#The Sound of my June in 2024 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

felassan · 3 months

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June 14th 2024 Developer Q&A (from the official BioWare Discord) - Complete transcript

Under a cut due to length.

Update: This post has now been updated into a word-for-word transcript.

[Link to video recording of Q&A] | [Link to equivalent post for second Q&A (August 30th)] | [Link to video recording for second Q&A]

Update: This post has now been updated into a word-for-word transcript.

If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here. This blog post is linked in the description under the video. ( ˶´ ᵕ `˶ )

Corinne Busche, John Epler, Matt Rhodes and Community Manager Katey were the devs that were there.

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Katey: Hello!

John: Hello.

Katey: Beautiful, your mic sounds beautiful. How's everybody doing?

John: Excellent. I, just as a headsup, I have some folks doing some service, in the next room so, if I, if you hear background noise, that's what that is.

Katey: No worries at all. Well I hope that everybody who's been waiting in here is really excited, because I'm super excited. I'm Katey. I'm the Community Manager. If you don't already know, you can usually see my name at the top of this Discord server. But I'm joined here with some awesome guests that I'll let introduce themselves. Let's start with Corinne.

Corinne: Can you hear me okay?

John: Yep.

Katey: Yep, we can hear you beautifully.

Corinne: Great, perfect. I'm Corinne Busche, Game Director of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

John: Awesome. I'm John Epler, Creative Director of Dragon Age: The Veilguard.

Corinne: John!

John: Hello.

Katey: And then we've also got Matt Rhodes, who may be struggling to find the unmute button which is at the bottom left.

Corinne: Our, our resident artist-poet, Matt Rhodes.

Katey: I could unmute him, actually, I don't know if I can unmute him, but if he needs help, he can message me on the side.

John: The joys of being a giant nerd is I spend a lot of time on Discord anyway, so.

Corinne: Well there you go, right?

Katey: Fair enough. Alright, well, we have a ton of questions to answer. We probably won't be able to get to all of them today. You all have sent in so many really really great answers, sorry, questions for us to answer. And if we don't get to them today, we're hoping to be able to do things like this in the future. So without further ado, I'll get started. First question's a bit of a soft ball, I feel. If you could belong to any of the main factions shown in the game, which would you choose?

Corinne: I mean, listen Katey, you say softball, but like, this is hard! I’m gonna cheat, and I’m gonna give you two. So for fashion, the Antivan Crows, all day long. Their threads, you’re gonna love it. For vibes, though, like the ones that capture my vibe, Mourn Watch. Gimme those necromancers.

John: Those are good answers. I have, I have one for fashion, and also for, just general faction I’d like to be a part of. Veil Jumpers. Who doesn’t like a nice walk in the forest, y’know? Even if that forest is filled with horrifying monsters and terrifying anomalies, but yeah.

Katey: I love that. I know that Matt has a few technical issues – oh, he’s unmuted. There we go. Or maybe not. That’s okay, I think we can move on.

John: The Fade has taken Matt.

Corinne: That’s right, that’s right.

Katey: Yes. One quick thing, if you check your settings, the cog-wheel in the bottom left, make sure that your voice, like, your audio is all good. If you’re still hearing the music, feel free to maybe, force-quit Discord and rejoin by just joining the stage directly. And mute the music before you come in. Okay. I can move on to the next question for now. I’ve seen, so this question was from Acra. I’ve seen a lot of talk about only having two companions in your party instead of three for this game. What is the reasoning behind this and will we still get the same companion conversations and banter as seen in the previous Dragon Age games?

Corinne: Ooh, this is such a good question. Thankyou, whoever submitted this one. Yeah, I’ll guess I’ll start and then I’ll turn it over to John Epler. So, first of all, as you saw in the gameplay reveal, this is a much more intimate experience. We’ve pulled the camera in. For those that aren’t aware, the reason why is we want you to feel like you actually are in this world, right? Like, you’re walking these city streets of Minrathous, you’re looking up, seeing the buildings all around you, you’re a part of this place. So it’s much more intimate, and we believe as the narrative unfolds this creates a lot more immersion. Now, how that relates to companions is in doing this, we went back and forth on it a lot, but we actually found, with this perspective, having two companions, really allows them more visibility and presence. We’ve talked about the incredible depth and focus we’ve put on fleshing out these companions, they’re very fully-realized. So here, you really get to see them more clearly, you get to see them shine. When you see Lace Harding jump into the air and unleash a volley of arrows, you can only really get that because of that more intimate view. So I love the spotlight that’s been put on them. But, I think, in addition to the banter, one of the things that people are wondering about is, okay, but what about gameplay? So again, this has come about from our testing, working with the internal team, also our lovely Council of players. We just found that when you’re playing in the combat system, when you’re planning your strategies, two really felt like the right number to manage. So keep in mind, Rook has a lot of different types of actions, Abilities, individual attacks that are more fully fleshed-out than ever before. Timing and positioning matter a lot. So this really felt like the right balance to have. The number of inputs and actions we’re asking you as a player to take, including directing your companions, is higher than ever before. And I will also say, I engage with the companions, like I actively control what they’re doing more than I ever have before in any of the other three games. But John, I’ll toss it over to you for the banter. That’s kind of like the, we got a two-for-one there.

John: Yeah, yeah.

Corinne: I think that’s a, a great question.

John: So - it’s a great question, yeah. I mean honestly, I don’t think you could actually stop the writers from writing banter. I will say for myself, it’s, it’s one of the more light but fun things to do. You get to write little stories, little arcs between different characters. And I mean, The Veilguard is no different. Banter is still absolutely core part of it. You know, we’ve got global banter, you know, the general stuff that you get in all spaces, as well as mission-specific stuff. But, yeah, it’s definitely still a big thing. I think it’s, if anything it’s the most we’ve, we’ve ever done for pairings of companions. Beyond that we’ve also made sure, and I mean I’ve been on Dragon Age for a while, and I know there’s been issues, you know, things like, okay, well I don’t wanna miss this banter. So we’ve even added stuff like some interruptible and resumable banter as well, just to make sure that, because again, it’s a core part of the experience. Everyone loves hearing these companions talk to each other, everyone loves hearing these little stories and relationships develop over the course of the game and, as mentioned before, companions are the heart of this experience and banter is a big part of that, so, you still have it, it’s, if anything, like I said, you could not stop the writers from doing it even if we tried, so.

Corinne: That’s right, that’s right. Well, John, you know, listening to you speak, one thing that comes to mind, maybe people are wondering, with two companions in the field do I get less interaction between, that, like do I get to see my companions interacting in a broader group more often.

John: Oh -

Corinne: And, the way you’ll gather them around the kitchen table, there’s just so many of those moments where they’re all interacting with each other.

John: Well, I think –

Corinne: Those are some of my favorite parts.

John: Yeah, and I think, yeah, and actually that’s a, a good call, because I think the other side of it is, we’re not talking too much about your home or anything, but, we also want to make sure that they feel like they have a relationships and a life outside of just, the times you take a certain pair of companions out on the field. So we made sure that, they have those interactions there as well.

Katey: Love that. Let’s see. Um, Matt, are we, are we all set, are we good? Yes? No? Okay. I can continue and we can come back to some of your questions. Alright. So that, I loved the answers to those. How customizable is the backstory of Rook? Will we get to determine their past in the Character Creator? And that was asked by Briar.

John: Yeah, so. Absolutely. So, one of, each, Rook has six different backgrounds that you can choose from. Each of them is tied to one of the major factions in The Veilguard and each one sets out who Rook was before they recruited, were recruited by Varric, and. Well that sets out the broad events. As you go through the game, as you’re gonna have conversations, either with members of your faction, other characters, you can define, not just what those events were, but what they meant to you, what was your motivation, what was the kind of person you are as you build up Rook, because again, we wanna make sure that roleplaying is at the heart of this experience. And taking Rook, giving them, again, giving them background to ground them in the world but then letting you decide what that means and what that says about you is also a big part of it, so. And again, there are six different factions in this game, two which, anyone who’s played Dragon Age for a while will remember. You’ve got the Grey Wardens. You’ve got the Antivan Crows. We also have, in addition to that, we have four new ones, because we’re in northern Thedas. We have the Veil Jumpers. We have the Mourn Watch. We have the Shadow Dragons, and we have the Lords of Fortune, so. Again, a lot of different options, a lot of different background, and a lot of opportunities to really define what your, who your Rook was, and who they are now, so.

Katey: Amazing. Will crafting return? If yes, has it been improved over the system in Inquisition? Asked by Some Dude.

Matt: Testing.

Katey: Oh hey Matt!

Corinne: “Some Dude”, is that, I’m gonna assume “Some Dude” is a username. Great question.

Katey: Yes.

Corinne: Welcome Matt, the lovely Matt Rhodes.

Matt: Testing, testing.

Corinne: Welcome, welcome, hello. Alright, so, will crafting return? You can absolutely improve and customize your gear, yes, that is a big part of RPG progression, so yes you can improve and customize it. I will say, though, it’s different this time around, and it does get into spoiler territory, so I, I’m gonna be a little bit cagey about it, but there might be a mysterious entity that assists you with that that’ll be an important part of the narrative.

Katey: So mysterious.

Corinne: Oooh!

Katey: Matt, I’m gonna actually go back to our first question so that you can answer, so everyone knows.

Matt: Thank you.

Katey: What faction, what faction you would choose if you could choose one for yourself?

Matt: Absolutely, oh, for me it’s definitely the Lords of Fortune. I’ve had a chance to try out a bunch of them, but I think I’ve finally settled on them. And it’s largely just because pirate-barbarian is just such a great combination of elements, so. Treasure-hunting plus beaches and palm trees and all that stuff, it’s a, it’s a really good mix, so that’s kinda my default.

Katey: I think I’m with you there, for sure. How about this one - this one was definitely asked probably amongst the most in Discord. Axolotl asks, can we kiss or romance Manfred the skeleton?

Matt: Uh, I, I would say, not that skeleton, but we’re not saying no skeletons.

Katey: I love that answer.

Corinne: This is my favorite answer so far.

Katey: Alright, so I’m gonna get back on track here. Alright. What, what were some of the development considerations that you had to take into account to ensure that this new game flows and functions with prior games, and Dragon Age Keep, if Keep is being utilized?

