Dragon Age Countdown

Kunikos · 2009-10-06T10:23:42.000Z

Murbella:

pst didn’t really have factions in the same sense you talk about, but the fallout games without a doubt did.

You either convince the foozle of Torment to join with you or you kill him (although the ways you do either are varied). Depending on which you do, and a few other factors, this changes the ending that you get (slightly).

You could either side with the undead or the cranium rats underground to get Pharod’s sphere back to him.

You could either side with Pharod or kill him.

You could side with one of several different Sigil factions, betray and switch to another, or pretend to be all of them as an Anarchist trying to fight them all.

You could side with the priest of the dead god in the alley or turn him in or kill him.

You can free Ignius or leave him.

You can take Vhailor with you on your side or kill him (physically or mentally).

The list goes on and on.

Kunikos · 2009-10-06T10:26:18.000Z

Desslock:

I think you’ll also like the way magic is handled in Dragon Age, then. Mages are fucking dangerous and treated as such. They’re lobotomized, hunted down, forced into training, or executed.

Reminds me of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time world, specifically the Whitecloaks and the Aes Sedai.

Shimarenda · 2009-10-06T10:34:21.000Z

The main problem I have with “Good and Evil” in games is that they are usually presented as factions to which the player reacts rather than being the motivations that drive the choices the player makes. Factionalized morality is what has led to the whole, tiresome gray Jedi/fallen paladin/anti-hero thing in games. Because the “Good” people do bad things, the character strikes out to do his own independent, usually good but not Good, thing. I will be glad when games reach the point where good and evil are personal.

Shimarenda · 2009-10-06T10:37:43.000Z

Desslock:

Mages are fucking dangerous and treated as such. They’re lobotomized, hunted down, forced into training, or executed.

Kunikos:

Reminds me of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time world, specifically the Whitecloaks and the Aes Sedai.

Or the Psicorps in Babylon 5. I’m not saying Bioware is copying anyone; it’s a natural, human reaction to such a situation.

Kunikos · 2009-10-06T10:44:49.000Z

Or the anime series Claymore, which are demon tainted warriors fighting demons and Claymores who gave in to their demon tainted nature and became mega demons

idrisz · 2009-10-06T10:48:13.000Z

Kunikos:

Or the anime series Claymore, which are demon tainted warriors fighting demons and Claymores who gave in to their demon tainted nature and became mega demons

or mega demon claymores!!!

I missed the manga, the one chapter a month bullshit pisses me off.

RepoMan · 2009-10-06T11:05:51.000Z

Hoo boy, I’m getting all excited to play a wood elf mage. (Or is that not one of the backgrounds? I guess mage is its own unique background, huh?)

Preordered this based on the good Desslock vibes. WOO HOO RPG MADNESS THIS NOVEMBER!!!

awdougherty · 2009-10-06T11:08:10.000Z

Anyone out there have some XBox 360 experience with this? Does it control pretty well on the console?

Eightball · 2009-10-06T11:41:36.000Z

Kunikos:

Reminds me of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time world, specifically the Whitecloaks and the Aes Sedai.

Tugs braid, smooths skirts?

TurinTur · 2009-10-06T11:48:29.000Z

Eightball:

Tugs braid, smooths skirts?

Damn, i wasn’t enough fast (and i say this being a WoT fan!).

Eightball · 2009-10-06T11:50:41.000Z

Naeblis:

Damn, i wasn’t enough fast (and i say this being a WoT fan!).

Low hanging fruit my friend, low hanging fruit ;)

TimJames · 2009-10-06T11:55:31.000Z

I avoided the cliched response. I’ve read choose-your-own-adventure books with more clever replies to a Wheel of Time reference than that. :)

Khoram · 2009-10-06T11:58:29.000Z

Desslock:

I think you’ll also like the way magic is handled in Dragon Age, then. Mages are fucking dangerous and treated as such. They’re lobotomized, hunted down, forced into training, or executed.

People aren’t using light spells to walk their dogs - the clergy have no magic (and are opposed to it, for possibly legitimate reasons) it’s a relatively low magic setting. It’s a testament to the quality of the writing that reactions seem alternately sensible and atrocious, but always plausible.

It’s the way stuff like that is handled that makes Dragon Age the “mature” RPG that I really enjoy - not the animated puppet sex.

That sounds awesome, then.

I was recently reading Bernard Cornwell’s Arthur series, which aims to be a quasi-realistic take on the myth. So while it has Merlin, Morgan, and others that purport to work magic, it’s actually very low-magic and in fact there’s nothing to suggest that they can even work any magic. But the most interesting part to me is that, unlike most RPGs where good tactics tells you “take out the mages first!”, in the books people won’t attack the magic users for fear of being cursed if they kill a druid/wizard. I thought that was an interesting take on the “how do we protect the weak mage?” problem and wondered if it would be possible to add something like that to a game. Might make more sense in a turn based tactical game, though.

TurinTur · 2009-10-06T12:07:03.000Z

Eightball:

Low hanging fruit my friend, low hanging fruit ;)

I will join the offtopic intermission and say the next Wheel of time book will be out in 3 week or something like that and it will be badass!! :P

Kunikos · 2009-10-06T13:39:44.000Z

Tim James:

I avoided the cliched response. I’ve read choose-your-own-adventure books with more clever replies to a Wheel of Time reference than that. :)

Did someone switch your Trivial Pursuit deck to the Preschool edition last night?

unbongwah · 2009-10-06T13:51:01.000Z

RepoMan:

Hoo boy, I’m getting all excited to play a wood elf mage. (Or is that not one of the backgrounds? I guess mage is its own unique background, huh?)

You can play a human or elf mage (no midgets allowed!) - both go through the same origin. DA’s elves seem to be divided between the city-dwelling Alienage and the nomadic Dalish; I don’t know which an elf mage is, or even if it matters.

sam16 · 2009-10-06T14:34:12.000Z

unbongwah:

You can play a human or elf mage (no midgets allowed!) - both go through the same origin. DA’s elves seem to be divided between the city-dwelling Alienage and the nomadic Dalish; I don’t know which an elf mage is, or even if it matters.

If you go for the Mage Origin as an elf, you are an Alienage elf. Magic using Dalish elves are the leaders of their clan and are called Keepers. They usually only have one apprentice. The magic system used by the Dalish is different from the stuff taught by the Circles.

Kunikos · 2009-10-06T15:52:19.000Z

sam16:

If you go for the Mage Origin as an elf, you are an Alienage elf. Magic using Dalish elves are the leaders of their clan and are called Keepers. They usually only have one apprentice. The magic system used by the Dalish is different from the stuff taught by the Circles.

Ah, bummer. I guess to play as a Dalish mage we’ll have to wait for DLC, an expansion pack (is this likely to happen since it’s a console game?), or a sequel.

RepoMan · 2009-10-06T18:56:42.000Z

Enh, that’s OK. A city elf mage could be fine too. All I know is FUCK THE TEMPLARS, those assholes must BITE THE BIG ONE, because magic is the way to true enlightenment, BITCHES!

I envision much heavy pro-magic roleplaying and Disturbance of Shit.

Joe_M · 2009-10-06T20:23:25.000Z

Is there a “good/evil meter” in Dragon Age? It’s a small thing but I always find those kind of cheesy. I’d prefer some degree of uncertainty rather than knowing exactly how an NPC is going to react to me (unless you’re one of those weirdos who goes 100% evil or 100% good in your choices).