Drenai -> d20/OGL starting point?

[Aus_Snow]

I've been kicking some ideas around in this area for a little while now. I've even mentioned that I'd like to get it happening / see it happen ('Drenai d20').

Anyhow, I've decided that the best (quickest?) way to get there - for me, at the moment - is to use an existing d20 or OGL set of rules, and add the flavour, tweak the rules etc. as required. As opposed to starting from scratch, that is.

Any opinions as to what the best starting point might be? Grim Tales? Iron Heroes? Conan? AGoT? . . . _________ ? (something completely different?)

I would like to have it more or less d20, but I'll keep all other criteria open. Suggestions and opinions of any kind are welcome.

Thanks in advance.



edit --- just a small clarification, in case anyone might not know what on Earth I'm babbling about: 'Drenai d20' is the phrase I'm using to represent a hoped-for set of rules that perfectly suits the setting, flavour and so on, of David Gemmell's books such as Legend and Waylander. As I said, I'm quite willing and able to tinker with whatever base turns out to be the best. I just need to settle on a base.

 

[Denaes]

Spycraft 2.0 is my favorite version of the "d20" rules set, with BESM d20 following a close second.

BESM d20, d20M & D&D are the fastest though, as their rules are all online in a SRD free format. Grim Tales is supposed to release a SRD soon as well.

The next closest would be one that you could copy & paste - like Iron Heros - which is available for purchase in PDF form.

A game like Sycraft 2.0 has no SRD or PDF form so it, while I believe is the best (in my opinion it's my favorite) and most tightly innovative ruleset.

My suggestion is to find out what sort of flavour you're going for and take advice on game mechanics that lend to that flavour. Then rather than just fielding "my fav system is X" you'll be getting mechanics that hopefully fit what you're looking for. Or you could buy and play all the games and find out for yourself

You looking for something tactical with options? Super Light? Something with rules for every occasion? Flexible character generation? Limited? Flexible for the GM to limit the players?

 

[Strutinan]

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[amethal]

Iron Heroes would be a good fit.

Its designed for a game where magic is rare, and generally in the hands of the bad guys.

Heroes can expect to have little to no magic items (and any they do have will have horrible disadvantages attached to them) but will nevertheless be required to fight demons and sorcerers.

The drawback to Iron Heroes is that a surprising amount of it is (on the face of it) closed content, but its hard to tell because they say things like (I'm exaggerating somewhat for effect) "All of chapter 6 on the effects of wind and snow, fighting underwater and sundering weapons is closed content, except for anything which is already open game content because its in the SRD."

This may well not be an issue for you, but Malhavoc's unhelpful starting position regarding open game content would put me off basing anything on Iron Heroes. [Possibly if you write to them and ask nicely they'll happily grant you permission to do anything you like with Iron Heroes. I don't know.]

I'm not sure how much or how little of that also applies to Conan (which is by Mongoose, isn't it?), as I don't have it. I have an idea that Conan is OGL rather than d20.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Well, I'm not looking to publish anything. . . er, I don't think so anyway. But yeah, I suppose the closed content issue might prevent me sharing any tinkerings I come up with, hey?

I'm not very well-informed about the OGL, I'll admit. :\

I have all the products I mentioned in the first post incidentally, so references to specific things within any of them will be easily understood.

 

[amethal]

Well, I'm not looking to publish anything. . . er, I don't think so anyway. But yeah, I suppose the closed content issue might prevent me sharing any tinkerings I come up with, hey?

I'm not very well-informed about the OGL, I'll admit. :\

I have all the products I mentioned in the first post incidentally, so references to specific things within any of them will be easily understood.

Iron Heroes has been on my mind a fair bit lately, and I'd recommend it very highly.

To be more specific, the reserve hit points idea seems perfect for Drenai, where magical healing is normally unavailable (and its open game content since its in Unearthed Arcana). It means the characters don't have to rest for a week after each fight.

