Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows
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Welcome to Thedas!
We are Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows, an in-depth, story-driven MUSH that allows players to explore the world so many have come to love. Set in Kirkwall just after the close of the Fifth Blight, S&S is open to FC and OC alike and will explore new plots and places as well as visiting some fan favorites. Using our unique Fate system, we hope to bring to life a game that is fun for all different kinds of RP styles.
DA:S&S is currently in BETA. Some of our code is still being tweaked, some of it is still being tested, but the foundation is there and we are ready to start accepting players through chargen.
Game: smokeandshadows.dune.net port 1313
Wiki: smokeandshadows.wikidot.com -
Are you guys basically going through the DA2 time period? How has no one chargenned Hawke yet?!
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I love this setting! Not so sure I'd love someone playing Hawke.
Edit to say: more specifically, I think seeing FC would just make me sad there wasn't more DA2.
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@Kanye-Qwest I'm always sad there's not more DA2.
I'm not usually anti-FC at all, but I do find myself a bit wary of the wisdom of allowing FCs in the same setting and time period of one specific game.
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@Roz Yeah, when it comes to a CG game adaptation with a clear 'central' character it does feel weird. Especially when many players will have made different paths (chosen different genders, choices, personalities etc) for Hawke but only one version will exist in the MU.
- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman? I think you under-estimate people's ability to just roll with it, especially when changing medium.
That said, I do hope they don't allow major game characters to be played. My view, there.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spide Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman? I think you under-estimate people's ability to just roll with it, especially when changing medium.
The movies are in different continuities (and even with superheros who are not and still get actor changes, this is a constraint due to the medium and budgetary concerns, and thus a whole different animal).
Thor did not become a woman; Jane Foster took up the mantle of Thor. This is a syntactically small but contextually huge difference. (For extra fun: Thor was a frog once. Everyone thought that was great. They didn't complain until it was a woman.)
In this case, the fact that all the FCs could theoretically be so different within the canon as it exists because the canon is mutable depending on who plays the game and the choices they make makes me wonder why FCs are even considered a good idea at all?, since you could essentialyl create three dozen versions of Hawke who are all different, pretty much making them OCs... sort of.
Or perhaps they just mean the NPCs from the game who'll just be Staff NPCs, in which case, whatever. -
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?
And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name.
Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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I'm of two minds on this whole thing. On the one hand, I find the idea of FCs being played as weird on a Dragon Age game. I still may play it, but because DA2 was the most interesting of the series(in terms of doing something seperate from the normal BioWare formula), but the idea of chumming around with Varric or Hawke or even that huge emo Anders is a bit strange. Maybe I shouldn't care because I've played on comic-based games where that's the standard fare, but maybe because that's expected. Just think it would be better if the game was based post-DA2 and everybody had ran off.
Then again, on the other hand there's the chance to sleep with Isabella....hrm.
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I think the bigger difference for me is that DA2 is one singular game/time period, whereas comics adaptations are generally drawing from years or even decades of canon in their stories. So it feels a little more of a precise rehash of a specific canon.
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@Arkandel said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?
And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name.
Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>There are a bunch of people in the world named "Angel". Is it weird for an X-Man to have the name Angel as their alias?
Mjolnir clearly states that whoever can wield it shall possess the power of Thor. If Jane Foster wants to run around calling herself Thor because of it, what's the big deal?
It's a rhetorical question. Clearly it's a big deal to you, and it's inconsequential to me.
"Excuse the hell out of you. He's a bag of dicks. I'm a carefully curated box of cocks." -- to @GirlCalledBlu upon being misrepresented.
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@Coin said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
@Arkandel said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?
And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name.
Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>There are a bunch of people in the world named "Angel". Is it weird for an X-Man to have the name Angel as their alias?
Angel was named after something else, other people called the same weren't named after him.
(We're derailing the thread so I'll stop it here
)- He who takes offense when not intended is a fool. He who takes offense when intended is a greater fool.
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@Arkandel said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
Does it feel weird when they change who plays Spider Man in the movies, or turning Thor into a woman?
And for Thor: Yes, to me at least. Thor is a specific guy! It's not his superhero alias, it's his actual name.
Like, literally his mom was bitching at 'Thor' to go wash his hands before dinner when he was a kid. </rant>To keep the right to my that guy name, it would be his stepmom, he was raised by Frigg(a) who while being Odin's wife was not his mother either in myth or in Marvel Comics.
