What did you do today in DA? [Spoilers]

Oh, and on the subject of the Western Approach...I'd always thought that banter wasn't supposed to fire there, because it is all a combat zone, or something. Is that right? Because I can't recall ever having banter there, but some fired tonight.

Between Viv and Blackwall - she was wondering about some...thing Bastien had owned and Blackwall knew what she was talking about and that surprised her, to which he replied that he hadn't always been a drifter.

So - is anyone else in the same boat? Is banter in the Approach just not something that is supposed to happen? Or have I been operating under a mistaken assumption and just finally - after 560 hours - got lucky tonight?

Pretty sure banter is supposed to happen everywhere but Val Royeuox. I got stuff for sure from IB, Cass, and Dorian while there.

Iron Bull will talk about Giants and Dragons there, so he seems super talkative to me there.

We saw a dragon, he spoke. Then we killed the giant, he was psyched about that. Then we go kill the Dragon. And e was like, "best day of my life. I love you boss."

But that's planned dialog with set triggers (Location based is a better word in hindsight). Someone is always going to comment on those things. Don't think anyone was cut out of those. 
It was the normal banter that was iffy.  Like Iron Bull talking about bananas or hot chocolate with Blackwall/Varric or Vivienne trash talking Blackwall. It can still trigger, but it's very finicky on when and where.

Then I pulled up DA2 and brought Arkady Hawke through Sebastian's recruitment mission. Anders' grin when we caught Lord Harriman receiving felicitation- Anders, you perv. I'm playing a Qunari disliking demon hating Hawke, so we killed Allure right off the bat. That was more boring than trying to make a deal with her to be honest, which is what I did last time. And Sebastian is pray this pray that now so meh friendship path? ah well. At least he's pretty to look at.

Edit Add: Husband walked in while I was talking to Seb.

*squints* "What is that thing on his belt?"

Me: *bursts out laughing*

Oh god - I so hate the Exalted Plains. It's not, that the map is boring or ugly. It's quite interesting with all the stuff, civil war, undead (The Walking Dead - Thedas Edition ), the Dalish Clan, whom I like a lot etc. But I hate, that there is nearly no way to avoid killing a Halla or some other innocent bystander on four legs with all the enemies around. I think, I killed three Hallas in the last hour (luckily not the Golden Halla - or not, see following comments) - with my Dalish archer (ok, it was Solas, Cassandra and Dorian, who did the killing, but still, I feel guilty).
And the Golden Halla quest: I hate it so much. That stupid creature just keeps running off in the wrong direction. I'm of a mind to just herd her to that rift and the demons nearby. I want to recruit Loranil, so I have to get that uncooperating creature to the camp, otherwise this could be the first Halla, I kill on purpose.
Oh, plus,like some other maps, it's hard to find the quests sometimes because hills show up in all the wrong places. I wish, DAI would be truely open world in the sense, that you can overcome obstacles like hills etc. It's the reason, I left some stuff unfinished in recent playthroughs, because you have to find the operations, you have to unlock to move on to next part of the map. It means a lot of loading screens and mostly too much trouble.

1. I try to eliminate wolves and demons before doing that quest, but one time, I forgot that rift a bit to the right and she run into the demons, I had to reload ...

2. I loved it in Morrowwind that you can go everywhere  - and I mean everywhere. I think it's a general feature with the Elder Scrolls, but I only played Morrowind that much to test the everywhere part

3. Magic Con is a fantasy convention here in Germany. There are actors from different fandoms (even one non-fantasy one this year: Sherlock) like Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings... authors, workshops (like LARP fighting or how to make clothing look used and old), lectures about a lot of interesting stuff and a costume contest. Gaming isn't a big part of that con (we have the RPG Con in Cologne for that), but there are often costumes from games. I already saw a really great Witcher (the guy making that costume is a stuntman and show fighter, so he really can pull off the moves too), a male and female Shephard, a Morrigan, a Flemeth (from DA2/DAI with the really cool hair) and a Varric. I think there where some World of Warcraft ones, but I don't really recognise, what it was exactly since I never played WOW.
I will have costumes from different fandoms: Lady Stark from GoT, Tonks from Harry Potter, Kaylee from Firefly (my favorite) and my new steampunk dress. I will try to make pictures and post them


BTW: the Halla has reached the Dalish camp ... finally . Now I can help Josephine finding out, who killed her messenger.
Oh - I had the second Solasmance related scene. For a guy that old, he really is a bit on the shy side, but it was a nice scene.

deadlydwarf

I do dread that scene a bit (sorry for the pun ), but that will be a while.

I made things a bit more complicated for Inara - now she started flirting with Cullen too. Now I have to decide between Sera, Josie and Cullen (I did neither of the romances so far). We'll have to see how it goes

It's Josephine, I just started her romance, after Leliana gave me 'the speech' . I think, I'll do the Sera romance with Lia, it's a better fit, plus I think, she likes dwarves more than humans.
Did you do all romances by now?

I'm adamant to do the Dorian romance one day. I will even go against my rule and play a male for him. To be honest, he is the character, apart from Varric of course, I'd love romancing the most, unfortunately, I don't like playing male characters in video games (I have no problem playing a male in our pen & paper rounds though), so I have to really get myself convinced.

In MMOs i know many guy, who play with female character, but only a few gamer girl, who play as male (I speak about main characters). This is interesting. I strongly prefer to play as male.

Bethany sends such a whiney passive aggressive letter as a Grey Warden that I am so close to just killing her off every time in the future. She's super boring as a Circle Mage, I thought this would be better. :/ Guess there is more to see yet with a Warden Bethany.

Took Seb, Varric, and Anders to the Tethras Mansion to see if that greedy dwarf had returned to Kirkwall like the rumors had said. But he'd gone nuts and killed everyone as if it was one of those Tevinter Horror Stories. Except Bartrand wasn't a mage, he was just crazy, and we never did find out why it was catching to the hired help. Anders used his magic to give Bartrand a lucid moment and Varric changed his mind about killing him. Arkady isn't particularly murderous or the angry type, so he concurred.

Although, personally, this is my 4th time seeing it and the guy begs to die. Considering he's just locked up in the loony bin come DAI and then never mentioned again, I kinda feel like death is a better outcome for him. Similar to Conner perhaps being better off dead.

Varric is now 100% friended, so I can stop bringing his crappy archery skills around. I'm fond of Varric ,but I don't love him as much as other folks do.