Hesitant of the way this was done....

[flyingcircus]

As its stated, there will be sets 2-4 still coming out, ummmm why?

I mean why (except to plug more money out of us, thats obvious) but why not give a full version in one box set with levels 1-20 included? I am hesitant of this game getting box sets 2-4 even out.....Its been awhile now and have yet to see the Campaign Source book for the ASOIAF RPG. I mean it seems when producers go this route they never finish due to some excuse, like loosing a license or sales are bad so they stop production of the line before its finished, is anyone else afraid of this? Even decipher never finished the Star Trek or the LOTR lines, leaving gaping holes in the games near the end. I hope we see the sets but man, why couldn't GR do this in one box set?

[Radioactive Ape Colin]

From Chris Pramas:

I decided pretty early on that I wanted to do Dragon Age as a classic boxed set if I could. I've always loved boxed sets and I thought the format still made a lot of sense. A boxed set looks like a game, for starters. Show a non-gamer a typical RPG book and they get confused when you tell them it's a game. Boxed sets also make it easy to break out player info and GM info, as well as include things like dice and maps. And the fact that they feel old school certainly was a plus on this particularly project.

I also decided that I wanted the game to be friendly to new roleplayers. Most RPG companies traditionally rely on D&D to bring in new blood to the hobby. If you look at the state of the RPG industry right now, it clearly hasn't been working too well and I don't think we've seen a real successful acquisition product since red box D&D. At Green Ronin we've tried to bring in new roleplayers with a couple of games: Blue Rose and Faery's Tale. Both games were successful but admittedly narrow in focus. With Dragon Age I saw a real opportunity to do a game with broad appeal that could get more people into tabletop roleplaying.

All this led to our final plan, which is to release the game as a series of four boxed sets. Each one will cover 5 levels of play, and include player, GM, and source material, as well as an adventure. Set 1 handles levels 1-5, Set 2 levels 6-10, etc. Releasing it in digestible chunks makes it much more approachable and it means you don't have to read a 300 page hardback before you can play the game. It also means we're not asking people to spend $20 or $30 on an intro set so they can later spend $50 or $100 on the "real" game. When you spend your $30 on Set 1, you won't be getting something with designed obsolescence. It's the actual game.

Short version: Catering solely to the existing gamer market's expectations wasn't doing the hobby any favours. So, they decided existing gamers weren't the main target and took the BECMI model that was successful for Basic D&D and have applied it to create a newbie-friendly rpg approach in an effort to target cRPG fans and other newbies.

[Dr. Halflight]

And GR & Chris were clear on this from the time the product was announced.


While the format may not be for everyone. The rules themselves, even at levels 1-5 are robust enough for the novice or seasoned gamer, IMHO.

[hortum]

And GR & Chris were clear on this from the time the product was announced.


While the format may not be for everyone. The rules themselves, even at levels 1-5 are robust enough for the novice or seasoned gamer, IMHO.

And... maybe its just me, but the game feels solid enough to extrapolate anything you might want to house rule or add, from spells to talents, in the odd case that I find myself reaching level cap before the next boxset I feel confident that I can come up with enough content to keep ourselves plenty of busy...

Instead on criticizing Chris or GR from going the boxset route I congratulate them on giving me the bare bones that I can put plenty of flesh on with my gaming experience... the appeal for "tabletop gamers" is that we already have the tools to fill the holes without breaking down the game (something I tend to find happens a lot with fantasy games)... I know that not everyone shares that opinion, and its ok, in the end what I'm trying to say is that the product is finally out, and it is what is... not what people wanted it to be.

[flyingcircus]

"and it is what is... not what people wanted it to be."

Well I thought creating these games is for the express purpose to sell what the people want (aka. the customer).....Also I have not been following anything on the production of DA until just recently and didn't know why it was done as it was. A group can burn through levels 1-5 in no time at all, isn't my point, it was the fact that many games have come out based on a licence of somebody else's and have left unfinished games sitting in warehouses and on store shelves because they promise all kinds of expansions and what not (I mean the needed stuff for a game) and then fail to make the expansions and then shut down the works on it.

I'm not flaming GR, I am just a little worried investing in this and would like to see a set#2 out ASAP at least before I do.

[Andferne]

We've been told they plan to release the next installment every six months. When was the DA rpg officially released? This way we have some sort of frame work to expect something. Like mentioned elsewhere they said there would be publications between the boxed sets, have we heard any new news about that stuff?

[jaguar451]

My assumption is that putting it all in one box would be out in 9-18 months and cost a lot more. Then would miss the initial interest in DA:O, and loose having an 'intro' set.

And hey, Basic D&D only had 3 levels, so getting two more!

[PaintOnASign]

I actually really like the way they designed the release. I don't see it as a moneysink at all. I prefer having things fleshed out in its entirety over time, rather than releasing an overwhelming amount of information at once.

Not to mention that we would have to wait even longer!

[Saisei]

I agree with the above comments and am delighted to see someone trying to bring in new players.

I personally feel I could get a group of my friends kids (of 11 up) and they'd have no problem playing the DARPG (Though the setting isn't exactly kid friendly...) and I've found that personally I don't have time to learn hugely comprehensive rule sets and as myself and our group ages we want simple, dynamic gameplay with plenty of RP opportunities. I feel like that's exactly what I'm getting here. Good god I remember trying to play Ars Magika when I was younger and my brain nearly melting out my ears.

As far as only releasing levels 1-5 first goes, honestly yeah my nose is a teensy bit out of joint but within the book you get a basic idea of how the characters progress anyway.

•Your character’s Health increases by 1d6 + Constitution.


• You may increase a single one of your character’s abilities by 1. If you gained an even numbered level, you must increase a primary ability. If you gained an odd numbered level, you must increase a secondary ability.

• You can pick one new ability focus. If you gained an even numbered level, you must choose a focus from one of your primary abilities. If you gained an odd numbered level, you must choose a focus from one of your secondary abilities.


•You gain the class powers for your new level.

Now that's every level for every class. Wanna go higher than 5? From reading the Rogue class you get a new talent or increase your talent at uneven numbered levels, and at even numbered ones you get a class specific ability (Stunt Bonus and Bluff for Rogue).

The only problems you run into is at even numbered levels and I'm sure there'll be plenty of suggestions here in this forum and ones that you can create yourself.

Personally I think that for the experienced player they have plenty of material to use if they want to go over level 5 within the 6 months, and for the inexperienced well I don't think many inexperienced or new players would get to level 5 that quick.