventures, your players will get experience points as usual. However, if players choose to exaggerate, you can simply adjust down a jot the experience for each encounter. So a hard encounter will only net them 200xp for an exaggerated account and an easy encounter nothing at all. (See below for more ideas on this).

The more your players wish to exaggerate their past tales, the less experience they’ll net for each encounter, so don’t forget to clue your players in as to this fact before they portray themselves as god-like in their re-telling of adventures.

Now all you (dear GM) have to do is run the adventure, and you (dear player, if reading this) must simply enjoy…

(Editor – Nice idea Martin, and I would add to that to make sure you come back to the place where the tale is being told for NPC reactions to plot points, or interesting story outcomes. Also, this degree of exaggeration could be used to have players describe what they saw in the places they went to, therefore creating their own level of difficulty. All of that said, adjusting an outdated module to be a harder experience is a skill in and of itself, and certainly an idea to likewise consider. Both would play out differently, thus giving you options for what you want to run).

Give it a go and be sure to comment how you got on.

Fighting Fantasy Conversion ‘Dungeoneer’ Part 2

I covered the hunt for Xorton Throg as found in the book ‘Dungeoneer’ by the always eminent Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. The link for part 1 – https://dragonageoracle.wordpress.com/2013/08/14/fighting-fantasy-to-age-conversion-dungeoneer-part-1/

But now I’ve managed to do away with the handwritten copy pages (yeah, sorry about that, but they were GM notes), and I have gotten Part 2 down on a nice file for you instead.

You can access it here – https://docs.google.com/document/d/1y18VG3pZ-6P8hAUGcVzMjYn7f8SvGSbmYTaNNt8_qGg/edit

With the incredible lack of material around for Dragon Age, every little helps. ‘Blacksand’ too will be forthcoming.

Videogame to Tabletop: Campaign Journal 2

With this series I’m continuing to chronicle my Dragon Age RPG conversion of the Origins storyline.  This is a recap of our second session of that storyline.  Unfortunately, the game was cut short due to a small fire breaking out in my bathroom (everyone is okay).  Here is a link to part 1 of the series.   We pick up our recap in the Korkari Wilds…

Campaign Journal 2

Having defeated the darkspawn and collected their blood, the party next wanted to see if they could find their horses.  Some tracking and searching led them to the corpse of one of the horses, it seemed to have been eaten by blight wolves.  The wounds were fresh enough to  scare party into thinking the pack of wolves may be nearby, so they marched on deep within the Wilds. While searching for the horses, the party’s rogue spotted what looked like a small tower or ruin off in the distance, and they figured that would be as good a place as any to search.

Game bit:  The horses were never meant to be found, they were spooked and for me that was the last of that.  They insisted on finding them, so I indulged them in some rolling for searching. This led to high rolls and the opportunity to have them find the ruins.

They arrived at the ruins, and started searching and looking around.  The Avvarian caught something from the corner of his eye, he said it looked like a pony sized spider that stopped to look at them and quickly went into the trees and out of sight.  The party decided to remain vigilant, but weren’t going to go searching for spiders, as they had a job to do.  They found a trap door and a set of stairs that went down into the ground, so the mage lit a small light in his hand and down they went.

Game bit:  The spider was my way of introducing Morrigan, she knew that they were here and was watching them.

Videogame to Tabletop: Campaign Journal 1

So I’ve decided that my Dragon Age campaign will switch to following the story line (albeit a bit altered) of the videogame.  My 5 players are level 5, and we’ve gone through most of the published adventures, which I believe springboard nicely into getting noticed by the Grey Wardens.  I wanted to chronicle my conversion of the video game unto the tabletop, so I’m going to do it here at the Dragon Age Oracle, the web’s best place for Dragon Age content outside of Green Ronin’s site.

I’ll pick up the story after finishing the adventure included in Set 2, “The Autumn Falls”.  There, they caught the attention of the Nevarran Grey Warden Commander, who instructed them to go to Ostagar and meet The Ferelden Commander, Duncan.  Behind the scenes, Duncan already knew about this group of people because they had helped stop a Darkspawn assault on the Avvarian village of Redhold, and had defeated a Desire Demon in Denerim.  Duncan was waiting.  The party’s journey towards their fate would begin in the port city of Amaranthine, where the ship bringing them from Nevarra back to Ferelden docked….

Campaign Journal 1