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Based on the popular computer game from Bioware, Dragon Age: Origins, Green Ronin Publishing’s Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying – Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5 has proven to be a popular game, living up to its claims of delivering fast, simple play combined with a sense of fun. One of the best aspects about the game is its use of Stunt Points that the players generate with good dice rolls and then spend to enhance their characters’ attacks, whether melee, missile, or magical, or to do something dynamic of their own devising. To date, I have reviewed or played through all that is currently available for the game and all of it has adhered to the claims made for it.
Coming as a thirty-two page, black and white booklet, the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide sets out to do three things. Introduce the setting, introduce the rules, and provide enough material to get people involved in a game. In terms of introducing the setting, the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide does not actually have to do a great deal as it assumes that most people coming to it will have played the computer game. Yet there is enough setting material in the book, basically a description of the Kingdom of Ferelden along with some implied details in the scenario, such as everyone’s treatment of “Knife-Ears” or Elves, to suggest that the setting is not just another fantasy kingdom.
One thing that the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide is not designed to do is introduce novices to the hobby, or at least novice GMs. Some experience is expected, and if the reader wants more information about roleplaying and how to roleplay, it suggests that he visit the Wikipedia page devoted to the subject. That said, anyone with experience as a GM or a player will be able to pick up this booklet and with some preparation – mostly the photocopying of various character and reference sheets, and run the included adventure, either for experienced players or novices.
The rules given in the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide are a condensed version of the “age” or “adventure game engine” system. These focus very much on what a character can do and how he can do it, and then mostly in combat. In this they support the scenario, which itself includes plenty of tasks and tests that the characters have to undertake. None of them are particularly daunting terms of the rules, which goes towards making the scenario easier to read.
The scenario, “An Arl’s Ransom,” takes up roughly half of the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide. Designed to be played by four players and a GM in about four hours – the guidelines suggest how to cut it down to half of that time – it is supported by five pre-generated investigators. They consist of a single Mage, two Rogues (one with the Contacts Talent, the other with the Thievery Talent), and two Warriors (one with the Archery and Weapon and Shield Talents, the other with the Dual Weapons and Two-Handed Weapons Talents). A nice touch is that each of the characters comes with a male and a female name, allowing each player to choose the gender of his character. It should be noted that the only non-Human character is a Dwarf Warrior. Whilst playing a species that are second class citizens like the Elves or pariahs such as unlicensed or apostate mages is entirely possible within the setting, it is understandably not within the scope of the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide.
The scenario is relatively simple and straightforward. With his stead about to be attacked by Darkspawn, Arl Voychek Neruda does not have the manpower to spare to escort his children home. He resorts to hiring mercenaries – or rather, the player characters – to accompany his steward to meet them and bring them back home safely. This being a scenario, what would otherwise be an easy task is fraught with danger, with the party subject to attacks by Darkspawn and their way hindered by difficult terrain. Neither of these though, are the real threat at the heart of “An Arl’s Ransom.” In keeping with the grim and perilous nature of the RPG’s setting and its asking the player characters to act on difficult questions, the scenario presents them with a moral quandary. To be fair in this case, the quandary is not a difficult one – it all depends upon how mercenary the players want their characters to be. Nevertheless, for a demonstration scenario and a beginning scenario, it is adequate for the purpose.
Physically, the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide is well presented. The writing is clear and the artwork is excellent, although it would doubtless look better in colour. What colour there is, on the inside of the front and back covers, is used to good effect, first for a map of Ferelden and second to advertise the game’s various products. If there is an issue to the scenario it is that it does not suggest Experience Point awards for the characters for the completing the adventure.
Of course, if you happen to already run or play Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying – Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, then you are going to want to pick up a copy of the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide. It provides a set of ready-to-play characters and a simple, but involving scenario, one that could easily be made more challenging for experienced characters or be used to start a campaign. To that end it actually suggests where the characters can go to get to their next adventure, either in Dragon Age: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying – Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5 or Blood in Ferelden.
Then again, if you have played the computer game and are interested in exploring the world of Theda, then the Dragon Age Quickstart Guide is an excellent place to start. It is also a useful package with which to introduce both the setting and the game to novice players too.
