Ysmene

I don't think there is any *right* answer to this question. That is, I don't think the designers sat down and said that "This is the wrong choice for king, and this is the right choice." Instead, they presented two candidates who both have sketchy pasts, yet also possess good leadership qualities. It's up to the interpretation of individual players (sometimes colored by their PC's views, of course) to pick which king is better or worse for Orzammar as a whole. When I played through the first time as a City Elf, Orzammar was the last map I went through, and my Warden had enough. She didn't care for dwarven politics, she just wanted to pick a king who'd honor the treaties. So she flipped a coin, and Bhelen won. The only right choice was the one who gave her soldiers, and since both of them were willing, it really didn't matter to her who got the crown. My Human Noble supported Bhelen just because he's got Ideas about bloodlines and succession, though I think my next playthrough will go for Harrowmont just to make things interesting. I really enjoy the depth the game gives when it comes to the two. It's not an easy choice, and there's no clear answer. They're both kind of awful people, but is one any worse than the other in terms of serving the dwarven people? Frankly, I think letting the dwarven cleric open a chantry in Orzammar is going to be far more destructive in terms of dwarven culture than either Bhelen or Harrowmont could accomplish if they tried.

Playing through the Unrest in the Alienage quest as a City Elf has to be one of my favorites as you finally get to go home and show your friends and family how far you've come... not to mention how the quest ends. Also, the conversation you have with Morrigan right before the battle for Denerim. How my character reacts depends a lot on how the game has unfolded up till then. I also think there's a lot of RP-ness to be had with Return to Ostagar, especially depending on who you decided to bring in addition to Alistair and Wynne. And, yeah, the Broodmother creeped me out, especially because I came to it around 2 in the morning after what was already a marathon session through the Deep Roads. I also thought that Leliana's Song had a lot of RP potential. I wish Sketch showed up in the regular game!

I'm quite pleased, actually, with the system of morality implemented in Dragon Age. I usually don't like karma meters that aren't intrinsic to the setting of the game (like the Humanity meter in the Vampire games), since they feel sometimes kind of arbitrary, and I usually end up disagreeing with some of their points. I prefer a much more nuanced and complex view of 'evil', especially the fact that evil can very often be subjective. What Dragon Age does, and what I hope more games adopt, is the system of consequences. Every action has consequences, depending a lot on who is watching, and there's no real 'right' path except to kill the archdemon. Whatever path you take to get there is the 'right' one, though each separate path will have its own individual consequences. The Darkspawn are quite obviously evil, but all the humans/dwarves/elves... most of them have very understandable motivations, even if their methods are quite bloody. For instance, I love the decision between Harrowmont and Bhelen. My first time through, I thought Bhelen was obviously the "wrong" choice because of how he reacts immediately after he's coronated. But when you look at Orzammar in the long term, it's hard to argue that he was worse overall than Harrowmont. Not to mention the various choices you have to make in Redcliffe, especially if you sided with the Templars in the Broken Circle quest. It makes the game feel more 'real' to me, since none of us have karma meters following us around - all we have are the consequences of our choices, and the choices others make, and having to live with them.

Thanks! I have a couple ideas bouncing around in my head, mostly for quests and such. I've played around with Reality Factory a little bit already, I'll probably spend a weekend soon tooling around with the CS.

It's not really a boss fight, but I absolutely hate fighting any critter with the Overwhelm ability. The character who gets Overwhelmed can't do much except scream and die. The only way I've been able to survive it is if someone with a shield is close enough and has the ability to shield bash, or if Wynne can pile on enough healing until the character can get back up. It's terrible when you're fighting a whole pack of critters, like spiders in the Deep Roads or bears in the Brecilian Forest, who keep on Overwhelming. My second time through the game, I made sure Dog got the ability as early as possible, and took great delight in having *him* Overwhelm my enemies.

I am glad to learn I am not the only person who has a weird thing against being evil in games. I'm usually a very nice person, so it's hard for me to play an outright sociopath. I like games that let me roleplay a little, or at least give me a variety of choices on what to do or how to treat NPCs. I did play an angry, bitchy character on one of my multiple playthroughs of the old Vampire: the Masquerade game, but I realized that I lost out on a lot of missions or other benefits because I was so mean to everyone. Since then, I try to be at least decent because I *hate* feeling like I've missed out on content. I do like getting all the extras and goodies possible, so I will probably eventually defile the ashes to get the Reaver specialization... but I think for that game, I'll be playing a Dwarf warrior. The Dwarves don't worship the Maker or revere Andraste the way the humans or elves do, so it would make sense from an RP perspective. That'll probably also be the PC who sides with the werewolves against the elves, if only because I want to see how werewolves do in the final battle. My usual method is to play through once and make the choices that seem 'right' (which is how my first City Elf ended up in a romance with Alistair... it just made sense to go for him over the elf who *tried to kill me*, and Leliana just took too damn long to get to the point). Then I go through and make all different choices, just to see what happens, though I usually try to come up with a cohesive, character-driven reason as to why my PC would want A instead of Z.

Hello! Introducing myself as another n00b who just registered at the forum. I have completely fallen in love with the DA:O franchise - finally, something dislodged my long standing love for Vampire: the Masquerade Bloodlines. I came for the mods, but I'm interested in eventually making my own. As to that, I have a question - am I totally boned if I'm not a programmer? I'm pretty good at picking up how to use various programs, but only vaguely aware of programming. Is there something I should be learning or focusing on in order to be able to make my own mods?