BookTenTiger
He / Him
Hello internet!
I have not been on EN World in YEARS (I used to frequent the forums as Tsunami, Breakstone_Tsu, or Stuporhero, depending on the time). So forgive me if this topic has been covered a million times...
I LOVE re-skinning rules systems. It is always fun for me to separate a rules system from its flavor, apply a new skin, and see all the fun ways the two interact.
In the past few years, I have run different re-skinned campaigns. Here are the ones that worked best:
d20 Conan as a Western
I replaced armor with "accoutrements" (wide-brimmed hat, thick jacket, etc) that gave Damage Reduction instead. Because Shields are so important in Conan, characters added Wisdom bonus to Dodge versus Ranged. On the other hand, characters also added Wisdom bonus to attacks with Guns! I simplified the weapons list with three to six weapons in each category. So, for example, AXE would have Hatchet (light), Tomahawk (one-handed) and Woodaxe (two-handed). Guns were pretty simplified as well.
The Conan system Scholar (creepy spellcaster) worked marvelously in the system. I ran two games over two summers. Most of the players changed characters, but one player played a Scholar for both games. The scholar was a 13-year-old boy raised in the East Coast Academic schools who happened to be possessed by the devil. Other characters included a military commander (noble/soldier multiclass), a military sniper (borderer/soldier multiclass), an aristocrat disguised as a bank robber (thief), and a savage Blackfoot scalper (barbarian).
I got rid of the Conan races and created three categories of Character History: "I was born..." "I was trained..." and "My allegiance is..." The characters received different bonuses to skills, saving throws, attacks, and so on, depending on what they chose. So, for example, a character might choose "I was born... in the saddle," "I was trained... as a medic" and "my allegiance is... to the road," and receive bonuses to ride and handle animal, the heal skill, and a faster overland movement. It created some very fun characters!
Third Edition D&D as a Pulp Adventure Game
I put this one together in a single night when I found out I had about 9 players coming over (I was used to 3 - 4 players). I had all the players create standard human D&D characters, but described the classes as Pulp Adventure stereotypes. Rather than changing any rules, we just changed descriptions. So we had Twin Circus Strongmen (barbarians), a New York Bike Courier (mount-focused ranger), a motorcycling vigilante (paladin) and other crazy, crazy characters.
I think it's a lot of fun for players familiar with a system to create their own descriptions of effects. It would have been interesting to see more spellcasters- are they robot-builders, hypnotists, or mob bosses "summoning" underlings to do their dirty work? Reskinning in this way is like a collaboration between the players, the system, and the setting.
What re-skinning have you done? What would you want to do?
I have not been on EN World in YEARS (I used to frequent the forums as Tsunami, Breakstone_Tsu, or Stuporhero, depending on the time). So forgive me if this topic has been covered a million times...
I LOVE re-skinning rules systems. It is always fun for me to separate a rules system from its flavor, apply a new skin, and see all the fun ways the two interact.
In the past few years, I have run different re-skinned campaigns. Here are the ones that worked best:
d20 Conan as a Western
I replaced armor with "accoutrements" (wide-brimmed hat, thick jacket, etc) that gave Damage Reduction instead. Because Shields are so important in Conan, characters added Wisdom bonus to Dodge versus Ranged. On the other hand, characters also added Wisdom bonus to attacks with Guns! I simplified the weapons list with three to six weapons in each category. So, for example, AXE would have Hatchet (light), Tomahawk (one-handed) and Woodaxe (two-handed). Guns were pretty simplified as well.
The Conan system Scholar (creepy spellcaster) worked marvelously in the system. I ran two games over two summers. Most of the players changed characters, but one player played a Scholar for both games. The scholar was a 13-year-old boy raised in the East Coast Academic schools who happened to be possessed by the devil. Other characters included a military commander (noble/soldier multiclass), a military sniper (borderer/soldier multiclass), an aristocrat disguised as a bank robber (thief), and a savage Blackfoot scalper (barbarian).
I got rid of the Conan races and created three categories of Character History: "I was born..." "I was trained..." and "My allegiance is..." The characters received different bonuses to skills, saving throws, attacks, and so on, depending on what they chose. So, for example, a character might choose "I was born... in the saddle," "I was trained... as a medic" and "my allegiance is... to the road," and receive bonuses to ride and handle animal, the heal skill, and a faster overland movement. It created some very fun characters!
Third Edition D&D as a Pulp Adventure Game
I put this one together in a single night when I found out I had about 9 players coming over (I was used to 3 - 4 players). I had all the players create standard human D&D characters, but described the classes as Pulp Adventure stereotypes. Rather than changing any rules, we just changed descriptions. So we had Twin Circus Strongmen (barbarians), a New York Bike Courier (mount-focused ranger), a motorcycling vigilante (paladin) and other crazy, crazy characters.
I think it's a lot of fun for players familiar with a system to create their own descriptions of effects. It would have been interesting to see more spellcasters- are they robot-builders, hypnotists, or mob bosses "summoning" underlings to do their dirty work? Reskinning in this way is like a collaboration between the players, the system, and the setting.
What re-skinning have you done? What would you want to do?
