Vengeance Before Healing

Session 4: Vengeance Before Healing

Cast of the Party

• +Chris C.  played Ectur, a harden soldier.  
• +Ken H  played Brytan Nargald, a stealthy scout.
• +Rob Conley played Sethre, a battle apostate.
• Anders, NPC tranquil.

Quick Explanation of Stunts

A quick note on the stunts I mention.  Dragon Age is a 3d6 system.  A stunt occurs when someone rolls higher than the target number and at least two of the dice are the same.  They get a number of points equal to their Dragon die.  On-line we decide the last of the d6s was the dragon die.  So if Chris rolled a 4-5-5, he gets 5 stunt points to spent.  Stunts are special effects that have an assigned cost.  

Then Came the Spiders

The giant with a dragon's head walked out of the rift and Brytan shot the creature with his bow, praying it would have some effect.  The arrow struck the scaly hide and shattered.  It moved its head to look in his direction and opened its mouth.  It spewed out five giant spiders that fell to the ground and scurried toward Brytan. 

One surprise to the group was when the spider hit it wasn't poison, but rather the spider's poison attack was considered a stunt.  They had plenty of opportunities to experience it.   While they battle the spiders the dragon giant headed deeper into the forest.  The party was injured, especially Brytan who took the brunt of the attacks.

They debated then decided not to track the dragon giant directly.  It left a trail of giant spiders behind it.  They decided to go east toward the main road and then try to intercept it farther north.  They noticed the rift had shrunk to the size of the plate, but remained.  

As they moved east they encountered a makeshift fort.  Wood walls 10' high.  Two men on a open platform tower.  Both were drinking.  One wore a Roman a partial Roman uniform.  The party opted for a sneak attack and shot at the two on the tower.  Nearly killing one.  Two other bandits rushed out of the fort to attack and the party made quick work of them.  Ectur dressed in his bronze armor laughed as their feeble attacks sparked off his armor.  

The leader of the group, the one dressed in the Roman attire tried to escape, but they tracked him blood in the snow and killed him.  It was discovered these men were Resenna.  Etruscans who turned their backs on their own people and allied with the Romans.  Ectur found a not from one of the Resenna leaders, Nasia, on the leader, confirming their alliance.  

The party made camp in the fort, finding it surprisingly comfortable.  The reclaimed the alchemy supplies and potions for their tranquil companion, Anders.  They found a stash of 20 healing potions and 6 lyrium potions.  

We ended it there for the night and they earned a level moving to 4th level.  

Session Notes

A couple of common sense rulings were made during the session.  Chris tried to taunt a spider during combat.  I ruled the spider couldn't be 'taunted' but we would call it distracting.  A spider is n't going to react to "Your mother smells like elderberries". 

One of the spiders hit Ectur and stunted.  I decided the spider would do a poisonous bite stunt.  When it rolled damage it failed to get through his armor.  So I ruled since no damage was done no poison was transferred.

I like the fact that the monsters, spiders' poison attack is a stunt action.

Weather came into play.  With the continuous winter the players were able to track the bandit leader with easy.  

We are really enjoying the system.  I'm enjoying running the game.  There is a lot of strategy to keep their heads above water.  

Blood Sacrifices

Session 2.5 & 3: Blood Sacrifices 

Cast of the Party

• +Rob Conley as Sethre, an apostate.
• +Chris C.  played Ectur, a harden soldier.  
• +Ken H  played Brytan Nargald, a stealthy scout.
• Thadius was an NPC run by me.  Their former military commander.
• Jia another NPC, she is an apostate.

Not all games start with the players in one area.  Or time for that matter.  Ectur and Brytan have been adventuring north for the past two weeks, they ended their last adventure at Udine among the Etruscan apostates.

Sethre awakens, sore and confused.  He's in the forest.  His feet and hands are bound.  From somewhere behind him is a green, pulsating glow.  He can hear people talking.  Chanting...chanting is never good.

