I’ve run through all the published adventures for the Dragon Age RPG, and now it’s time to move on to homebrew adventures. Rather than wreck my brain trying to figure out an epic storyline, I think I’m just going to adapt the plot of the video game to the tabletop. I have the advantage that my players haven’t played through the video game, so the storyline will seem new to them, and it’s epic enough to make it memorable. My PC’s have been asked by a Grey Warden in Antivar to head to Ostagar to see Duncan, following the conclusion of “The Autumn Falls” adventure.
There are a few things that I may need to change or hand wave though in order to make it fit. Spoiler warning from here on:
Morrigan and Flemeth. What to do with these two? I need Flemeth at Ostagar, but what purpose does she have for saving the Wardens? Will Morrigan join them? Perhaps the Wardens have a different way of escaping the tower. What can that be?
The Grey Warden treaties. Where are they? I was thinking of a temple or something in the Wilds.
Alistair. Do I include him? Or perhaps his background can be assigned to one of the players? I have an issue with making PC’s too important though, as they can die at a moment’s notice. Maybe he can be with them and go separate ways until he’s needed. Perhaps his injuries at Ostagar are severe and he stays in Redcliffe for a while.
The dwarves. This section in the game felt like a grind, perhaps I can change the story a bit, or really scale back the whole Deep roads thing.
Also, the civil war. In the video game I never got a sense that thre was this whole civil war going on, yet apparently it was. I want to be able to show some of that.
While I’m on the topic of Dragon Age, it’s worth noting that Set 3 playtest documents were just released by Green Ronin, you can find them here.
I plan to write a more about this topic as I plan out my campaign, I need to put some of these thoughts on (digital) paper and get my plot straight.
www. Newbie DM .com 
TheTick
February 21, 2012
You know, a friend of mine (a real, honest to goodness writer) mentioned making his own Dragon Age d20 game for his gaming group, I really need to see if he will spill the beans on it. He managed to spin a D20 Future campaign setting into a 3 book deal so it can’t be that bad.
Jeffrey TadlockWolf
February 21, 2012
Looking forward to hearing more about how this campaign progresses. I would be tempted to include Alistair as an NPC at least. Especially if you have Morrigan around!
Ensign Expendable
February 21, 2012
A note about the Alistair issue you have (and this might be a spoiler for you): You can piss Alistair off at one point and he’ll leave the party. It affects the story but doesn’t affect your ability to complete the game. It would be the same as a party member dying if they had his possession in the game world.
jshaft37
February 21, 2012
would any of your PC’s be able to fill the roles? Maybe Flemeth can become a patron of a magic user (if its a male magic user, think Fistandantilus/Raistlin relationship). You could probably skip Alistair and just have Anora vie for the crown.
maybe the other party members from the game could fit more of a “patron” or “guild member” role rather than an active member the adventuring party. They could follow the PC’s around to a certain extent and lend some help or work alongside the PC party.
Anthony Laffan
February 22, 2012
My recommendation would be to use the games, but don’t marry yourself to them. If you don’t want your PCs to be that epic, then put them somewhere else. Maybe some other Grey Wardens made it out, but stay in hiding until near the end?
For example, have the PCs become Grey Wardens (if that is what they want to do) before the “PC” from the game arrives. Then, they can be present to watch that ritual of the joining. Have them be somewhere else during the battle. Somewhere where they can feel the sting of betrayal, but reasonably escape. Maybe Flemeth saves them (who can know what she wants) maybe they get out on their own ingenuity. Maybe they’re arrested for being Grey Warden traitors.
Now they need to break out of jail and lay low. But they hear that Alistar has apparently appointed someone else head of the remaining Grey Wardens, and that person is going around trying to rally aid to stop the current Blight with the treaties. The PCs can opt to help out (maybe aiding in getting some other tribes of Dalish involved, or just in courting nobles) or help in the civil war. This way you can use the game locales (send them to the Dwarven tunnels instead of the main char from the game going there.) They can still be big heroes, but none of the super huge story events are riding on them if you NEED it to pan out that way, but want them to still be important.
As for the deep roads, just cut out like half the wandering BS and it works well. 🙂 Same with the forest stuff.