RPG Review: Dragon Age Boxed Set 1 - Part 3: Magic

What You Get

Dragon Age gives a bit of edginess to the magic-users. People coming from Dungeons and Dragons will need to be aware of a few things before picking up the game.

The first thing to be aware of is that, while Dragon Age is a class-based system like D&D (and its derivative works), Dragon Age players only have one class option, Mage, if they wish to play a spell caster; there is no spell casting Cleric/Priest class. Though this may seem an oversight, it really is not. The campaign background consists of one deity that exists, known as “The Maker”, who struck down those who committed a sin equivalent to Eve eating the Apple of Eden in ancient history, and cursed them into Darkspawn, evil creatures of darkness including demons and the undead. This premise, right from the start, sets up magic as a dark force to be controlled at best but ideally eliminated. As a result, in this mythos, a priest would really just be a fighter going forth to kill and destroy all magic. To further this edginess and tie in with this background, magic wielding characters are set up as either renegades or regulated. (I will visit the classes a bit more in my next post about Character Creation).

The second thing to be aware of, which ties in nicely in with this whole dark-magic-centered concept, is the fact that anyone that casts spells is subject to demonic possession. To further the paranoia around this, there are a number of references to this throughout both rulebooks, including mechanical bonuses and class features centered on fighting such possession off.

The third thing to realize is that the Vancian spell paradigm in which a mage character randomly memorizes spells from spell books, casts them without fail, and rememorizes more when there is a break in the action does not exist in Dragon Age. Instead, Dragon Age mages learn spells more like skills and possess a set number of mana points they can use to power a spell again and again until they run out. Spells are not assumed to be cast successfully in Dragon Age; an Ability Test is required just to manifest a spell. If the roll is a failure, the mana points are spent but no spell manifests. This mechanic unifies it with combat mechanics in that the Dragon Die can be used to create stunts as I mentioned in my previous post. While spells in Dragon Age, like Vancian systems, can be prevented from manifesting or affecting a target if the target makes a successful Ability Test, armor does not negate spell casting ability; it merely makes the Ability Test required to cast spells more difficult. 

My Take

First off, let me say the lack of a Cleric/Priest is a pretty solid one. The strategic role of that class can be filled with a fighter for combat or a mage for healing as well as any other miraculous effects. The ability of spellcasters to wear armor all but finishes off the need for the class. The three classes with only one magic-wielding class paradigm is pretty clean in terms of forcing the player to choose a strategic role. The more dramatic role of the “faithful” adventurer usually captured by a cleric/priest can be captured by a regulated mage; the role of a “badass” mage can be captured by a renegade mage. I will cover other dramatic aspects of this three-class-system in my entry about Character Creation.

Second, NOWHERE in either of the two books provided in the product does it describe the conditions, percentile chance, or any other mechanics of how and when such a cool thing as demonic possession would happen to a spell caster.  There is no Table of Contents to help find it (as mentioned in my previous installment, if I may beat a dead horse), and there is nothing in the Glossary or Index to lead you to it. There are mentions that it can happen in the Player’s Guide in several places (the campaign description "Welcome to Ferelden", the Magic section, and in the background text for the Character Creation section) but ABSOLUTELY NOTHING ABOUT IT IN THE GAME MASTER’S GUIDE! 

...What? Really? Nothing in the Game Master’s Guide? You are waiting for a player to buy another source book for such details for such a fundamental concept to the game world? Knowing this, as a player, means to me that the threat of possession can be completely blown off and that I can cast spells with impunity at least until 6^th level, when the next boxed set kicks in or my director buys another boxed set or resource that contains these rules. Until then, I am pretty sure that if I were forced to play this game (see my previous post for what it would take to do so) I would be playing a renegade mage character every time, and you can be darn sure I am going to be going around mind-blasting people, blowing up villages, and just making non-magical characters’ lives hell! BOO YAH! Then I will retire at fifth level, a single point shy of sixth, and live a nice quiet life outside a nice, secluded Dalian Elven village in peace...

...Ahem...

...O. K., I'm back..

Third, I can see why they chose a non-Vancian paradigm, especially since I was never fond of it anyway. I can also see that the designers wanted to unify combat and spell casting with Ability Tests and make them both more dramatic with a single mechanic e.g. stunt points. I even see the need for mana points to keep mages on a leash so they don’t go around laying siege to the entire continent. Unfortunately, the addition of the Ability Test to cast a spell seems to make a being mage casting a powerful spell less exciting, regardless of whether I just flame-blasted a poor little street urchin who tried to pick my pocket or froze an approaching dragon with nothing but my gaze, because the one thing that separates my character from the others and makes him special also makes him less dependable.

Conclusion

If you don’t like a cleric-less game, you might wish to forgo this game and play something else. Likewise, if you don’t like making a roll just to have your character successfully cast a spell, you may want to pass on this game, as the primary game mechanic of stunts rests on it. Also, if you don’t like the stunt point mechanic you may want to pass on it anyway. 