He looks around him and sees two other Etruscan soldiers bound like him. Heavy boots crunching the fallen leaves from behind.  He fakes unconsciousness and stifles a gasp when he sees a Roman soldier walk up to one the soldiers, lift him by the hair and slit his throat before throwing him over his shoulder.

Sethre awakens the other soldier, Marce.  They work together to become free.  The heavy boots return and this time they ambush the Roman.  Sethre kills the soldier with an expertly place arcane bolt.  After loots the Roman, Sethre discovers the Roman is not a Roman but an Etruscan.

They move to the edge of the forest and see a rift in the veil.  A blood mage is chanting over a pedestal.  An unnatural rock arch formation where bodies are stacked and the blood is dripping down onto the pedestal.  Another 'Roman' soldier is shouting for his friend.

The players attack.  The ceremony needs the blood of nine men to complete.  Seven have died.  During the fight, Marce kills the Roman soldier on the archway, his blood joins the others.  Eight.  Sethre damages the blood mage to brink of death door.  The blood mage pulls out his dagger and sacrifices himself on the pedestal.  Nine.

The anchor ceremony is complete and the rift is stabilized.  Tendrils reach out from the rift and attack.  Sethre gets pulled into the veil, not knowing the fate of Marce.  Inside the veil he struggles to free himself.  He sees a room of men sitting eating, talking to the apostates.  He reaches out for them and silently shouts for help.

Inside the monastery of apostates, Ectur, Brytan, Thadius and Jai eat.  They are discussing their plans as the apostates have politely asked them to move on.  Thadius becomes sick, the apostates quickly see that he has been infected with the dark taint.  They rush him to the infirmary.  He's in the right place.

"Help."

They hear a whisper of a voice.  They don't see anything at first, but then green tendrils form out of the wall and grab at them.  A battle begins.  Ectur and Brytan manage to get Sethre out, but both of them are swallowed up in it.  After a few pressure rolls they escaped before the rift closed.

They took time to recount what occurred.  Thadius and Jai remained behind.  Anders went with them.  While a tranquil will not fight, he is a proven alchemist and if nothing else the party decided he could carry stuff.

They decided to return to where the rift was located.  Brytan used his tracking to find the location and the dead body and glow of the rift announced they had arrived.  They took in the scene and Sethre understood the pedestal was an anchor to stabilize the rift to allow it to remain open.  They attacked the pedestal and more tendrils reached out for them and they fought them back as they smashed the pedestal.  A large scaly hand reached out of the rift.  As they fought and frantically fought off tendril and destroying the pedestal a 15' tall bi-pedal creature with a head of a dragon stepped out.

End of the session.

Funeral Games

Last night I GMed my first session using a mix of ancient Roman history and Dragon Age system and mythos.  The party were playing Etruscans, their City of Veii is burning and war is lost.  Now they are to return home and salvage what they can.  

Cast:

• +Chris C. played Ectur, a harden soldier.  
• +Ken H played Brytan Nargald, a stealthy scout.
• Thadius was an NPC run by me.  Their former military commander.
• Jia another NPC, she is an apostate.

To Honor a Friend

Thadius gave the order to disband, but asked Ectur and Brytan, since they are from the same village, to help him return a friend and bury him with honor.  Both agreed.  They were returning the body to Albanum.  A village where the soldiers that stole their food are from.  Ectur was on guard that night when he was attacked and overwhelmed by three of them.  He did suffer that defeat lightly.

Empty Stomachs

Because of that theft of food the party had to decide what they were going to do for food.  Traveling in harsh winter weather was brutal even with supplies.  They decided to tough it out until they reached Albanum.  The village was a day away. 

Don't Kill the Messenger

A few hours into the trek they were surprised to see a Roman messenger riding from the north.  The took a few bow shots at him.  Wounding him, but it wasn't until Ectur lept on his horse and shot his bow from there did the messenger fall from his saddle.  