Corinne: Ooh, that’s a good one too. So, first of all, I would, I would point everyone to, we did an interview with IGN that goes into some of the details there, so, like, if you want a deeper dive on it, check out that article. But just to summarize, we have taken a different approach on how you import your decisions this time around. It’s now actually been fully-integrated into the Character Creator, and kinda serves a dual purpose, to be honest. I, I playfully, it’s not called this in-game, but I playfully think of it as ‘Last Time On Dragon Age’.

Katey: I love that.

Corinne: Right? Now, when I talk about its dual purpose, it’s been ten years since the last Dragon Age game released, so it serves as a refresher on critical events as well as allowing you to re-make those decisions that are critical to you. The thing I love about it is, it’s very highly visual, it uses the familiar tarot card aesthetic, so it’s actually really visual and playful experience as you go through it. It is very much important to us that it’s built into the client, though. You can play this game entirely offline. No connection. You don’t have to link to your EA accounts, like that’s been a really big request. So, the refresher plus make those decisions in-client, I think we’re all pretty happy about that. I don’t wanna spoil anything by revealing what decisions you can import, like, look, y’all don’t want the spoilers, but I will say, it’s been a really interesting creative intersection for us, because on the one hand, this is a whole new adventure. You’re in northern Thedas, these locations that you’ve literally never been to before. So that affects some of what will matter and what we’re not using this time around, as far as decisions. But obviously there’s some very, very clear connections to existing characters. It’s no secret that the Inquisitor, our dear Inky, is gonna show up, so, that’s, that’s a factor.

Katey: Peachy asks, will this next game be an open-world game, or is it just contained to Tevinter?

John: Yeah, that’s a great question. So, you are in northern Thedas, but the game only begins in Minrathous, it doesn’t stay there. I’m, I think one of the most exciting things for me, honestly, and again, to Corinne’s earlier point about spoilers, I don’t wanna get into too much spoiler detail, but getting to go to, and work with the art team, work with the narrative, work with the design team to build out these locations that we’ve talked about. Places that characters have referred to as where they’ve come from, places that characters, obviously, in previous games, have hailed from, has been absolutely exciting. So, it’s, you do start in Tevinter, you do start in Minrathous, but again, that’s not the entire game by any stretch. So yeah.

Corinne: Yeah, and the first half of it is, is it an open-world game? We’ve gone back to what we believe delivers the best, most curated –

John: Mhm.

Corinne: - intense narratives. So, this is a hand-crafted experience, it’s mission-based. Now, these locations can open up. You can go back, solve mysteries, do some really great side-content. Not fetch-quests, not grind-quests, some really great side content.

John: Mhm.

Corinne: But, I wanna be clear. It’s, it’s a really curated, hand-crafted experience.

John: And just to, just to bounce off of that very quickly. The most important thing for us, to what Corinne was saying about hand-crafted, obviously we’ve talked about how, you know, narrative, story, characters, are the most, are critical to us, and this has allowed us to build these experiences in a way that emphasize that, extremely long, while still, again, tying into the story threads and the story beats, so.

Katey: Awesome. TastefulToxel wants to know - will the companions have unique specializations like Dragon Age II, or will it be the same ones we will have access to as the player in like DA: Origins, or Inquisition?

Corinne: Oh, cool. Hey TastefulToxel. Yeah, so, cool question. I think the best way for me to describe this is that, yes, our companions will have Abilities that are truly unique to them. But also, the companions do fall into the archetypes of mage, rogue, and warrior. Like, for instance, you might be surprised to hear, because she has a bow, but Bellara is, in fact, a mage, and I, I love that. So, some of the Abilities, the bulk of the Abilities of the companions are based on their own unique personality. Like, Neve is the only mage that is an Ice Mage, so you get distinct Abilities for her. But, because she’s a mage, she does have access to Abilities that all the mages share, like Time Slow. So we really like the balance there. It’s like a good mix of representing their archetype, their class, and also their distinct specialization or personality, whatever you wanna call it.

John: Yeah, actually, I would actually say the word ‘personality’ is a really great one because that’s, again, each of these characters exists, each of these characters have a history, have a story of how they became who they were, and part of that was finding that intersection between narrative and gameplay, and making sure that, again, we, we serve the needs of gameplay but also allow these characters to breathe and exist as their own people, not just in conversation, but out of conversations, as well.

Corinne: I would also say as part of that core mage kit, healing spells are there, so any of your mages, you wanna make ‘em a healer, do that.

Katey: Lunasoul Darkmoon asks, will The Veilguard have tactical combat still?

Corinne: Ooh, such a good one, such a good one. Okay. Yes! Combat gets quite tactical, like, obviously this is an evolution of the combat system, and I talked about immersion, wanting you, to put you in the world, like you’re actually living and existing in it, but it is very tactical. And, I will say, we have a robust difficulty system. The tactics are increasingly important the higher difficulty level you go. So like, look, if you’re showing up for a highly tactical experience, I would crank that difficulty level in particular. But I wanna make clear, I’m, super, I wanna make sure I’m super clear in my answer. You saw the gameplay reveal. Our pause-time tactical mode is not overhead. It stays close to Rook. It does allow you to cycle between targets, both in and out of combat, there’s a reason for that. As the game progresses, and you didn’t see this in that opening hour of the game, but it’ll display strategic information on the enemies, so like, what are their vulnerabilities, what are their elemental weaknesses, their enhancements, what are they resistant to? So your type of Abilities, learning into elemental gameplay, matters a lot. I’d also say, this is a long answer, it’s such a good question – tactical decision-making also takes the form, I would say this is front and center, of coordinating your Ability usage between Rook and your companions to create synergies, or really devastating – we call them – detonation combos. So, let me give you a couple of examples, because it can be a little hard to visualize, so hopefully this helps. So one of the tactics that I personally enjoy in my own builds, I just recently played as a Veil Ranger, I love it, it’s one of my favorites. If I’m fighting Fade-touched enemies in Arlathan, I like to use Bellara’s Galvanized Tear to pull enemies together, it’s like a gravity well. You then Slow Time with Neve and, Slow Time affects the world around you, but it does not affect you, so you clump them up, you Slow Time, and then with Rook, I come in and do, like a devastating AOE or damage over time spell or Ability, and it’s even better if it’s a lightning-based Ability, because the Fade-touched in Arlathan are vulnerable to that. So there’s so many layers of coordination and strategy and tactics. Now we did talk about the devastating, like, detonation combos, honestly, that’s probably one of my favorite features, because that’s when you’re really leaning into explicit teamwork between your companions and Rook, or, the companions together. So when I, when I build out my team and I’m going into a mission, I try to ensure that I have at least a couple of possible synergies, detonation combo synergies within my team. Might be between Harding and Neve, or it might be between Neve and me, or it might be both. So here, I would go into battle, I’d pause time, open the Ability Wheel, get information on the enemy, and the Wheel will actually tell me that there is a synergy combo, you might have seen a screenshot that says “combo available”. It will remind you of those synergies between companions. You can queue both of those Abilities up at the same time, go, close out of the pause-time menu, they’ll both execute, both Abilities will happen, then the detonation AOE happens, applies debuffs to all the enemies in a radius of it, it’s so satisfying, it’s so satisfying, I can’t wait for y’all to see it. But the interesting thing is that too is a tactical choice. I’m choosing to use my companions to do that, and that means, in that moment, I’m not using them to heal me, or to give me that defense bonus, or to knock an enemy off a ledge, so it’s about the opportunity cost. I, I could spend the rest of the session talking about this, I, apologies for being long-winded, but this is just one of my favorite parts of, of the game.

Katey: That was a great answer. Can you choose Rook’s pronouns? If yes, being, is being non-binary an option? And also, how detailed is Character Creation?

Corinne: Hell yeah you can select your pronouns! Absolutely. You can actually select both your pronouns and your gender, because those are related concepts, but they’re not actually the exact same thing, so. It’s really cool. Yeah, you can be non-binary. We have they/them, she/her, he/him. Yes, emphatic yes. How detailed is the Character Creator? Oh my goodness, y’all. Like. Very! I don’t wanna give away too much just yet, but it’s very, very deep. It has been revealed, it’s out there in a couple of articles, about the focus on hair, the focus on skin-tones that are done respectfully, full-body customization, hell yeah, we love to see it. But we’re, we’re gonna, we’re gonna come back, we’re gonna show you a lot more on Character Creator, but we wanna make sure we have the time and space to, to do that.

Katey: Will there be a Photo Mode in-game?

Corinne: So that is something we’re actively looking into. We know there’s a tonne of interest, so stay tuned on that one. But we are very much looking into it.

Matt: I can add to that, is a feature that is, that, we like, we like the idea of, and, and, it’s not just player-facing but internally, it’s a really helpful thing for us as we’re, as we’re building things out to have that so it’s, it’s, we’ll let ya know.

Corinne: Yes, yeah, absolutely. We, we are as geeked on that possibility as you all are.

Katey: A lot of people were asking about Abilities. This one is from Clemmy. Abilities, I don’t think I saw this answered yet, but are we going to be limited in how many Abilities we can pick from the Wheel?

Corinne: Ah! Yes, yes, yes. So, Ability Wheel does have a capacity. You have to choose which three Abilities you wanna bring for Rook, which three for one of your companions, and which three for another companion. And what I, what I like about this is there is, kind of, an emergent gameplay depending on who you and your companions are coming into the mission with. Now the reason for that is, it actually creates really interesting balance of strategizing, having to do that strategy about your kit, your combat kit, before the mission. And then the tactical decisions once you’re in the field in combat, deciding what to do. But, I do wanna clear one thing up, because, while there are three Ability slots for Rook, there’s so much more than that. Other actions that you can perform directly from the Wheel include, you’ll have an Ultimate Ability, associated with your class or your specialization, so there’s variance there. There’s a type of items that you’ll get that function like Abilities, they’re typically like buffs and enhancements in form of Runes. So you’ll control that for Rook and/or the team from the Wheel. You may have also seen that you can direct which targets your companions will focus on, but what you might not know is that a lot of the companion gear really synergizes with that directing your companions. When you issue those commands, that too will proc based on the gear they have equipped. Really interesting and strategic effects. They can be more Ability-like, more, like, procced effects, there’s just so much from the Wheel, that once you get in and see everything working together, becomes more and more apparent.