Now, if you are willing to jump in whole hog and embrace these paradigms, I think it will be very satisfying in terms of running a magical character in this campaign. If you like the game world but want to play with D&D or a similar system, just eliminate the Cleric/Priest class, open cleric spells up to mages, and let everyone wear armor. 

..Oh, one last thing. Check out the picture of the mage above. That is waiting for you(r) preteen and teenaged kids on page 27 if you buy this set! Looks a LOT more palatable than those old pictures from the Elmore days, no? Only Aleena the Cleric could hold a candle to her, and she wasn't wearing a top like THAT! Wow. 

Aleena The Cleric 

What is HiBRiD^TM about THIS?

Let’s be real. I generallt don't play clerics, as I think as a class it is kind of wishy-washy and designed for min-maxers.  Many times, the priest is played by someone who wants to hedge their bets because they can’t commit to a role. Other times, a player running a cleric/priest wants to cast spells without getting slaughtered by a kobold sneezing on his character, without having to give up wearing armor, and/or without suffering the multiclass penalties for being able to fight and sling mana. Still, other times, clerics/preists are played by someone who aesthetically prefers those spells (I always loved the priest/cleric necromancy spells as well as blade barrier!) or someone who wants to be obnoxious and push some faith on all who come within range (PC and NPC alike) as an attempt to steal the spotlight or (more benevolently) roleplay a unique character. The removal of the class altogether is very HiBRiD^TM, as it simplifies the character concept of the magic user without removing depth which can be easily supplied through other means (again, see my next entry on Character Creation for more on this). Additionally, the elimination of the class gives the campaign a very Black Company (by Glen Cook...check it out) feel that aesthetically pleases my HiBRiD^TM sensibilities.

The whole concept of demonic possession is always fun. Always. While the whole world of Cthulu bores me to tears (almost as much as Dr. Who), playing in any game where the Infernal can mess my character up is AWESOME! The whole demonic possession/dark paradigm of magic is very HiBRiD^TM! It adds a dark dimension that makes magic interesting and makes me want to play in this world (albeit with the HiBRiD^TM system!). The lack of a critical failure system neutralizes some of this great potential, however and prevents it from being scary as it possibly could be. Imagine: Critical Fail on the Ability Test...instant possession...demon possessing PC mage’s body starts mercilessly slaying all the good guys who are already fighting the Darkspawn minions...Nice!

Finally, while the ability to wear armor while casting a spell is totally HiBRiD^TM, the use of an Ability Test just to successfully cast a spell is totally not HiBRiD^TM. When my character swings a sword, I know it is swung; I am just waiting to see the consequences of that swing. When my Dragon Age mage casts a spell, however, it feels like I am rolling just to see if my character can pull his sword out of its scabbard; two more rolls are still required to determine the consequences of that spell if damage is inflicted. HiBRiD^TM aspects, whether they are mentalic, kinetic, correspondent etc., require no die roll simply to manifest the ability, just like no die roll is required just to pull a blade from its scabbard. It just happens. Only one roll is used to determine how it affects the target. This makes HiBRiD^TM (and Vancian systems, for that matter) faster, more empowering for the player, more exciting, and ultimately...more HiBRiD. 

RPG Review: Dragon Age Boxed Set 1 - Part 2: Mechanik

What You Get

Dragon Age uses a simple, unified mechanic it refers to as the Adventure Gaming Engine, or “a.g.e.”, that centers around a dice roll called an Ability Test. To perform this test, the player rolls the three six-sided dice and adds one of 8 Ability scores as well as a modifier known as a Focus. If the number overcomes a target number, the Ability Test is a success.

To make it more crunchy and more “adventury”, the system uses the colors of the dice in a novel way. Two of the dice are one color, the third is of a different color. The die of a different color is referred to as a “Dragon Die”, and is used in two ways.

The first way the “Dragon Die” mechanic is used is to resolve ties. In cases where two characters' actions directly oppose one another, the two players each perform an opposed Ability Test to determine which one succeeds. Each player makes an Ability Test, with the player rolling the higher result considered the winner. In the case of a tie, the Dragon Die is used to determine the winner, with the person rolling the higher number on the Dragon Die winning.

The second way the “Dragon Die” mechanic is used is to create a dramatic result to some extent. Whenever any two of the three dice thrown for an Ability Test match (e. g. doubles are thrown), then the player is given a number of “stunt points” equal to the number showing on the “Dragon Die”. The player can then spend these points to immediately affect the results of the action in a mechanistic way as determined by one of two standard charts that lists special effects and the cost of each stunt in stunt points. One of the charts is used to modify combat results, and enables such things as apply damage to multiple targets, negate armor, or double damage. The second chart is used for spell casting and enables the player to alter the mechanics in a number of ways, such as causing extra damage, intimidating an opponent, or chaining two spells together in rapid succession. The rules say that monsters have their own charts and there are stunts specific to each class the players can choose from as well.

