Pathfinder 1E Unusual Pathfinder Conversion: the world of GURPS Banestorm

[LoneWolf23]

One of my favorite Fantasy settings is the world of GURPS Banestorm, from Steve Jackson Games. Designed for the GURPS rules, it's something of a departure from your usual D&D-esque setting in different ways.

The setting of Banestorm is set on the world of Yrth, mainly on the continent of Ytarria. Yrth is a world populated by various races and monsters, including people snatched from our Earth and other worlds by the magical cataclysm called the Banestorm. It is a world where Human nations coexist with Dwarven kingdoms and elven enclaves, and where the Crusades aren't history, but current events.

The Continent of Ytarria is divided into numerous nations: the expansive Empire of Megalos, the Islam kingdoms of al-Haz and al-Wazif, the free nation of Cardiel, the kingdom of Caithness, the Dwarven Nations of Zarak, the nation of Sahud, the Principality of Araterre, the savage Orclands and the barbarian Nomad Lands of the northeast.

Religion-wise, Ytarria lacks made-up deities like Lolth or Pelor, but instead features Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and other real-world religions, as they -might have developped- in a world where magic was real.

The continent of Ytarria itself is currently in a state of Medieval Stasis, even though the calender is currently up to our current era. The Stasis is partially due to the existance of secretive groups like the Ministry of Serendipity suppressing technological and social innovations like gunpowder, democracy and mechanisation.

Basic idea for this project: taking the world of Yrth, from GURPS Banestorm, and adapting it to play with the Pathfinder system, "Dungeonizing" it in the process. In the process thereof, there will be a few challenges to overcome.

Challenge 1: the presence of Diving classes. Default Banestorm lacks the usual D&Dish style of "God of Deity X, basically serving as a Healbot". Especially since the setting uses real-world religion like Christianity and Islam.

Possible Solution: Treat as "Clerics of Philosophies", not directly linked to a deity, and instead free to select Domains based on their beliefs. Thus, while three Clerics may claim belief in Christianity, their different approaches will be reflected by different choices in Domains: a peace-loving healer would take Good and Healing; a Crusader would take War and Strength; and a fanatical Heretic-Hunter might favor Law and Evil.

Furthermore, spell-casting Clerics do -not- form the rank-and-file of any Church. Most priests in Ytarria are Commoners, Aristocrats or Experts, with a rare few Adepts as the occasional holy man. Those Clerics that exist see themselves as Holy Champions, chosen by God (or gods, depending) for some higher purpose.

Other possible Solution: including deities from real-world pagan faiths (and more exotic possibilities), but also giving the Monotheistic Faiths Archangelic "gods" to act as Patrons to Clerics. These would likely follow the model from SJGames' "In Nomine" rpg setting, including their hellish counterparts the Demon Princes. Naturally, this would involve some changes in the cosmology, notably the whole Blood War thing for the Fiends.

Challenge 2: Goblins. In Banestorm, Goblins are short (but not Small) green humanoids from the desert world of Gabrook. They are intelligent, civilized and naturally curious, and actually fit well enough into human society. Hobgoblins are their larger, dumber cousins. While a few live amongst Goblins as servants, most remain hunter-gatherers living in small bands in the wilderness. In short, rather different from their default Pathfinder counterparts.

Possible Solution: Use Pathfinder stats for the Goblinoids, but ignore the Fluff, favoring Banestorm's Fluff instead. Only change made to the Goblins is increase size to Medium (lowering AC by 1). Goblins are the civilized city-dwellers, and Hobgoblins the savage wildfolk. Bugbears are a distantly related race.

Challenge 3: The Cosmology. Banestorm lends itself best to a more grounded approach to campaigning, instead of lots of Planeswalking. Thus, we'll simplify things a bit.

Solution: Replacing the Astral Plane with another Transitive Plane, the Spirit World (from Manual of the Planes, p206). The Spirit world reflects the physical world, but grander in many ways. It is populated by various Spirits, represented by fey, elementals, undead, outsiders and other creatures.

 

[pawsplay]

One of my favorite Fantasy settings is the world of GURPS Banestorm, from Steve Jackson Games. Designed for the GURPS rules, it's something of a departure from your usual D&D-esque setting in different ways.

Ooh, fun! I'm actually surprised I've never considered this idea before.

Challenge 1: the presence of Diving classes. Default Banestorm lacks the usual D&Dish style of "God of Deity X, basically serving as a Healbot". Especially since the setting uses real-world religion like Christianity and Islam.

Possible Solution: Treat as "Clerics of Philosophies", not directly linked to a deity, and instead free to select Domains based on their beliefs. Thus, while three Clerics may claim belief in Christianity, their different approaches will be reflected by different choices in Domains: a peace-loving healer would take Good and Healing; a Crusader would take War and Strength; and a fanatical Heretic-Hunter might favor Law and Evil.

I favor this approach. At least, each religion should have a large list. In the default setting, spellcasting clerics are actually mages (professional spellcasters). Using something like the Cloistered Cleric for most clerics would be appropriate.

