Interview Dragon Age Pen and Paper System Interview at GameBanshee

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Tags: Dragon Age

Suprise, suprise....more Dragon Age news, this time an <a href="http://gamebanshee.com/interviews/dragonagerpg1.php"interview by GameBanshee</a> with one of the folks at Green Ronin, the company developing a tabletop RPG for the Dragon Age setting.<blockquote>Like D&D and indeed many games over the years, Dragon Age is a class and level system. Like the computer game, the RPG features three classes: mage, rogue, and warrior. It’s different in many ways. It uses six-sided dice only, it uses a spell point system instead of Vancian magic, and it has no alignment system for starters.
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So the computer game and the tabletop game share certain core conceits, but from the beginning BioWare understood that our game couldn’t just be a transliteration of theirs. The lead designer told me straight up that I wouldn’t want to use their resolution system, for example. So you’ll see the same spells and classes, but you shouldn’t assume that everything is just like it is in Dragon Age: Origins.</blockquote>Expanding an IP into a multimedia operation before it's even released it's first product...bold business move, or more in the same vein as games being announced as trilogies before the first is even released/successful?
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://gamebanshee.com">Gamebanshee</A>

 

[NotAnAlt]

Looks shit

 

[Andhaira]

I wonder why they couldn't mimic the resoluviotn system of the video game. Is it because the 'rolls' in the game are unbalanced or something?

 

[Aikanaro]

I've yet to hear anything about this that makes it stand out against the hundreds of other generic fantasy systems out there. There's enough versions of 'D&D done right' (by the author's perspective, anyway) out there that adding another one just doesn't help.

 

[Claw]

Not that I really care, but what does that guy mean by "resolution system"?

 

[Xerxos]

Not that I really care, but what does that guy mean by "resolution system"?

I guess he means that the PC game uses a much higher "resolution" in their combat system.

e.g.:
PC: Attacker stands 13cm higher than the target, and the target looks 34,73° to the right, so the attacker gets 3,342354 additional damage from "higher ground (but not much higher)" and 2,345435 from "attacking the side (but not completely from the side)"

PnP: You hit, roll 2D6 damage.

See the difference? In a PC game you can add much combat data that would make PnP combat sessions to tedious. (eg target zones, higher ground, attacking the flanks/back, different armor values for different body parts, etc.)

 

[Gay-Lussac]

Not that I really care, but what does that guy mean by "resolution system"?

See the difference? In a PC game you can add much combat data that would make PnP combat sessions to tedious. (eg target zones, higher ground, attacking the flanks/back, different armor values for different body parts, etc.)

Funny that all of those things are only implemented on PnP then.

 

[Arcanoix]

The only thing this game has going for it is the toolset. I don't think I'll ever stress that enough. If the toolset fails hardcore like the one(s) that came with The Witcher/NWN2, then all will be lost for the RPG-community, mark my words.

 

[poocolator]

I keep confusing Bioware and Obsidian :/
Hey cool, Bioware is Canadian had no idea. Suddenly this game appeals to me more.

 

[Volourn]

What are you? A fuckin' noob? Next you are gonna claim BIo only published the Bg series, and they developed PST and FO2.

R00fles!

 

[Claw]

Funny that all of those things are only implemented on PnP then.

That's what I was thinking. You should think that PC RPGs would use more complex rules, what with their superior calculation power, but instead they're often painfully simplistic compared to PnP.

Thankfully, WotC brought us D&D 4th ed to set the bar lower.

 

[poocolator]

What are you? A fuckin' noob? Next you are gonna claim BIo only published the Bg series, and they developed PST and FO2.

R00fles!

Volo emerges from his/her hole...

 

[Andhaira]

Resolution system refers to the underlying conflict resolution system: AKA what dice to roll to achieve the desired result. For example, in D&D4e you roll a 1d20 to determine if you succeed on a specific task. That is D&D's resolution system.