Dragon Age RPG Campaign Log

[T.G. Oskar]

So, my playing group hit a slump these days.

One of my players studies a bit far from where we live, so he can only play once per week and not every week; Saturdays are the only days he can play. However, a combination of lack of preparation and a personal situation made us look for an alternative. The player decided to be a DM for once, but he'd use a different system: either GURPS (a superheroes campaign), which would take quite a lot of time (being on the Marvel universe anyways), or the Dragon Age RPG.

We decided to go the latter. We had the first session today, and it was pretty fun. So fun, I decided to share it with you guys.

Session backstory here:

Spoiler

The story begins five years after the Fifth Blight. The Hero of Ferelden, the Grey Warden, ended the threat of the Archdaemon, and Alistair became the new King of Ferelden. The Hero of Ferelden decided to travel abroad, and Ferelden is slowly recovering from the Blight's fallout.

Some changes have happened during since. For starters, Alistair has given some freedoms to the Mages, making them less dependent on the Circle, though they're still persecuted if outside the Circle (aka, if they're apostates). Lothering, once crushed by the Blight, is slowly recovering and being reconstructed, and thus serves as the start of the setting.

And, of course, the players:
Enansal Arlathan, Dalish/Elf/Rogue & Feralas, Mabari War Hound

Spoiler

Split from his ancestral elven home by one of his parents, Arlathan ended up learning the skills of a rogue from his mentor: all from wielding a bow properly, to the arts of disarming traps, stealth, amongst others. He ended up becoming a "noble" thief, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. Or rather, he stole from the rich humans to give to the poor elves; to put it bluntly, he acted pretty much as a brigand stealing from any human with a house and horse, and spread the wealth to any elf with whom he traveled. Despite being of Dalish origin, Arlathan is quite greedy, but a fearsome combatant.

During his travels, Arlathan rescued from the remains of a caravan struck by bandits a Mabari puppy, healing its wounds. The puppy imprinted with him, becoming a loyal hound at his service. Now a battle-hardened hound, Feralas strikes anyone who dares to face Arlathan head on, as a sort of bodyguard.

Damien, Human/Apostate/Mage (DMPC)

Spoiler

A mage whose presence has caused some trouble within the region of Ostagar. He's interested in the arts of Blood Magic and uses both Entropy and Spirit Magic. He refuses to follow anyone who might work for the Chantry, as he's unwilling to submit to become a member of the Circle or perish, no matter what.

Jaksten, Human/Ferelden Commoner/Warrior (my character)

Spoiler

Hailing from Lothering, Jaksten (known usually as "Stein", his mentor's surname) became orphaned during the Fifth Blight when Lothering was razed. Due to the efforts of a Chantry Templar who eventually ran in order to keep his wife and family safe, he managed to survive long enough to end in Denerim, the capital city. By chance, he ended up within the Chantry, choosing to become a Templar as the man who saved his life. The son of a tavernkeeper, he was familiar with ale, but it was during his training as a Templar cadet that he became familiar with the art of brewing, and developed an inclination to master the healing arts. Now a 17 year old young man, he has grown a slight reputation as an enemy of brigands and an unrepentant drunkard, stout enough to withstand ale while remaining clear-minded.

First session

Spoiler

The session started with Jaksten being sent to deal with the news of a mysterious mage, an apostate whom people claimed was also a maleficarum, roaming the lands surrounding Ostagar. Being already a threat of brigands and the best warrior around (despite his love of drinking), he was sent alone as the only choice on the matter. He was given a waterskin full of ale for the travel, as Jaksten refused to travel without a sufficient amount of ale, and sent almost immediately.

During the travel, Jaksten was accosted by a voice claiming he should turn around and depart from the area. Jakstern, stubborn as a mule, repeatedly asked whether the voice was that of a mage, to which the voice replied that it wasn't, but began to threaten him. Eventually, he was ambushed by a group of bandits wielding bows, with their leader striking with two weapons.

Meanwhile, hiding nearby, Arlathan and Feralas noticed the ambush and decided to even the odds, even if he didn't trust the human either.

Spoiler

The battle was only 5 brigands against my character and the elf rogue. The rogue was the MVP here by virtue of the stunts and the pretty amazing damage done with a longbow. My character was using throwing knives, so he didn't do much, but managed to pull off a shield bash (basically an improvised weapon attack using Brawling), and finally brandished his Bastard Sword. All in all, the leader and three brigands got slaughtered, with another one escaping...barely.

