DA Podcast - Episode 17: Off the Rails - a podcast by Matthew Ekenstedt, David Lambert

Dog DLC Called Doggie Days

The DLC begins with you controlling dogs mother. At the very beginning a man leads you to a cage. He is a Mabari breeder. There is another Mabari in the cage (soon to be dogs dad). At the start of the DLC, you must play a guitar hero esque game, in which you use the arrow keys and tap them in time, however, instead of being notes, they are grunts. The purpose of this is to "woo" dogs father. Once you have successfully romanced him, a cutscene begins. It says "3 months later" and you hear a growl and see a baby dog. The next part of the DLC is spent training dog. This is achieved by doing minigames such as "fetching the stick", "hunting rats" ( a Mabari expertise, Human Origin) or stalking cats. Depending on which training you do, dog will gain different stats. The point of this is that his specialized stats will transfer into your origins game. After you have completed 3 training games, it is time for you to be sold. The player then must dress up dog, do his hair and make him look as fierce/cute/evil as he can. If you fail to make it fierce/cute/evil enough, you will not be picked. The computer recognizes a fierce/cute/evil dog, so when you have picked an adequate fierce/cute/evil look, you will be chosen at the store by your warderns. model.

The dressing up bit is very similar to DOGZ for the nintendo DS and for this reasen the DLC is rated Early Childhood by ESRB or 2+ in Britain.

My idea for a DA:O DLC isn't so much about any specific character presented in DA:O as much as it is about certain concepts represented during the Mage Origin, Broken Circle, and various Templar side-quests. As a nod to Mike's suggestion about including more 'grittiness' in the game, I propose that BioWare make a DLC where you play as a Mage who secretly—accidentally?—becomes an Abomination during your Harrowing. The demon is hidden inside of you, and grants you power beyond anything you've experienced before, making you advance leaps and bounds over your fellow apprentices. Unfortunately, it's not long before you start to notice that there are certain gaps in your memory and these gaps are becoming more frequent…

That's the teaser. =P For features and gameplay, most of the DLC would be story/dialogue-driven with a lot of adventure elements. At certain points, the DLC could take on certain aspects of the survival-horror genre, as you struggle to retain control over your body and mind. Various Mages and Templars from the full game could make cameos, or the DLC could be set in a completely different Circle Tower with all-new art assets. Later on in the plot, you would have multiple options open to you depending on how the first half of the DLC went: To escape the Tower in a desperate attempt to save yourself from the Templars, resulting in an extended chase through the countryside; To escape the Tower in a desperate attempt to avoid harming your friends and possibly loved ones; To stay in the Tower and accept judgment, during which the Abomination surfaces and tries to wreak havoc and you have to fight it within your mind in order to give the Templars an edge over it in battle; To stay in the Tower and fight, giving in to the Abomination's wishes in exchange for magical power beyond any other Mage of the Circle, possibly resulting in the fall of the entire Tower. I expect the DLC would be about 2.5-4 hours long and cost $10-15.

Hi guys,

Here's my idea for your competition: a DLC which tells the story of Bodahn and Sandal in between DAO and DAII (I mean they've got to be in the sequel, right?). The story: Bodahn and Sandal are in Denerim trying to earn the money needed to buy passage on a boat to the Free Marches. To do this they open a store in the Denerim marketplace.

The gameplay is inspired by "Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale". You run a standard RPG item shop and you have to gather items to sell in the store. You'll also get contracts from adventurers who want special items such as enchanted weapons and whatnot. They'll also be three dungeons that can be plundered by adventurers hired by the player. These will be the only combat parts of the DLC, the rest will just be you bargaining and persuading people to sell you items for the store and getting involved in the day to day life of the Denerim marketplace.

To complete the DLC you'll have to earn a certain amount of gold to buy passage. There may also be hints about DAII scattered around the DLC.

P.S. I also forgot, you'll sometimes be given the chance in conversations to make Sandal shout "ENCHANTMENT!" which will usually result in you confusing someone into submission.

Hi,

Enjoy the show and here is my idea for a new DLC.

I own all content except one dlc for the 360 and have Orgions for the PC as well as a reslut of the chance to play mods that I've heard discussed on this show.

Any way at the end of one of the main stories we are given information that our hero goes off to further adventures and rumors tells us that he/she has once again with our Bard companion Leliana.

The core idea of the content of my idea would follow up with this rumor and take us to the mysterious HQ of the Warden's Wesshaupt. With the nature of the Lore of Bard's it would be a chance for our hero to explore the "hidden" politics of organizations in the world we so love. To keep the DLC in line with the freedom of choices the story would center around some sort of outside faction attempting to gain control of the Warden Leadership team:

1. If a certain dark choice was made at the end of Awakening where a party member or two were replaced with new allies (The Archatic) the hero's could focus on ending one more attempt of an ally of his from obtaining to much control over the direction of the Warden's. It would also make for a really nice connection with some of the books.Characters mentioned in the book that may or may not still be alive could be part of the story and have an impact on the content.
2. The Chantry could be another possible outside source the hero needs to work with or against.
3. The circle of Magi
4. One or more national political group.
5. The return of an old foe- perhaps my favorite option would be if the choice to spare Logain was made either Logain or Alister could be part of the story and either be an ally or foe of our hero's.

By making content connectd to the players choices from the main story it would give the DLC much of the potential similar to the recent Lair of the Shadow Broker in Mass Effect 2.

For my DLC, I think it would be great to find out what happened to Alistair's elven mother. If you have read The Calling you know that at the end Maric conceives a child with Fiona and she give him to Maric to be raised not knowing about his elven roots and to chase after the Architect. My idea is that after the Blight some of Duncan's old documents are found and in them is a note and a stack of letters addressed to Alistair. One of the Gray Wardens brings them to him at court and he retires to his room to read them. The Warden is called to his side and he explains that the letters are from his mother to him, to be given to him once he was of age. The letters talk about how she loved him and Maric and how she left to give him a better life. The last letter was mixed in by mistake and addressed to Duncan. It was fairly recent and it was asking him to come and help her destroy a group of darkspawn near the Andraste's final resting place in the Frostback Mountains. Alistair decided to rush in and see if he can find her and takes the Warden along. They get there and it looks as though the entire group was dragged underground. The Warden and Alistair fight through and eventually reach the bottom where Fiona was being held by the leader of this group of darkspawn called the Judgement (a very powerful emissary) and he was using her as a way to get to the Gray Wardens and kill them off so the darkspawn can expand unchecked. A battle takes place between the Warden, Alistair, possessed Fiona and the Judgement. Once he's defeated Alistair is there at his mother's side as she dies. The last thing she says to him is to make her and his father proud, and that he looks so much like Maric. Alistair leaves for Denerim upset and confused. The Warden goes back to comfort him and gives him Fiona's locket which has 2 drawings in it, one of Maric and the other of baby Alistair. For completing the DLC you get premium armor for Alistair and the Warden (that would change based on what class the Warden was) plus 2 premium weapons each.