One game ends, another game begins

Kasia Brosca finished Dragon Age: Awakening tonight.

( DA:A spoilers )

And thus ends my Dwarf Commoner Dragon Age playthrough. Kasia has no need to track down Morrigan, and I don’t particularly want to play Golems again, so this is it. I’m going to miss my spunky, outspoken dwarf girl. I see plenty of future for her in fic and headcanon, but as far as playing her game goes, I am done. Until I recreate her for my Mac, perhaps…

But first, my thoughts turn to DA2, which is next on the docket. (Interspersed with the Mahariel game I started on my Mac the other day, and also replaying Sereda Aeducan on the Mac -- literally, I could do nothing but play Dragon Age for months, which is a little scary.) My main goal for this playthrough is to support the Templars — I’ve never done that, and I am very, very curious to see the differences. Other things I have not done: played a male Hawke, played a warrior, sent Bethany to the Grey Wardens (or Carver to the Templars, but I’m pretty sure this not going to be a mage game), romanced Isabela past the first hook-up, romanced Merrill or Sebastian at all, played a purple Hawke, rivaled anyone other than Merrill or Fenris…

Obviously, I am not going to get all that into one game. I find myself very likely to play at least once more after this, to follow up on my Mahariel, so I don’t have to catch everything, and there are some things I don’t feel super-compelled to ever do (romancing Merrill, for example, or rivaling Varric). I am pretty convinced I want to play m!Hawke, and I had hoped the Isabela romance would be next, but my current concept is a Hawke who believes in Andraste and in law and order, leading them to feel that, at least in Kirkwall, supporting the Chantry and a strong Circle is best means toward keeping the most people safe. (Note: this is not necessarily what I believe. But I think it’s reasonable for a certain sort of Hawke to believe it, and I think it’ll make for an interesting role-playing experience.) And I have a hard time seeing that sort of Hawke in a friendly romance with Isabela, and I have my doubts about rivalmancing her. So I’m not sure how that’s all going to end up. Anders rivalmance, maybe? That, I am curious about.

The other thing I’ve been thinking: a devout and law-abiding (within the restrictions of canon) Hawke could make an excellent setup for a Sebastian romance. But that means playing f!Hawke again, and much as I love f!Hawke, I really did want to get the experience of playing as male.

So (and I salute you if you slogged through all that), opinions? Is this my best opportunity for an all-out Sebastian romance game? Or should I roll up the m!Hawke warrior I’ve been planning all along and just see where it goes?

(Crossposted from two posts on Tumblr.)