After the battle, the last escaping brigand recovered, only to explode in bloody bits. The mage that Jaksten sought for finished the last brigand with Walking Bomb, made his presence known, and asked why Jaksten was looking for him. The mage refused to follow Jaksten to Lothering, and after looking for him, the three fell into a trap by the true leader of the brigands, which used a potent sleep bomb on all three.

Waking up after a while, the trio was on a ship on its way to Antivar, to be sold as slaves. All three were shackled, the mage awaken before the others. The mage learned from a fellow prisoner named...Bob (yes, I know)...about their predicament, with the bit that the slave-traders would fetch a great price for them. Attempting to know how they'd escape, Jaksten and Arlethan learned they were asleep for 6 straight days. After some unusual bickering ("We're going to be sold as slaves or die, and you're bickering about who's the bigger fool!?"), Jaksten challenged the mage's power (and his lack of an acid spell), being challenged back into breaking the chains. Hearing that the "beerstein" full of his beloved ale was taken by the soldiers, Jaksten used all of his might to escape (with the chains ending up as improvised weapons and an improvised lockpick). Three guards faced them after the ruckus, but Arlethen freed himself and the mage before attempting to liberate Feralas (whom was caged and muzzled).

Spoiler

Devoid of armor and weapons, Arlethen was at a disadvantage. My character was at a disadvantage as well, having less Defense than the norm, but his HP soaked most of the damage. After beating the first guy, I took one of the shortswords and delivered a gushing wound that basically beat the other guard in a single blow. The party made short work of the third. The mage this time was the MVP, because between Drain Life and Arcane Bolt, he could strike from a distance pretty well. Feralas couldn't fight with his bite, so his claws were used as improvised weapons, not dealing any noticeable damage; Arlethen without his bow or a decent weapon was likewise having some trouble as well.

Escaping from the room, the party ends up right on the storage room, where they find their equipment and some nice loot. Jaksten found a beautifully crafted Orlesian Silverite heavy shield, Arlethen found a heavily enchanted Avvarian Whitewood longbow, and the mage found a ring.

Spoiler

The shield grants a +1 to Defense against ranged attacks, but being a heavy shield is more than enough. The bow grants a +2 to attack rolls, making the Rogue hit just for fun. The ring grants the mage a +2 bonus to Spellpower, which makes spells harder to avoid or resist. There were some other potions as well.

Barricading the storage room and finding another door left open, the party shifts its strategy from setting an ambush to distracting the guards and escaping. Reaching a room in the same level as the ship's hold, they bicker (as usual) on how to take the ship and free the prisoners. The brigands' boss, pissed off because of the lack of news regarding that the situation was controlled, decided to deal with the situation himself, intending to kill the party if necessary. Hearing about this, the party chose its course of action...basically having Arlethen hide, Jaksten demanding retribution for the guards having drank his beer, and Damien...just stand there. When the boss, all cocky, threatened them to return to their room or die on the attempt, Jakster refused (and Damien claimed he wasn't with him). Arlethen, having a clear shot against the boss, made a surprise strike from afar, striking true.

Spoiler

Again, Arlethen made a solid hit, dealing quite a bit of damage to the boss. He wasn't alone, with two Avvarian hunters guarding him.

Again, I was the first to go, and this time, I was the MVP. If anything, it's the ridiculous amount of damage a bastard sword can do, and the judicious use of the right stunts (namely, Lightning Blade for double the attack). Before they could even act, one of the Avvarian hunters was defeated, and both the boss and the hunter couldn't make a dent on my character. The second time my character strikes, Dual Strike made short work of the other hunter (weakened by the combination of an attack from the Rogue and the hound); the third basically combined All Out Attack, Lightning Blade and Defensive Strike, though the latter wasn't needed because it was over after the second strike.

Seeing as their leader was defeated, the other guards' cowardice took the best of them and decided they would return to Ferelden even if they were only yards away from Antivar and decided to become merchants; they effectively "died" that day, in order to remain alive (both from us, and from the Antivar Crows who would slaughter them for their failure). The session ends with us returning to Ferelden, the prisoners freed and treated like proper hosts.