Katey: We have another question from TastefulToxel which is, will Fireball and Cone of Cold be back as skills, or as spells in Dragon Age: The Veilguard?

Corinne: Ohh, I love, all these combat questions, really good. So Fireball and Cone of Cold aren’t specifically back, however, their successors are. Frost Nova and Meteor. So these serve the exact same combat role and function as those other Abilities. I would also say, it gives ‘em quite the glow-up, so. Meteor in particular, like, so satisfying nuking a group of darkspawn with a well-placed Meteor, it’s really wonderful.

Katey: What accessibility features are available? I would love to know if there’s an arachnophobia mode. Will there be mod support?

Corinne: Oh my goodness, arachnophobia. I am wicked afraid of spiders too, my partner always laughs at me. I’m just terrified of them. That said, that’s one we’re going to save for a little bit closer to launch before we’ll go into full details about accessibility features. But I do wanna assure you, we’ve spent a lot of time thinking about this topic so you can play the game in a way that really works for you. I’m, I’m excited to share that with you when the time is right.

Katey: So this one is from a username named Cookie. How long is the time-skip from Inquisition to The Veilguard? I know we’ll probably get more info on this, but I’m so curious.

John: Yeah, so, anyone who’s paid attention to Dragon Age, and I can say as somebody who’s been on Dragon Age since Origins, timelines are always a little iffy. They change, and they morph over development as we see how long events taking. But, for The Veilguard, we were actually pretty consistent from the start. It’s been about ten years since the events of Trespasser. As you may or may not have noticed, Varric’s become a little bit of a silver fox. I know, I’ve heard, seen, I’ve seen a lot of comments on that on social media, but, yeah, ten years. Solas’ ritual is taken time to set up and you’re kinda coming in at the end of that hunt, so.

Katey: Siddy is asking the hardest-hitting question which is, is Solas still bald?

Matt: Yeah. I mean, if you’ve watched the gameplay thing, we can all confirm, yes, Solas is still bald, Solas is still Solas. We’ve, we’ve, I really, I really like how Solas has turned out this time around. I will say, here’s a comment on this specific question that’s gonna sound like a non-sequitur, but, once you get a chance to play it a little bit more, maybe you’ll see it. In Thedas, ancient elves, they go bald when they’re like millennia old, so. Solas wasn’t always bald. So if you were to end up, end up seeing what Solas looked like in the past, things might be a little different. You’ll have –

John: - Now, now that said, I’m sure some of you are wondering what happened to Solas’ wig from Tevinter Nights. I’m sure he still has it somewhere, so.

Katey: He’s just taking care of it elsewhere.

John: He’s just taking care, it’s, it’s his most important possession.

Corinne: The Pride there, huh?

Katey: I have another one for Matt. This is, will we be able to, will we be able to change companions’ appearances and outfits, or are they fixed, similar to Dragon Age II?

Matt: Yeah we, Dragon Age II was, we loved how the followers turned out in that but it was, it was sad given, given our constraints that we had to keep them with just one, one basic outfit. So we really tried to make some space for them this time around. So they’re, they still have, kind’ve iconic color palettes and things like that, but they do have a wider range of appearances that you can, that you can find for them. Some, some are just cool, but then there are some that are tied directly to their, to their narrative and just kinda what’s happening in their life.

Katey: Another one for ya, which is, will we be seeing or visiting Kal-Sharok? It’s, and, Tyrant says that they’ve been obsessed with it forever.

Matt: Yeah, me too. I, I will say, what’s, what’s been really cool, so in previous games, we’ve kind’ve alluded to this before. It was a lot of fun to hint at the locations that were off the map, the mysterious places that you weren’t gonna go, you weren’t going. And so you could just bring in some props or some characters, a piece of art, things like that, and you know, even Tevinter was only vaguely hinted at and then we would just add drips and bits and pieces, so that stuff was really fun. In The Veilguard, we’re actually getting to visit, most, like a whole lot of those locations that had only been hinted at for real, so you actually do run around Tevinter and a bunch of the other locations that we’ve revealed. But this also means, like, we’re not completely filling out the map, and so that there are actually new things that we can start hinting at, that we can start drip-feeding, and so, it’s, it’s kind’ve fun. I’d say, yeah, for what we can show of Kal-Sharok, and, and other locations, it’s just, there’s, there’s more to do.

Katey: Awesome. MrFightmonster118 asks, will the dialogue wheel slash options be similar to Inquisition and Mass Effect: Andromeda in the sense that it’s more tone-based?

John: Yeah, so, we have a number of different types of wheels in our game. All the dialogue wheels are based off the same principle. Anyone who’s played a Dragon Age game remembers what they look like. In Dragon Age: The Veilguard we have tone wheels which are, you know, again, roleplaying your character, picking consistent tone. We also have emotion wheels where you can pick specific emotional reactions. And choice wheels which are, I don’t have a strong emotional or tone tie here but I do want to make a choice based on what I do. Investigates obviously return as well, but. We do want players to understand as much as possible what it is they’re going to be picking, and understand, and again, choice and consequence is fun, we wanna make sure the choice is clear, even if, again, one of the best parts about consequence is making sure that’s not entirely clear, so.

Katey: How extensive are Rook’s decision trees for dialogue going to be with the companions and also with NPCs throughout the game?

John: Huge. I mean, again, it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure you have choices, we wanna make sure you can choose both your roleplaying but also choose outcomes of conversations, choose how events unfold, so, I mean, again, it’s a Dragon Age game, we wanna make sure that we also react to decisions you’ve made, so. For example, you may be talking to a follower who is an elf, and if you yourself are an elf, obviously you’re gonna have a different perspective on events than someone who’s not an elf. Sometimes that means different conversation options, sometimes that’s going to mean entirely deep dialogue trees, as well as based off decisions you’ve made throughout the game so, again, making sure that the game feels like it’s noticing what you’re doing is a huge part of how we’ve written out the dialogue wheel, or dialogue trees, in this game.

Corinne: Blueberry has a question for Corinne. It was mentioned that there will be, that we will be able to romance who we like. Does that mean that all companions are romanceable by all player characters regardless of race or gender, as it has been in the past?

Corinne: Yeah, yeah. So, we have talked about this in some of the interviews, I’ve seen a few articles about it, so I’d recommend everyone check out those articles. But let me just give you a quick overview. Each of the seven companions have full romance arcs and they are romanceable by all genders, absolutely. But something that’s really important to, to us on the team, so I wanna make sure that we clarify and just double-down on, that doesn’t mean playersexual. And if anyone’s unaware of what we mean by that, it doesn’t mean that they can form or twist their identities to who you the player are, like they, they won’t suddenly have a preference for men or women based on what you’re playing, right? Instead, they have their own fully fleshed-out identities, they are true and authentic to that. So in this game, they are all pansexual, with their own histories of romance. Sometimes you’ll hear about preferences, or things of that nature. And what I really love is, if you don’t pursue a romance with them, they’ll actually build their own romances with each other. So, in one of the interviews I talked about Lace Harding and Taash getting together. I give that example because honestly, it’s one of my favorites. I’m gonna put a question back to the community, though. I’ve heard we’re going with “Laash” for that ship-name? You tell me, like, what is that ship-name?

Katey: That one just rolls off the tongue, I feel like that works. This next question is from FallenArtesia. What are the markings on the faces of the elven Warden and Veil hopper?

Matt: So there’s a, quite a few, probably, I think, easily more than we’ve done before, tattoos from various, various cultures. We’re bringing the vallaslin back, of course. But there’s, yeah, ton of different options, especially when we’re, again, going into all these new regions. Each, each area has its own kind’ve visual language for that. But yeah, we are bringing the vallaslin back and then a couple of the characters have them, but we’ve kind’ve customized them a little bit, they’re a bit more specific to their personality.

Katey: And this is a question for all of you. What are you, what are you as a developer most proud of about the game, and what are you most excited for players to experience when it’s out?

John: Ooh, that’s a good question.

Corinne: Isn’t it?

John: Corinne, you wanna go first?

Corinne: Yeah, sure. Gosh. So I suspect for most of us, myself included, it is really gonna be the depth and authenticity of the companions, journeying along with them on their arcs, learning about their hardships, what they care about, being by their side, that, that authenticity is just so good. They all feel like my dear friends. But, I have to say, the closest runner-up for me, has to be the Character Creator, has to be. That Character Creator, the makeup options, the range of sliders. I’m a qunari fan, so even just the, the way you customize the horns and combine that with the really great-looking hair. Character Creator has to be my, my, like very close runner up.

Matt: Oh yeah. For me, I would say, as far as, what, what I can say I’m most proud of on this one, the, I can speak for the art team. We worked incredibly hard to make the story more visible than ever. Games are a visual medium, but, you know, it’s, sometimes it’s easier to do things in text format or written in a Codex somewhere or alluded to off-screen. But we really leaned in to trying to make sure that every design, prop, character, environment, the VFX we’re choosing, everything, all, all these choices, were putting the story on-screen so that you can really see it unfold. And I think, having worked on all of the Dragon Age games, I would say Veilguard represents one of the best attempts at that we’ve made yet.

John: I’m gonna cheat, because I’m going last and I get to do that when I go last, and kinda combine both Corinne’s and Matt’s answer. Honestly, the companions are, for me, the absolute highlight of, just, being able to work across all the disciplines, building characters who look and sound and behave in very specific and characterful ways. These are the deepest companion arcs we’ve ever done. Not just on Dragon Age, but at BioWare in general. Each, each companion has their own story arc, you can go through decisions you can make, they really do take center-stage, and I think, as you play through with them you see the care and love that the team has put into each and every one. I mean there’s, there’s moments in each arc that make you cry, make you angry, make you excited and, and the way that they integrate into the story as a whole is just, for me, something that’s been really fun. Finding ways to bring these characters together, finding ways to make this, this narrative, this story of, you know, you need to put together a team and stop the end of the world, it’s just been absolutely exciting and thrilling. And again, you see the team’s love in every single piece of it. As for what I’m most excited? For me, I’ve been, I mean Dragon Age has been part of my career, part of my life for literally the last decade and a half. I’ve worked on it since Origins and there’s something about The Veilguard that feels like a amazing mix of, novelty but also familiarity. It’s like coming home in a way that I think is going to be very exciting for people who are existing Dragon Age players, but there’s also so much here that’s just new and exciting for people, new players and old players alike. And going to parts of the word, seeing things we’ve never seen before, and just getting to take this amazing world, this amazing series and expand on it and build on it in ways that have just been, honestly, an absolute thrill, the best part of my career. And I’ve been in games for seventeen years now, this has been the absolute highlight for me, so. That’s what I’m excited about.

