At the end of shelf one lies the land of Ferelden & Green Ronin’s Dragon Age RPG. Let me cop to this up front: I’ve never played any of the source video games. I bought Set 1 of the pencil & paper game back when it came out entirely because I saw it on Wil Wheaton’s late lamented YouTube show TableTop (part 1 & part 2) & thought it looked like fun. (This was back when the game was sold in three boxed sets, before being collected in a single hardback volume as it is now.) So if today’s character doesn’t make any sense in the context of the fluff that’s why; I know nothing about it beyond the few pages I leafed through circa 2013.)

With that caveat out of the way let’s get cracking.

Step one is to pick a concept. A quick skim of the “Welcome to Ferelden” turns up a brief mention of mages called apostates because they practice risky magic outside the authority of the mages’ governing body. That sounds interesting, & we haven’t done a straight-up caster type yet unless you count the medium (as in talks to the dead) goblin way back on day one.

Step two, determine your attributes. There are eight abilities, generated by rolling 3d6 but then consulting a table to find the corresponding modifier rather than noting a value. We get:

Communication 2
Constitution 1
Cunning 1
Dexterity 2
Magic 2
Perception 2
Strength 2
Willpower 1

On a scale of -2 to 4 that puts this PC squarely in the middle. At chargen you have the option to swap any two scores you wish. The important attributes for a mage are Cunning, Magic & Willpower & as rolled this PC falls short in two of those. Let’s swap Communication & Willpower. Cunning stays a 1. I guess if they knew better they never would have got into forbidden magics in the first place.

Communication 1
Constitution 1
Cunning 1
Dexterity 2
Magic 2
Perception 2
Strength 2
Willpower 2

Step three, choose your background. Turns out apostate is a background all to itself, so there’s that handled. Your background determines the PC’s choice of race. An apostate can be either elf or human. I vaguely remember that elves are discriminated against & distrusted, so why not compound this despised rebel mage’s suffering by making them part of an oppressed social group to boot. Each background has some benefits common to all its members plus a table of eight other benefits you roll twice on. The PC also gets to choose an ability focus, which gives an effective +2 to the associated attribute when attempting certain tasks. Between choices & random rolls the apostate gets:

+1 Willpower (to stave off demonic possession which it turns out is an occupational hazard)
Willpower (Self-Discipline) focus
+1 Cunning
+1 Magic

Your background determines what your class can be. Blue Rose/True20 style, there are only three classes in Dragon Age & they’re pretty much the same ones: mage, warrior & rogue. Unsurprisingly the apostate is a mage. That determines starting health (20 + Constitution + 1d6), weapon groups the PC is trained with, choice of talents (skills), & class powers.

Health: 24
Weapon Groups: Brawling, Staves
Arcane Lance (zapping foes with bolts from your staff or wand, range 16 yards, damage 1d6 + Magic)
Magic Training (learn three spells)
Mana Points (10 + Magic + 1d6): 17
Talent: Lore (Novice)

Spells: Heal, Mana Drain, Rock Armor (in a world without clerics, the mage has to do double duty)

All starting characters get a common set of equipment, plus some other class-specific items.

The last math in this process is figuring Defense & Speed.

Defense = 10 + Dexterity [+ shield bonus if any] = 10 + 2 = 12
Elf Speed = 12 + Dexterity [- armor penalty if any] = 12 + 2 = 14

After choosing a name the final step would ordinarily be to set some goals & define connections between this character & the rest of the party, but since there’s no rest of the party that’s the end.

Name: Lindel
Background: Apostate
Level 1 Mage

Abilities (Focuses):
1 Communication
1 Constitution
2 Cunning
2 Dexterity
3 Magic (Arcane Lance)
2 Perception
2 Strength
3 Willpower (Self-Discipline)

Speed 14
Health 24
Defense 12
Armor Rating 3

Quarterstaff, Attack +2, Damage 1d6+3
Arcane Lance, Attack +5, Damage 1d6+3

Powers:
Magic Training (Spells: Heal, Mana Drain, Rock Armor)
Mana Points: 17
Talent: Lore (Novice)
Weapon Groups: Brawling, Staves

Equipment:
backpack, traveler’s garb, water skin, quarterstaff, wand, light leather armor, 42sp