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What sort of system is this game using? How are you handling mages/apostates? Hanging out in the Gallows all the time doesn't sound super thrilling. Well. "Thrilling", perhaps, but maybe not fun.
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The FC thing makes me hugely wary, as much as I'd otherwise be all over this.
I would like to know what they're doing system/statwise as well. As ever, I have little tolerance for 'oh yeah and we have some feature slots that are just amazeballs powerful because reasons (our buddies need favors)' these days.
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@Kanye-Qwest said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
What sort of system is this game using? How are you handling mages/apostates? Hanging out in the Gallows all the time doesn't sound super thrilling. Well. "Thrilling", perhaps, but maybe not fun.
They say FATE, but I logged on as a guest just to look. Their +sheets look like FS3. Which...is that FATE? I don't even know.
MUSH-free since 02/2017
This may or may not change in the future.
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To address the questions that don't relate to Thor
There are several key plot FCs (Meredith, for example) that are being kept back for use by Staff as plot mechanics, same as a few key plot OCs. Aside from them, we have an open process for FC application because from a broad plot perspective we're using the start of DA2 as a 'jumping off place' to move away from canon into different directions. There is a Hawke family, but they're not any more or less tied into the plot than anyone else.
That's where the Fate system comes in (not to be confused with FATE, which seems to have happened a few times, so that's my bad). The Fate system allows players to choose how involved in big game plots they want to be. To quote the helpfile:
"At its core, Fate is a measure of how deeply involved in plot you want your character to be. A Fate of 1 means that you are primarily here for social RP. Your character lives, works, makes friends, makes enemies - maybe even falls in love - but overall is personally unaffected by the big events that shape the world around them. A Fate of 5, on the other hand, is roughly equivalent to the video games' PCs and PC Companions. These characters are often at the center of trouble; they have the greatest potential for IC rank, wealth and power, but also the biggest targets on their back for Trouble, because Thedas is not a warm and fuzzy place.
This is accomplished through a dice system. Every time something - good or bad - is about to happen (in a scene or in a larger plot) the ST or staff responsible will perform a dice roll for all characters involved. Your Fate score determines the number of dice that are rolled to get your total score for that specific event. The character(s) with the highest score will be the one(s) affected by that event.
Some scenes, events and plotlines will have Fate restrictions or caps to facilitate the most fun for everyone involved. If there is to be a cap or restriction involved, information on the specifics will be made available when the event in question is announced."
The game is still in early beta. A lot of the combat functionality just isn't Thedas-compatible yet, so the way +sheets look is not very indicative of how things will work out once all the bugs are shaken out of the system. I understand that this is not everyone's cup of tea, but for those potentially interested, I hope this clears up some of the confusion.
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@Monogram said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
@Kanye-Qwest said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
What sort of system is this game using? How are you handling mages/apostates? Hanging out in the Gallows all the time doesn't sound super thrilling. Well. "Thrilling", perhaps, but maybe not fun.
They say FATE, but I logged on as a guest just to look. Their +sheets look like FS3. Which...is that FATE? I don't even know.
I believe FS3 is FUDGE, not FATE. Correct me if I'm wrong, @faraday.
“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos -
@Thenomain said in Dragon Age: Smoke & Shadows:
I believe FS3 is FUDGE, not FATE. Correct me if I'm wrong, @faraday.
FS3 is neither. It's a custom system. Edit: I originally said roll+keep but maybe that implies too much like 7th Sea. It's a cousin of WoD and SR4.
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To further answer some questions Dragon didn't get to directly:
The system is not fully implemented at this time, due to the game being in very early beta. Those of you who went have a look see can see the framework for a FS3 system. That would be because that is the code that Dragon is currently working to beat into submission to make work for a Dragon Age system.
To address some further concerns regarding FCs, for anyone still worrying after Dragon's post above, I like to look at it like this. DA2 is the basis for the beginning of our game. Once game-on happened, things can change. The plot is not on rails. There is a Hawke in chargen now, he has worked extensively with the Staff, and will not be the focal point for the whole game. None of the FCs will. OCs are just as capable of impacting and changing the world. Think AU, if you will, though I am wary of that term.
Mages and Apostates: There are a number of Apostate characters on grid. It is a viable and valid option, as long as you don't walk into the Gallows, call out Meredith, and start swinging magic around while laughing maniacally. Be reasonable, be realistic, we're trying to write good stories, not play fun police, as it were. And Circle Mages will have plot for them as well, as well as reasonable ability to make excuses for having escorted trips out. (Gathering supplies, approved research, what have you.)
