Update:
Chris Pramas, lead designer behind the Dragon Age tabletop roleplaying game, has just made the following announcement, via social networking website, Twitter:

Chris Pramas
The finished Dragon Age boxed sets are on their way to our warehouse!

Dragon Age is a franchise and, as with many franchises, you tend to find related products across as many different spectrums as possible: Novels; Comics; Computer Games; Pen & Paper Games; Lunch Boxes; ad nauseum.

While unfortunately, in this reviewer’s opinion, BioWare have yet to licence Official Dragon Age Lunch Boxes they have certainly shown themselves willing to explore their product.

Green Ronin’s Dragon Age tabletop rpg (DAGR) is just another spectrum BioWare’s licensing committee has decided to explore. Whilst this reporter could write a list, as long as his leg, filled with failed rpgs that were once based upon computer games–D20 World of Warcraft and EverQuest being the worst contemporary offenders–he holds high hopes for DAGR’s success.

A Song of Ice & Fire has shown Green Ronin to have a history of taking licences and producing very solid, very usable, games. In the opinion of many, including this reporter, DAGR is certainly no exception.

DAGR was developed around Green Ronin’s in-house system, AGE (Adventure Gaming Engine). Yet, while DAGR fortunately holds true to the Dragon Age setting, it has avoided the obvious pit-trap of following Dragon Age the computer game too closely. There are similarities in some spells and abilities, but you cannot learn to play DAGR by playing DAO; or visa versa. More importantly, DAGR does not (as many like games have) force the players back through Origins storyline.

In a nod toward a more old school style, such as the early editions of D&D, DAGR will be released in sets. The first set contains all the rules for levels 1-5, but later Green Ronin plans to produce sets containing the ‘missing’ higher levels.

While there are certainly those who feel that this is nothing more than a marketing ploy, DAGR was designed as an entry level system. Many of DAGR’s players will be coming directly from the computer game and into their first experiences of pen and paper roleplay. Too many rules upfront can confuse a neophyte roleplayer.

Additionally, by withholding the rules for higher levels, the temptation for said neophytes to skip the ‘boring low levels’ is reduced. Many gamers, veteran or otherwise, forget that those same ‘boring low levels’ are the best place to learn a new system.

Two days ago the president for Green Ronin Publishing and Lead Designer behind DAGR, Chris Pramas, announced that the base game has now been dispatched for assembly.

After being available as a .pdf for some time, this is the last stage the game must undergo before it can become physically available to the general public.

Chris Pramas
I got advance copies of the books today and they look awesome. They should be getting to the consolidator any day now and they already have all the other components. They’ll assemble the boxed sets and ship them on to our warehouse, and they’ll go from there out to stores and folks who pre-ordered.

Those of you who have been following DAGR, a little closer, will know that the .pdf has undergone a revision recently. Pramas has also confirmed that the printed edition will contain all current errata:

Chris Pramas
We had just enough time to get the printer corrections, which is a big reason we like doing PDF releases first.

Having played this system recently, I have to say, Green Ronin have really surpassed themselves. This is not a product to take on face value–you owe it to yourself to give it a go. Plus, it is not like it could be any worse than the Diablo 1 & 2 modules…

Visit the Green Ronin store.
Learn more about DAGR.

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