Character Backgrounds in the PnP Dragon Age; I Reflect on Lack of Lore

Interesting for what's included and what's not relative to the CRPG. Note that this list is from "Set 1" only--presumably there will be more backgrounds with further expansions, which range beyond Ferelden, the game's opening setting:

Backgrounds represent your culture and upbringing and there are seven to choose from in Set 1: Apostate, Avvarian Hillsman, Circle Mage, City Elf, Dalish Elf, Fereldan Freeman, and Surface Dwarf.

Read the rest of the character creation design diary here

As I mentioned before, I'm eager to see this come out because I need the lore. The codex items are really great, but they give you only snippets of Thedas's history, geography, etc.--there are lots of gaps to fill. I'm sure by this time next year there will be a number of DA historians, like there are for the Realms. While I am very comfortable winging it when writing mods and giving free rein to invention, I'd like to work within the parameters of established lore, at least so that I may avoid conflict with the busybodied Thedan/Thedasian (sp? Who knows! You see what I mean) sages of the future and whatever DLC/expansions Bioware has planned.

Maid Marian

I'm also dipping in to Thomas Love Peacock's Maid Marian. I'm a Peacock fan already, and I'm finding his take on the Robin Hood tale fun--More Men in Tights than Prince of Thieves.

An ironic description of an abbey:

The abbey of Rubygill stood in a picturesque valley, at a little distance from the western boundary of Sherwood forest, in a spot which seemed adapted by nature to be the retreat of monastic mortification, being on the banks of a fine trout-stream, and in the midst of woodland coverts, abounding with excellent game.

An inconveniently interrupted marriage ceremony:

The abbot began to intone the ceremony in a style of modulation impressively exalted, his voice issuing most canonically from the roof of his mouth, through the medium of a very musical nose newly tuned for the occasion. But he had not proceeded far enough to exhibit all the variety and compass of this melodious instrument, when a noise was heard at the gate, and a party of armed men entered the chapel. The song of the choristers died away in a shake of demisemiquavers, contrary to all the rules of psalmody.

Demisemiquavers! V. funny. And then there is this good line when Marian's father is remonstrating with her confessor:

Will you cast out the devil whose name is Legion, when you cannot cast out the imp whose name is Love?

I'd like to see the equal of that in a game some day.

5 Million

From Kotaku:

BioWare breaks EA web-traffic records as the developer's community swells to more than 5 million registered users in the wake of the release of Dragon Age and the shadow of Mass Effect 2.

Nice. I wonder how many of these are console gamers, how many are PCs, and how many are there for Dragon Age? In any case the numbers are impressive and encouraging for DA:O modders. Even if a smallish fraction of these 5 million (and presumably this number will grow) is a PC DA:O fan, we're looking at a much bigger and perhaps more enthusiastic audience than we're used to. With a lot of people using the forums and social site (which has had more than 500,000 signups, according to the same post), there's also the chance for more exposure.

Speaking of enthusiastic audiences, I saw the Pixies at the Hammerstein Ballroom last night. It was amazing. Photo below courtesy of friend's iPhone.

The Adventures of Robin Hood

A lot of people seem to like the Black Fox idea so far, though some have had reservations--many of which I share. I'll cover these in another post. But for now, I'm letting my imagination run away with the idea, though I've certainly not committed to it yet.

The codex item in DA:O is pretty obviously loosely based on the adventures of Robin Hood. My imagination is a very feeble thing, at least as far as making things up out of thin air goes--if it has any strength it is associative and adaptive. Accordingly I decided I ought to look into the Robin Hood source material for a start; but what *is* Robin Hood source material? I went to Barnes & Noble to look around, but the only things they had were in the children's literature section--so I looked there, because something's better than nothing. (The guy who helped me also told me there's another Robin Hood movie coming out? With Russell Crowe?) I came across The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green, which suited me just fine.



For one, it may have been intended for the adolescents of 1956, when it was published, but the note by the author which serves as introduction is better reading for literature nerds like me:

My first four chapters show perhaps the most varied example of this method of literary mosaic. Chapters 5 to 15 follow almost entirely the Lyttel Geste and the Ballads, but with selection and a certain amount of conflation and regrouping. Chapter 16 uses two scenes of George-a-Greene; Chapter 17 combines a ballad with a chapter of Peacock; Chapter 18 is based on The Sad Shepherd (but with my own ending, since that made by F. G. Waldron in the eighteenth century seemed inadequate; the final song alone is Waldron's); Chapter 19 combines two ballads...[etc., etc.]

Anyway, it seems that Robin Hood itself is a heterogeneous mix of tales--there really is no single work which serves as its source. I think I'll play with this, in some way, if I end up doing a Black Fox mod. For one thing, I'm almost entirely convinced now that the mod would have to be a string of individual episodes. This is not only easier to do from a technical standpoint--shorter mods = shorter development time = less risk of burnout--but the episodic nature of the adventures of Robin Hood/the Black Fox also make it a no-brainer.