My Take

The mechanic is clever, but has two idiosyncrasies.

The first quirk is in terms of ties. If two characters tie, then they look at the Dragon Die to determine the winner. What if the Dragon Dice of the two players is a tie. The game then reverts to whoever has the higher Ability. What if the abilities are the same as well? The rules say nothing what to do in that case. Good luck, Game Masters! Why not just say defender wins, attacker wins, or the tie remains until it can be resolved the next round?

The second quirk is in terms of critical results. By my reckoning, this system gives roughly a 44% chance or greater of getting a critical success and a 0% chance of getting a critical failure. I have no problem with such a high percentage chance at a critical success, that as it is a design decision. But, considering the system uses a 3d6 bell-curve distribution which tends to centralize results, I find it odd that the designers would just completely disrupt the centralized result functionality by adding the second mechanic.

The system appears like it was designed by those who firmly stand in the camp of bell curve-based dice statistics and wanted to use them instead of a d20 for their home-grown basic Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

For whatever reason, they chose to add on the Dragon Die mechanic, which completely disrupts the central tendency mechanism of the underlying mechanic by shifting the probability of good results way to the positive side.

• Maybe they did it because they used it as a Dungeons and Dragons house rule and wanted to use it as a marketable gimmick (along with all their other house rules they have been playing with since 1983 that they wanted to market).
• Maybe one or more of the designers had some egocentric need to feel clever about themselves for creating something “novel”.
• Maybe the marketing team decided they had to differentiate themselves from the multitudes of other RPGs out there or didn't want to be limited by the SRD.
• Maybe the designers and marketers got together and just threw it together to capture some of the money from the crossover fans of the video game that wanted to bring that experience to the table top. This would be in line with the lack of a critical failure mechanic and the completely contradictory mechanics being mashed together.

Whatever the reason, the mechanics feel like a bunch of home rules put together from a designer's point of view. The lack of a clean tie-resolution mechanic seems like they missed one, however, like they forgot to add it from their play-test notes.

Conclusion

All of this being said, from a player's point of view, the mechanic is smooth, easy to learn, and unified even with the crunchiness. Once players have memorized the stunt point charts, the game will flow much more smoothly, and that will come with experience. It would be great for kids, as they have no real chance of critical failures, a ridiculously high chance of bonuses to their Ability Tests. Players and Game Masters who like to reflect their heroism through mechanics will like the system, while more free-form players will be annoyed or just laugh at it after the game is over.

From a more mechanics-based Game Master's point of view, you and your group could add a bunch of stunts as house rules to make it more individualized, and will need to add some sort of simplified tie-resolution mechanic. Those who prefer to run more free-form games probably would be better off running something else....

What is HiBRiD About This?

I liken this to the house rules draft I wrote before I even started on HiBRiD 1.0 in 1994. In that 32 page document, I took all the stuff I did in our home games, mashed it together and unified it enough to make it playable and easily readable. This system feels the same way. Rather than refining it, as I have, however, it seems like they took it to an editor, cleaned it up best they could, tagged it on to a successful game franchise and let it rip!

As many of you know, I also despise the standard distribution curve and any mechanic that uses it. It aesthetically makes me vomit a little bit every time I see it. It is the ONLY thing wrong with FUDGE and FATE. This squarely puts it in the non-HiBRID camp from a mechanics point of view. Also, the crunchiness and disproportionately high chance of a critical success without the chance of a critical failure also makes it not HiBRiD at all!

Little things I also can't stand:

• The use of the term “Ability Test”. What, are we filling in Scantron sheets? I think the use of the word “ability” is more accurate than its use in Dungeons and Dragons, but the word “Test” kind of muddies it. I still think the HiBRiD term “Task Roll” is better.

• The use of the term “Dragon Die”. It sounds like a cheesy, lame, plasticky gimmick. I know they need to call it something, but “Drama Die”, “Exploding Die”, and many, many, many much better terms were already taken and the marketing people obviously stepped in and overrode the true roleplayers that had any sense of style. It's too late to change it however; the “Dragon Die” is already cast! (Had to take the shot at that pun...). I can totally see the term catching on in gaming groups, as at least it gives players a handle to grab onto when describing it during play (and reviews like this one).

I will honestly never play this game. The only way it could possibly happen would be the following scenario:

• I am trapped in a small hometown like where I grew up due to a job that allows me to support my family here in Illinois...

• ...The only roleplaying group within a 3 county radius asked me to play it when my family was away in Europe for two weeks doing something Disneylike...
• ...the group refused to play HiBRID because their little xenophobic closed minds couldn't handle it... 
   