Corinne: John, that was, that was such a good answer, and I just, I just wanna “yes, and -” that. It, I so completely agree with you. There’ve been times in the companion arcs where even, knowing exactly what’s going to happen, we work on the game, with some of these decisions, I, I’ve had to set down the controller, let out a heavy sigh and go “oh my god, what am I gonna do here?” Yeah, the depth of them is wonderful. And, I do wanna say, I, I’d be, I wanna put this out there, when we talked about as a developer, what are we most proud of, can we just give a big shout-out to the dev team? I am so proud of them. This team has poured their heart and soul into this.

John: Absolutely.

Corinne: Anyone from BioWare who’s listening in, thank you so much, y’all are just the best.

John: Hear, hear.

Katey: I absolutely love that. I knew that question was going to have some of my best, some of my favorite answers, and it delivered, so thank you three. This one’s a fun one. Why does Varric have dark hair now? I feel like John mentioned this a little bit earlier, but.

John: Just for [inaudible].

Matt: He’s been, he’s been adventuring for a while now. His hair is, is more gray, but he’s been in very dark scenes so far, so. We’ll see him in some more contexts.

Katey: In this question, we actually took from Tumblr, because there were a few really good ones in our ask box. Will the Inquisitor be appearing in the flesh, or are we just choosing their major Dragon Age: Inquisition decisions?

Corinne: Alright! Yeah, yes! They will. The Inky does appear. We know how attached y’all are to the Inquisitor, I’ve seen the love for your OC. Yes, the Inquisitor shows up. Now, we, we’d already confirmed that in a few places, so, let me just say, you can also customize them, includes some of our new customization options, yeah, they’re gonna show up and they’re gonna be your Inquisitor.

John: And I think, I think beyond that, I mean, the story of Solas and the story of the Inquisitor, obviously are tied, they’re tied together as much as any story, so. It would have been strange for us not to bring them in for this one. They have, they’re gonna be a part of the story, so.

Katey: Will there be any planned DLC? Just curious, as I always love the DLCs. Oh, and transmog armor. This one came from Lavell.

Corinne: Oh, heck yeah, good question. So, right now, our focus is entirely on the quality of the game. Like, it’s so important at this stage for us to be all-in, all attention on, just, finishing this game and delivering on the quality, the promise of it. So honestly, like, that’s all I can really say about it. We’re 100% focused on this being the most complete game we can make it. I will say, kind’ve related to that though, and I just wanna underscore this, I wanna emphasize it. There’s not gonna be any microtransactions, there’s not gonna be any battle passes, you don’t have to connect online, our focus is making this the most complete singleplayer game we possibly can. Now, this was kind’ve a two-for question, I love when we do that. Will there be transmog? Hell yeah. I’m the kind’ve player that, that believes fashion is the real end-game. Yeah, there’s a transmog system, absolutely, it’s sick.

Katey: And then this next question is from Scott. I was asking if any of the characters will be explicitly asexual, or on the ace spectrum?

Corinne: So good. Such a good question. So, look, I’m just, I’m gonna be really forthcoming with y’all and a little bit vulnerable here. I’m ace, I’m a gray-ace, I don’t mind sharing that, I’m kind’ve public with it. I will say though, that none of our companions this time around are explicitly ace. When we look at the characters, their motivations, who they are, we always assess, like is, is this the right time? This time it wasn’t. But what I will say for everyone on the ace spectrum out there, I would love to represent an ace relationship sometime in the future when it feels like the most authentic fit for a companion, when we can do it best. Oh, and I do see some questions, you know, some questions, what do we mean by ace? Asexuality. We often refer to it as the ace spectrum.

Katey: Can mage Rook do blood magic? Will blood magic be a skill tree separate from regular magic?

Corinne: Okay. Um, this gets a little spoilery, so let me just say, Rook has some pretty good reasons to avoid blood magic. Rook is not gonna want to be interested in that. But I will say, the mage skill tree is packed with all kinds of spells, traits and perks to give you a ton of flexibility in your magic. Gonna go off-script just a little bit, because –

John: Oh no.

Corinne: I’ve seen, like, can you tell us about the specializations for mage? I’m not gonna tell you the deets, but there is a necromancer one, there is an elemental one, and there is one that’s actually more of like a combat mage, it’s my favorite.

Katey: Can we name the griffon? We also have a griffon emoji now in this Discord server.

John: Excellent. So, someone on your, in your party, again, spoilers, may have already named the griffon, but, don’t worry, Assan is a very good boy, so.

Corinne: All these griffon emojis are, y’all are killing me.

Katey: Yeah, I love that, griffons in the chat. Let's see. Will we have a camp/home/headquarters that we’ll be able to customize?

Matt: Well this time around, in Inquisition you had Skyhold. In this case you have a headquarters called the Lighthouse. More to be seen on that. But, it’s, it, narratively it, it serves kind’ve a different purpose but also the same purpose. As far as customization goes, there are elements of it that change over time, and some things that you can adjust. I, I don’t know how much we’re really going into that at the moment.

Katey: This one is –

Matt: But yeah, I would say, it’s like, there’s some, it, one thing I like about it is it definitely does start to feel very much like a home over time.

Katey: Sorry for almost cutting you off there Matt. We have another very hard-hitting question, if I'm, if I do say so myself.

John: I love this one.

Katey: We need to - Same. We need to know, does pasta and noodles exist in Thedas? Thank you.

Matt: Well, and I’ll take it as a chance just to geek out about worldbuilding, because, again, we’re, The Veilguard for us is a really kinda dream opportunity to go to places that we’ve only ever heard reference to, or we’ve seen hints at. And so, in going through the worldbuilding process and trying to, trying to build these places out, not just as neat things from the IP but also as, you know, if you’ve, if you've read about this stuff, if you’ve been following along, you’ve got your own version of it in your head. You’ve imagined what it might be like, you’re, and probably hoping for something spectacular. And our brains are always far better at creating this stuff than any game developer, any artist, or anyone can really do justice to, so you really have to swing for the fences to make something very satisfying and exciting. You know, is, that can be everything as big as architecture and landscape and biomes and ecosystems, but it does get into things like art and culture, costume design, and also food, and this time around we did, you know, that was one of the many things that we, that we did, looking to, just to try to catch the character and the feel of a place to make it feel believable and lived in, so. That’s my really long answer for, yeah, I’m sure, I've, at least one place does have pasta.

Katey: I loved that. This next question is from Spectre Karro. Are we getting a mabari?

John: Ooh, that’s a good question. I will say, you’re spending most of the game in the north of Thedas. Mabari are not nearly as big of a thing up there, so. In this particular instance, no, you will not get a mabari, sadly.

Katey: Honestly, I should’ve pulled this one up to where we answered the first question about the griffon, but, can we pet the griffon?

Matt: You, I’m really sorry to have to be the one to tell you – nah, I’m kidding, yes you can. But it’s not even just petting the griffon. I’ve, this isn’t a spoiler, I think you can actually, I’ve actually hugged the griffon, so, that feels like, even there, a step up. Yeah.

John: There’s lots of opportunities to interact with the griffon.

Corinne: Can we see, can we see Assan in chat if we wanna see him in the Lighthouse hanging out?

Katey: Assan in chat everybody.

Corinne: Assan in chat, alright!

Katey: I love it.

Corinne: Okay, y’all this was so important to the team too. Like, this is the team’s like, just such huge support for this feature, so props to them.

Katey: This one is from Coriander. Will we get to see any of the Character Creator before the game releases?

Corinne: Yes, yes you will. We’ve got a, you’ve probably seen, we’re laying out a roadmap for, you know, what we’re gonna show and when we’re gonna talk about, so, yes you will see it as we get a little bit closer to launch.

Katey: And then we’ve got this question which is, will we be able to play as a qunari, dwarf, elf, or human?

Corinne: Hell yeah, hell yeah you will. All four, and all four have that full-body customization. I already talked a little bit about, I mean listen, I’ve always loved the qunari. I will say in Dragon Age: Inquisition it was hard to get a good-looking qunari hairstyle, so yes you can play as them, you can customize them, the horn options are rad, the hair options are rad. And also, I guess related to this, your lineage gives you a lot of really unique dialogue options, so that’s a really lovely aspect of choosing your lineage as well.

John: Yeah, I would, so to actually just to bounce off that, to an earlier question about backgrounds, each lineage, there, depending on the lineage you choose and the background you choose there are some specifics call-outs to, for example, if it’s the Mourn Watch, the Mourn Watch being a faction from Nevarra of mages, you play as a dwarf, obviously your experience in that faction is going to be different than, say, a human or an elf, so. There are also specific call-outs tailored to those combinations and, with again, giving, the intention of giving each lineage their own little flavor as to how they're, they fit into that faction as a whole.

Katey: Okay, John, I’ve got a question from someone named Joe for you. Where is Barkspawn and is he okay?

John: That’s a Great question. Barkspawn is safely gnawing on a bone next to a fireplace somewhere in Ferelden, don’t worry, he’s fine. You may question, ask yourself, but John, it’s been so long, in which I say, mabari live exactly as long as they need to.

Corinne: Getting into the deep-cut questions now.

John: Deep-cut questions, yeah.

Katey: Yeah. We are really speedin’ through these. Let’s see. Will Rook have a set of default name?

John: Yeah so, Rook’s last name is defined based on their faction, again, we wanted to tie that into your backstory, but also, there’s a, that’s a name generator that can give you a selection of first names. Obviously if you want to make your own first name, that’s definitely something we support as well. If you’re somebody who maybe has a little bit more difficulty coming up with a name, so for example you name every single character “Bob” because that’s the only name you can think of, we also give that opportunity for that generation, so.

Katey: I definitely always have trouble coming up with what I wanna name my characters, so that’s great. This next question is, when will the voice acting cast be announced?