Stuff we've noticed so far, being avid D&D players:

• We used Set 1 and Set 1, which include all info up to 10th level characters.
• Battles are just frickin' exciting. The stunts (which can only be done if you roll doubles on a 3d6 roll, using the unequal "Dragon" die to determine stunt points which determine what you can pull) make combat interesting, because no two attacks are the same. They work a bit differently from other games (7th Sea, IIRC, has a similar stunt system)
• The mechanics still feel incomplete. What happens with a Dual Weapon Style user? The Talent only offers some benefits, but you only seem to attack once.
• Some of the mechanics hurt a bit. Backstab is one example: it's limited to a melee attack, but Rogues don't have to focus on wielding a melee weapon and Dual Weapon Style.
• The weapon tables are horribly unbalanced. A Bastard Sword deals 2d6+1 points of damage, with a Longsword only dealing 1 point less (2d6). The Greatsword is the best weapon, bar none (3d6). The damage feels off, and there's little difference between weapons (Bows use Perception for damage, spears deal less damage than heavy blades, weapons have no unique properties aside from Bows). Likewise, some things have to be explained.
• We cheated a bit with our scores, so it's pretty evident that our characters are a bit stronger. We also used point-buy as detailed in Set 2, allowing us to tool the points as needed.
• The progression of characters thus far seems a bit excessive at 1st level. Just between bought ability scores and background bonuses (also bought), a Strength of 4 (using either point-buy scores and background buy or rolling for both) is pretty brutal. 2d6+5 points of damage with a Bastard Sword is just brutal at 1st level, and a Greatsword with a similar range of damage (3d6+Str) can be a gamebreaker at 1st level.
• Did I mention that the game, aside from those mechanics that require some change, are pretty intuitive? Character creation is probably the hardest thing to do, but battles were resolved pretty easily and quickly. We fought against 11 enemies total, and the first battle lasted about 3 rounds and somewhere around 15 minutes.

[Hopeless]

Interesting thanks for the information up to this point I have never even considered giving Dragon Age a look, might do so at some point!

[Loki_42]

It's nice to see some actual play experience for this game. I've heard so many people bash it, and say just to use Burning Wheel or something else for the crunch. It's cool to see somebody who actually enjoys the system. Keep the updates coming.

[T.G. Oskar]

I hope so as well, but it won't be a long and winded experience. It's just whenever I don't have my campaign ready and if the GM doesn't decide to go with GURPS instead. We're still keen on playing the Supers campaign on the Marvelverse.

In any case, we finally figured out about the Dual Weapon Style rules, and as I had suspected, they're starting with a bit of Florentine style, and we actually pegged down the Master rules for it without having seen it. To explain a bit: the "Florentine" style is just one of the names given to the style of fighting with two weapons, with the main weapon used for combat (usually a rapier, which works well for parrying as well) and the other for defense (usually a main gauche), rarely used for attacking. The Apprentice rank duplicates this with a bonus to Defense (the ability to ignore the hit), the Journeyman rank grants a reduction to the stunt point cost of Lightning Attack (essentially allowing you to hit twice), and the Master rank does the traditional "strike with two weapons in the same attack" technique. It was just intuitive, given that it's roughly the same move used in D&D (of which the game draws a lot of influences, such as the Minor and Major actions).

I will admit it's fun if you go overboard with it, twice as much if you've enjoyed the game. We're still a bit sad that you can't use the game's techniques, even if the stunts are pretty fun. It's also a shame that the rules for potions aren't in the first two sets, while those for Poisons and Grenades do. Perhaps it's because I've only seen the Player's Guides for sets 1 and 2, so I'm probably missing a lot. Also, having to wait for level 3 in order to get the Cunning (Healing) trait and the Chirurgy talent, meaning anyone save for a mage has to wait quite a bit for healing.

Comparing the battles in the RPG to those of the game...well, I find that they're easier. Perhaps it's because on Origins I'm playing in Nightmare mode, so that means I succeed on one of every three battles (the other two having to reload), so battling on the tabletop version seems just too easy. Perhaps it's because of the point-buy use, but I could argue that it's not like that would really matter.

Still: it all depends on how you play it. We went really over the top, given that we were arguing about who was the bigger fool on a ship, while we were taken as slaves. We ended up beating the big boss and his bodyguards pretty easily, so we put our actions where our words are. I still don't know when the next session will be, since we're only limited to playing once per week and not every week, and then there's the side campaign I'm doing that's tied to the main D&D campaign, which means we might not see another DA session in months. That, or the holidays, in which we may stretch one or two games per week depending on my work schedule.

