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Dragon Age: Game Master’s Kit
Game Master’s Kit is a core accessory for the dark fantasy system Dragon Age published by Green Ronin Publishing and written by Jeff Tidball.
By Aaron T. Huss
Game Master’s Kit is a core accessory for the Dragon Age game system. It contains a 3-paneled Game Master’s screen and an introductory, stand-alone adventure. The GM screen has some beautiful artwork on it along with the majority of the in-game mechanics. The adventure module is written for new players or those with newly created characters and emphasizes some of the aspects of the Dragon Age dark fantasy setting.
GAME MASTER’S SCREEN
The Game Master’s screen is one of the best I’ve seen. The art is a full 3-panel illustration (as opposed to 3 single-panel illustrations). The fonts are very easy to read and the layout is extremely easy to navigate. All the important mechanics are listed (minus a couple that I find important but are actually easy to remember) and even includes some tips for the GM to remember. Some of the most important and tedious mechanics to remember are fully listed: ability focuses, combat stunts, spell stunts and weapon damages. As a GM screen it looks great. As a quick mechanic reference it looks fantastic!
ADVENTURE
It’s hard to say much about the adventure module without spoiling it. For the basics, it is a questing (or mission) adventure filled with role-playing, investigation and combat. One of the keys to the adventures excitement is that the combat difficulty can be dictated by how much role-playing and investigation the players do. This really ties the different aspects together showing that one is directly related instead of being used as filler.
In addition to how the adventure module is presented, the storyline is developed very well throughout. Not only is it a key factor to the adventure and its purpose, but also allows for further adventuring opportunities or the chance to make friends/enemies for future purposes. It can easily be a launching point for a long-term campaign and the overall storyline can easily be expanded upon. There is a background storyline weaved into the main storyline that helps to explain why things are happening. But I won’t delve into that any more as it would simply spoil the ending.
OVERALL
Overall the Game Master’s Kit is not only a great value price-wise but also a valuable GM tool with the screen and the additional adventure module. The screen is only three panels, but considering the system is fairly rules-light, I can see there being enough to fill a forth panel. If this is a sign of things to come (with the Dragon Age system), then subsequent products should be just as fantastic as this. I should also note that the GM screen is one of the easiest to ride, that I’ve seen, because of the font size and the layout.
RATINGS
Publication Quality: 10 out of 10
With full color, beautiful art and most of the necessary mechanics, it’s easy to say the Game Master’s screen is a very high-quality product. I was able to find a couple mechanics here and there that are missing, but nothing that isn’t easy to memorize. One of my favorite aspects of the screen is how it’s organized. Everything is group together well making them easy to find (that and the large font in the headers).
The adventure module, while being black-and-white, is still a beautifully produced book with some great looking illustrations and a fantastic layout (that follows throughout the Dragon Age product line). The presentation is very concise and the flow is very lateral, alleviating the need to flip back-and-forth between pages. Reading this adventure makes me very excited to read future Dragon Age adventures.
Storyline: 9 out of 10
There are basically two storylines woven throughout the adventure. The overall storyline which the players are an active part of and a background storyline which is meant to be part of the background to the overall storyline. While the overall storyline flows very smoothly throughout and is a quite interesting read, the background storyline is not fully developed throughout game-play. Although it’s an awesome plot-twist, I would like to have seen it become a more tangible part of the adventure instead of only a “aha” moment at the end. To add to this, the “aha” moment is not fully developed into the adventure either. On the other hand, this background storyline is more of a role-playing aspect and available to GM interpretation and flexible implementation. However, I still would like to have seen it become a more active part of the adventure.
Desire to Use/Play: 10 out of 10
As for the GM screen, I would definitely use it as a game reference during game-play to quickly seek out the mechanics you may forget. For the adventure, it’s a fantastically well-written and twisted adventure that really brings out the Dragon Age setting. It doesn’t touch on some of the more horror aspects of the setting, but it definitely brings out the dark fantasy appeal.
Overall: 10 out of 10
Even if you’re not one to use GM screens, the Game Master’s Kit is still worth its value because of the adventure module. One of the biggest values of having the GM screen on-hand (even if it’s not used to screen your rolls), is to have a reference showing the different combat and spell stunts and the list of the ability focuses. These are just a few things you wouldn’t have to memorize (but you’d still have to understand them and their use).
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