Dragon Age Player's Guide.pdf

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D a r k F a n t a s y R o l e p l a y in g

Introduction

Welcome to Dragon Age, a roleplaying

game of dark fantasy adventure. In

Dragon Age you and your friends take

on the personas of warriors, mages, and rogues in the

land of Thedas and try to make your names by over-

coming sinister foes and deadly challenges. You may

face down one of the vile darkspawn in ancient dwar-

ven ruins, engage in a duel of wits with an Orlesian

noble, or uncover the secrets of the Fade. You may win

renown or you may die alone in the trackless wilder-

ness. Whatever your fate, your story is your own to

tell. In Dragon Age you make the choices and try to

survive the consequences.

What Is a Role-

This is Dragon Age!

ers. Each player makes a character and roleplays him or

her in the ensuing adventures.

If you don’t grasp how this works, don’t worry. Keep

reading and by the time you inish the introduction,

you should understand the basics of tabletop roleplay-

ing and the Dragon Age RPG .

The game is set in the land of Thedas and the nation of

Ferelden. You’ll learn more about the setting in c h A P -

t e r 1: w e l c o m e t o f e r e l d e n .

playing Game?

Dragon Age is what’s known as a tabletop roleplaying

game, so named because you usually play while sitting

around a table with your friends. The action is similar

to computer roleplaying games. You will play a charac-

ter who goes on exciting and dangerous adventures in

a fantasy world. The difference is that you do it all with

your imagination instead of a computer. One person

must be the Game Master (GM). The GM presents the

story and acts a referee. Those remaining are the play-

What’s In the Box?

The Dragon Age RPG comes in a series of boxed sets.

This is Set 1 and it contains a Player’s Guide (the book

you hold in your hands), a Game Master’s Guide, a post-

er map of the nation of Ferelden, and three 6-sided dice

(often referred to as 3d6). This is all you need to get

started with the game.

Getting Started

The irst thing you need is a group of friends to play with,

and one of you must take on the role of Game Master, or

GM. While you can play with as small a group as one

GM and one player, the game works best with one GM

and three to ive players. It is possible to play with more

players, but that can slow down the pace of the game.

The GM has a key position, so try to make sure that he

or she really wants the job. Running a game is fun, but

it’s a different experience than playing. Book 2 of this set,

the Game Master’s Guide, explains the GM’s role in detail.

The GM (and only the GM) should read that book.

Once you’ve settled on a GM, everyone else needs to

make characters, known as PCs or Player Characters. In

Dragon Age your character has the potential to become a

great hero of Thedas, but begins as just another hungry

adventurer scrabbling for glory. You do not get to start

play as a knight or a grey warden. Those are positions

that must be earned, and that’s what playing the game

is all about.

Your character is your primary responsibility as a play-

er in an RPG. This is your alter ego in the game world.

Over the course of many game sessions, your character

will grow and change, but every hero needs a starting

point. That is exactly what c h A P t e r 2: c h A r A c t e r c r e -

A t i o n provides, giving you not only game stats—the

abilities and corresponding numbers that tell you what

your character is good at—but also a character con-

cept, starting goals, and ties to other Player Characters.

Once play begins the portrayal and development of

your character is all up to you. Playing your character,

achieving goals, and navigating the perils of a fantasy

world—this is the fun of playing an RPG.

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age: Origins is a computer game by Bio-

Ware, the gaming juggernaut behind such titles as

Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Mass

Effect . With Dragon Age: Origins BioWare returns

to its roots, offering a dark heroic fantasy game

that combines original storytelling techniques

with classic roleplaying. The game introduces the

land of Thedas and tells the type of immersive and

epic story that gamers have come to expect from

BioWare. But there are more heroes and so many

more stories in Ferelden and Thedas, and creating

them is what the game you hold in your hands is all

about. If you haven’t played Dragon Age: Origins,

never fear. No previous knowledge is required to

play and enjoy the Dragon Age RPG .

For an additional taste of Dragon Age and the land of

Thedas, also check out Dragon Age: Journeys , a web

browser-based adventure game from BioWare. You

can ind it at w w w . d r A G o n A G e J o u r n e y s . c o m .

proach if you don’t want to spend a lot of time working

on your character before starting play. The second ap-

proach is to come up with a lot of details and roleplaying

ideas before the irst session. If you can come to the table

with a good idea of who your character is before the irst

die is rolled, that can help get the game going.

However you approach your character, playing the

game will help you reine your ideas. After you have

played your character for a while, you should have a

strong sense of personality and an intuitive sense of

what your character would do in a particular situation.

Of course, not all situations present easy choices. It is

from dificult choices that tension and drama emerge.

P l a y i n g y o u r C h a r a C t e r

“What do you do?”

When playing an RPG, that’s the question you must ask

yourself all the time. The Game Master will describe a

situation, framing a scene for one or more of the Player

Characters. It is then up to you to decide what your

character does and why. You tell the GM what you

want to do, as do the other players, and then you all

work out what happens. Sometimes, you use dice to re-

solve actions. Other times, you simply interact with the

other players and the characters portrayed by the GM,

which are known as Non-Player Characters, or NPCs.

a d v e n t u r e & C a m P a i g n

An adventure is a discrete story and scenario in an

RPG. You can think of it as a single novel or an episode

of a TV show. There may be several plot threads, but in

the end it tells one story. The difference between a role-

playing adventure and a book or show is that you have

authorship. It is the decisions of you and your fellow

players that will drive the story to its conclusion.