They Killed the Messenger

Brytan quickly dispatched the Roman messenger, and looted him.  He found a disturbing message.

Ectur took care of the messenger's horse and added it to their short list of resources.  They head off again toward Albanum.  Jia begins to show signs of sickness as the fatigue and hunger were overtaking her.  

Entering Albanum

By nightfall they reached Albanum.  Ectur recognized two of the men at the gate as the men who stole their food, but says nothing.  They speak to the elder of the village, Lucanus.  Lucanus is very pleased they have brought home their brother and that the party agreed to honor him with funeral games.

Funeral Games

Brytan fought Thadius and was handily trounced.  The former commanding officer is kinda a bad ass.  And then Ectur drew the lot of facing Vargus, a larger man who was part of the thieving.  Ectur put a little extra effort into his strikes, driving the big man back, cutting swaths of flesh from his body until Vargus fell to a knee and gave the missio, the sign of surrender.  Ectur pointed his blade at him and called him out on his thievery.

Honor and Forgiveness

This accusation disturbed Lucanus and he wanted an explanation.  After hearing of the stolen food, Lucanus promised to correct this.  Later that evening Vargus arrived at the party's doorstep carrying 20 days of rations in a sack.  He came with his three daughters.  It was his attempt to show Ectur why he had done what he had done, but understood it was unacceptable all the same.  Ectur took the offer and gave each of the three children a ration of food.

End of Session

Dragon Age Game Summary With Stats

I got back from running my Dragon Age game.  The cool thing was when I arrived Dwayne and Rob were doing a mock combat with one another.  They were going to stop, but I told them to keep going, it would help with seeing how the combat and magic works.  We worked out a couple of tweaks during the sample combat before getting down to the game.

The Setup 
The premise of the adventure is the players have exhausted the income, the innkeeper is giving them the stink eye.  In comes Grugar, the local swill merchant who they shared many stories over the week, bloodied and battered.  The Corigs, a local bandit group, stole his supply of Grugar's Best and killed Butter, his donkey.   

• What the players don't know is Grugar has been selling to the Corigs for months.  He marks up his price and makes a tidy profit.  He and the leader of the bandits, a man named Chode, was always reasonable, but this time he was different and nearly killed Grugar.

Alternative or Additional Setup
Zacarus, a bann (think low knight), returns from the road with a group of soldiers, they look like they've been in a fight.  He warns the players about the Corigs and how they are being more bold in their attacks.  He also drops a hint about he'll pay for armor and weapons salvaged from the bandits.

• What the players don't know is Zacarus has already infiltrated the Corigs with his own guy, a mercenary named Irrow, who is posing to be a bandit.  Zacarus believes one or more of his soldiers are working for the Corigs.

Heading on Down the Road
The players encounter Grugar's broken and burnt cart with poor Butter, dead on the road.  There was nothing to salvage so they followed a fairly obvious path up a hill to an abandon hill fort.  A single-story structure with no obvious doors or windows.  But they heard snoring.  Rob tip-toed up to  where the bandits were storing barrels. Behind the barrel, he found a sleeping bandit.  Rob laid on him.  An unusual technique and I wasn't sure where he was taking this, but the tactic worked and the bandit showed them where the secret door was and even showed them how to lock and unlock the pit trap.

• The party could have recruited the bandit to help, but they chose to run him off.  Which he did the drunken stagger run away. 
• They also left his mace and leather armor behind valued at 42sp total.  Zacarus would have paid 21sp for the equipment.  

Drunken, Gambling Bandits
Once inside they party threw tactics to the wind and charged into combat with three gambling bandits.  Dwayne's mage torched all three of them and Rob hacked at the leader.  A few round later the fight was over, but one of the bandits alerted others in a room just at the end of the corridor.  No time to think or loot because the rest of the bandits...