[T.G. Oskar]

Who would have imagined that it'd take approximately four and a half months to play the second session of the Dragon Age RPG? Certainly not us. Then again, we were distracted by my D&D sub-campaign (lower-level characters, but on the same world and timeline as my main campaign) and a Marvel Universe game using the GURPS 3rd Edition rules, and the DA campaign is mostly filler, so it's quite expected.

That said, since this is mostly a log, and there's a VERY good reason why not to make a new thread for it: since the campaign is VERY irregular, it would require making a new thread for every session. So, on with the new session!

Before that, though, I'd like to introduce a fourth character. The DM said we needed a healer, after all

Elora Goldhawk, Elf/Circle/Mage

Spoiler

Elora entered the Circle of Magi from her youth, receiving training to master her arts as all Circle Mages. She was one of the few survivors of the event at the Circle Tower at Lake Calenhad, when the abominations overran it. After the battle of Denerim, the Ferelden Circle was given some freedoms, as the Templars' Rite of Annulment can only be issued on a case-by-case basis, rather than against the whole Tower. She seeks to adventure.

Second Session

Spoiler

The second session began by having the party travel towards Lothering by way of the Coastlands (and thus, close to Amaranthine). Jaksten (again, my character) was to take Damien, an Apostate mage interested in various forbidden arts, to the Chantry at Lothering. At West Hill, where the ship dropped the party, Damien found the chance to leave Jaksten's custody, trying to run away towards Orlais. Jaksten's response?

He finds a nearby horse, he tackles the rider (failed on the first attempt, succeeded on the second) and drops two sovereigns as payment, just to pursue Damien. Enansal followed, as he was swift enough to pursue on foot.

The pursuit was broken after a soldier ran in panic, stumbled upon Damien, and ran past. The reason why he ran was obvious: two small but stocky things, followed by two big hulks, were in fast pursuit. It seems that, despite the Blight gone, there were a few Darkspawn left around...

Spoiler

We end up fighting two Genlocks and two Hurlocks, with the latter wielding the most powerful weapon in the game, the Greatsword. The battle had one ally and one enemy going in pairs, with Damien going first, while I went second after a nifty Exploration stunt, and the Genlocks going dead last.

The Mage went first with a Walking Bomb spell (which, of course, he succeeded at; the Hurlock failed its Constitution [Stamina] roll for it), while the Hurlock charged at me and attacked. Next was my turn, and I barely hit him for slight damage, which was almost cut by half because of the Hurlock's strong armor. The other Hurlock went after me, also with a charge, and also succeeding on the charge, so I had to soak a pretty decent amount of damage. One of the Genlocks gets near and throws an axe at me (and fails), and then the Elf and the Mabari gang up on him and attempt to beat it up. The other Genlock, thus goes against the Mabari.

During the second turn, something pretty unbelievable happened. After the Mage dealt another Walking Bomb spell to the other Hurlock, my turn comes and...I roll three 1s. No kidding. To say that was a failure is little: that failure deserved a proper fumble. In fact, the DM had to read the rules several times to see if there was a punishment for three 1s, to no avail: it was just a normal failure. However, being used to D&D and fumbles, I pretty much had to goad the DM into doing something...and that was allowing one of the Hurlocks to gain an "attack of opportunity" against me. I mean, it's only fair, no?

Well, it ends up the attack takes me well over half my HP, and gives the Hurlock enough stunt points to enable Seize the Initiative. So the Hurlock ends up going BEFORE the mage. Things were looking pretty grim, because then the OTHER Hurlock went and attacked me...and I miraculously block the attack.

Just in case, I blame Wil Wheaton and his lousy rolls. They infected my own. That, or I was throwing the dice wrong. I only succeded on another roll afterwards, and that was the last attack of the battle. Did I mention I was looking at the Tabletop episode where he and some other guys were playing Dragon Age RPG with the developer? I guess not.

Since things looked pretty grim, this was the perfect time for the DM to reveal the fourth (eventual) member of our team: the mage Elora, which proceeded to get near me and pull off a Heal. Because, you know, we need a Healer. And Damien isn't a healer in any sense of the way, and won't be.

The rest of the battle went with my character getting to 0 HP and Elora restoring me (and thus attracting many of the attacks); one Hurlock going against the Mage, dealing damage, and then suffering all the damage he took by having the Mage use the Heal action as a minor action AND THEN using the Drain Life spell afterwards; the Elf and the Mabari ganging up and eventually taking a Genlock apart by their own, and Elora patching me up.

