Plane Sailing said:
I love Runequest! I did a whole Darksun conversion for it once.
What did you do to use Dragonlance with RQ rules?
Cheers
Heh! I did a Dark Sun conversion too!
I think the grittier RQ rules work better with that setting than D&D, personally.
As to conversions, bear in mind that I'm using RQ3 (with a few small modifications nicked from D20. Fast Talk and Orate are renamed Bluff and Diplomacy, and I've introduced a perception skill of Sense Motive. D&D3 style non-lethal damage replaces RQ fatigue).
That said - humans use the basic background tables, with Solamnics from the cities using Civilised and pretty much everyone else using Barbarian, except the Khur who are Nomads and the Plainsfolk who use the Nomad table (despite everyone calling them "barbarians"!) with the foot nomad modification (Ride skill swapped for...Track, I think).
Dwarves use standard dwarf stats and background table.
Gnomes use a modification of dwarf stats to make them weaker, but smarter. For background I use the Mostali tables from Elder Secrets, with the names modified. Gnomes get an effective +4 POW vs magic, but they must also resist friendly spells. They are quite good with Craft skills and Devise.
Kender use the halfling stats, but standard Barbarian background. I removed the "taunt" ability but gave them high base percentages in Bluff, Diplomacy and Sense Motive.
The hoopak functions as three weapons (which already have stats in RQ). Quarterstaff, short spear or staff sling. At the moment I'm classing the three uses as three different skills, although I may amalgamate the melee versions.
Elves I haven't converted yet. I might use the Ogre "supra-human" stats rather than the RQ Aldryami stats.
For magic, I've got a sort of mixture of RQ Spirit Magic and the D20 Feat system. Starting characters get two powers/abilities/items that enable them to perform better at a skill, or produce special effects with a skill at the cost of magic points. Most of these emulate RQ spirit magic like Bladesharp, Protection etc.
Divine Magic, when it comes into play, will be much the same only more powerful, much like standard RQ Divine and Spirit magic.
At the beginning, healing magic is rare and difficult. It will become more prevalent if the heroes succeed in Xak Tsaroth.
To partially compensate, the First Aid skill is now Healing, which encompasses the skills of Treat Disease and Treat Poison too.
High Sorcery is a cross between RQ and Ars Magica, and so far is working quite nicely. It breaks down into 15 skills - the five Arts of Creo (create), Rego (control), Perdo (destroy), Intellego (know) and Muto (change) and the ten forms Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Body, Mind, Image, Animal, Plant and Magic.
Spells are comprised of and Art (as the verb) and a Form (as the noun). Thus to create fire is Creo Ignem (create fire). Sorcerers can learn formulaic spells, which have fixed effects or paramters. They can cast these without a skill check, ata fixed MP cost. Or they can modify these spells or cast spontaneous spells, requiring more MPs and a skill check in the lowest of the appropriate Art or Form.
Further, they have "moon points", which are a pool of extra magic points. The amount of these that they can access varies according to phase of the moon, but they also determine the difficulty of spell that the sorcer can learn.
Complex, but it's so far working satisfactorily. The sorcerer in our group, for example, tried Intellego Ignem on a burnt farm to determine how the fire started and got a memory of the fire starting on a torch and flying through the air to the thatch.
Other things - dragons in RQ are *tough*. I've yet to run the encounter with Khisanth but I'm expecting at least one character to be dissolved.
I've imported Tuskers and the Cult of the Bloody Tusk to the hobgoblins, because they are a great excuse for a tough fight. Hobgoblins use pretty much the orc stats from RQ3. Draconians used the various stages of dragonewt as a base - scout for Baaz, Crested Priest for Bozak etc.
That's about it. I can PM my stats for the various creatures if you like, but mostly you can use RQ quite easily since DL uses fairly familiar fantasy tropes that don't require to much conversion work.