Playing THIS with THAT. . .
- Thread starter jdrakeh
- Start date
Lord Mhoram
Hero
All the time.
I generally play Hero, which is a fairly setting free game system. I take elements from many SHRPGs for my Champions game.
One of the nifty things about the system, is that you can use the system to mimic the feel, not just of a setting, but another game system. So for my Fantasy Hero game, the magic system I made feels a lot like the Rolemaster magic system. I've got about 150 abilities written up that are bascially D&D Feats, and have a number of races and profession packages that are also adapted. So my FH game has what I think are the best bits from Hero, D&D and Rolemaster, all run natively in Hero.
I generally play Hero, which is a fairly setting free game system. I take elements from many SHRPGs for my Champions game.
One of the nifty things about the system, is that you can use the system to mimic the feel, not just of a setting, but another game system. So for my Fantasy Hero game, the magic system I made feels a lot like the Rolemaster magic system. I've got about 150 abilities written up that are bascially D&D Feats, and have a number of races and profession packages that are also adapted. So my FH game has what I think are the best bits from Hero, D&D and Rolemaster, all run natively in Hero.
Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
For the longest time I wanted to play in a Star Drive game with the GURPS Space stuff.
I never got my wish.
I never got my wish.
Starman
Adventurer
Not exactly what the OP asked, but I've long wanted to run a D&D game heavily inspired by Ars Magica. Mages would start at 6th level or so and would be the only casters. Grogs would be 1st or 2nd-level NPC classes. Companions would be 3rd-level or so. The campaign world would not by Mythic Europe, but would be a slightly more traditional fantasy world. Non-humans such as elves, dwarves, and orcs would be around, but would be much more rare than is typical in D&D worlds. Levels in cleric could be taken once every four levels or so. Rangers and paladins would use non-spellcasting varieties. Druids would be rare pagan spellcasters or something.
Now, if only I could find time to finish putting the world together and find a group willing to play it.
Now, if only I could find time to finish putting the world together and find a group willing to play it.
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Lord Mhoram said:
Not quite what I'm talking about
You're talking about using a generic system as-written to model another system -- the types of mods that you talk about are still built from the ground up using exclusively Hero rules, even if they were inspired by another system. I (and others) are talking about using one system to play in a setting typically reserved for another system.
Plane Sailing
Astral Admin - Mwahahaha!
I've run Traveller using RQ2 rules.
I've run Dark Sun using RQ2 rules.
I've run Eberron using RQ2 rules.
I've run Empire of the Petal Throne using RQ2 rules.
You might notice I've had a long running love affair with RQ2 rules
I've run Dark Sun using RQ2 rules.
I've run Eberron using RQ2 rules.
I've run Empire of the Petal Throne using RQ2 rules.
You might notice I've had a long running love affair with RQ2 rules
As for THIS with THAT games, I've tried it as a DM and as a player.
As a DM, I ran a Rifts game that was converted to DragonStar d20 and then to Omega World d20. I loved it. The players, not so much. It died an ignoble death due to non-attendance.
I also ran the first couple of adventures in the Shackled City adventure path with Judge Dredd street judges, Star Wars jedi, Omega World mutant humans and aasimar paladins added. It was all d20, so I figured it would work. I also counted on 2 players with 2 characters each but got 4 players for 8 characters total. It was a little unwieldy. I thought the judges, jedi & mutants would be a little more powerful than standard characters, but they really weren't.
As a player, I really liked an old Gamma World module, Legion of Gold, that we played out with Omega World d20 rules. It started as a heavily-modified Rifts game before I joined, but OW was too good a fit for it to pass up. The DM found it a little too mutant-heavy toward the end, but we finished it and had a blast with it. It took 10 years of very intermittent play.
My conclusion is that conversions are rarely worth the effort. The rules are just too important and define the game for some players too much. The crunch informs the fluff as it were. In fact, I refuse to "update" my 3.0 game for that very reason. Most of the friends I play with are die hard DnD fans anyway, so it is hard enough to get any other game off the ground. D&D is the lowest common denominator, so why do the work of a conversion to bring a game that I think is awesome but will likely be poorly attended and short-lived? I would love to do it, but most of those projects live now only in my memory.
As a DM, I ran a Rifts game that was converted to DragonStar d20 and then to Omega World d20. I loved it. The players, not so much. It died an ignoble death due to non-attendance.
I also ran the first couple of adventures in the Shackled City adventure path with Judge Dredd street judges, Star Wars jedi, Omega World mutant humans and aasimar paladins added. It was all d20, so I figured it would work. I also counted on 2 players with 2 characters each but got 4 players for 8 characters total. It was a little unwieldy. I thought the judges, jedi & mutants would be a little more powerful than standard characters, but they really weren't.
As a player, I really liked an old Gamma World module, Legion of Gold, that we played out with Omega World d20 rules. It started as a heavily-modified Rifts game before I joined, but OW was too good a fit for it to pass up. The DM found it a little too mutant-heavy toward the end, but we finished it and had a blast with it. It took 10 years of very intermittent play.
My conclusion is that conversions are rarely worth the effort. The rules are just too important and define the game for some players too much. The crunch informs the fluff as it were. In fact, I refuse to "update" my 3.0 game for that very reason. Most of the friends I play with are die hard DnD fans anyway, so it is hard enough to get any other game off the ground. D&D is the lowest common denominator, so why do the work of a conversion to bring a game that I think is awesome but will likely be poorly attended and short-lived? I would love to do it, but most of those projects live now only in my memory.
Desdichado
Hero
I'm pretty convinced of the opposite, unless the systems are so radically different than their approach to any game world is simply incompatible.jdrakeh said:
For all intents and purposes, I've played Cthulhu with three different systems (BRP, GURPS and d20) and found the experience pretty much exactly the same. I've played Star Wars with three systems (d6, d20 and The Window and not found it really different, etc.
I mean, I suppose it depends on to what degree you're a systems kinda person, and I'm not really, but for me setting trumps system every time by a large margin in terms of how a game will go. My only requirement of a system in such a case is that it not actively discourage genre conventions associated with the setting.
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