Green Ronin Dragon Age PnP RPG

I'm looking forward to this, more so from what lore I hope is included than I am from the perspective of a tabletop player or GM. Not that I'm against tabletopping it--there are just too many systems out there, and so little time to get things together with willing folks (never mind unwilling folks). Anyway, here's some relatively recent news from Green Ronin (the company also responsible for the RPG based on George R. R. Martin's books):

I should also mention that as of the writing of this design diary (November 19, 2009), the game itself is finished and in BioWare's hands for approval. Once everything is approved, we'll do a PDF release and send it to print. It shouldn't be long now!

The design diary itself is very interesting, and includes information about a unique (as far as I know) mechanic called a "dragon die":

Many tests in Dragon Age are pass/fail so you either succeed or you don't. Sometimes, though, it matters how well you succeed, and that's where the Dragon Die comes in. The Dragon Die is a major feature of the game and I'll talk more about its applications later. What you need to know for the moment, however, is that when you make an ability test, you need to designate one of your 3d6 as the Dragon Die (usually by using a different colored die than the other two). If you succeed on the test, the result of the Dragon Die measures the degree of success. So a 1 means you just made it and a 6 means you did it spectacularly. The Dragon Die is also key to the game's stunt system, but I'll cover that in another design diary.

Go here to read the rest.

Poll! Poll! Poll!

Let me know what you think I should do next. While I get the ropes of the new toolset and finish playing Dragon Age, it'd be good to have some sort of plan to cogitate. A brief description of some of the options:

"The Birthday" is a mod for NWN2 that most of you are probably familiar with. If I were to convert it to DA:O, I would have a lot of the hard stuff already done! Choose this if you think I need a trial run on the toolset before taking on a big project. Also: Should I convert it wholesale, or should I try to fit it into the lore of Thedas? It truly wouldn't be that difficult, I think.

"Adventures of the Black Fox" is a codex item you find in DA:O. Here's the thing in full:

Born Lord Remi Vascal in 8:63 Blessed, the Black Fox was a dashing thief and rogue who went on to inspire so many tales of his exploits that it is nearly impossible to determine today which are true and which are merely fabricated legend. Despite coming from nobility, he has become something of a hero of the common people.

His initial exploits involved ridiculing the tyrannical and powerful lord of Val Chevin. Wearing a mask, he would appear in public and disrupt the lord's plans to the point that the lord angrily put a huge bounty on the life of "this cunning fox" (the origin of the nickname, which stuck). That the primary bounty hunter who took the job, Karolis, ended up becoming Remi's lifelong partner in crime (only after nearly killing him several times) is one of the most popular tales told in taverns today. The story is often exaggerated to make Remi appear initially buffoonish, until Karolis becomes so furious at the Black Fox's inexplicable ability to survive that the cunning Remi gains the upper hand, which impresses Karolis so much that the bounty hunter joins him.

After years of terrorizing the lord's men and foiling his tax collectors (a favorite pastime of Remi's, according to the Orlesian commoners), Remi was supposedly betrayed by his lover Servana de Montfort (in some versions of the tale a mage of the Circle, no less) and was captured. After more than a year of torture, Remi was rescued from prison by his compatriots (including a repentant Servana), and together they escaped Orlais. In this period of Remi's adventures, he appears almost everywhere in Thedas: As his legend grew, more innkeepers and merchants were happy to claim that the Black Fox had visited their village or establishment and performed some legendary feat.If the tales are to be believed, Remi led the lord's men on a merry chase. He became embroiled in political intrigue in Nevarra, was hunted by the Crows of Antiva, and then kidnapped by a powerful mage in Tevinter. In each situation, Remi escaped death at the last moment, foiled the evil-doer, and improved life for the poor and downtrodden. Then, inevitably, he rejoined his band of adventurers and moved on to the next land. His companions Karolis and Servana, the wise dwarf Bolek, and the tempestuous knight Ser Clementis have each spawned their own individual legends over the years.

The stories all agree that, at some point, the Black Fox disappeared: He and his fellow adventurers voyaged into the heart of the Arlathan Forest seeking the sunken city of the elves and never returned. Many more are the tales that expand on what ultimately happened to them in that forest and postulate on how they could someday be rescued.

I would riff on this in the following way. The PC would be a companion to the Black Fox--one who played a hugely important role in his story, the Sancho to his Don Quixote, but whose name *for some mysterious reason* gets erased from the account above. You accompany the Black Fox and the rest of these adventurers. Choose this if you think I should start with a big project right away while the flame is still burning fresh, you like the idea, and you like DA:O lore.

Finally, I could make a mod set in a custom world, or a mod of a different sort set in Thedas. If you vote for these things, let me know what kind of story you're interested in.

Lightmaps

Anyone having trouble with DA lightmaps should check out Languard's talk page on the wiki. I have been having the same trouble with sunlight (additionally, although I have yet to test it using Languard's method of producing ambient light, I've not been able to get ambient light to map in my level). Languard's hope is that the community can construct a coherent account of the issue for Bioware to use when patching the toolset.

UPDATE from James Goldeman(this hit the boards yesterday, but I am, as always, a day late):

Hi all,

I have created a project for the toolset lightmapper, and to kick things off I have already uploaded an updated lightmapping script that you can use to patch your toolset. Version 1.0.1:

- Suppresses the command windows for texture processing and atlasing.
- Fixes a bug where certain models would cause the lightmapper to fail.

So: Good news! Unfortunately I have a million things to do before I run this script...but I'll probably find a way to run it *anyway*.