A campaign is a series of interlinked adventures. If an ad-

venture is a novel or TV show, a campaign is a series or a

season. Some adventures may have self-contained plots,

while others will tie together to tell a larger story. During

a campaign the characters of the adventuring group earn

experience points and gain levels. Over time they will

gain more powers and abilities, face greater challenges,

and perhaps gain renown for their deeds. A full Dragon

Age campaign will take characters from levels 1 through

20, and provide hundreds of hours of entertainment.

“Who arE you?”

This is the question to keep in mind when making deci-

sions. When you create your character, you will decide

on some traits and goals as a starting point. You can then

lesh out your PC; there are two basic approaches to this.

The irst is to paint your character in a few broad strokes

and then jump right in to playing. The intention here is to

come up with details about your character during play,

often by using the springboard of the current adventure

to create touchstones to your character’s past. This is a

common storytelling technique and a perfectly valid ap-

Introduction

e x a m P l e o f P l a y

What follows is an example of play with three charac-

ters. This should give you an idea of what a game of

Dragon Age is like. You’ll note various points where the

example refers to dice rolling and its results. You don’t

need to worry about the particulars of that right now.

Just follow along with the action and see how the GM

uses the rolls to test the skill of the characters.

In this example Peter is the Game Master (GM). Kate

is playing a city elf rogue, Troy is playing a Fereldan

freeman mage, and Jess is playing an Avvarian hills-

man warrior.

P e t e r (Gm): You’ve been traveling for several hours

under the hot midday sun. The road passes through

a small forest and for a few minutes at least you

ind some respite in the shade the trees provide. As

you emerge on the other side of the forest, you see a

caravan up ahead. It is not moving, but neither has it

set up camp.

k A t e (r o G u e ): Do I see any guards around the

caravan?

P e t e r (Gm): Make a P e r c e P t i o n (s e e i n G ) test and tell

me your result.

k A t e (r o G u e ): [Rolls dice] I got a 13.

P e t e r (Gm): Good roll. Your eyes quickly adjust to the

sunlight and you scan the caravan. You see many carts

and wagons but no people. The only things moving

are the draft animals and they seem restless.

J e s s (w A r r i o r ): This doesn’t look good. I want to take

a closer look.

P e t e r (Gm): Just you, or are you all going?

t r o y (m A G e ): Let’s all go. If this is a trap, better to be

together than separated.

k A t e (r o G u e ): Why don’t you two go straight up the

road and I’ll swing around the right side and approach

from there. I’ll try to move quietly, crouched down

with my bow out.

J e s s (w A r r i o r ): My sword and shield are out and I’m

heading straight up the road.

t r o y (m A G e ): I stay behind the warrior and keep an

eye on the woods as we advance. We don’t need any

surprises from that direction.

P e t e r (Gm): You approach the caravan and no threats

emerge. When you get close, you start seeing the

bodies. You can see at least six corpses spread out

around the carts. They look like dwarves.

J e s s (w A r r i o r ): That seems strange.

t r o y (m A G e ): Not really. The surface dwarves are great

merchants. They buy and sell from almost everyone.

k A t e (r o G u e ): How did they die? Do I see any arrows

sticking from the corpses?

P e t e r (Gm): You can try to igure that out with a

P e r c e P t i o n (s e e i n G ) test or a c u n n i n G (h e A l i n G ) test.

k A t e (r o G u e ): I’m better at Perception so I’ll stick with

that. [Rolls dice] Ha, I got a 15 this time.

P e t e r (Gm): You approach one of the corpses and look

it over. The wounds were not made by weapons. The

way the clothing and armor are torn, you’d guess

claws. Big claws.

t r o y (m A G e ): Do the corpses smell?

P e t e r (Gm): Now that you are closer, yes, they do. The

hot sun is making it worse by the minute, too.

t r o y (m A G e ): So they’ve been dead for a while, which

probably means the attack ended some time ago.

I don’t see any creatures with claws in the area, so

I’m going to move into the caravan and search for

survivors.

J e s s (w A r r i o r ): I’m going to climb on the one of the carts

and use the vantage point to keep an eye on things.

P e t e r (Gm): Roll a P e r c e P t i o n (s e A r c h i n G ) test, Troy.

t r o y (m A G e ): [Rolls dice] I got a 9. Not a great roll.

P e t e r (Gm): No, not great. You ind more bodies but

no survivors.

J e s s (w A r r i o r ): Maybe some of the dwarves ran away.

If I watched my friends get torn open like that, I might

hoof it.

k A t e (r o G u e ): You might be right. I’ll look for tracks.

That’s a P e r c e P t i o n (t r A c k i n G ) roll, right?

P e t e r (Gm): That’s correct.

k A t e (r o G u e ): I rolled an 11.

P e t e r (Gm): The tracks are confusing around the

caravan. You can see many sets of prints, some dwarf

and some from larger bipeds.

t r o y (m A G e ): Bipeds with large claws. I don’t like the

sound of that.

P e t e r (Gm): You do ind one set of dwarf prints leaving

the scene though. Whoever it was seems to have been

wounded, as there are drops of blood every few feet.

The trail leads off the road and back towards the

forest.

t r o y (m A G e ): Let’s follow it.

k A t e (r o G u e ): Agreed. I will lead the way.

P e t e r (Gm): You follow the trail back into the woods.

Maybe 30 feet from the edge you ind a dwarf under

a fallen log. He looks unconscious and wounded, but

alive.

t r o y (m A G e ): No time to mess around. I approach the

dwarf and cast my heal spell. I’m using 2 mana points.

P e t e r (Gm): Make your casting roll. As I recall, Heal

has a target number of 10.

t r o y (m A G e ): It does indeed. [Rolls dice] And I got a 12.

[Rolls dice again] He gets back 7 Health from the spell.

Introduction

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