• The party left behind 2 mauls, long sword, 3 throwing knives, 2 heavy leather armor and 1 light mail armor, leaving behind a total of 196sp worth of equipment, Zacarus would have given them 50% of the value so the left 98sp behind.  They also did not find the key in the lieutenant's boot.

Bumrushed
A half dozen drunken bandits charged into battle.  And still in the room Dwayne's mage spotted a man dressed in a guard uniform.  During the battle the warrior went down, but the mage stunted on a heal spell and was able to do it again, reviving the fallen warrior to nearly complete health.  After this the battle turned against the bandits and they were hacked down.

• The party left behind 6 maces, 6 heavy leathers worth 252sp, 50% of which they could be paid 126sp.

The Guard and the Booze
When the party entered the main room they found the guard cowering behind crates of Grugar's Finest.  Two dozen crates in all.   The party bullied the guard into stripping and throwing down his weapons.  The intended to rest, hoping to recover some health and mana...

But Along Came Irrow
 A well-muscled man stepped out of the door, he wore no shirt revealing his upper body was covered in scars.  He asked what the party was doing here.  The mage and the warrior attacked.  During the battle Irrow insisted they could talk instead of fight and that it might be best for them.  It wasn't until the warrior saw Irrow's wounds heal that he decided to have a chat.  Irrow exchanged information, he was not on of the bandits, but a mercenary.  He told them how many bandits remained, but told them it might be wiser to grab the booze they came for and go.  Also warned them from going downstairs after Chode.  The party ended up hiring on Irrow to help carry the booze back to town and also enlisted the guard to help.  They managed to return with 16 crates because they had no good way of transporting everything.

• What the party did not know is Irrow wore a magic ring that allows him to heal 1d6hp/Magic score once per day.  He had a 3 Magic and rolled very well. 
• The party left behind a total of 8 crates of Grugar's best, he would have paid 6sp for each case for a total of 48sp.

Back in Town
The party returns the booze to Grugar who is very thankful.  The party also turns in the guard to Zacarus.  And about now is when they figure out Irrow was working with Zacarus.  Grugar pays them a total of 100sp, but they promised to give Irrow half, so they received 50sp.

To Retain or To Bid on Jobs
Zacarus was pleased with the outcome and liked that these two handled themselves so well against so many bandits.  He asked if they would like to be retained with him or if they chose they could be hired per job.  The mage and the warrior discussed it a but.  Zacarus also threw in if they were retained they could get food and shelter at the castle.  And to sweeten the pot more, he offered to retain them just for the month, to see if it was agreeable to them.  The party agreed.

Adventure Stats
The party killed...
2 bandit thugs
6 bandit raiders
1 bandit lieutenant

The party captured or released...
1 bandit thug
1 guard

Total money left behind...
 293sp

There party explored...
4 out of 9 possible locations on the first floor
0 out of 5 possible locations on the second floor

Characters that died...
None damn it, but almost

The Day Butter Died, a Dragon Age Adventure

I'm leaving here in about 15 minutes to GM a Dragon Age game.  Looking forward to test driving this system.  I got my 3d6s ready to roll.  I expect deaths today.  The adventure I created is not to be completed in one session or at least at low level.  If the party tries to clear out the area they will probably find themselves assuming room temperature. 

Instead of using a canned adventure I went ahead and made my own, The Day Butter Died.  I learn systems by writing adventures and playing them.  I'm the one running it so I wrote this.  The other reason, is I like the practice of how to layout different systems.  How will it look in print.  Dragon Age has larger stat blocks, maybe not as 3.5, but they do take up a significant amount of space.

I used their style of stat block in the Core book instead of the box sets.  The box sets stat blocks were clumsy, these are better. 

Okay, off to kill some PCs.  Wish me luck.

Dragon Age and Caramel, the True Secret to Adventure Writing

Back at the bookstore, nearly hit a randm tire in the middle of the highway doing 70.  I was doing 70, not the random tire.  Working on the Dragon Age adventure for Sunday.  One of the the fun things working with a new system there is that feel of the unknown.  This is the first time I've ever used a 'canned' world.  Rob is not a fan of the world, Dwayne likes the system.  So Rob can suck it.

