Griffith Dragonlake
First Post
WOW! I recently bought the Robin of Sherwood DVD boxed set (US released in March) and find it highly inspirational with lots of things to put into my campaign.
A brief background: Robin of Sherwood was a TV show broadcast in the UK around ’83–’85 and later in the US on Showtime in the late ’80s as well as a couple of double episodes released as movies. To my knowledge, RoS was the first Robin Hood story told with Sword & Sorcery elements. In addition, it has a great soundtrack by the Irish band Clannad (The also performed Harry’s Game which later was used in Patriot's Game and then in a VW commercial). Filmed in a lush Engish woodlands and Mediæval castles the stories included elements of sorcery, a shaman dedicated to Herne the Hunter, magic items, and more.
Some of the elements I have lifted already and/or plan to use:
Seven Swords of Wayland
Hounds of Lucifer (Blackguards)
Shaman of Herne the Hunter prestige class
The Hooded Man prestige class
Knights Templar (all fighters, no warriors)
Baron de Belleme (aristocrat/fighter/wizard)
Silver Arrow
Village “witches” (experts with max ranks in Craft-Pharmaceutical, Healing, Knowledge-Herbalism + skill foci)
I also think it would be fun to try out a Chaotic/Good outlaw campaign. Robin Hood the RPG (OOP by ICE) was heavily influenced by Robin of Sherwood and has some cool adventure ideas.
I should think that Robin, Marian, and the Merry Men would be a group of rangers who take the archery combat style except for Nasir the Saracen (this was 6 years before Kevin Costner's Robin Hood) who is a dual scimitar ranger (also years before Drizzt). However, I think that most of them would have one level of commoner except for Tuck and Marian who would be experts. As mentioned above, Robin is some kind of a Herne Devotee prestige class with limited prophetic powers, probably commune with nature, and other druidic abilities.
For the spellcasters, I am thinking of using the Scholar/Sorcerer class from the Conan RPG to keep the Sword & Sorcery flavor.
Skill-wise, I am going to add in the Craft (Pharmaceutical) skill from d20 Modern. I am also thinking of using the Treat Injury skill from d20 Modern instead of Heal. There is also the Asclepian Doctor and Field Surgeon feats from The New Argonauts (Sean K. Reynolds).
A Robin of Sherwood campaign would be low-magic, hence the need for improved healing skills. I think adding in Action Points would be helpful.
Also, I am toying around with the idea that all normal attacks do non-lethal damage and only critical hits do lethal damage. Heroes and recurring villains will be able to recover from their fights more easily but at the same time critical hits become scarier since the healing time is much longer and there is no healing magic.
There was a comment in one of the early episodes that ‘pitchforks against chainmail is suicide’ which supports armour as DR rather than AC so I will probably include that as well.
Has anyone tried this? If nothing else, I highly recommend the Robin of Sherwood boxed set now that it is available in the US — the Brits have had it now for almost a year I suppose.
A brief background: Robin of Sherwood was a TV show broadcast in the UK around ’83–’85 and later in the US on Showtime in the late ’80s as well as a couple of double episodes released as movies. To my knowledge, RoS was the first Robin Hood story told with Sword & Sorcery elements. In addition, it has a great soundtrack by the Irish band Clannad (The also performed Harry’s Game which later was used in Patriot's Game and then in a VW commercial). Filmed in a lush Engish woodlands and Mediæval castles the stories included elements of sorcery, a shaman dedicated to Herne the Hunter, magic items, and more.
Some of the elements I have lifted already and/or plan to use:
Seven Swords of Wayland
Hounds of Lucifer (Blackguards)
Shaman of Herne the Hunter prestige class
The Hooded Man prestige class
Knights Templar (all fighters, no warriors)
Baron de Belleme (aristocrat/fighter/wizard)
Silver Arrow
Village “witches” (experts with max ranks in Craft-Pharmaceutical, Healing, Knowledge-Herbalism + skill foci)
I also think it would be fun to try out a Chaotic/Good outlaw campaign. Robin Hood the RPG (OOP by ICE) was heavily influenced by Robin of Sherwood and has some cool adventure ideas.
I should think that Robin, Marian, and the Merry Men would be a group of rangers who take the archery combat style except for Nasir the Saracen (this was 6 years before Kevin Costner's Robin Hood) who is a dual scimitar ranger (also years before Drizzt). However, I think that most of them would have one level of commoner except for Tuck and Marian who would be experts. As mentioned above, Robin is some kind of a Herne Devotee prestige class with limited prophetic powers, probably commune with nature, and other druidic abilities.
For the spellcasters, I am thinking of using the Scholar/Sorcerer class from the Conan RPG to keep the Sword & Sorcery flavor.
Skill-wise, I am going to add in the Craft (Pharmaceutical) skill from d20 Modern. I am also thinking of using the Treat Injury skill from d20 Modern instead of Heal. There is also the Asclepian Doctor and Field Surgeon feats from The New Argonauts (Sean K. Reynolds).
A Robin of Sherwood campaign would be low-magic, hence the need for improved healing skills. I think adding in Action Points would be helpful.
Also, I am toying around with the idea that all normal attacks do non-lethal damage and only critical hits do lethal damage. Heroes and recurring villains will be able to recover from their fights more easily but at the same time critical hits become scarier since the healing time is much longer and there is no healing magic.
There was a comment in one of the early episodes that ‘pitchforks against chainmail is suicide’ which supports armour as DR rather than AC so I will probably include that as well.
Has anyone tried this? If nothing else, I highly recommend the Robin of Sherwood boxed set now that it is available in the US — the Brits have had it now for almost a year I suppose.
