Dragon Age (role-playing game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | |
| Designers | Chris Pramas |
|---|---|
| Publishers | Green Ronin Publishing |
| Publication | January 25, 2010 |
| Years active | 2010 – 2019 |
| Genres | Dark fantasy |
| Systems | Dragon Age system |
| Series | Dragon Age |
| Playing time | Varies |
| Chance | Dice rolling |
| Skills | Role-playing, improvisation, tactics |
| Media type | Tabletop role-playing game |
Dragon Age is a tabletop role-playing game published by Green Ronin Publishing from 2010 to 2019. It is based on the Dragon Age video game series by BioWare, and uses the video game series' setting.
The game uses traditional tabletop role playing game features, such as character classes (fighter, mage and rogue), races (human, dwarf or elf), and ability scores.
Gameplay in the system centers around the use of three six-sided dice for all rolls. One die, called the "dragon die", is differently colored than the other two. When doubles appear on any roll, the player can perform special actions called "stunts", based on the value on the dragon die.
Publication history
Dragon Age: Set 1 was released on January 25, 2010.[1] Shannon Appelcline, in the book Designers & Dragons (2011), commented that the project was "initiated by BioWare, which highlighted Green Ronin's position of importance within the industry".[2]: 377 Chris Pramas designed the "simple class-and-level system" for the game.[2]: 377 Pramas explained that the stunt system originated as "a dynamic critical hit system" where doubles on any of three dice rolled "generated a number of stunt points" which "could be spent on a menu of various maneuvers".[3] He noted that doubles occur "almost 50% of the time" and added "tension in every attack roll" – the popularity of "combat stunts" in playtesting led to the addition of "spell stunts in the initial release" of the game which were then followed by other stunt types such as "roleplaying and exploration stunts".[3]
The game's initial release was as a boxed set including a Player's Guide, Game Master's Guide, map of Ferelden and three dice, and covered characters of levels 1 through 5.[4][5] Pramas believed releasing the game as a boxset would "improve its accessibility".[2]: 377 That year, Green Ronin also released a corresponding Game Master's Kit (2010), which included a gamemaster's screen and an adventure, and the supplement Dragon Age: Blood in Ferelden (2010), which included three full-length adventures and three scenario seeds.[5][6] Dragon Age: Set 2 (2011) and Dragon Age: Set 3 (2014), covering levels 6–10 and 11–20 respectively, were later released.[7][8][2]: 377 The Dragon Age: Duty Unto Death adventure (2013) originated as the module Pramas ran in the Dragon Age episodes for the web series TableTop; Green Ronin then released it as a free PDF.[9]
A single hardcover compilation and update of the rules, titled Dragon Age RPG Core Rulebook, was released in May 2015.[10][11][12] The initial set was based on Dragon Age: Origins, however, the 2015 updated core rulebook "features material from Origins, Dragon Age 2, and Inquisition".[13] The adventure Dragon Age RPG: The Dalish Curse (2016) was released by Green Ronin as a standalone free PDF; it was originally included in Dragon Age: Set 1 which went out of print.[14] On April 9, 2019, Green Ronin released the supplement Faces of Thedas. This sourcebook is dedicated to porting series elements that could not fit in the core rulebook, such as a variety of companion and non-playable characters from the Dragon Age video games, into the table-top game.[15]
BioWare also released two system-neutral lore books, Dragon Age: The World of Thedas Vol. 1 (2013) and Vol. 2 (2015), which included art by Green Ronin's Tyshan Carey.[16][17][18] These were re-released in 2023 as a combined boxset.[19] In 2024, Robin Valentine of PC Gamer noted that while "Green Ronin has ceased supporting the game, and it never really got a lot of releases in the first place", the publisher adapted the system's rules into their Fantasy Age game system.[13] Valentine explained that since "Dragon Age features all sorts of classic fantasy tropes, it's easy to adapt Fantasy Age's many adventures, monsters, and more to it, and keep Thedas alive that way".[13]
