Pirates of Dark Water

[Klaus]

Except straight-up DnD does not fit well with the style of PoDW without substantial tweaking. Ren does not cast divine spells, detect evil, ride mounts, wear heavy armor, or anything much like a paladin. Tula does not shapeshift nor really shows much druidness apart from her being an acolyte ecomancer. Ioz does not go into fits of rage when he fights. The magic is toned down to a relatively considerable degree from standard "straight-up DnD" with only the occassional acts of magic, psionics, or otherwise are shown, and even then they are far less powerful than the levels of magic encountered by even the lower level spellcasters.

In either d20M or GT, the conversion is easier to see in some regards to this.
- Ren: Dedicated Hero.
- Ioz: Strong Hero.
- Tula: Fast/Smart Hero.
- Niddler: ?

Hence the "Ren is easily a swashbuckling version of a Paladin, Tula is pretty much a druid (without shapeshifting) and Yoz is a rogue/barbarian." bit. You'd have to tweak any existing system to accuratedly emulate PoDW, so it's better to tweak the one closest to the genre.

Use the class-based defense variant from Unearthed Arcana, and characters have a reason to go about without armor. Use recharge magic for ecomancy, and apply the cloistered cleric variant on the druid for Tula. And Yoz lost his temper quite often, which can be equate to a barbarian's rage (you could replace it with whirling frenzy or berserker strength easily enough).

 

[Bretbo]

There was a Pirates of Dark Water supplement for AD&D 2ed awhile back that didn't get much notice. It wasn't particulary good, but it did cover a lot of the beasties and had a giant map of Mer. You might be able to find it on eBay.

 

[Klaus]

Check out this site for every-damned-thing PoDW-related, including the RPG put out by Mindgames Inc. back in the day:

http://www.piratesofdarkwater.net/

 

[Aldarc]

Hence the "Ren is easily a swashbuckling version of a Paladin, Tula is pretty much a druid (without shapeshifting) and Yoz is a rogue/barbarian." bit. You'd have to tweak any existing system to accuratedly emulate PoDW, so it's better to tweak the one closest to the genre.

But that is the question, is it really the system closest to the genre or is the Pirates of Dark Water more in the style of Grim Tales, d20 Modern/Past/Arcana, Conan, or Iron Heroes? Because the PoDW does not, in my eyes at least, reflect standard D&D classes or flavor.

Use the class-based defense variant from Unearthed Arcana, and characters have a reason to go about without armor. Use recharge magic for ecomancy, and apply the cloistered cleric variant on the druid for Tula. And Yoz lost his temper quite often, which can be equate to a barbarian's rage (you could replace it with whirling frenzy or berserker strength easily enough).

But if I use D&D, I can already see that I have more work ahead of me as opposed to other variant systems.

 

[Klaus]

The way I see it, yes. Yoz, for instance, could be a Rogue/Barbarian, a Rogue/Thug (Fighter variant from Unearthed Arcana), a straight up Rogue, etc.

If the classes are the problem, I suggest:

- Races: Mostly humans. Some characters can have elf, dwarf, halfling, gnome, etc stats, but they are essentially humans with odd appearances (and Ren strike me as quite elf-like in appearance). Bird-monkeys use raptoran stats.
- Classes: Generic Classes (Unearthed Arcana).
- Magic system: Recharge Magic (Unearthed Arcana).
- Liberal use of Stormwrack.
- Dark Water could be trated as an outsider that is essentially an intelligent (and evil) black pudding that can grow to Colossal size.

 

[Sketchpad]

Really? I'd never seen that ... anyone have any leads on this? My wife would plotz if I could find it for her

 

[ValhallaGH]

Modern/Grim Tales, True20 or Iron Heroes would all do a good job, though the mystical part would be more difficult if you went the IH or Modern route.

D&D could do it, especially taking advantage of a dozen or more variant rules, but I honestly think it's got one of the longest ways to go.

 

[Ymdar]

Haha, a Pirates of DarkWater game would absolutely rock!

 

[Chef's Slaad]

How about using Iron Heroes for the game mechanic? Although Mir is a high magic world, little of that translates into spells or magic items. The part that does, you can substitute the arcanist class for.

 

[phindar]

I'm currently more obsessed with how I'm going to build that big, evil, skull-faced pirate ship. I'm gearing up to run a Pirates of the Sunless Sea game, and that thing just screams... big, evil, skull-faced pirate ship.