John: So, we worked with a lot of very talented actors on this one. I am super excited to talk about the voice acting cast. We’ll be talking a bit more over the summer, we’re not quite ready to announce names yet.

Katey: And I think we have a similar answer to this next question, which was, will there be a Collector’s Edition? When can I pre-order?

John: Yeah, same answer, we have, we’ll talk more about the different editions of the game soon.

Katey: Are there any special musical guests writing the sound-track? Will tavern songs return.

Corinne: Oh my goodness, yeah. There are tavern songs. And huge credit to the audio team and performance teams because they’re pretty great. There’s one in a little tavern in Minrathous called The Swan, and the song you hear there might just, it might be, it’s up there, it might just be my favorite of the tavern songs.

Katey: Let’s see, are there any – ope, I have just asked that one. What are the required PC specs?

John: Much like the other two, we will have more information on required PC specs soon.

Katey: Saph from the Discord server noticed that two, Dragon Age II’s main theme from the soundtrack brought back much of the iconic thematic material of Origins’ main theme, but I heard less of it in Inquisition’s. Can we expect The Veilguard’s main theme to recall more or less of that original thematic material than Inquisition?

John: So we’re not, we’re not quite ready to talk about music yet in specifics, but in broad strokes I can say the process for us is always the same. Working with the composer, working, figuring out themes, figuring out what kinds of elements we want to keep, tying specific elements to, maybe specific characters. It’s a really in-depth process and a really collaborative process. We have some fantastic audio people on our team that have done an amazing work, amazing job, working with composers, and, with the team as a whole to make sure that, again, we said earlier about cohesiveness. Making sure that the music feels like a cohesive part of the experience.

Katey: And this one, I see is also for John, but I think anyone can answer this. When writing the overall story of this game, what themes did you want to have as the prominent focus?

John: I mean again, it’s interesting, so it’s interesting, because when we were writing these games, and this has been true on every Dragon Age I’ve been part of, what you start with and where you end up aren’t always necessarily the same. Sometimes you start writing out a theme, you realize actually it’s more interesting if we attack from this angle, or maybe if we twist it a little bit. I will say for Dragon Age: The Veilguard, from the beginning one of the biggest themes has been regret. How regret’s shaped peoples’ lives, how people deal with their regrets, how people maybe move past their regrets and, each of the characters, you know, the stories as a whole, have elements of this tied throughout. We really wanted to have that thematic, that cohesiveness to the game’s story and the game’s writing so.

Katey: And I know that, you know, we’ve, we've kind’ve already answered this a few times, but can we play as dwarves and does the world react to your race and backstory? Probably be good to just directly answer that one.

John: Yes you can play as a dwarf. Yes the world does react to your race and backstory. And, again, you’ll have unique dialogues or unique conversation options based on that, on that backstory and as well as that race.

Corinne: I’ll give you a little nugget here, because I saw it scrolling through real quickly. Do you have beards, like. So when I think about can I play as dwarves I think about, do we have glorious fantastic beards? Hell yeah, we do.

John: Yeah, I can say, as somebody who plays a lot of games with character creator, the beards on, I don’t know what magic the character art team did for the beards, but they feel like a beard should feel like, it’s great. They look awesome.

Corinne: Just saw somebody say “it’s beard time”, I love it. It’s beard time!

Katey: Will our heroes and companions leave us if we go against their wishes?

Corinne: Oh my good – do y’all just love pain? Do you want us to make you cry? If you go against their wishes, if you make decisions they don’t like, I will tell you, you can piss them off, you can, they might not agree with you and they, they will take some time away. That said, this is the biggest threat to Thedas we’ve ever seen, so they’re, they are always gonna be willing to show up to defend Thedas but, yeah, you can piss them off and they’ll leave for a minute. As it relates to them showing up to defend Thedas, well yeah, they will, unless…

John: No spoilers Corinne!

Corinne: Aughhh, I’ll leave it there, I’ll leave it there.

John: No spoilers.

Corinne: Okay, alright, alright. But they want it!

John: Yep.

Matt: Don’t try to stop me, Smee!

Katey: This one’s a fun one about some inspirations for the game. Dracanmo would like to know if any songs, books, movies or anything have had inspired any of the writing for the characters?

John: I mean, honestly, the thing about art is, art is always a synthesis of your own experiences both in the real world but also the art you consume, the art you pay attention to. I don’t think that any characters have what I would describe as, this character was a direct reference or direct inspiration but, I mean, yeah, they’re all inspired by the things that we do, the things, both, again, in the real world, and also in the media we consume. And you’re gonna see elements of characters that, yeah, the things that we’ve enjoyed, the things that’ve shaped us, show up in these characters. I think, for me, it’s, it comes down to, and I, I, writing is a deeply, can be a deeply personal experience, so even if you don’t intend for it to be the case, things, parts of you are going to show up in your character, I think that’s true for all the characters in The Veilguard. And, you know, sometimes it’s, exploring, exploring the, y’know, things that, about yourself that you may like or may not like, and it’s also about exploring things about characters that you like or don’t like, so. That’s kinda my long-winded way of saying yes, it’s impossible to not have that happen when you’re creating art. But I wouldn’t say that there’s one where you can say, oh this is this character, this is this character.

Katey: What was the thinking process behind making Harding a companion this time around? Was she always going to be one or did it evolve into one because she was such a lovable character?

John: Ohh, yeah. So Harding, I mean. When we released Inquisition, it was impossible not to see the love that people had for our murderous girl next door dwarf. She’s always been a fan favorite obviously, but I think beyond that, it’s something that there, that Harding’s writer wanted to explore. There was more of a story to tell there, more perspective, and beyond that, Harding obviously has a strong connection to Solas, and to the, to Varric, and to the events of the past ten years, so. I wouldn’t say it’s always been, but I’d say Harding’s probably one of the first ones we settled on as like, yes, this is a character we want and the writer had a story that they wanted to tell with her, so, it just made sense.

Matt: You know, I think actually, to piggyback on that, that’s something I hadn’t really even thought about that much, but, and it’s not a huge part of her character, but, she tends to be one of the people that have the most insight into he was.

John: Yeah, that’s exactly it, that’s exactly, and yeah, that’s a great way of looking at it too. It also provides you with a little bit of that, that perspective. For players who’ve been around, you know, who played with previous Dragon Age games, but also for new ones, who was Solas? What kind of character was, was he?

Matt: Yeah.

John: Yeah, it’s a great, it’s a great, using characters to provide windows onto the world is honestly one of my favorite things.

Matt: And, and when I say was, I just mean, in Inquisition.

John: Yes, that’s, that’s exactly it, yes. Thank you for correcting that.

Matt: Yeah.

Katey: And what approach are you taking to quest and world design in The Veilguard?

John: I think for us it just comes down to relevance and narrative heft. We want to make sure that each quest provides either a perspective on the world or perspective on the characters, or feels immediately and obviously relevant to what you’re, what you’re doing here. You’re here to save the world and, again, at the end of the day, one of the things that we heard, we heard loud and clear, was some feedback about how relevant, or in this, in our case, not relevant, previous quests have felt, so for Veilguard, we really wanted to make sure that these quests felt like something that you, somebody faced with the end of the world would believe was necessary and important. So, again, there’s quests of all sorts and sizes, but all of them share that same feeling of, this is the kind of thing that The Veilguard would do. This is the kind’ve thing that my hero would do, especially faced with the end of the world.

Corinne: Yeah, that’s, that’s really good John. That’s so right. I would just, again, double-down on how hand-crafted all the quests are, and whether, whether you’re doing, like, the main story, or you’re journeying with your companions, or you’re out exploring and you encounter a mystery. Everything’s handcrafted, intentional. We spent a lot of time listening to what y’all said, and of course everyone has slightly different tastes, but, you know, you’re not gonna be gathering shards in the Hinterlands. Everything is built with intention, and, you know, a dev there lovingly handcrafting the experience.

Katey: Are there any locations in the game that can only be accessed by making specific story choices?

John: So I don’t wanna get too much into spoilers here because this does start getting into spoiler detail, but I will say that locations can fundamentally change based on decisions you make. Some of the parts of the world that you go to, you can have, the decision, the choices you make have an impact on how these spaces exist and develop, so, yeah, and again, don’t wanna too many into, into story spoilers, but, your decisions do impact how the world shows up.

Katey: And will we be able to control our companions in combat through tactical mode, or if the PC, or player character, gets KO’d, like in previous games?

Corinne: Right, so. If Rook gets KO’d, your player character gets knocked out, this time around it is time to re-load your save, or better yet, the companions have really interesting progression, you can spec them out to be able to revive you, but that’s, that’s if you’ve invested in their own progression and what they can do. And that said, I, I mentioned this earlier but I, I personally spend more time in the nature of this combat system when everything comes together, interacting and directing the companions than I have in any of the other games, so, like, like that, that interactivity between them, once you play it you’ll see how, just engaged the team is.

Katey: A user named It’s Sarah said, my real most important Dragon Age question is, will Solas still occasionally or dramatically speak in iambic pentameter?

John: You know, I was, I actually spent a little bit of time trying to figure out if I wanted to answer this question in iambic pentameter and then I very quickly gave up. Massive kudos to Patrick who, who always writes Solas so well. Again, Solas is a returning character, it’s the same Solas you know and love, or hate, depending on who you are. Same writer, so, I think, this has been, the answer is, well of, yeah, it’s Solas.

Katey: Will our decision of who in particular was left behind in the Fade be important?

John: So, while that decision does not show up, that – sorry, let me, restart. Not for The Veilguard. That decision doesn’t show up here. Now, that said, that doesn’t mean that’s that’s not a decision that will ever be important in the future, so. Again, not for this one, though.

Matt: I’m glad to hear you say that, John, because one of my favorite stories was Bob getting stuck in the web in reboot and it just feels like -

John: That’s a, that’s a deep cut!

Corinne: Very, that’s a deep cut.

John: Holy smokes.

Corinne: My goodness.

John: The sound of my childhood.

Katey: Will we have mounts again? If so, any hints to what types we’ll have?

Matt: So no, no, mounts, excuse me. Mounts were, they were, they addressed a need in Inquisition that we don’t have in Veilguard, and you’ll see why, when you get to play.