Literal miracle-workers are rare but exist for all major religions, and a few odd sects. One alternative, which I haven't through through very much, would be to keep paladins, but also look at adapting the Saint from Green Ronin's Medieval Player's Handbook to Pathfinder.

Furthermore, spell-casting Clerics do -not- form the rank-and-file of any Church. Most priests in Ytarria are Commoners, Aristocrats or Experts, with a rare few Adepts as the occasional holy man. Those Clerics that exist see themselves as Holy Champions, chosen by God (or gods, depending) for some higher purpose.

Totally. Holy champions, religous knights, scholars, and teachers, for the most part.

Other possible Solution: including deities from real-world pagan faiths (and more exotic possibilities), but also giving the Monotheistic Faiths Archangelic "gods" to act as Patrons to Clerics. These would likely follow the model from SJGames' "In Nomine" rpg setting, including their hellish counterparts the Demon Princes. Naturally, this would involve some changes in the cosmology, notably the whole Blood War thing for the Fiends.

Dislike.

One further note: no major religion should grant Evil as a domain. In Yrth, Evil seems solely the province of hostile demons and some undead, and there are spells that work on them. All members of all religions should have an aura of good.

Challenge 2: Goblins. In Banestorm, Goblins are short (but not Small) green humanoids from the desert world of Gabrook. They are intelligent, civilized and naturally curious, and actually fit well enough into human society. Hobgoblins are their larger, dumber cousins. While a few live amongst Goblins as servants, most remain hunter-gatherers living in small bands in the wilderness. In short, rather different from their default Pathfinder counterparts.

Possible Solution: Use Pathfinder stats for the Goblinoids, but ignore the Fluff, favoring Banestorm's Fluff instead. Only change made to the Goblins is increase size to Medium (lowering AC by 1). Goblins are the civilized city-dwellers, and Hobgoblins the savage wildfolk. Bugbears are a distantly related race.

I think Yrth's goblins deserve their own writeup, or at least a better base creature to steal stats from. They're dextrous, mercantile, and magical, but smallish. -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int looks pretty good to me for starters.

Challenge 3: The Cosmology. Banestorm lends itself best to a more grounded approach to campaigning, instead of lots of Planeswalking. Thus, we'll simplify things a bit.

Solution: Replacing the Astral Plane with another Transitive Plane, the Spirit World (from Manual of the Planes, p206). The Spirit world reflects the physical world, but grander in many ways. It is populated by various Spirits, represented by fey, elementals, undead, outsiders and other creatures.

Yrth is classified by the Infinity Inc. world as a "quantum sargasso." In other words, it probably has its own Astral Plane. It may or may not have a "Spirit Plane," but certainly, Yrth casters don't normally physically translate themselves to a realm of spirits.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Ooh, fun! I'm actually surprised I've never considered this idea before.

Hey! Actual feedback! I posted threads about this on Paizo and rpg.net days ago, but I'm happy to get a response.

I favor this approach. At least, each religion should have a large list. In the default setting, spellcasting clerics are actually mages (professional spellcasters). Using something like the Cloistered Cleric for most clerics would be appropriate.

Literal miracle-workers are rare but exist for all major religions, and a few odd sects. One alternative, which I haven't through through very much, would be to keep paladins, but also look at adapting the Saint from Green Ronin's Medieval Player's Handbook to Pathfinder.

Tome of Secrets by Adamant entertainment has the Priest Class, which is essentially a Cloistered Cleric for Pathfinder, shunning heavy armor in favor of more spells and Bardic lore.

Don't have the Medieval Player's Handbook, but I know where to find it.

Dislike.

One further note: no major religion should grant Evil as a domain. In Yrth, Evil seems solely the province of hostile demons and some undead, and there are spells that work on them. All members of all religions should have an aura of good.

Fair enough, it was only a passing thought. Although I was considering adding a widespread cult of Diabolism, as well as a few other "Dark Cults". As for "all religions should have an aura of good", I think that should depend on the faith's actual doctrine. Some of the kingdoms of Bilit Island do practice human sacrifices, after all.

I think Yrth's goblins deserve their own writeup, or at least a better base creature to steal stats from. They're dextrous, mercantile, and magical, but smallish. -2 Str, +2 Dex, +2 Int looks pretty good to me for starters.

A valid point. I agree with those stats. I could write up a new "Goblin" racial write-up, and recycle the default Pathfinder Goblin to fill in for Banestorm's Kobolds, which are actually nothing at all like Pathfinder Kobolds. (the latter I could reskin as a seperate race, related to Banestorm's Reptile Men.)

Yrth is classified by the Infinity Inc. world as a "quantum sargasso." In other words, it probably has its own Astral Plane. It may or may not have a "Spirit Plane," but certainly, Yrth casters don't normally physically translate themselves to a realm of spirits.

Well, the Spirit Plane effectively fills the same role as the Astral Plane, but has a distinctly different flavor to it which I think better represents what I want to go with. I'd also treat the planes connected through the Spirit World as more "ethereal, spirit domains" then as worlds to visit physically. Another alternative Cosmology I'm considering is that of the "Four Realms" from GURPS Cabal, with it's tiered selection of worlds, ever increasingly distant from the Material.

