how old is a dragon anyway

[reverancepavane]

Dragon Age (the role-playing game) is possibly one of the contenders for the simple uncomplicated game system if I ever restart my old fantasy campaign, although I'd probably mix a bit of The Fantasy Trip in there as well. At least it would be implementable sooner than the massive 3.5 rewrite I started many years ago [even though I am still drawn back to do some more work on it from time to time; it's my Triskellion VII], even though I shall probably wait until box 2 or 3 is out before doing anything about it. However one possible problem with the game as is, is in the advancement of a character's ability. Every even level you get to add a point to a primary ability of your choice, and every odd level you get to add a point to a secondary ability of your choice. But in the case of primary ability (at least), there is usually one ability that gives you the most advantage, and so there will be a distinct tendency to increase that ability to the exclusion of other primary abilities (meaning that they will typically increment at a rate slower than a secondary ability). Which seems slightly wrong somehow. Now if we use the following tables to randomly increase the ability we still get a 50% likelihood that the most useful primary ability will increase, but the other primary abilities won't necessarily be neglected (a d66 is introduced to avoid breaking the game paradigm by using a d4). Primary Ability Increase (Even) d66 Mage Rogue Warrior 11–23 +1 Cunning +1 Communication +1 Constitution 24–36 +1 Magic +1 Dexterity +1 Dexterity 41–53 +1 Willpower +1 Perception +1 Strength 54–66 player choice player choice player choice   Secondary Ability Increase (Odd) d6 Mage Rogue Warrior 1 +1 Communication +1 Constitution +1 Communication 2 +1 Constitution +1 Cunning +1 Cunning 3 +1 Dexterity +1 Magic +1 Magic 4 +1 Perception +1 Strength +1 Perception 5 +1 Strength +1 Willpower +1 Willpower 6 player choice player choice player choice   A player can still heavily direct character development by adding the appropriate focuses normally.