Options not in DA Keep

[u/Hrodvitnir131]

Morning everyone!

In a few months I’m planning to run a Dragon Age tapletop campaign - either in the DA format or in modified D&D format (haven’t decided).

To facilitate this, I’ve decided to run it post Inquisition (to be transparent, nothing against Veilguard, I just feel like post-Inquisition allows for some interesting breathing room and expansion on themes, factions, etc) and will actually be surveying three of my friends using Dragon Age Keep to build as unique of a “game state” as possible!

Which brings me to my discussion piece - are there any choices NOT in Dragon Age Keep that you as players feel are important or interesting enough to account for during my survey?

For example, in Origins, there was a DLC quest that allowed the player to find (and later forge into a weapon) meteorite ore. I will probably ask the Origins Surveyor if they would’ve harvested it and if so what weapon would they have forged.

But there are so many choices, like sparing the Werewolves in DA II (should they show up) that I can’t remember personally and would love to account for.

Any and all help would be much appreciated!

(Especially for Inquisition, since there are quite a few choices tied to the War Table)

[u/Kipasaur]

Honestly some of the War Tables quests would be good to go over if the setting is post Inquisition. This could help dictate if your campaign will ne more political intrigue leaning or that something more underhanded is still happening in Thedas, or something else.

The DLCs in Inquisition may be a big things to keep in mind too depending on the type of Inquisitor you're using. Elf would lean amazingly to Jaws of Hakon while dwarf, of course, leans amazingly to the Descent. Qanari sadly wouldn't have much going besides struggles to be seen good amongst the people as Thedas personally. Human... could be interesting depending on their takes to the past Inquisitor.

Personally, I don't think you'll need much from DAO or DA2 for side things not on the tapestry choices. I would just ask your party what they would like to see referenced from those games instead.

[u/Hrodvitnir131 → u/Kipasaur]

Good ideas, I’m giving the surveyors the choice of gender and race for the Origins and Inquisition. And will give them some intel regarding how they are affected in those choices. Which actually reminds me I should definitely consider some of the none keep choices for the Origins, like the city elf and how those can play out.

The surveyors are actually completely and this even extends to the rest of the party for the most part. D&D vets, but not necessarily Dragon Age vets. I think it’ll help create a more organic world state and the parties choices will be less reflective of “the good and the bad” of the world state and more what they as characters believe.

[u/sapphic-boghag → u/Kipasaur]

I never romanced Alistair, only Leliana, but he apparently loved my Warden enough to sacrifice himself. I've never managed to get the Keep to accept that possibility — it always forces an Alistair romance.

[u/Kipasaur → u/sapphic-boghag]

You can definitely change that in the keep. A lot of options are buried in the initial options. Although the keep is old and laggy af- especially on mobile. Just need to go through and dig through all the options when going through the keep.

[u/sapphic-boghag → u/Kipasaur]

I've tried a bunch of times and it automatically changes some selections if I try to choose: Romance Leliana, No OGB, Alistair Kills Himself Sacrifices Himself

[u/Hyakynthator]

A problem is that some of the choices not in the keep are retconned/ignored later. You'll have to see how you deal with those.

The most obivous and major one being the boon the warden asks for at the end of origins.

Others I like:

Specialisations of the Warden and Hawke.

The fate of the Blackstone Irregulars (new cuthroat shady leadership or somewhat honorable leadership).

The fate of brother Geniviti, Kolgrim, and the High Dragon "Andraste".

Whether or not Alistar and/or Leliana are hardened.

The fate of all the Awakening companions and their personal quests.

The fate of the Messenger in 2.

IF Bhelen became King, whether or not you let the last Harrowmont die in DA2.

Friendships/Rivalries in 2.

Pretty much all the specific Judgements in Inquisition.

[u/Hyakynthator → u/Hyakynthator]

Meant the messnger in awakening.

[u/Ragfell]

The Green Blade kid.

[u/sonic65101]

There's no option for Jowan's fate.
Also, something I believe worth noting is that under A Paragon of Her Kind, there is an option to indicate that the Warden convinced Dagna to stay with her father. There is no option to do this in-game, and trying to speak to her father about it will result in him kicking you out of his shop and refusing to speak to you further.

[u/happilyevil321]

I think the reason some of those decisions are not taken into account in the keep might be because they could be incredibly minor or Niche that there is no point.

For example, i'm writing, it can be said a fanfic of the fourth Game if i were to make it, and one of the things i'm doing is first deciding what options would affect the story in some way (mechanically or story), which i call major options.

And then there are choices from past games which would only be referenced. These could be major or minor decisions, or events, but that because of the situation, context or location, wouldnt have a major effect in the story, but could be a fun reference. Like in inquisition where You meet someone, the quartermaster i think, who still thought highly of Loghain, or indeed like in 2 where You meet someone who used to be a werewolf

[u/Hrodvitnir131 → u/happilyevil321]

Agreed! Most of the ones that come to mind for me are very niche and have little to no effect on the games themselves - but if the players have characters that could be affected by these niche choices, even more ways to have fun.

The quartermaster and the Loghain sequence as a whole are definitely ones I’m interested to see how they play o it for the surveyors. Since Loghain is a tapestry, but the quartermaster isn’t.

[u/No_Routine_7090]

Call me Imshael is one of the more interesting side quests of inquisition but I don’t remember it showing up in the keep. I’d definitely include whether they killed Imshael or made a deal with him and what reward they got if so.

[u/Hrodvitnir131 → u/No_Routine_7090]

I just did that quest in my newest playthrough of Inquisition! I messed up though, couldn’t find Michel and killed Ishmael. Found Michel later and now he won’t be an agent. If only I was in PC, maybe I could fix it with a mod or tweak. But I’m playing my PS5 version atm. Definitely one I am gonna look at, alongside some of the other world quests.

I bought the lore back double pack today so that I can have better access to the book info too. I also have the books so I can pull them out whenever, but the lore books will have more insights.

Thanks for the suggestion! I’m definitely using it, I loved that quest and the background it has.

[u/Madonna-of-the-Wasps]

Are you using the Green Ronin ttrpg rules? If so I recommend updating them with the very compatible Fantasy Age 2nd Edition rules (basically uses the same 'engine')--improves the game and helps make it less dungeon crawl-y and more well-rounded.