The fire’s burning low. The road ahead looks grim. The companion who has spent half your journey needling you clearly has something on their mind, and you’re one or two correct dialogue choices away from getting them to spill. You pick a reply. You feel it land. Then somebody makes a joke about cheese, and the tension breaks.

This is one of the many things the Dragon Age franchise does well. In this series, from Origins to Veilguard, you gather a party of real-feeling companions and grapple with party management. These are also tactical games — games where you need to pause your combat encounters, point at the biggest threat, and hope against hope that your mage remembers she’s standing in a pool of fire. They’re political games, full of nobles and templars quibbling about the fates of their respective territories and teams. And they’re games where consequences stick. A choice you made in a prologue will come back to bite you hours (or entire games) later, usually while you’re just minding your own business collecting elfroot for a salve.

It may be unlikely that we’ll see a new Dragon Age title anytime soon. ”) Yet there are still campfires worth stopping at. If you miss that feeling of saving Thedas by day and hanging out with your party of oddball companions by night, check out these four upcoming RPGs. Consider this your recruitment screen.

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