The battle ended up by having Damien kill one of the Genlocks, the Elf taking one of the Hurlocks, and me dealing the final blow against the Hurlock that usually downed me after surviving with only 3 HP.

It was a fun fight, since there were two mages in the party.

After the battle, and a small rest, Damien takes the chance to escape Jaksten's custody once again, but this time trying to be stealthy. Jaksten, of course, doesn't realize that, and Enansal, not the one that liked having someone captured, covered his escape. Jaksten reacted by pursuing him, but not before Elora patched his wounds once again; since he didn't know where the Apostate actually went, but he knew he'd end up in Orlais, he went a random direction towards the Highroad. In the meanwhile, Enansal, finding a cute Elf, started hitting on her; Elora, disgusted, chose to return to West Hill and find the wounded soldier to heal him.

However, all roads pointed to West Hill. Jaksten, after an hour or so of travel, finds smoke billowing from a specific direction, and thinking there was a fire, he leapt right...into West Hill. Meanwhile, Enansal follows Elora towards West Hill, one trying to get into the skirt of the other, who sought the wounded soldier.

After realizing that he ended up at West Hill, Jaksten chose to get into the center of town, and travel west. Not long after, a group of guards stops him, and asks him if he was riding a horse while drunk. The response?

"I can't remember the last time I was sober." (I did mention Jaksten is an unrepentant drunk, no?)

Thus, after claiming with a straight face that he took the horse of a Hillsman by force and that he then paid two sovereigns for the trouble just to hunt for a maleficar (then afterwards he fought against Darkspawn), the guards took him under custody, for "riding under the influence of spirits, admission of theft, and telling a ridiculous story". Enansal, in a surprising lack of Cunning for a Rogue, goes ahead and claims Jaksten's horse is his own.

You see, when the group found the Darkspawn, the horse entered in panic and ran away. Enansal, skilled at Animal Handling and having better Communication score, managed to pacify the horse, and decided that, because of it (and because Jaksten was using the horse to prive a free man of his liberty), the horse had to be his. Thus, at the first sight of a guard, he claims a horse the rider claims he has stolen is his own, when the rider claims he took it from a Hillsman.

You can see this session wasn't meant to be serious.

Jaksten and Enansal are taken under custody, where the head of the guards reads all the charges and demands a proper explanation. Jaksten, calmly and with a straight face (once again), explains everything IN DETAIL, including how exactly he took the horse, the reasons why, the fact that he's in an official mission from the Chantry at Lothering, and the battle against the Darkspawn, showing the Greatsword he earned as loot and the scar he gained from the lethal blows he received (namely, the "critical fumble"). Because of this, and because Enansal insisted in claiming the horse was his, they were sent into cells until a "soldier ranting like a madman" calmed down and spoke his side of the story, while a nice young lady (namely, Elora) healed its wounds.

Having to waste time, guess what Jaksten does to spend it? Three guesses to what he does, and the first two doesn't count.

...

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In case you're still wondering, he brews liquor.

Yes, I told the DM, "Jaksten will spend the time taking hay and bread and water, heating the water, and brewing liquor in less than an hour. The DM was baffled, but since we're both Chemical Engineering majors and my character has a Focus on Cunning (Brewing), it just had to be done. That said, all rolls were pretty high, so I ended up with a very strong liquor in my hands, made just from hay and bread.

The second thing he does? He shares it with all of the other prisoners, after asking him to leave half the entire amount for him to drink. It goes without saying that only my character resisted the effects to resist the intoxicating effect.

The end result was that everyone, save the guards, Elora and the wounded soldier (but including Enansal), ended up completely drunk in one sip, and completely cheery. In one bunch of sips, I turned the prison into a makeshift tavern. I kid you not.

After a while, the soldier proves the story, and we're set free. The guards return them our stuff, but insist that they cause no further problems in the town. That's fine, because Jaksten is eager to leave. The horse ends up a possession of Jaksten, and he gained the idea for a new recipe. Enansal realized that day that his life was not to become a Ranger, but instead to become a wandering minstrel, thanks to how his singing skills were improved by the intoxicating effects of Jaksten's liquor. The guards insist that they won't let him leave unless he eats something, so he goes to the nearby inn and enjoys a to-go meal. Just as they were about to leave (Elora following Jaksten because she wanted to be away from Enansal, and the Elf because he wants to bang the Elf Mage), they find someone at the door.