I'm writing a simple adventure with a twist using the built in Dragon Age history.  Part of why I'm enjoying this so much is researching the history.  One of my favorite things to do it take a group, event, era in history and find the room to put my own spin to them.  Just a little.  A not so reputable bandit who makes a difference in the outcome during the Second Blight.  Develop a little local folklore.  And a group/cult that still worships the Old Gods.  Fucking hell, it's fun.

Ivy just brought me my Coma by Caramel drink.  Time to get to work.  Peace out this Friday night, enjoy some dice and adventure.  It's weekend time.  Not work allowed.

Falling into Thedas (Starting a New Game, New System)

This weekend we are going to start our monthly face-to-face game.  I'd like to do it at least every other weekend, but let's see if we can even manage the once a month gathering.  I'll be running a Dragon Age session using the Core book.  I was going to use the quickstart rules, but all the players bought the PDF of the core rulebook so I'll run with that.

Last night I was prepping the session at the bookstore and one of the things I do to help me learn a system is create characters.  In this case NPCs.  The book has a lot of good pre-made stat blocks included, but there are a quite a few NPCs I wanted to flesh out.  So far I've made an elven apostate and a Antivan Wayfarer who is a ban (or knight) at Redcliffe.  There are a few more I want done before Sunday.

I'm using the background of Dragon Age, I bought the two books from Dark Horse comics to help explain the history and of course I've been playing the hell out of Inquisition.  I like the background, their take on mages and the ever looming threat of the BIG enemy, darkspawn.

What I intend to do is slice off a small section of the world, and as I mentioned already, it will include the Village of Redcliffe, and build an adventure sandbox around Redcliffe and the immediate area.  I've got a general main adventure tumbling around in my head, but I want to build some side adventures, or options if the players don't bite on the main hook. I like giving my players the option on how they would like to die.  I am generous in that way.

So on my to-do list is, make more NPCs, sketch out the main plot, develop a few side stories, a few that connect with the main plot and a few that are independent, reread the combat and magic rules for the 12th time and then maybe draw up some maps if I have time.

If the game goes well I hope to run it on-line in a Google hangout in the future.  I don't want all this Dragon Age knowledge to go to waste.

Dragon Age One or Two Shot

I continue to tinker with the Dragon Age setting and AGE ruleset.  I'm enjoying the process and like the system.  of course I won't know exactly how much I like it or not like it until it gets played.  I'm using the box sets in this case, primarily the first one.  When the big book becomes available I'll snag a copy.  (although I heard they used a crappy binding and that makes me nervous for such a big book!)

I've read through the first box set a few times.  I'm trying to get a better grasp on the setting of Dragon Age, Thedas.  I don't think I've ever used a ready made setting before.  I like the setting, lots of cultures clashing, political intrigue, class/race wars and a big enemy, the darkspawn.  That's a good start.  It's a dense setting, meaning you can get a lot of play out of a small area.  So you don't need to be an expert about the whole setting.

I'm focusing my adventure in the Red Cliffe Village.  A simple enough adventure with what I hope interesting encounters and a twist or two.  The first short adventure is called, "The Day Butter Died".  I won't explain the title or adventure until after I've playtested it. 

There will be a few rule changes.  I'll list the changes in a later post. 

The one thing that has been challenging and this is from a layout point of view, is formatting the stat blocks is difficult and they take up a lot of room.  Usually I'll do my own version, but I haven't found a way to format them differently and providing the same information. 

But those are the challenges I love to have.  I know a few of you have posted that you've played in the Dragon Age game I was curious if there were any problems that you ran into?

It's Been One Crap Ass Week

I won't go into all the arguments that have occurred in the past couple of weeks.  Seems like things are settling down and of course when one of these dust ups occurs nothing changes and no one changes their mind.  Just happens.  Happens in all sections of life.  Work, home and here on the blogosphere people get irritated and pissy.

