Dragon Age: Faces of Thedas
Mar 27, 2019 9:21:43 GMT
AlleluiaElizabeth, llandwynwyn, and 1 more like this
Post by formerfiend on Mar 27, 2019 9:21:43 GMT
So, for those who don't know, for years now Green Ronin has been publishing a Dragon Age tabletop rpg. And for about three or four years there hasn't been much activity with it, supposedly due to some dispute/discussion with Bioware. This has left two of their announced books, Faces of Thedas & an Inquisition supplement, in development hell for a long time.
However, recently - I'm honestly not sure how recently because I haven't checked up on it in what feels like a year, myself, - they've released Faces of Thedas in PDF form. Print version is as of yet unreleased but they're accepting pre-orders for it.
Faces of Thedas, as the name implies, primarily exists to stat up a number of major & important characters from the Dragon Age universe for use in the game. As a tabletop RPG can take place at any point in time in the setting, characters from all three games are presented for use as allies, quest givers, enemies, and love interests. In addition to the mechanical game stats, the characters include sections advising how to play them, their relationships & insights into their character, and advice on how to advance them mechanically.
Chapter 1 of the book covers the following characters;
Anders - includes stats for Anders both as just a mage as he appears in Awakening and an Abomination as he appears in DA2.
Alistair - focus is on Alistair the King, but also touches on Alistair the Warden & Alistair the drunk.
The Archdemon, the Architech, & the Mother - None of them are actually statted in this book, all having been statted as monsters in previous books. However, this entry includes more detailed information on how to play and present them as characters in your campaign rather than just as boss monsters.
Aveline
Barkspawn/Dog
Briala
Cassandra
Celene
Cole - includes information on playing as an "incarnate spirit", as the term for what Cole is.
Cullen
The Divine Justinia V
Dorian
Duncan - portrayed more as the warrior he was in Origins rather than the rogue he was in the books.
The Feddics
Fiona
Flemeth
Gaspard
Scout Harding
The Iron Bull - Includes a background for playing as a Ben-Hassrath agent, notably the only background that's available to any race, at least off the top of my head. Also includes info on vitaar.
Isabela
Josephine
Meredith - Includes a "what if she survived the Gallows" section as well as information on the Red Lyrium blade.
Krem & the Chargers; Skinner, Rocky, Grim, Stitches, & Dalish
Lord Seeker Lambert
Leliana
Loghain
Marjolaine
Merrill - Includes a background for Dalish mages; actually forgot that the baseline Dalish elf background was warrior/rogue only.
Michel - Includes a sidebar regarding Imshael, explicitly describing him as a desire demon.
Morrigan - Includes a sidebar on Witches of the Wilds & mentions Yavana, but doesn't stat her.
Nathaniel
Oghren
Sebastian
Sera
Sten - Notably focuses more on Sten as he appeared in Origins rather than as Aristen.
Stroud
Varric - His info was actually available for sale as a separate mini-pdf. Includes info on Bianca(the crossbow) & how to upgrade it to keep it mechanically relevant.
Wynne
Yvette - Fun fact, in blog post announcing the book, one of the writers included a subsection headed "Yvette? Really?"
Zevran
And that's it for statted characters from the games & novels, though Tallis received her own free mini-pdf a few years back as something of a proof of concept for this book, which Felicia Day herself helped to write. Notable by their absence are Shale, the Hawke twins, Fenris, the rest of the Awakening crew, Blackwall, Vivienne, & Solas - though I imagine they're saving Solas at least for the hypothetical Inquisition source book they've been quiet about for a long time now.
Characters range from level 1(Dog), level 5(Harding, the chargers except Krem), 10(most everyone), to 15(Alistair, Cullen, Duncan, Fiona, Lambert, Leliana, Loghain, Marjolaine, Meredith, & Morrigan). For context, character progression in the game extends up to 20.
Anora, Celene, Justinia, Josephine, and Yvette don't have classes & are built with high social & knowledge skills with little combat capacity with Celene making up for that with her magical equipment. Sandal is given his own unique class with Enchantment!, and yes they spell it with the exclamation point.
Flemeth is far and away the strongest thing in the book though I've been too lazy to dig through the other books to see how she stacks up against the Archdemon, the Architect, and the Mother.
Chapter 2 of the book focuses on organizations, broken up into five sections; dwarven organizations(The Assembly, the Merchant's Guild, & the Legion of the Dead), outlaws & organized crime(the Carta, the Coterie, & the Raiders of the Waking Sea), Qunari organizations(the Antaam, the Athlok, and the Priesthood), barbarians & rebels(Fog Warriors, Avvars, Chasind), and finally, spies & assassins(House of Crows, House of Repose, Orlesian Bards, & the Friends of Red Jenny).