Turns out it's Damien. It seems the Maker is against the Apostate.

Damien runs away, but Elora convinces Jaksten that he's no maleficar, and just a runaway mage. Jaksten, somewhat tired of having to hunt the mage (and because he's actually useful), takes Elora and asks her to follow him to Lothering to speak on behalf of the mage, so that he could finish his mission and return to his life.

While Jaksten awaits for the legal transference of the horse (and ate his food), Enansal realized his bow had special properties. Turns out his bow is Antivan, but is somewhat legendary as well: the bow, once it claims a master, never abandons its side. Turns out as well that the appraiser is skilled at the art of Runecrafting, and enchanted the weapon with a Frost Rune (thus, the bow now deals cold damage; of course, that's not canon for Dragon Age, but the GM's the GM). Jaksten and Elora leave early, forcing Enansal to pursue them.

As soon as possible, they travel towards the Highroad and end up at Lake Calenhad, attempting to take the shortest route to Lothering. Because the horse needs a rest, they spend the night there. Enansal catches up with them, and spends quite a bit of coin to get the upper hand on the pursuit. The next morning, Jaksten and Elora were ready to leave, with Enansal woken early so that he could catch them, when...

Once again, the party meets Damien, and this time, he was somewhat glad to see Jaksten. You see, a group of villeins thought Damien was a maleficar, and thus were about to lynch him. Even worse, they attracted a group of battle-hardened soldiers from the battle at Denerim. Jaksten calmly addresses the party and speaks his usual thing (Damien IS a maleficar, and he was tasked with taking him to the Chantry at Lothering), but the enraged masses don't believe him. What's worse, Enansal enters in panic and cries that Jaksten is helping Damien, and that Elora is ALSO a maleficar, so the party gets enraged against all of us, and the guards stand ready to kill us. Jaksten, fill to the brim with his elixir of courage (his alcohol), was ready to send the message by fists if necessary, and the situation appeared to be the last...

Until the Grey Wardens step in. And no, it wasn't the Warden-Commander (otherwise, Enansal would have recognized him). It was an Antivan Grey Warden, who was lending units to repopulate Ferelden's Grey Wardens, and felt compelled to stop the madness. Through intimidation by force, the masses and the soldiers halted, and the Warden made her claim: join as Grey Warden cadets, or die by the masses. What's worse, she was pretty upfront: she mentioned it was their only choice, and that they would end up dying eventually anyways.

Eventually, the party agrees on their own terms: Damien cowardly accepts after knowing the alternative, Enansal agrees half-heartedly after attempting to convince the Warden that it's important for him to reach Orlais (he believes his Dalish clan is there), Elora agrees without questioning, and Jaksten...he actually agrees right from the start, but demands the Warden take him to Lothering so that he may end up his mission and prevent the spent Templar order from losing any more soldiers (pretty wise for a perennial drunk, no?). Thus, with acceptance from all, the party was now bound by one reason: they'd be part of the Grey Wardens, refilling Antiva's depleted ranks.

Before that, and agreeing with Jaksten's request, the party travels to the Circle Tower at Lake Calenhad, to speak with Knight-Commander Greagoir (cameo ahoy!) so that the Templar cadet could formally fulfill his mission and resign from the ranks. This marks the second time a Ferelden Templar-cadet is removed from training because of the Right of Conscription, so Greagoir accepts half-heartedly, but in friendly terms. His mission complete, the party now departs towards Antiva, to begin their formal training.

The session ended with a bit of roleplaying in Kirkwall (yes, THAT Kirkwall), where Enansal attempts to share his stories about what happened in Ferelden (namely, about the "mage of drinks" and about how he's a famous hero that helped said "mage of drinks", i.e. Jaksten, and the rest of the party) while Jaksten prepares his second liquor, this time combining various grains and using sea air to cure it, alongside chunks of beef.

The very end of the session ends up with a cliffhanger: Jaksten only has one day of booze, and it takes three days of travel. The boat has no booze at all. And Jaksten doesn't remember when was the last time he was sober, let alone how that was...