So here it is Free RPG Day, I was not feeling all that enthusiastic about it to begin with, but damn it I wasn't going to miss it.  I wanted to get my commemorative d6.  And who knows I might actually meet a cool gamer or two.  So into the game store I go (I won't mention the name because I am not going to be too nice here in a few) and at the counter is the gaming guy.  This store is mainly a book store, but it has a decent gaming section and he is in charge of it.  This gaming guy is about as irritating as they come.  He's one of those I have an opinion on everything especially about the things I don't know about.  If you've been to the moon, he's been there twice.

He's talking to two other gamers.  "Goodman Games DCC is crap.  He's trying to be all 'old school'"  He did that little finger quote thing when he said old school.  "The OSR is such lame shit."

Ya know, I try to be a nice guy.  I really do, but sometimes things just don't work out.  So I ask gamer guy, "Have you ever played any of the old school games or the clones?"

Without a beat "No.  Don't see the point.  If they were any good WotC would still be publishing them."

Now there are so many things wrong with that statement I stood there for a second hoping he would laugh or give me the gotcha sign or something.  Nope.  Dead serious.  Now, like this recent fray on the blogs, I knew speaking with gamer guy would be like going into a deep mineshaft without a lantern.  No chance of changing his mind.  So instead I addressed the two gamers.

"If you guys are interested at all in playing some old school style gaming you can download the rules for free.  *gave them S&W, LL, and Osric were the ones I could remember*  There is a game just south of here we play twice a month, your welcome to join in any time you feel like it.  It's a great time.  If you don't like it it won't cost ya a thing."  Also gave them my email if they had any questions.

The two guys were interested, gave them some gaming blogs to read.  I am not sure if that was the best thing considering the rants of late.  The gamer guy actually tried to grab the paper I gave them.  WTF  Luckily the goof has the dexterity of a dog turd and nearly fell down.  The two other guys laughed at him and left.  Said they would give it a look.

So now I am alone with gamer guy.  He's pissed and I still didn't get to pick any of my free stuff yet.  This was going to go well.  I am thinking, I'm going to get arrested today.  And to tell you the truth, I was in a mood where I was okay with that. 

Fast forward ten minutes after looking at some other gaming stuff.  I ended up buying Pazio's Misfit Monsters.  They always do a great job.  Luckily for me and my arrest record gamer guy's shift was over and the owner lady took over.  I didn't say anything about what happened to the owner because the gamer guy is her nephew.  I ended up getting the Dragon Age quick start and Goodman Games DCC.  What I failed to get. and one of the main things I wanted was a commemorative d6 for this year's Free RPG day.  I'd gotten one for the past four years. 

So as I end this I will make a small plea to my readers who may have gotten an extra d6, if you would like to trade for it or get a copy of something I wrote or you just want a little RPGNow credit I would love to trade for that elusive d6.

So with that, I am going to turn this week around damn it.  I have the rest of the day off, I need to get ready for the start of a new campaign I am GMing and Netflix is brimming with stuff I could watch until my bones turn to dust.

Dragon Age Review

Last weekend I had a 40% Borders coupon burning in my hand. The nearest Borders is about 45 minutes away, but I make that trip regularly and did so armed with a coupon and a thirst for a carmel javanilla with shot of espresso (this bad boy is not on the list you have to order it which I highly recommend). As I drove there I was thinking of what I could get. I wanted a gaming book by god, but the problem was most of the RPG selection is 4th edition D&D. No edition war here, I've got the core books and a couple modules and played it enough to know 4th edition is not for me. The other books they usually have are a few WoD selections. Again, not for me. They did have a copy of Mutants and Masterminds last time, but superhero RPGs, eh.