The feat mastery idea also seems very apt. My impression of characters like Druss and Waylander is that they can do such amazing things partly because they are such high level, (rather than just due to clever feat selection), and feat mastery allows you to duplicate this.

Variable damage reduction from armour is also very "literary", in that sometimes the armour blocks blows and at other times (admittedly when its important to the plot of the novel, rather than at random) the blow penetrates the armour and does serious damage.

The demonic brute, dreaded sorcerer and tribal champion "villain classes" seem almost tailor made for a Drenai game, and designing other ones - Joinings, perhaps - looks like a lot of fun.

Drenai stories are also very human orientated, at least on the side of good. The Iron Heroes traits system allows a wide variety of human hero types.

I'd probably tone down the drawbacks of magic items a bit - some of them in the books seem completely beneficial - but they should be extremely rare.

Skill groups also seems apt. Drenai heroes often seemed equally good at a whole raft of related skills.

Most of the character classes are a good fit e.g. man-at-arms, weapon master, berserker, thief. I'm not sure about the armiger and the executioner. I'm a bit hazy on the difference between a hunter and a harrier (I don't mean mechanically) so you might want to just use one or the other.

I'd recommed re-writing the arcanist, but then again I probably wouldn't use it at all in any Iron Heroes game I ran. I'm not really an expert on the Drenai magic system, but maybe the spellcasting system from True 20 would be a closer match.

You didn't mention True 20 / Blue Rose in your original post, so I'm not sure if you are familiar with it. Casters have a limited number of spells known (each of which requires a feat to learn, although all characters get a feat every level). Spells can be cast as often as desired, but excessive spellcasting (especially within a short period of time) is likely to lead to the caster becoming fatigued and eventually exhausted. [And the entire document, apart from the magic words "True 20" and the Green Ronin logo, is open game content]

 

[Aus_Snow]

I've been itching to run Iron Heroes (pure or otherwise) recently anyway, but I'll try to be 'objective' (or thereabouts).

All very good points, amethal. Thanks for taking the time to make them.

What though is the problem with the Arcanist? Nobody seems to like them! :\ I haven't used the class (I haven't played in or run an IH campaign yet), so yeah, if someone could help me out here, that'd be great.


re: Blue Rose - I have it, but haven't used it so far. I must admit, there's a kneejerk reaction against using "A Roleplaying Game of Romantic Fantasy" for Gemmell's stuff, but I'll give ti a a more thorough look when I get a chance. True20 is on my dwindling 'must get' list, and I suppose I'll know how appropriate it might be when it gets here.


So far, Iron Heroes has some sound reasoning supporting its use for the task at hand. Any other bidders, or should I just go with that very solid choice?

 

[Strutinan]

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[Aus_Snow]

The default setting is called "dead Stars", and is a sci-fi/horror game. However the rules fully support basing everythign from super-heroes to fantasy off of them (I'm even including stats for demons in the Rule Book). So far only the Character Primer is available, but if you are up for using it I would be happy to give you my material for the fantasy genre in exchange for playtesting.

Sounds very cool! To be honest though, I'm getting less and less patient with using systems for settings that are too distant from their default setting / assumed subgenre.

For playtesting, I'm not sure I could get the people together, and the play time, in between 'real life' and the various other roleplaying sessions I am - and they are - already GMing and playing in, as well as those each of the GMs (including me) is planning. Don't get me wrong - if I thought I had the opportunity, there'd be no question. In fact, it sounds like something I'll have to check out sometime, regardless. I'm sure I could find/make a few uses for it. When and where is this Character Primer going to be available by the way, and under what publisher's name?

the section on other settings also includes a guide on running "heroic" games as well as 4-color games, so it can be flavoed to your tastes just by popping in a page or two of rules addendums. Like I said: flexibility

Sounds promising. Chalk up another 'interested party' here, even if not for this Drenai thing, perhaps.

 

[Strutinan]

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