Chapter 3 introduces a relationship mechanic that establishes a numerical value to the type & intensity of the relationship two characters share; I'm personally not a fan of this type of thing in ttrpgs & haven't gone into it very much.
Anyone else pick this up? Anyone else even aware of it?
Edited to include further information.
However, recently - I'm honestly not sure how recently because I haven't checked up on it in what feels like a year, myself, - they've released Faces of Thedas in PDF form. Print version is as of yet unreleased but they're accepting pre-orders for it.
Faces of Thedas, as the name implies, primarily exists to stat up a number of major & important characters from the Dragon Age universe for use in the game. As a tabletop RPG can take place at any point in time in the setting, characters from all three games are presented for use as allies, quest givers, enemies, and love interests. In addition to the mechanical game stats, the characters include sections advising how to play them, their relationships & insights into their character, and advice on how to advance them mechanically.
Chapter 1 of the book covers the following characters;
Anders - includes stats for Anders both as just a mage as he appears in Awakening and an Abomination as he appears in DA2.
Alistair - focus is on Alistair the King, but also touches on Alistair the Warden & Alistair the drunk.
The Archdemon, the Architech, & the Mother - None of them are actually statted in this book, all having been statted as monsters in previous books. However, this entry includes more detailed information on how to play and present them as characters in your campaign rather than just as boss monsters.
Aveline
Barkspawn/Dog
Briala
Cassandra
Celene
Cole - includes information on playing as an "incarnate spirit", as the term for what Cole is.
Cullen
The Divine Justinia V
Dorian
Duncan - portrayed more as the warrior he was in Origins rather than the rogue he was in the books.
The Feddics
Fiona
Flemeth
Gaspard
Scout Harding
The Iron Bull - Includes a background for playing as a Ben-Hassrath agent, notably the only background that's available to any race, at least off the top of my head. Also includes info on vitaar.
Isabela
Josephine
Meredith - Includes a "what if she survived the Gallows" section as well as information on the Red Lyrium blade.
Krem & the Chargers; Skinner, Rocky, Grim, Stitches, & Dalish
Lord Seeker Lambert
Leliana
Loghain
Marjolaine
Merrill - Includes a background for Dalish mages; actually forgot that the baseline Dalish elf background was warrior/rogue only.
Michel - Includes a sidebar regarding Imshael, explicitly describing him as a desire demon.
Morrigan - Includes a sidebar on Witches of the Wilds & mentions Yavana, but doesn't stat her.
Nathaniel
Oghren
Sebastian
Sera
Sten - Notably focuses more on Sten as he appeared in Origins rather than as Aristen.
Stroud
Varric - His info was actually available for sale as a separate mini-pdf. Includes info on Bianca(the crossbow) & how to upgrade it to keep it mechanically relevant.
Wynne
Yvette - Fun fact, in blog post announcing the book, one of the writers included a subsection headed "Yvette? Really?"
Zevran
And that's it for statted characters from the games & novels, though Tallis received her own free mini-pdf a few years back as something of a proof of concept for this book, which Felicia Day herself helped to write. Notable by their absence are Shale, the Hawke twins, Fenris, the rest of the Awakening crew, Blackwall, Vivienne, & Solas - though I imagine they're saving Solas at least for the hypothetical Inquisition source book they've been quiet about for a long time now.
Characters range from level 1(Dog), level 5(Harding, the chargers except Krem), 10(most everyone), to 15(Alistair, Cullen, Duncan, Fiona, Lambert, Leliana, Loghain, Marjolaine, Meredith, & Morrigan). For context, character progression in the game extends up to 20.
Anora, Celene, Justinia, Josephine, and Yvette don't have classes & are built with high social & knowledge skills with little combat capacity with Celene making up for that with her magical equipment. Sandal is given his own unique class with Enchantment!, and yes they spell it with the exclamation point.
Flemeth is far and away the strongest thing in the book though I've been too lazy to dig through the other books to see how she stacks up against the Archdemon, the Architect, and the Mother.
Chapter 2 of the book focuses on organizations, broken up into five sections; dwarven organizations(The Assembly, the Merchant's Guild, & the Legion of the Dead), outlaws & organized crime(the Carta, the Coterie, & the Raiders of the Waking Sea), Qunari organizations(the Antaam, the Athlok, and the Priesthood), barbarians & rebels(Fog Warriors, Avvars, Chasind), and finally, spies & assassins(House of Crows, House of Repose, Orlesian Bards, & the Friends of Red Jenny).
Chapter 3 introduces a relationship mechanic that establishes a numerical value to the type & intensity of the relationship two characters share; I'm personally not a fan of this type of thing in ttrpgs & haven't gone into it very much.
Anyone else pick this up? Anyone else even aware of it?
Edited to include further information.