Katey: LightningStar asks, how is the side quest design? Will they be mostly story-based, or will there be a lot of radiant quests or resources or Power, like in Inquisition?

John: We talked about it a little bit earlier, but, no, they are all hand-crafted and story-focused. Again, narrative, the companions, not just the companions but the characters in the world as a whole are so much at the core of The Veilguard that, anything other than hand-crafted quests just felt like it would be a disservice to the game we were building.

Corinne: Yeah. And maybe, we can clarify as well, because, like Power was such a divisive mechanic in Inquisition. There’s no mechanic like that that blocks your progression until you fill a bar, right, like that’s just not a thing in this. You have the autonomy to engage in these, these quests as you like. There’s no, like, y'know, grind-out gates before you can progress.

John: That’s right, yeah. Again, we wanna make sure that, again, that doing this content feels as natural and part of the logical flow of the story as possible.

Katey: So, it looks like we only have time for three more questions, so I’m going to get through those. With this next one, is from someone named Jason. Will there be a similar system to the War Table missions?

Corinne: Ooh, interesting. So, we haven’t talked much about the player’s base, the Lighthouse. And we’re gonna save that for a beat, but what I will say is that the Lighthouse, your headquarters so to speak, it has its own unique purposes and functions this time. So that’s an area that we’ll, we’ll leave for you when we talk more about the Lighthouse, and then when you have a chance to hop in, you’ll be able to see what those unique purposes and functions are.

Katey: If there is dual-wield for warriors, will it rely on dexterity or strength?

Corinne: Ah, okay, yeah, yeah. So we did wanna bring dual-wielding back. It is part of the rogue kit this time. So warriors are really focused on mighty two-handed weapons, can’t wait til you see, when you swing and connect with those weapons, there’s, there’s a real heft to it. And then of course sword and shield, so. We’re leaving the dual-wielding to the rogues, but you, you can see just, the amount of hits you can get in in rapid succession dual-wielding as a rogue is really satisfying.

Katey: And the last question that we’re able to get to today, is, what have been some of the challenges and advantages of working on a single, on a single game for so many years? How did you sustain the work in yourselves and the process?

John: That is a fantastic question. I will say for myself, I’ve often joked, and I don’t know how much of a joke it actually is, that when this game is out and I suddenly don’t have to keep all these pieces of game and lore and story and everything straight in my head, I’m suddenly gonna be able to speak Latin or something because there’s gonna be a ton of brainpower freed up. But for me it’s just, you know, it's, the thing that keeps me sustained is just knowing the game that we’re building is the right one. Knowing that the beats are coming together, and knowing just how much people care about this franchise, care about these games, and how excited people are going to be when they get to see the fantastic work that the team has, has been doing. And that really is, I can say, I’ve been on this project since the start, and even today, I see things on a daily basis, I’m like holy – smokes, sorry, I almost swore, I can’t believe what the team is doing, I can’t believe the, how good this looks, I can’t believe. Because it’s a huge game. There’s pieces that I, I don’t see every piece of the game every day so, I get pleasantly surprised on a daily basis and that, I will say, you know, confession, sometimes if I’m having a particularly long day, I’ll spend about an hour late at night just watching cutscenes coming in, watching the work coming together and just, sitting back and being like, holy smokes, I cannot wait for someone who hasn’t seen this every day for so long as I have to experience this and just be blown away by the work, so.

Corinne: It's, it’s been very real, hasn’t it? And, and I will just say, speaking on behalf of the dev team, everyone’s working so hard, they’re putting so much passion, so much of themselves into it. Like this is a franchise they truly love, and seeing your support, cheering us on, it’s just meant a lot to them, so, let me just say thank you to all of you.

Katey: And I wanna say thank you to you three for taking the time to do this. I know that it matters a lot to the community to be able to, you know, get some time with you guys and, you know, make sure that some of their dying questions are, are answered, so thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to do this. For anyone who’s still listening I promise that I’m that I’m working on a way for these questions to be immortalized somewhere. Stay tuned for that so that you don’t have to worry about this, just, you know, disappearing into the ether. So, stay tuned, thank you all for your time. Anything else we wanna say before we jump off?

Matt: Thanks everyone.

John: Thank you. Yeah, I’m super excited to show more of this and, yeah, this is gonna be, hopefully this is the first of many of these opportunities to talk to you all directly. Again, it’s been a while, and getting to talk about this game has been absolutely exciting. I know for myself, as well for the rest of the team, so thank you all.

Corinne: Just thank you, it’s, the Dragon Age community, how much it means to you, how much it means to us, it’s just wonderful to see you all so invested and excited to come here and talk to us. Thank you again, truly.

Katey: We'll hopefully do something like this again soon. Okay, cool, have a great day everybody! Talk soon!

John: Bye y’all!

Matt: Bye.

[source: The dev BioWare Discord Q&A on June 14th]

Update: If you would like to listen to the Q&A for yourself in video format, or listen to it again, Ghil Dirthalen recorded it and has now uploaded a video of it here.

#dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #long post #longpost #solas #feels #lgbtq #mj best of

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joeys-babe · 2 months

Text

Joey B Imagines: Two Of Us*

Summary: More Father’s Day festivities!

(Part Two to - Part 1)

Warnings: Fluff, LITTLE angst, smut (f & m receiving oral)

Pairing: Joe Burrow x reader

Imagine Universe: Into The Mystic

June 16, 2024 - Continuation of part one!

After dinner was done, I was setting the table while Joe tiptoed into the living room to wake the twins up from their post-swimming naps.

A blissful grin formed on my lips as Joe bent over and lightly ran a big hand over Tyson’s back.

“Hey, bubba. Dinner’s ready.” - Joe

Tyson started squirming around, letting out soft toddler grunts before leaning up and looking up at his dad. He rubbed his little eyes before lifting his arms and making grabby hands towards Joe. Joe easily tucked his hands under Tyson’s arms and lifted him into his chest, Tyson immediately melting into Joe when he laid his little head down onto his shoulder.

Joe used one arm to support Tyson before bending down and gently ruffling Miles’s hair. He got up quicker than Tyson, immediately peeking up when he smelt food. The way he stood up with a big sniff made Joe and I laugh, and soon, we were all sitting down at the table.

I left the music on but turned the volume down, so it was a lot softer. Joe had just settled next to me when Two Of Us by The Beatles came on. Hearing the love song start playing, Joe reached over to my lap and laced his fingers with mine.

During dinner, Tyson recalled the crazy dream he had where he and Joe fought a dragon to save the kingdom they lived in.

“Were you the king?” - you

“No. That’s Daddy!” - Tyson

“If I'm the king then you were a prince.” - Joe

Tyson nodded his head, thinking about what more he could say to add to the dream. Of course, it was obvious that after a certain point, he was just making it up as he went.

“And Daddy could fly!!” - Tyson

Joe gently nudged me with his elbow under the table, and I couldn't help but laugh. Something about Tyson making up more to the story made it sweeter.

After dinner, I made Joe sit on the couch so that I could give him his gifts. I sent Miles and Tyson off as well to grab what they had made for him. By the time they came back, I was sitting next to Joe, sneaking a few kisses with him before the boys could see.

“You guys go first.” - you grinned

Tyson and Miles handed Joe the cards they made, and I watched his heart melt before my eyes.

“Aww. Thanks, guys.” - Joe

Joe pulled them both into a big bear hug, pressing a kiss to both of their heads before they ran off to play. Though the boys lost interest fast, when my gaze left their little bodies running up the stairs and back over to Joe, I noticed that his eyes were misty as he looked over the cards.

“You okay?” - you

I reached out and rubbed his back. Joe only pretended like he didn't know what I was talking about and shrugged before sniffling.

“Me? Yeah, I'm perfect.” - Joe

“Aww, baby.” - you

Chuckling, I wrapped my arm around his shoulders and pulled him into me. I gave his forehead a few kisses before pulling away and grabbing his three gifts.

“Woah, you spoiled me.” - Joe

“I wouldn't say that yet. You could not like everything.” - you

Joe rolled his eyes and shook his head, and I put his first gift in his lap. A smile formed on my lips as he slowly pulled it out of the bag. It was just a plain cardboard box on the outside, so he looked at me rather confused.

“What is this? Is there a bomb in this?!” - Joe

I laughed at his super-animated scared face, which immediately ended when he joined in with my laughter.

“No bomb. It’s a custom LEGO set. It’s our back porch, including all of us in character form. I even got a baby character even though she isn't here yet.” - you

“That’s sick. Can we build it tonight? After the boys go to bed? I was thinking we could do a little date night in bed. Last night, I looked up how to make some cool mocktails. We can try a couple if you want.” - Joe

“Sounds fun. I made pumpkin pie, too. We can eat that in bed and put a movie on while we sip on some mocktails.” - you

Joe nodded, happy that we'd get to have a little makeshift date. It was then that I handed him his next gift, and Joe gasped when he opened the velvet box to see a dainty yet masculine gold chain necklace in it. It had five alternating stones, and Joe looked up at me for an explanation.

“It’s your birthstone, mine, the twins, and baby girl’s. So hopefully she doesn't decide to come early or late.” - you

“It’s awesome. I love it. It was probably very expensive, though. You didn't have to do this for me.” - Joe

“Of course I did. You deserve everything and more for all you do for me and those boys.” - you

Joe just looked at me, not exactly knowing what to say in return, so he put the chain back in the velvet box. I grabbed his last gift and handed it to him moments later.

It was a velvet bag, and when Joe opened it, he pulled out a silicone wristband. It was plain orange, so again, he looked at me for an explanation.

“Look on the inside.” - you

He did as I had said, smiling when he saw what was there. In a black block letter font, it had my initials, the twins, and the baby’s. I knew he wore his wristbands 24/7, so he would have a piece of us with him all of the time, especially on the field.

“This is so cool. It’s like I’ll always have you guys with me.” - Joe

“Mhm. Exactly.” - you

“Thanks, baby. I love everything.” - Joe

Joe leaned forward and pulled me into a hug. I leaned into him for a few seconds before pulling back and giving him a quick kiss.

“I was right when I said you spoiled me.” - Joe laughed

“We aren't done with the spoiling just yet! You have one last surprise. It’s in your office.” - you

I laughed when Joe bit his lower lip and wiggled his eyebrows at me, knowing his office was where we would sneak off during the day because the twins would think Joe was working if they noticed we were gone.