We're a bit pissed off that the Herbalism talent doesn't exist, so the DM will 'brew the Talent based off the Poison-Making one. He'll key it off having the Cunning (Brewing) focus, so that my character can brew off Potions of all kinds (aside from booze). Also, this time, we managed to remember how to play quite easily, even if we only played once, and five months ago. That's a good omen, because usually trying to remember the rules can be complicated. We didn't even need to change our characters that much, since leveling up is pretty easy.

We'll see when the next session comes up, but hopefully it'll be less than five months. It's a pretty fun adventure, and this was the first time a character was actually fun to play. We'll see how the GM handles the Joining ceremony, and what'll happen in Antiva with all of us.

[Bahumat]

I adore Dragon Age on the tabletop. It's nice to just be able to clobber thing....though I agree on the whole 'Greatsword Too Stronk'. My character was the Warrior for our group, and eventually the elven rogue christened my starter weapon 'Whud!', regarding the sound it made when I stunted and threw 2-3 extra dice at something.

Makes it really hard to choose between it, and my magic longsword.....ah, who am I kidding. I never needed a shield.

Keep these coming, I might be able to lure my GM back into the game if I show them to him!

The fights are easy...for a time. We found around level 4ish, the adventures we were on had scaled to being difficult again. Like, an Ogre with Hurlock support. Only reason that one critter didn't kill us all is that I dealt enough damage to negate it's armour and regeneration, and the medic kept me healed enough to not be brutally murdered. Well, until it picked me up and threw me at him.... So yeah, avoid Ogres if you can.

I like the careers in the tabletop, though I find it kind of hilarious that being a warrior mage is so much less effective. Have you given thought to what you'd pick, or is the game not serious enough to warrant future thoughts?

[T.G. Oskar]

Originally Posted by Bahumat

I adore Dragon Age on the tabletop. It's nice to just be able to clobber thing....though I agree on the whole 'Greatsword Too Stronk'. My character was the Warrior for our group, and eventually the elven rogue christened my starter weapon 'Whud!', regarding the sound it made when I stunted and threw 2-3 extra dice at something.

Some of the stuff is unreal. For example: the Greatsword is, without a shadow of a doubt, the weapon with the strongest base damage in the game, only equaled by the Greataxe. It makes weapons such as spears or hammers feel like nothing. A Bastard Sword (Jaksten's preferred weapon) deals only 1 point of extra damage over a Longsword, for some strange reason. THe GM and I expected to have spears grant some range (at least double the melee range), but it ends up you need to take the Pole Fighting talent at the Novice level to pull that off. Two-Handed Mauls deal .-5 damage per blow, but they have an upper cap (5 min. damage instead of 3 min. damage from the Greatsword or Greataxe). At most, weapons feel like they were too dumbed down and dependent on talents to function.

Keep these coming, I might be able to lure my GM back into the game if I show them to him!

Can't really promise you anything. I want to reach a point on my Eberron sub-campaign where the adventurers reach the point in the timeline where I left the main campaign, as the party wanted a breather from their stronger characters. Ideally, the schedule afterwards should include a few moments where DA sessions might be managed. However, there's also the GURPS Marvel Universe campaign we're playing, so that's shuffling four games, and that's only if the third player isn't allowed to do his own (he wants to get the hang of DMing and he's far more story-inclined than us).

I like the careers in the tabletop, though I find it kind of hilarious that being a warrior mage is so much less effective. Have you given thought to what you'd pick, or is the game not serious enough to warrant future thoughts?

If you mean specializations, we've got this covered up:
Damien wants to turn into a Blood Mage, and if the campaign reaches 14th, probably Force Mage
Enansal was to be a Ranger (the player likes pet classes), but is settling on a Bard (because, being a graduate music student, he feels it's his vocation). Maybe later he'll follow up on the Ranger.
Jaksten is (or rather, was) a Templar cadet, and will remain a Templar cadet. If we reach 14th level and higher, definitely subbing with Guardian (I like to play tanks, though my playstyle is inclined towards buffers)
Elora, the newcomer, is built by the GM to become Spirit Healer. No idea on what else she'll be.

If it refers to what they'll do outside of combat...that'll be difficult, but Jaksten's gonna be the party brewer (brewing ale and potions, so I'll end up gathering the Elfroot and Lyrium Dust and spending money on the poultices), and Enansal will probably end up doing the songs.

Also: warrior-mage? I know there's the Arcane Warrior as a specialization, so I presume it's that one. I would have wanted to push the Spirit Warrior specialization as well, but unfortunately the hard cap seems to be level 20.