Part 1 of 1, by Jay Watamaniuk
It was pretty cool when we were allowed to mention that the fine folks over at Green Ronin publishing were doing up a table top version of Dragon Age. I confess I have not seen any of the rules yet for the game but these guys do great work and I’m keen to put on my gamer hat (tall and pointy with stars and moons) and see what they can do with the world.
Chris Pramas of Green Ronin folks just released an interview about the Dragon Age RPG.
I played Dungeons and Dragons almost exclusively for the longest time with the occasional dalliance with Villains and Vigilantes (two of my of fav artists/game designers back in the day were Jeff Dee and Bill Willingham).
I also had a few trysts with Gamma World, Traveller, and a game my brother created which got him a job here and BioWare which a group of us played for years and years. I went through a period where I did not play a lot of table top games (I called that ‘university’) but in my recent adult life have embraced my table top gamerness once again. In the last 6 or 7 years I have been introduced to Earth Dawn, Shadowrun , Legend of the Five Rings, FATE, All Flesh Shall Be Eaten and a one-shot game I can’t recall the name of where my nervous, washed out character had the ability, when all hope was lost, to black out and summon Baba Yaga. Just try and call that boring.
Dang.
Even looking at pictures of those old rule systems brings back a huge part of growing up.
Death Duel with the Destroyers cover art taken from RPGnet
Jay Watamaniuk has lived in such faraway and make-believe places like Thailand, Greece and Japan but has always returned back to Edmonton, Canada to put down some roots and to avoid the fricken’ huge insects that lived in those places. He has been BioWare’s Community Manager for over 7 years and has never once- not once- dressed up like a pirate at work. Shameful.
I played Dungeons and Dragons, and also dabbled on Battletech – Fasa lead me to a financial ruin for a solid six months between rulebooks, miniature purchases and painting, and several gaming sessions far from where I lived. Still have one of the core books.
I remember being fascinated with these rulesets at the time, and they were both a large part of why I got into computer role-playing games and kept playing them for a while. Eventually though, it stopped clicking; I began to lose interest in them when confronted with streamlined yet still efficient rulesets. A year or two ago I went into a shopping frenzy and nabbed me a Dungeon Master’s Guide, two Dungeon Magazines and the Call of Chtulhu board game… Only to realize I no longer had anyone in my circle of friends who were interested in these games ;_;
I am lucky to have a circle of friends who game in a big way. I suspect you would not have too much problem locating a group…the difficulty being finding people you click with.
..and yes, gaming is easier these days with a job and money and stuff.
Speaking of table top gaming – http://xkcd.com/593/