“Not that!” - you

After lightly slapping his bicep to tell him to cut it out, we both got up from the couch and made our way to Joe’s office. Joe, of course, had to give me some assistance to get up, but I couldn’t complain about my handsome husband using his football muscles to help me.

“Is something gonna jump out at me?” - Joe

I rolled my eyes at his silliness before pushing open the door. Joe plopped down on the leather couch facing the projector screen, waiting patiently for his last surprise. When I rolled out a little cart, Joe was completely confused with what he saw.

“What is that? Is… is that lube??” - Joe

Again laughing at him, Joe looked at me with pure seriousness.

“It’s a gel, Joe. It’s an at-home ultrasound machine.” - you

Joe’s jaw dropped open at the surprise. Though he always tried to make it to every single one of my appointments, there were times that he couldn't make it due to football or brand partnership-related things. Knowing that I had to go into an ultrasound alone made him feel devastated every time, even going as far as to question if football was even worth it.

This was the last thing he expected, and it was so thoughtful that he couldn't help his eyes getting watery. It took me a minute to notice, but when I did, I walked toward the couch and wrapped my arms around his shoulders.

“Aww, baby.” - you

Joe buried his head into my neck, muffling his sniffles.

“Thank you.” - Joe

“You’re so welcome. Do you want to try it out? You can be my ultrasound tech.” - you giggled

After looking through the instructions and getting it working, along with figuring out how to work it, I laid back on the couch, and Joe was lifting my shirt.

“You good?” - Joe

“Perfect.” - you nod

I watched as he applied the gel to my stomach before placing the transducer on it. He started moving it around, recalling everything he'd watched during my ultrasounds. I couldn't help but giggle at the focused look on his face as he searched for the heartbeat, and a few moments later, we heard the familiar whooshing sound.

“I did it!” - Joe

Joe did a little happy dance in his office chair, drawing a laugh from my lips before my eyes were glued to the monitor.

“If this whole NFL thing ends badly, I could always do this.” - Joe

I rolled my eyes at him before he leaned down for a kiss. We wrapped up a few minutes later, and Joe cleaned my stomach up for me.

We shared an embrace for a few moments, just giving each other light touches as we held on to one another.

“I love youuuu.” - Joe

“I love you too.” - you grinned

Thirty minutes later, we all subsided into the living room to watch a movie before the twins had to go to bed. I was sprawled out on the couch on my back, Joe lying on his side with his back against the back of the couch as he tucked himself into me. Joe had his head on my chest, his arm thrown around me just above my bump.

Now and then, I’d lean over and press a kiss on his forehead. Joe, in turn, would cuddle deeper into me. I had one arm around his shoulders to go between playing with his messy curls and rubbing his back while my other hand gently rubbed the arm of his that was draped over my middle.

I loved cuddling with Joe. I never took it for granted, feeling thankful that I had a man who loved laying with me just as much I loved laying with him.

Joe slowly started falling asleep, and I grinned when I felt his eyelashes flutter closed against my neck.

The twins were both on one of the loveseats, intently watching one of their favorite movies, Ratatouille. A blissful smile spread on my lips as I watched the reflection of the TV in their baby blue eyes.

When the movie ended, though it was nine o'clock, the twins still seemed to have all of the energy in the world. They ran around the dark living room playing what they called ‘jungle’ where they were both tigers - “Like the mascot for Daddy’s team” - running through a deep jungle.

I was surprised that Joe hadn't woken up yet because they weren't necessarily being quiet. It had been a long day, and I was feeling tired, so I let my eyes close for a few minutes.

I reopened my eyes when the room fell silent, a clear sign that the boys were up to something. My eyes snapped open to see Miles and Tyson standing at the foot of the couch. Miles was holding my phone, pointing it toward Joe and me.

Miles would do this regularly. Taking my phone and videoing or taking pictures of Joe and me. I smiled when I saw the little grin on his lips, and Tyson was standing right behind him with a matching expression.

He angled the phone back down, seemingly done taking the video but not quite figuring out how to stop it.

“Mommy, help.” - Miles

Miles toddled over to me, handing my phone back to me, and I gasped when I saw my screen.

He hasn't been videoing. He was live on my Instagram. Miles was attached to my hip 24/7, so he knows how to take a video on Instagram stories. If you go to the camera and swipe to the end, you're on the live option. He must've pressed the button thinking it was starting a video, but instead, it started a live video that thousands of people were watching.

“Holy shit.” - you mumbled

I quickly ended it after that, but it was too late. Gracie Mcpherson sent me a text quickly after I ended it.

One of the boys livestreaming you and Joe’s cuddle sesh?? 😂

I guess so!! Did you happen to screen-record it? I need to see the damage. 😭

Attachment: 1 Movie

Thankfully, you can't see the messiness of our kitchen in the background. What you can see, though, is Joe fast asleep on my chest while I rubbed his back.

He's gonna get so much shit for this, you thought. Because of that, I started getting nervous, so I shook Joe awake.

“Mph..” - Joe

“Joe. Wake up.” - you

I continued shaking his shoulder till he leaned up, rubbing a hand over his face before locking eyes with me.

“What’s up?” - Joe

Handing him my phone with Gracie’s screen recording up, Joe’s eyes went wide when he realized what he was watching.

“Oh my god. Is it Miles recording?” - Joe

“Mhm.” - you nodded

I was honestly worried to see what his reaction would be, nervous that he'd be mad about it. I’d understand if he was, though. Joe was a private person, and his wife cuddling him was just live-streamed for everyone to see, and that's including his teammates, who will surely give him shit for it.

After the video ended, Joe handed me my phone back with a sigh.

“Are you mad?” - you

I searched his eyes for any sign of emotion, along with reading his body language. He seemed more tame than I expected.

“No. I'm not mad. Would I have wanted that to be out there? No. But it is, so that's that. Nothing I can do to go back in time and wipe it.” - Joe

“I shouldn't have closed my eyes for a couple of minutes. Miles wouldn't have taken my phone then.” - you

“Hey, hey. No. We’re not gonna do that, okay? This isn't your fault.” - Joe

I looked up at Joe with misty eyes, my raging pregnancy hormones making me feel even worse than I should.

“I just feel bad because you're so private, and such an intimate moment was just shown to everyone. You're probably gonna get made fun of by the guys, too. The media- they'll say stuff too. I'm sorry, Joe.” - you

Joe pulled me into his arms, my head going onto his shoulder as he ran his fingers through my hair and shushed me.

“It’s fine, baby. Seriously. If I get made fun of for cuddling with my wife, then so be it. In my eyes, that's a pretty amazing thing to be made fun of for.” - Joe

My crying slowed down, and I pulled away from his neck with a sniffle.

“How are you acting so okay about this?” - you

Joe chuckled, wrapping an arm around my shoulders and pulling me back into him before he pressed a couple of kisses to my forehead.

“It’s not that big of a deal to me. A year ago? I probably would've freaked. But I'm in a mental state right now where I don't care about what people say about us or me. My relationship and marriage with you are my number one priorities. So why would I care if people see that?” - Joe

I didn't know what to say. I thought Joe would have the complete opposite reaction, so I was distraught.

“I’m gonna put the twins to bed, okay? We can have our little date in bed after. Just relax, Mama. No big deal.” - Joe

“Are you sure?” - you

“I’m so sure.” - Joe

Before he climbed over me to get off the couch, Joe’s lips met mine in a soft kiss. Joe tried to put as much comfort into it as possible.

I watched him scoop Tyson up in one arm while holding Miles’s hand with the other as he walked up the stairs. After watching his tall frame disappear, I got up off of the couch.

I walked (waddled) into the kitchen and grabbed two slices of pie and the can of whipped cream for Joe and me before going upstairs and into our bedroom.

As I was walking there, I passed the bathroom across from the twins' room, where the door was wide open, and the scene inside made me grin.

Miles and Tyson were sitting on the counter, both holding their toothbrushes in their mouths as Joe stood in front of them, demonstrating with an imaginary toothbrush and walking them through brushing their teeth. I watched only for a few moments before I continued walking to the end of the hall.

Around twenty minutes later, Joe came striding into the bedroom with a smile on his face. His smile was infectious, so I couldn't help but match his expression.

“What’re you smiling at?” - you

“My gorgeous wife and that piece of pumpkin pie.” - Joe

I giggled as he rubbed his hands together and launched into bed next to me. Joe got comfortable under the covers before I put the plate of pie on his lap. He got a piece on his fork and was bringing it to his lips when he abruptly stopped.

“Fuck.” - Joe mumbled

“What’s wrong?” - you

He put the plate back on my lap and got out of bed, doing a silly run out of the door. He was gone for a few minutes before he came back with two drinks in his hands.

“Okay. If it’s bad, it’s definitely my fault. Everyone in the comments under recipe loved it.” - Joe

“Good to know.” - you

Joe crawled back into bed, finally taking a bite and making appreciative groans when he did. The first couple of sounds were normal before he started making louder, more exaggerated noises in hopes of making me laugh.

“Is it good?” - you laughed

He put a finger up before dramatically chewing up his bite and slapping his lips together before answering.

“Yes.” - Joe

“Alright.” - you chuckled

I grabbed the can of whipped cream off of my nightstand to put it on my slice of pie. Before I put it back down, Joe tapped my shoulder. I turned back towards him to see his head tipped back and mouth widened, asking for me to spray some in his mouth.

Giggling to myself as I shook the can up again, I pointed the top of the can into Joe’s mouth and sprayed a bunch in there. I watched his eyes go wide when I hadn't stopped a few seconds later, the whipped cream tower now touring out of the confines of his mouth.

When I pulled the can away from his mouth, Joe tilted his head up and let the mountain fall into his hands, some landing on his adorable face.

“What the hell, baby?” - Joe chuckled

He got up and went into the bathroom, probably to wash his hands, and while he was away, I took a sip of the Shirley Temple drink he had made for me.

“Mmmmm.” - you

Joe walked back into the bedroom, whipping his shirt off before pulling his sweatpants down his legs as well.

