Adapting the Thomas Covenant setting

[The Shadow]

Inspired by the What Licensed RPG Do You Wish Existed But Doesn't? thread.

I think this setting has tons of potential, in multiple different eras, but adapting it could be a challenge.

One headache is that the actual abilities of Lords, Gravelingases, Hirebrands and so on are kind of murky.

To take the Lords as examples, sure, they can produce Lordsfire and erect Forbiddings; they can also protect to some extent from the magics of ur-viles and so on. But the other stuff they do seems really situational and ritualized. (For further fun, what Lords can accomplish depends quite on lot on the era - how many Wards of Kevin's Lore are available. During Kevin's era, or before the Sunbane, there's no telling.)

Gravelingases can repair pottery, predict the weather, and in extreme cases control it briefly. Probably they can do other things with stone, but who knows? We know even less about what Hirebrands can do. Then there's the Unfettered, who are just plain all over the place!

Finally, outside the Land you've got guys like Kasreyn who seem more like traditional wizards - though again, tending heavily toward rituals and enchanting.

What this is saying to me is that a magic system like that from any version of D&D is Right Out. Probably we want something more free-form and themed. But what? Fate could maybe work? Any other ideas?

 

[The Shadow]

Thinking about this some more, perhaps anyone with powers should base it off of a few (three?) keywords that describe what they're good at, and things are freeformed a bit off of that.

Lords would be something like, Defense, Ritual, and Lordsfire. "Ritual" means you describe what you want, the GM tells you what it's going to take to pull it off. Screwing up a ritual can be very bad for one's health!

Gravelingas would maybe be Stone, Weather, and... Healing?

Hirebrands maybe Wood, Movement, and... something that would cover the Test of Truth.

Unfettered can pick three within reason, but in exchange they have to take a major drawback of some kind. Like the one who could only do empathic healing, ouch! (More like sympathetic healing, really - she had to injure herself.)

Kasreyn had Ritual, Enchant Items, and maybe Mind. Like the Unfettered, he had a drawback - each of his works needs to have a major flaw. (Though honestly, the flaw in the Sandgorgon's Doom worked to his benefit in some ways.)

Perhaps if you're willing to have less than three keywords, you get a bonus? So maybe Gravelingases and Hirebrands don't need three. Their arts seem less dangerous than the others too.

 

[ilgatto]

While I wouldn't have a clue as to what game or rules system you could use, I do know that Lewis Pulsipher once attempted to make AD&D versions of some Chronicles monsters in White Dwarf #16 back in 1979. Maybe that article can help you (further) on your way?

 

[Aldarc]

Monte Cook’s Diamond Throne setting was inspired (in-part) by The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

There is also White Dwarf #21, which had class conversions for AD&D (including the Bloodguard).

I think what makes the Land so appealing is that it has so many ideas crammed into it- and that's just the First Chronicles! Between the idea of Lore, and the variations of Wood and Stone, not to mention the magics of the ur-viles and hinted-to history of the demondim as well as the Forrestals, there's just a lot to use.

Once the world is broadened in the Second Chronicles ...

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

One thing that strikes me about the magic of The Land is that it is physically draining to use. So it would likely cost Stamina/Constitution. Which would in turn have specific recovery mechanisms, such as eating aliantha berries and drinking diamondraught.

 

[Umbran]

What this is saying to me is that a magic system like that from any version of D&D is Right Out. Probably we want something more free-form and themed. But what? Fate could maybe work? Any other ideas?

My first thought would be Cortex Prime - you might want to look at Tales of Xadia as a model, as it is also addressing making a game around a work of fiction that doesn't have a large, clearly delineated list of magical effects to pick and choose from. Tales of Xadia operates under the idea that the character will have some small number of specific effects they use a lot, and they'll have that effect as an Asset, so it'll generally work better, but they can also produce other effects in their bailiwick, just less well.

My second thought would be Fate. Someone has "Gravelingas" in their High Concept aspect, and they can do anything we expect gravelingas can do.

 

[The Shadow]

My first thought would be Cortex Prime - you might want to look at Tales of Xadia as a model, as it is also addressing making a game around a work of fiction that doesn't have a large, clearly delineated list of magical effects to pick and choose from. Tales of Xadia operates under the idea that the character will have some small number of specific effects they use a lot, and they'll have that effect as an Asset, so it'll generally work better, but they can also produce other effects in their bailiwick, just less well.

My second thought would be Fate. Someone has "Gravelingas" in their High Concept aspect, and they can do anything we expect gravelingas can do.

Interesting, I really know nothing about Cortex, but I'll take a look.

Fate is my go-to for just about anything these days! But just an aspect feels a bit weak, at any rate for Lords and guys on that scale. I'd probably require a stunt for Ritual stuff, at minimum.

The Atomic Robo system based on Fate seems like it could be reskinned pretty easily for this. Between mega-stunts for magic and the invention rules for rituals, it seems like it could work.

 

[Umbran]

Interesting, I really know nothing about Cortex, but I'll take a look.

Fate is my go-to for just about anything these days! But just an asset feels a bit weak, at any rate for Lords and guys on that scale. I'd probably require a stunt for Ritual stuff, at minimum.

Tales of Xadia Assets are not really like Fate Asset/Aspects.
In ToX, creating a magical effect calls for building a dice pool - in general, that pool has at least 3 dice. For any magic it will be at least four, possibly more. The Asset would give you one die in that pool.

The Atomic Robo system based on Fate seems like it could be reskinned pretty easily for this. Between mega-stunts for magic and the invention rules for rituals, it seems like it could work.

The invention rules for rituals works fine. Mind you the "Pay for it" step will need some work in context, or you're handing the players a lot of power.

I don't know about Mega-stunts for general magic, though. Stunts and Mega stunts give you one, or a couple, of effects, and they are pretty specific. If you have only a couple of magical effects you can do, that's okay.

But if you have an unspecified large number of effects you can do, stunts are too specific. A general Aspect (like "Lord of the Council") would imply the character can do everything you expect a Lord of the Council to be able to do.

If you want to see a Fate game that has magic effects you might use as a model, there's Spirit of the Century, and The Dresden Files, which build out systems to handle such effects.

 

[The Shadow]

If you want to see a Fate game that has magic effects you might use as a model, there's Spirit of the Century, and The Dresden Files, which build out systems to handle such effects.

On the whole, I'm not very satisfied with Dresden Files magic. Though Evocation might be an OK model to start from.