Let me preface this by saying that I have a small contribution in a later Dragon Age title, Blood in Ferelden. It’s just a little piece that has nothing to do with my playthrough of the main game material, though.

Dragon Age is based on the popular Bioware computer/console RPG, Dragon Age: Origins. You don’t have to have played Dragon Age: Origins in order to get full value out of the Green Ronin title, though. More than enough setting primer is in the boxed set. I ran it last night with a crowd that hadn’t even touched the CRPG, and they dug it amply.

There are really three things I would have changed, if I made the design decisions:

1) The boxed set goes from levels 1-5. There will be four boxes, going from 6-20. The initial boxed set starts characters at significantly lower standing than the PCs in the CRPG. In fact, the opening of the CRPG has your character joining a faction that isn’t even included in this box. I could see this adding a bit of frustration for players of the CRPG, looking to emulate that experience.
2) Character creation feels a little limiting. By that, I mean, I think I’d like to see at least one or two choices added to personalize your character. The system of backgrounds is limited. While I see the virtue in this and support it, it really restricts players that wish for a specific element in their background. For instance, if you want your character to start good in animals, you have to pick one of a couple of backgrounds, and hope for a lucky roll. It hampers the players in very limited ways, this is more a nitpick than anything.
3) Stunts for noncombat actions. More Stunts in general. I love Stunts. I’ll mention how Stunts work in a moment.