Sryth ran Eric and I through a quick one-shot of the Dragon Age pen and paper roleplaying game last Tuesday (man, I’m falling behind!). I had already gone through the character creation process some time ago, yet didn’t have the stats with me. Eric had made a bunch of characters for us to use, so I used one of his that closely resembled the character I’d already made, a elf Apostate Mage.

I admit to not really being fluent in the “fluff” for DragonAge, but I do know the Apostate is a mage operating outside the confines of the normal Mage rules and laws, and it seems that elves are not all that favored in this setting. So I had a character in double-trouble, so to speak.

The session started with me finishing up the final details for the character I chose and Sryth setting Eric and I up with an extra NPC to help us out, a Dwarf Warrior. Eric played an elf Ranger-type. I don’t want to say too much about the adventure itself since it might be a published one and I don’t want to spoil it. I’ll just go through how we played the game and how fun it was.

The first thing we did was run through some skill tests. You roll 3D6 plus your stat in whatever the DM asks for. One of the D6s is a different color and is used for things I’ll describe later. After investigating, we ran into some wolves that we had to fight. Initiative is determined by that same 3D6 roll. I had a modifier of 0 to my initiative, so I had a total of 13. All the wolves acted before any of us.

Actions are pretty simple. You have Major and Minor actions. A Major action takes your whole turn and a Minor can be combined with a Minor. Attacking is a Major while movement is a minor. I think there must be a charge in there as well. In either case, a wolf attacked my character, knocking me down. How he did this was by rolling any doubles on his 3D6. The different colored die then gives points to be spent on “Stunts”. One of the many stunts he could afford with his Stunt Points was to knock me down. There are a bunch of other Stunts, like attacking twice, reducing armor and a few others. I thought this mechanic was really cool.

Damage is calculated by the damage rating of the weapon in question plus bonuses, so like 2D6 +3, minus the armor of the creature being hit. Easy peasy!

When it came to my turn, I tried casting a spell (since drawing a weapon and attacking is a Minor and a Major, where casting is just a Major). Each spell has a target number. You roll your 3D6 and add your Magic skill and could get a bonus if you specialize in a specific kind of spells (Primal, for instance). I failed that roll and two more after that before I got off a spell that froze the target and caused damage. The spell causes 1D6 penetrating damage until the wolf broke free by testing his Constitution versus my Spellpower, which is 10 + my Magic ability + any other bonuses. He easily freed himself. In an effort to save my own skin (I was at 7 HP), I cast a flame burst spell, which I did get off, but I set the building on fire (it creates an 8 yard spray of flame). The wolves finally paniced and ran.

We then had to negotiate with some of the villagers. This is done by rolling 3D6 versus a number determined by the DM. If you succeed, the DM will add your different colored die in points to a running total until you succeed in convincing someone of whatever you need. I’d imagine there is a threshold for failures as well.

By then, we’d pretty much finished the session. I really enjoyed the game. It hearkened back to the days of old-skool D&D (not AD&D), which means it was simple and lots of fun! I’d definitely play this game again!

Be Sociable, Share!

•