 

[Dingo333]

for your religious problems, have you considered eliminating the cleric (and druid in fact) classes and replacing them with the APG class the Oracle, they are a spontaneous divine full progression spellcaster (divine sorcerer in a way) that have their "divine powers" thrust upon them. They come with a number of mysteries (you get to choose 1) that cover all the domains a cleric can get. Each mystery has a number of powers (called revelations) of which you can take a new one about every odd level (some level restrictions IE: lvl 11 to be able to call a blizzard in the waves mystery)

 

[pawsplay]

Diabolic Cults might indeed produce clerics with an Aura of Evil.

As for the cannibals of the Billit Islands, I think even their clerics would only produce an aura of evil if they worshipped demonic forces. In Yrth, any faith, however severe in its precepts, seems to produce miraculous and "good" results. I think even a cannibal priest's Magic Circle or Holy Aura would work against demons. It's also possible some priests are not clerics but sorcerers.

Which reminds me, in Yrth, arcane healing is possible. If you wanted to include that element, I might allow the cure spells and such as sorcerer/wizard spells, but at 1 level higher. At the very least there should be a Healer bloodline for Sorcerer, even if you don't want arcane healing generally available. Perhaps some clerics are actually secular magicians rather than priests, for that matter; they might gravitate toward the Mystic Theurge class.

 

[LoneWolf23]

for your religious problems, have you considered eliminating the cleric (and druid in fact) classes and replacing them with the APG class the Oracle, they are a spontaneous divine full progression spellcaster (divine sorcerer in a way) that have their "divine powers" thrust upon them. They come with a number of mysteries (you get to choose 1) that cover all the domains a cleric can get. Each mystery has a number of powers (called revelations) of which you can take a new one about every odd level (some level restrictions IE: lvl 11 to be able to call a blizzard in the waves mystery)

I am including the Oracle, but still want to use Clerics and Druids. I actually had the notion of making the Druid class the result of a fusion of Elven religious beliefs and Human nature worship traditions.

Diabolic Cults might indeed produce clerics with an Aura of Evil.

As for the cannibals of the Billit Islands, I think even their clerics would only produce an aura of evil if they worshipped demonic forces. In Yrth, any faith, however severe in its precepts, seems to produce miraculous and "good" results. I think even a cannibal priest's Magic Circle or Holy Aura would work against demons. It's also possible some priests are not clerics but sorcerers.

I guess it would be a case-by-case situation.

Which reminds me, in Yrth, arcane healing is possible. If you wanted to include that element, I might allow the cure spells and such as sorcerer/wizard spells, but at 1 level higher. At the very least there should be a Healer bloodline for Sorcerer, even if you don't want arcane healing generally available. Perhaps some clerics are actually secular magicians rather than priests, for that matter; they might gravitate toward the Mystic Theurge class.

Now this I agree with. I've always wanted to include Arcane Healers, and those would fit Banestorm perfectly. I also agree that making them 1 level higher is a good way to balance Arcane Healers with their Divine counterparts.

 

[Guillaume]

I own GURPS Banestorm. If I had more time, I would probably use it as a basis for my own campaign. Unfortunately, two young boys and a full time job doesn't leave me with enough time to prepare my own adventures. I'm therefore "stuck" with playing adventure paths and organized play adventures. With that said, I'm subscribing to this thread. It's too good to pass up!

 

[LoneWolf23]

Well, just a quick update: I got the Medieval Player's Guide for d20, and it does have some nice, useful content for this project. Although I prefer the Tome of Secrets Priest class to the MPG one. And I'm not going with the assumption that Christian Cosmology is correct. I'm still sticking with my Spirit World project, populating it with Fey, Elementals, Fiends, Celestials, Ghosts and other beings. Some powerful spirits may claim godhood, but they can't actually grant spells. Divine Magic is based on Faith, not direct connections to powerful beings.

 

[shadowmane]

I replied to you on RPGNet, but I'll put my response up here too.

You should look more into Medieval Catholicism. The cult of the Saints was very prolific, and in fact, was one of the reasons for the reformation. You could play up that aspect for the magic, where certain Saints give certain Domains for clerics. This could be a stand-in for the different Gods in Pathfinder. As each Saint was an individual, each one would have his own alignment, and his own philosophy, much like the Pantheon that Pathfinder's setting uses. Instead of separate Churches for each Deity (or Saint here) you have Monastic Orders dedicated to the Saint. That would handle the religious side of it.
As for the magic side, you could also handle that with the same Monastic Orders, giving each order a school of magic that they teach. In fact, I think that's how Banestorm handles it, if I recall correctly.
Of course, if you want to go a completely different way, move the Banestorm back in time to the Classical Era, bringing the Gods of Greece, Rome, the Germanic Peoples and the Celts into the picture, then move it back forward to a much different, more polytheistic Medieval Era.

In either of these, you could still use the idea of the Fey and the Spirit World.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Using Saints as replacement for Divine Pantheons does work rather well, actually. They'd likely have a limited selection of Domains however. Some of the Saints listed have very limited portfolios, such as St. Denis, Patron of Araterre. He'd probably only have Community and Protection as his other Domains.