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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaptain_Kantrip" data-source="post: 267067" data-attributes="member: 546">Gawwwwd these forums are ssssllllloooooooowwww the past few days, or I'd be posting and reading this thread more often, but it takes like a whole minute to even change screens! So much for the server switch solving things... <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f641.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":(" title="Frown    :("  data-smilie="3"data-shortname=":(" />Anyway, I am glad to see the thread has turned to a civil and thoughtful discussion of the merits of Harn and yes, even its flaws. Hopefully, my presence here now won't incite any new flames, LOL. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />REGARDING CHANGING d20 MAGICMagic is the hardest thing to alter in d20. It gives me nightmares. One could simply remove it altogether and probably be fine. You could remove monsters altogether and be fine. But magic presents a special array of problems. I have experimented with several different systems but really have found the Call of Cthulhu d20 magic rules the best, at least for my purposes. By implementing Sanity rules and casting costs (ability drain/damage and Sanity point loss), anyone can learn any magic but will not want to cast it except in dire circumstances. No more magic missiling everything in sight (no more magic missiles, for that matter!). All spellcasting classes are removed. Wizard and priest types are merely "experts" who spend much of their time reading dusty old books for ancient secrets. By making them such scholarly types, you remove the "magic missile machine" stereotype and return the focus to what it should be: the pursuit of knowledge and power. The only way to attain them is to mount expeditions to find more ancient books, by hook or by crook. Most people will never see a real wizard or (spellcasting) cultist, and will want to burn them at the stake if they ever do. It really is a drastic change from high fantasy games where magic spells are slung about willy-nilly. Instead, magic is mysterious, dangerous and very alien, destroying sanity, sapping strength and wreaking havoc... but generally more subtle forms of havoc (there are more spells without any visible effect that could be dismissed by observers as parlor tricks, natural phenomena or something other than the supernatural). Magic items exist, but they are very rare and not "you find a +1 sword"---instead, "you mount a dangerous quest to retrieve the fabled Min'Zorin Blade from the depths of the Black Pit of Araka-Kalai." Yes, it's still a +1 sword (it probably doesn't even glow), but the feeling (and means of acquiring it) is totally different, and it means more as a result. You never refer to it as a "I'm using my +1 sword to hit" but as "I draw forth the blade of my ancestors, its steel resplendent in the light, and hammer down a mighty blow against my enemy, an oath of vegeance upon my lips!" You don't need Harn or a whole new magic system to simulate this, but it helps (by changing perceptions on the nature and rareness of magic).</blockquote>

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