Actions Have Consequences

Actions have consequences in Dragon Age RPG and especially in the Dragon Age (PC) game. Choices and consequences should also be part of a miniature game. In The Dalish Curse the encounter in the forest will affect the last encounter (my group wouldn't pull killing blows on Coalan so they had a rough time against the revengers). I also gave them a choice back in Vintiver. Save Sister Arda from the revengers or save a templar message from the burning chantry. The character, an apostate, took the message from the templars and then had to watch the death of the chantry priestess. At least now they know more about templar activity in Southron Hills.

The Dalish Curse (SPOILER ALERT)

Had to spend some time on Dragon Age II but now we're back. We have played The Dalish Curse with miniatures and it went well. I translated the scenario to three encounters (forest, ruin and village). The three characters (mage, rogue and warrior) fought villagers, skeletons and rage creatures. I used the quest marker posted here for trails, clues and equipment (a sack in the elven camp and a locked chest in the keep). No real problems with combat or magic but then we're all used to CMG and that probably helped. I made a small map for encounter locations. There were lots of cards as I feared but it was still possible to handle. I changed the layout on the card posted here and I also made quest cards (object of the game) and codex cards (information and clues). We played without XP and all characters will insted advance one level after each scenario. Probably not the best way to deal with advancement but it works for us since we don't play every week and the advancement is important to the gaming and the campaign. We didn't play the first part of the adventure (p 44-48) as it is mainly a roleplaying encounter and I covered that part through quest cards and codex cards.

Quest marker

Here's a quest marker ready to print (resize to fit map squares) and use. The plan is to use these to make combat encounters more lite exploration encounters. Place any number of markers in the map and write down what they do. Could be a bag, a corpse, a letter, coins, elfroot or anything.

Equipment card

Here's a card for armor. I will also make cards for weapons and other equipment. The plan is to keep all equipment on cards instead of the character sheet. I hope it works.

Speed and movement

Now some thoughts about map movement. Speed is halved (rounded down) so 2 yards translates into 1 square. So the dragonling (a Guard Drake from DDM Demonweb set) has Speed 8.

Speed 1 allows of course movement into 1 adjacent square. Diagonal movement is treated differently in different games. You can move diagonally in HeroClix but not i SWM (in Monsterpocalypse you can move diagonally once per move). I would suggest diagonal movement since the maps are not always constructed for rules similiar to SWM. In some games (like SWM) difficult terrain costs extra movement (doubled) and in some games (like HeroClix) you must end movement when entering difficult terrain (hindering terrain). I think it's fair that entering squares with difficult terrain costs 1 extra.

Character sheet or statcard?

You play CMG's with statcards (not always true, check games like Monsterpocalypse or Pokémon The Next Quest) but I've decided to play Dragon Age with a modified character sheet. In other games you can beat any opponent but you can't pick up any equipment ("What?! I can't take his lightsaber?"). That wouldn't work here with the more advanced rules of a RPG. I've made a custom sheet in Word with printed stats. There's no space for equipment and weapons as I've planned to make separate cards (statcards) for such information. So each character (and opponent, even minor NPC's) should have a deck with equipment cards. The sheet shown is still considered WIP so I won't post it yet.

Tieflings as qunaries?

Into the forest

Here's a review of the GameMastery Flip-Map: Forest by Paizo. It's a two sided 24" x 30" forest map, one with trails (shown) and one open. The trail side has a fire place, two sign posts, some sort of crack (like a crevasse) and entry points on all four edges. The other side has four entry points (all map edges) and a large glade in the middle (could easily fit tiles).


Both map sides works well for any forest encounters (in Brecilian Forest or Wending Woods) and you could also use markers on the maps as they have a coated surface (but why would you?). Some have complained over the darkness in the maps but I don't see the problem. Trees have to be dark so they won't melt with the trails. And $13 for a basic forest map isn't too much.

Rapid Reload

Here's a simple example of line of sight and attack roll modifiers. A fereldan freeman (warrior, armed with crossbow) encounters three skeletons in a forest.

Skeleton A is in line of sight and within  (short) range. Roll a normal attack roll. That was easy.


Skeleton C is within (short) range but is standing behind the hut out of line of sight. No attack this turn.

First Blood

Here we go, first post.
I'll use this blog for experiences and thoughts on playing Dragon Age RPG (by Green Ronin) with miniatures and maps. It will be like characters represented by miniatures with focus on combat encounters. In some way this game will be a light version of the RPG (we don't play characters or act) but a more advanced version than regular collectible miniature games. The challenge will be to translate adventures written for roleplaying to map based scenarios with miniatures but hopefully it can be done in a way that resembles of the original Dragon Age game (as played on PC etc). Check p. 58 in the Dragon Age RPG Player's Guide for more about playing with battle mats and miniatures.

I'll try to avoid spoilers and, as this project is based on the actual rules of Dragon Age RPG, I won't post rules or stats unless they're home made. First off is The Dalish Curse and I will try to post photos and comments on changes we made. We will probably add things to the scenarios but it could still be wise to avoid this page if you intend to play the adventure.

As mentioned already the rules will be based on the Dragon Age RPG. We intend to use miniatures of Dungeons & Dragons (we want prepainted miniatures for this project) and different 2D-battle maps. We don't play Dungeons & Dragons (RPG or miniatures game), we just use the minis so please don't ask about those games. We're a bunch of grown up gamers with gaming experience. We started with RPGs (CoC, WHFRP) some 25 years ago, got into miniature gaming (40k and others) 20 years ago and the last 10 years we have played collectible miniature games (Heroclix, SWM, HorrorClix, AAM, MonPoc, WoWM) as well. And, as you've probably guessed, we do this for fun and we aren't employed by any gaming company.