A Window, A Light...

I intended to write this yesterday, but I really couldn't make any single thought line up with another, so you get it this morning instead. Lucky you. Anyway, Dragon Age II is the subject for today, and because it's a somewhat more substantial game then some that I've been mucking about with in my idle hours (like Lord of the Rings, which is fun but, like Fallout, mostly a series of very pretty fetch quests).

It's smoother and prettier then DA : Origins in that it's quite serviceable. The strength of the game is, I think, entirely based on its party dynamics. The main storyline isn't anything to write home about. It's in three parts, it's a little disjointed, and mostly serves to provide atmosphere and impress upon you how your characters station changes from being a broke refugee to someone who's a mover and shaker of the city you inhabit. Other then that, it's really just about party reactions, who you want to romance and how, and walking from place to place lighting monsters on fire.

If that sounds condemning, I don't want it to be. First of all, I really enjoyed the game. What that means is that I felt the party dynamics and each characters personal stories (including the main) really are the spotlight and the main plot is really just something in the background - almost a sidequest that you use to get Friendship or Rivalry points for members of your party. Each individual arc has a story that's solid, but I almost didn't realize that they didn't really hang together until after it was all over and I was listening to a Zero Punctuation mention that. So take that for how you will.

The game itself is pretty fun, and not terribly difficult. I went ahead and played it on Normal and I think that there might have been one fight that really gave me any real trouble the entire time. I'm pretty sure that my setup wasn't always optimal, but you can do pretty well with just putting one or two fighters in your party, one or two mages, and zero to one rogues. There. That's all you need to remember to succeed, except that it never hurts to have a lot of healing items just in case.

The end gets a little tough in spots, but honestly speaking, I had more trouble with something that appeared to be a random encounter then I had with the end bosses. Something to think about.

The power trees are fun and you get a decent number of characters to explore them with, but since they all come with a personalized specialization, they each have a default and that's the one you'll end up picking. There are lots of trees and equipment that say "If you come back to explore the other relationship options, here's some stuff that will make your game-play experience a little different." That's pretty thoughtful, anyhow.

I also enjoyed the more narrow story line and scope. The game makes a story about a single city about as epic in feel as the story of someone who saves an entire nation and to put a finer point on it, the city of Kirkwall feels roughly about as large as the entire kingdom of Fereldan. That's probably an issue with the technical capacity, but it feels like a populated city - especially the lower class districts, but overall that trend allows you to focus on the fate of somewhere your character actually lives and erases the weird feeling of having an unlimited amount of time to travel between towns in order to deal with an immediate threat.

There are some technical issues that I found to be mildly frustrating. First, I'm lead to understand that they rushed the release and it shows. Instead of cutting out large swaths of story, the dev team seemed to have taken the interesting approach of just reusing the same dungeons over and over again and blocking some of the places off. It has the weird effect of making you feel like people keep going to these places constantly, but changing the names. Even though it's plainly obvious, I don't really mind all that much. A cave is a cave is a cave, and at least once I get to know the ins and outs of this one, I don't have to spend a lot of time trying to remember where it goes.

Second, they made the decision to allow you to locate craft items while you're wandering around dungeons and once you've found one, it's always available. To craft items, you either go to the market or you go home and order them. This, I feel, is a pretty big step up for crafting, and I appreciate it but there are problems with it. First of all, if you miss some then you're out of luck for good because you can't go back. This is because of how they've modeled the dungeons and the biggest drawback to how they did it. I was faced with the option of crawling inch by inch through terrain I've already been through half a dozen times or just finishing my missions, and I picked the latter which meant that I could make exactly one of many different potions by the very end of the game.

So, nice try I guess. Luckily, like I said, the game isn't that hard and the potions and poisons just arn't that critical so if you want to blow it off like I did, you won't worry about it. Second is that there are a lot of vendors spread out. You can order potions and stuff from the comfort of your home but if you want to buy shit in the markets, you've got to brave wild load times in order to get them and you can only compare wares against people who are currently in your party. Better idea : you have a manservent starting in Act 2. Let him compile a list of wares, buy from that, and ignore load times. When in the item purchase screen, let it compare stuff to everyone all the time. Problem solved forever.