• ...I was stuck with no one else to play with...

I would play with the system but shred the Dragon Die. I would have double 1's represent a Critical Fail, double 6s be a Critical Success, and overlay the Ite' Gamine Engine.The IGE would easily fit on top of this and I could use this system to ease xenophobic, small town, closed-minded geeks into HiBRiD, my dream game...  

Next Up: Magic....

An Addendum: On second thought, I would repurpose the Dragon Die and call it the Ite' Indicator. If the number on the Ite' Indicator was a 1 and one of the other dice was 1 it would be a Crit Fail. Likewise, if the Ite' Indicator indicated a six and one of the other two dice equaled six, it would be a Crit Success.

RPG Review: Dragon Age Boxed Set 1 - Part 1: Product Impression

I offered to do a quick review of the Dragon Age roleplaying game to a person I follow on Twitter, @Sorceror_Blob. These posts are dedicated to YOU, Sorceror_Blob!!!

A few caveats.  

First, computer RPGs are NOT RPGs. They are computer simulations. I do not play them as a general rule (Deus Ex would be the only exception because I could cheat in God mode and just enjoy the story) because I feel they limit me and they bore me. For the amount of time they would suck out of my life, I could do something more productive. Like talk to people I care about. Take care of my house. Put salicylic acid on my warts. Clean the dirt out from underneath my toenails. Hit myself in the head with a claw hammer. As a result, I have never played the Dragon Age electronic games. As a result =, I will not be comparing this game to that. I will review and critique it on the basis of its merits as a dice-roll-based tabletop roleplaying game.  

Second, if you have either played HiBRiD or read any of my ravings here, you know what you are going to get. If not, please understand that I love and appreciate cool mechanics but I prefer my games light on rules and heavy on fast action. I will have strong opinions, and will let you know them without holding back. I like what I like, I don't like what I don't like, and love discussing my opinions as well as your own and being talked out of mine! I love challenging the status quo and am willing to change my paradigm if given the proper argument. So, after you read this, let me have it! Challenge me! Ask me questions. Let's get together, drink some tea or Mountain Dew, and hash it out...

Finally, this is a review of  just the first boxed product, not the core book combining the different boxed rule sets, none of which I own.

So, without further delay. Let's get into this

What You Get

When you buy the Dragon Age Boxed Set, you get a box, 3 six-sided dice-two of one color and the third a separate color. (In my box, there are 2 black dice and one green die. All three dice have white dots.) The color of the dice matters due to the primary game mechanic, which I will get into in my next entry. They are plain and functional. You also get a map of Ferelden (the Game World), a glossy-covered, 64-page Player's Guide and a glossy covered, 64-page Game Master's Guide.

My Take on the Physical Product

Let me just start by saying I love boxed sets! I do! They have a special place in my heart. I cut my roleplaying teeth on the classic Red Box Basic Dungeons and Dragons with the Larry Elmore cover in 1983. I bought the 4e D&D boxed set even though I hated 4e (come to think of it, 3e and 3.5e created a massive negative pressure gradient too!) because it stirred up the nostalgia I felt just thinking of that set. I EVEN bought the Gamma World boxed set based on the horrible 4e mechanics.

While I was massively disappointed with those, the Dragon Age boxed set pleasantly surprised me. It covers character levels 1-5. a nod to the original beginner boxed set. It gives you all you need to get started playing a game. The products are solid and attractive. The art is stylish and definitely creates a mood. The colors are unified, the layout is organized. The fonts are of a good size and tables are clean. The prose is clear and concise, and should be easy for any player of 4th grade education or above to understand.  

On the downside, the editor made a few errors; the one that annoyed me on my first read-though of the Player's Guide and still annoys me every time I read it reads as follows: “Should a mage encounters such a demon...”. The lack of subject-verb agreement drives me NUTS! Also, just an other nitpick, there are no cover pages on the interior, no facing pages setting apart chapters, nor is there a table of contents. Really? No table of contents? There are glossaries and an index on the last two pages of both books, but upon attempting to look up 12 various random topics, they failed to contain the subjects I was looking for 3 of them in the Player's Guide and 4 in the Game Master's Guide. As a result of my background in the hard sciences, I am kind of a stickler for complete documentation. For most people, however, the provided tools should suffice.

Conclusion

Overall, I think the materials are professionally done and their level of quality are several notches above those of the boxed sets put out by Wizards of the Coast. The 29.95 list price on the box is definitely worth it if you are a collector, a fellow boxed set lover, or want a professional, well-put-together product from which to launch a roleplaying campaign. 

What is HiBRiD about THIS?

As an independent game designer/writer, the boxed materials are definitely the level of quality I want to strive for, minus the tiny faux pas(s?) mentioned here. I am keeping them as an example of what I can do once I get the funds to produce a boxed set of my own.

Next Up...Mechanics...