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[alias_sqbr]

On Origin until the 15th.

Here's a post I made on tumblr discussing the different options and possible triggers etc. It's not for everyone, but it's pretty great for what it is.

Comments

[pebblerocker]

Thanks for that alert :)

I have started as a downtrodden dwarf, being sent on errands for the local crime boss when what I'd rather do is hang out with my mum and sister* and find out what's going on in their lives. Bumbling my way around a bit.

*(Evidently I take after my father because there is no family resemblance.)

When I ask dopey questions about basic things I should know because of having supposedly grown up in this town and having ears, am I characterising myself as absolutely clueless? I make scenes come screeching to a halt and have people tell me what darkspawn are again, and sometimes they react badly or tell me to hurry up with the questline - is that a flavourtext response or actually gameplay-related? I tend to assume that if there's an option to ask about the lore, the game wants to feed it to me and I should click, but perhaps I should attempt to have my character behave a little more like a person with some brains and a sense of when is not a good time for chitchat.

[alias_sqbr]

Yesss Brosca. I was lucky in that my Brosca happened to look a lot like Rica, and was impressed by the programming until I found out it was coincidence :) The only origin where you meet both parents is human noble, where they're both dark haired white people, which has led to lots of "how my human noble was adopted" stories.

It's absolutely flavourtext. Dragon Age: Origins dialogue tends more towards roleplay effects on the the player than actual remembered effects on the game, usually it only really cares about (a)Actual decisions about important things and (b)Stuff your companions care about, which is ususally indicated by a "X gains/loses approval" notification. Though it doesn't always make it obvious when you've started/ended a romance etc which can lead to some surprises.

[pebblerocker]

A higher-fidelity version of what I'm used to from my usual action-RPGs: you must rescue my son quickly before it's too late, but go ahead and spend the rest of the day shopping for arrows and gossiping with NPCs.

Oh wow, the dialogue options I get... A dwarf from the bottom of the heap has to know something about how to stay alive around people with power over her. She leaves her home and comes to the surface for the first time in her life, to the place where humans are in charge, and she meets a human king while surrounded by all his buddies, and three out of four possible options are impolite. Dissing the king to his face is... not a roleplaying choice I can see making on any character. You don't have to be a boot-licking monarchist to say "yes, your kingness, thank you for asking" and get yourself out of there before he looks at you too hard.

Fighting: going all right. Questing: difficult to overcome my own reserve enough to make my character ask enough nosy questions to get the next step. Party members: mostly shockingly dead, I expect giving a preview of angst to come with people I have time to get more attached to, and I still have Alastair but wish he'd stand back and let me do the talking!

I'm finding the world very absorbing and easy to spend hours in. Enjoying it a lot!

[alias_sqbr]

Glad you're enjoying it! And yes, the game doesn't always leave space for "I am being polite because it's expedient, not because I'm nice".