This is getting extremely long, so let me just say that I enjoyed the game again. The character dynamics are fun and the problems, even though extremely noticeable, rarely actually detract from what you're doing. I'm sure I'm going to come back and talk about a few other aspects of the game I'm interested in discussing in ways other then a review. I haven't played a huge number of RPGs and I know I'm late to this particular party, but I think that if you like fantasy and RPGs, then Dragon Age II has earned a spot on your shelf.

Until the 28th, I'm probably going to be really busy at work. It's really cut in to what I can write, and so what I had in mind for the last several days has fled my mind. My roommate's out for this and next week, so no new Exalted games. I'm looking for work, getting back in to school, but other then that, not much is really occurring. Meanwhile, when I'm not doing that stuff, I just started playing Dragon Age 1, and I don't have much to say yet. I feel like my original assumption is probably going to be correct - a standard fantasy romp well-executed. However, I may have downplayed what a boon a really well-executed fantasy flagship could be.

You know me. I'm almost certain to be running my mouth about it sooner or later. In the meantime, I'll be going over some tangential thoughts that have been uselessly rebounding in my head for quite a while.

Killing in RPGs.

About a month ago, Panahon, a Sidereal focused on martial arts accidentally but rather brutally killed a dueling opponent. Until that moment, it was the only death by combat of an actual person. Our characters had kind of straddled the line and had been party to a few questionable activities, but this had been a first. I realized that it was the first real death in weeks in an actively played Exalted role-playing game.

Now, part of this has a lot to do with the style of the game. The other part is that we really get nothing for killing people. Out of character, there was some chuckling and some chagrin about the circumstances, but some pretty loaded terms got tossed around. 'Murder'. 'Killing'. But  also, 'accident', 'mistake', and 'remorse'.

It had been a setup. My character was a martial arts focused person, in general. The martial arts world, the concept of honor and success, and the desire to rebuild the school her sifu had started were her driving desires. When this mortal walked up, with a status significantly higher then hers, confident, and as the champion of a small army, Panahon doens't think twice - she pulls out all the stops. After all is said and done, her unmodified dice pool  to attack is a significant 24. She can block any non-perfect material attack for 3 motes if she wants. She can increase her soak to something that the mortal would be forced to roll Essence against - no higher then three.

The mortal did everything perfectly. Panahon brutally slaughtered him in the first round of combat without even meaning to. She didn't pull her punch, and the mortal couldn't take it. He expired messily in front of her.

Creation is a brutal place. The mortal was a brutal guy without many morals or compunctions. He wouldn't have held back. Is it murder? Stopping to think about it, probably not - there was no intention to kill. But Panahon would be culpable. If not murder, then certainly manslaughter. The mortal never posed a realistic threat. She was guilt stricken, but carried on. Creation is a brutal place and it was an accident - but one she learned from.

The death of one person caused a lot of debate at the table. Interestingly, I almost immediately had the ST telling me how I needed to feel about the issue, making me feel like he had something in mind, too. Remorse? Maybe.

How many creatures do we kill in D&D? When we kills scores, are we monsters, or is it a different kind of world? Or maybe it's too close to say. Those goblins might be a real threat where a single mortal never had a chance against a demigod.

However, something else to consider. Later on in the game, we met with Nazri - an Essence 7* Sidereal, a sorcerer*, a martial artist who had mastered at least one Sidereal style*, head of a major political convention, and someone who at the very least, had a lot of experience under his belt. He went to a dual with a modestly powerful god of a terrestrial court, someone whose specialty wasn't even combat.

It was an ambush. The spirit was actually an enormously powerful combatant - a shape-shifting Exalt with a thousand years even on the elder Sidereal. Nazri was immediately killed because he didn't take the fight seriously enough. So now what are we supposed to do?

* Essence runs from 1-10. 2's starting, 3's a little bit of experience, and 5 is considered the peak of power for someone within a century of life. 7 is considerable. Sorcery is a world changing power, and Sidereal martial arts are the pinnacle of enlightened combat powers for that type of fighting. He's a world-wide mover and shaker.