I went hoping to find something of interest. I knew I wasn't coming out empty handed. I walked over to the RPG section and found the usual array of books then say a box edition of Dragon Age. It was $30 so with my coupon in cost a little under $20 which was defiantly in my price range to explore another game system (like I need another).

Armed with my carmel javanilla I grabbed my favorite table at the cafe and open the box. First off, it is based off the video game which I have never player, but I do have a 360 and I'm not afraid to use it. So I may in the future. I'll also add I have not played Dragon Age. I've only created a few characters and when through a mock combat. So this review is based off of how it presents itself and reads.

Anyway, inside the box is a Player's Guide, Gamemaster's Guide, a map of their campaign world and three d6s. First off the guides present well, the artwork is excellent and the layout is easy to follow and read. The map is a little boring for my tastes. It doesn't earn the privilege to be laminated and hung on my wall. And the three d6s. More dice. Enough said. Two black and one green die, the dragon die, and that is very important to the game.

I dove into the Player's Guide first and Dragon Age records stats by rolling three d6 like most games, but then you only record your modifier and toss the actual number you rolled. So if you rolled a 15 you would record it as +3. Your stats get modified as you develop your character. This is done because Dragon Age is run off of challenges. Within each of the eight attributes there are focuses which increase a player's chance of succeeding a challenge by two.

Races permitted are human, dwarf or elf. Classes permitted Mage, Rogue and Warrior. I found it interesting they had no cleric class. Healing is done with the Mage class. The one thing I really liked was how the Mage class was run with Mana Points. So this allows the class to be much more useful at lower levels and from what I can tell pretty damn potent. There is a selection of Backgrounds a player selects from and then you roll to give your character background abilities and a random bonus. These are directly connected with the campaign world within Dragon Age so it will take some work to tweak these if you decide to use this system outside their world.

The Game Master's Guide is a concise mixture of generic gaming advice, how to resolve dice rolls, a small selection of creatures and magic items and it finishes with a short sample adventure.

I doubt I would ever run a Dragon Age campaign. I may try to run a pickup game once in a while with it. When I made a character for the first time it took about 30 minutes which means once I get used to the system I could probably finish one on 15 minutes which is great. I do like the culture backgrounds and the random bonus you can get which I will probably implement in my campaign. Even though there are only three races and three classes you combine them with the different backgrounds and there are a lot of options to keep the characters interesting.

This offering from Green Ronin Publishing is a solid product and from my gaming wallet worth the $20 dollar price tag, but I wouldn't have paid $30 for it. The system has some interesting bits to it and a relatively easy learning curve. A group could buy Dragon Age in the afternoon and have a full blown game going before supper. I think the biggest weakness that I see in the product is the setting. There is nothing new in the world of Dragon Age. It is a reworking of fantasy standards. There is no 'wow' factor to use the setting. However, there are plenty of good bits to pick from to add to a homebrewed campaign.

ADDITION at TimeShadows request:
First one is the Apostate. Here are the bonus abilities you get:
- Add 1 to your Willpower ability.
- Pick one of the following focuses: Cunning (Natural Lore)or Willpower (Self-Discipline).
- Can be Human or Elf.
- Can speak and read Trade Tongue.
- Mage Class

Then there is the random table for benefits. There is one for an elf and one for being human. I really like this addition and am planning on doing something similar with my campaign.

2d6 Elf
2 +1 Cunning
3-4 Speak Elven
5 Focus: Cultural Lore
6 Focus: Self-Discipline
7-8 +1 Magic
9 Focus: Stealth
10-11 +1 Dex
12 Weapon Group: Bows

2d6 Human
2 +1 Constitution
3-4 Focus: Stamina
5 Focus: Self-Discipline
6 Focus: Healing
7-8 +1 Magic
9 Focus: Riding
10-11 Focus: Deception
12 +1 Cunning

These are outlaw mages. The Chantry Templars hunt the Apostates. So the real disadvantage of playing a character with this background is you will need to be discreet with your magic use lest the Templars gobble you up.