Do you have to play dragon age origins to get the story of dragon age two

nope... not really. Dragon age 2 has a different plot, time and character. for example. DAO was about 1 year long. DA2 is 10. You might want to know the basics, though. darkspawn (evil mosters) caused a blight, (first games plot) and you ran away. later on after the blight, you will meet the king or queen. You could decide who that is in origins. but if you know a little bout dragon age you wont need to play it to play DA2. How you casn import your origins game if you had want, not nesscerey tho. Dragon age is an awesome game, so enjoy :D
Hope this helps.
-blue (a.k.a dragon age junkie)