“Taste good?” - Joe laughed

I hadn't noticed his presence yet, so my eyes went wide when I looked over to see Joe only in his boxers. My gaze moved from his perfect face down to his torso before they moved lower. I shamelessly let my eyes linger on his crotch for a few heartbeats before I looked back up to his eyes. A knowing smirk found its way onto Joe’s face. He knew exactly what I was looking at.

Joe pretended to yawn, running a hand through his hair and purposely flexing his bicep. My eyes widened once again, and Joe had to chuckle when he got the reaction that he wanted.

“You’re so cute.” - Joe

He crawled into bed a second later, and we shared small talk as we ate our pie and drank our drinks.

“Did you have a good Father’s Day?” - you

“Are you kidding?! I had the best Father’s Day. Thanks for everything, baby.” - Joe

Joe leaned in and pressed his soft lips to mine. It was an innocent, sweet kiss at first, but when he pulled away, I smashed my lips back into his. He was taken aback at first at how quickly things heated up, but he went along with it because I had initiated it.

We were just starting to let our hands wander when Joe’s phone started ringing. He disengaged his lips from mine with an audible pop before rolling over and getting his phone off of his nightstand.

“It’s Ja’Marr.” - Joe

“You should answer then. If he’s calling this late, it's probably important, right?” - you

Joe nodded and answered the call, immediately rolling back over to me after saying a greeting. He attached his lips to my neck with his phone on his ear, one of my hands making its way into his messy curls. Joe, knowing my body like the back of his hand, found my sweet spot and made sure to suck on it. I gripped his hair, and he groaned into my neck.

It was after that that he detached his lips to mumble, “Yes. I'm in bed with y/n.” As soon as he finished his sentence, he went back to kissing my neck.

A few moments later, Joe pulled his head away after Ja’Marr said something I couldn't quite hear. Joe pulled the phone away from his ear and put him on speaker.

“Alright, you're on speaker.” - Joe

“Okay, thanks. Ya know I've gotta address it, Mrs. B. Does Joey B always cuddle on your chest like that?” - Ja’Marr

I giggled at the question, and Joe rolled his eyes, laying his head on my shoulder as he held the phone to my mouth.

“What if I told you he's doing it right now?” - you

Joe rolled his eyes yet again, and I heard Ja’Marr laugh.

“So he does it a lot?” - Ja’Marr

“Yup. I love it, though.” - you

“Ohhh. That's good. I was thinkin’ that girls weren't into that. Like they liked layin’ on our chests. Not the other way around.” - Ja’Marr

I grinned as Joe rubbed his cheek into my shoulder, my hand combing through his curls as I thought of what to say back to Ja’Marr.

“You have a lot to learn when it comes to women Ja’Marr. Joe and I can teach you, though.” - you

“Nah. I’m not trying to get married and be boring just yet.” - Ja’Marr

“Marriage isn't boring.” - Joe

Ja’Marr only laughed, and there were a few seconds of silence following it. During those seconds, my gaze fell on Joe’s perfect lips, so I leaned down to kiss him.

“Y’all have kids and shit. You can't have fun anymor- are you guys fuckin’ kissing??” - Ja’Marr

I pulled away from Joe with a giggle, immediately noticing his flushed cheeks.

“Yeah, and? Joe’s my husband. I'm allowed to kiss him. And Ja’Marr… you realize I'm pregnant now right?” - you

“Yes…?” - Ja’Marr

“And you know the twins are two. So that means they were here when I got pregnant.” - you

“Yup. I don't know where you're going with this, Mrs. B.” - Ja’Marr

“You know where babies come from right?” - you

I heard Joe laugh into my neck when he realized where I was headed with the joke.

“Yes ma'am.” - Ja’Marr sighed

“So if I got pregnant while already having two kids… that means that Joe and I are still having fun even if we have kids.” - you

I dramatically gasped to add to the effect, and Ja’Marr went silent on the other line. He usually teases the hell out of us when he notices a hickey on either of us or sees us kissing, so it’s funny to see him go silent over the same subject.

“I don't need to know about y'all havin’ sex. That's nasty.” - Ja’Marr

“Are you sure? You don't want to know about how much Joe loves it when-” - you

“No no no no!! Bye, guys. Goodnight.” - Ja’Marr

Joe and I erupted into laughter as Ja’Marr quickly hung up. Joe rolled over and put his phone back on the nightstand before he pulled me back into his chest and pressed his lips to mine.

“Let’s continue, shall we?” - Joe

I never fully answered and just pulled his face back to mine. We made out for a while before Joe groaned and pulled away to catch his breath. He was getting too worked up to keep going.

After watching Joe’s heaving chest for a moment, I rolled over, reaching over on my nightstand for the bottle of whipped cream.

“I kinda want more dessert.” - you

Joe looked up at me when I said that and noticed that I was shaking up the bottle of whipped cream.

“Do you want me to grab you another slice of pie?” - Joe

“No. Thank you, though. I'm feeling something different.” - you

“Well then. What're you thinking of?” - Joe

I looked Joe up and down, making sure the trail of my gaze to his feet was an anticipatory slow movement before I flicked my eyes back to his. Sending a loaded look Joe’s way, his mouth fell open when I said my next words.

“Take your boxers off.” - you

“W- what?” - Joe stammered

“I said I wanted dessert. Didn't I?” - you

My words went right to Joe’s crotch, and the amount of blood rushing to his dick was making it hard for him to think straight. After finally blinking after twenty seconds, Joe whipped his boxers off and tossed the covers off of him.

His cock was about semi-erect, all because of me just referring to his dick as dessert. I scooted over and got comfortable between his legs before reaching out and wrapping a hand around his erection. After a few strokes, Joe was fully hard and ready for action. I took the bottle of whipped cream and spread some on his balls.

Meanwhile, Joe was mentally preparing himself for what was about to happen. The woman he was obsessed with and so down bad for was about to lick whipped cream off his balls.

What he kept repeating in his head?

Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you. Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you. Don't fucking cum as soon as her tongue touches you.

I leaned down and licked a long stripe of the cream off of him, Joe throwing his head back and immediately letting out a loud moan at the feeling.

“Holy fuck! That feels amazing.” - Joe moaned

I kept my hand on his cock, pumping away as I continued to lick the sugary product off of him. The whimpers and moans leaving Joe’s lips were loud and continuous, a byproduct of the pure pleasure he felt.

“Fuck… fuck… fuck.” - Joe panted

Joe couldn't help from moaning out. The feeling was overwhelming and insane. After getting all of the topping off of him, I continued to alternate sucking one of his balls into my mouth while I quickly jerked him off.

“Oh- oh fuck.” - Joe whimpered

I grabbed the can and once again smeared the topping on him, even trailing a line up the underside of his cock from base to tip. Though my hand wasn't fully wrapped around him, I kept my thumb on his tip and teased the slit in a way that had Joe whimpering.

“Please…” - Joe moaned

Teasing him for a few more seconds, after I was content with the way he was squirming, I leaned down and started licking everything off of his cock.

“Fuck! Oh my- fuck!” - Joe whimpered

I started with one of his balls before licking it clean and moving to the other one, repeating the process before licking a long stripe up the underside of Joe’s erection.

Joe was gripping the sheets, and his hips started bucking off of the bed, a telltale sign he was close to orgasm. The look on his face was something I'd never seen before, and I could tell he was trying his hardest to hold on as long as possible.

Noticing that he was close, I closed my mouth around his tip and slowly moved down his length inch by inch.

“Fuck, baby.” - Joe grunted

It only took a minute or so for him to throw his head back with a moan, immediately warning me that he was falling over the edge.

“Shit- I'm cumming.” - Joe moaned

Seconds later, he shot his load down my throat, and I watched him through my eyelashes as he moaned and whimpered through his climax. There was nothing hotter than that very sight, where every muscle of his was flexing and glistening with sweat, veins were popping out of his neck, chest, and arms, his chest was heaving, and his adorable face was scrunched up.

I loved knowing that this Joe was purely mine and that I was the only person that's ever seen him and had him like this. All mine.

After a few moments of cockwarming him with my mouth, I pulled off and rolled back into my spot on the bed. Any other time, I’d get a wet rag and clean him up. Right now, though, I'm almost nine months pregnant and am frankly too tired to spend five minutes trying to get up.

It took Joe a few minutes to get his breathing back to normal, but when he did, he got out of bed and went into the bathroom to clean himself up. He returned moments later and put his boxers back on before sliding back under the covers. When he did, he faced me with a dirty grin on his face, his top teeth biting his lower lip.

“Yes?” - you giggled

“Can I have extra dessert too?” - Joe

My pulse picked up when I realized what he was insinuating, and Joe crawled over me to where he was between my legs after pulling the comforter back.

“What do you have in mind?” - you grinned

“I think you already know, Mama.” - Joe

Joe sent a dirty wink my way as he wrapped his arms around my thighs and pulled me closer to him, pulling my panties down with his teeth once I was in the position he liked.

After tossing my panties on the floor behind him, Joe helped me lean up, and he took his shirt off of my body. He tossed that as well, and the stupidly sexy smug grin formed on his lips when he propped my legs up and spread them wide. His icy stare was shooting bullets right at the heaven he believed was between my legs.

“Joey.” - you breathed out

Joe grinned at the breathlessness in my tone and grinned up at me, his eyes finally meeting my own.

“Yes ma'am?” - Joe grinned

“You’re gonna have to do this fast.” - you

“Yes ma'am.” - Joe repeated

Another wink was sent my way as Joe started to lower his head, but I abruptly stopped him, and he leaned back up. I grabbed the whipped cream off of my nightstand and offered it to him, thinking he'd want to reciprocate what I did to him.

“No thanks. You already taste perfect.” - Joe

Butterflies filled my stomach - and other places - at the words leaving his lips and the gruff, hoarse voice he spoke in. Probably due to how loud he was moaning just a few minutes ago.

“Can I start now?” - Joe

I nodded, and Joe lowered his head after licking his lips. He was acting like a kid in a candy store.

“Happy Father’s Day to me.” - Joe grinned

Authors note: IDK what to say. There wasn't supposed to be smut but Joe’s been too hot lately. 😜

This came from my own head!

Hope you enjoyed!! 🫶🫶

#bengals #joe burrow imagine #joe burrow x reader #joey b #cincinnati bengals #joe burrow fan fic #joe burrow

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