Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ydars" data-source="post: 4553429" data-attributes="member: 62992">The Decipher game is based upon a series of assumptions that are very compatible with Tolkien's vision of LotR; i.e. that the characters are heroes. Not in the sense that D&D means, because according to D&D heroes, are "badasses" who go around killing monsters to gain wealth.  Tolkien's idea of heroes are people who are selfless, honorable, just, true and compassionate. The message of Tolkien is that the strong avoid and hate wielding power and that they seek mastery only over themselves. D&D and most other roleplaying games assume just the opposite; that "might is right" and that the exercise of power is an end in itself. This is actually uncomfortably close to Tolkien's vision of evil, represented by Sauron and Morgoth. So although I make some suggestions above and below, for playing in Tolkien's world using RPG systems, the major modification you would need to make is in the DM and players heads. Decipher's game stresses heroism and has a series of atrributes and mechanics that up hold Tolkien's values e.g. Bearing, that mean that some characters and NPCs have natural authority and presence that results in "battles of wills" that might be resolved via magic in another game are in fact done in a rather low-key way. The magic system is also extremely subtle and the DM is encouraged to prevent inappropriate use of power. This would take most D&D player some serious getting used to as the most powerful spells are about 1st- 2nd level compared to D&D. The CODA system for resolving conflicts, used in the Decipher game, is also sort of like the d20 system but just using D6s instead and so that most D&Der could learn it fairly quickly. There is also a system that is rather like feats that would also not cause problems to most D&Ders.</blockquote>

Verification