Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Re-Skinning Rules Systems
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="BookTenTiger" data-source="post: 5738534" data-attributes="member: 6685541"><p>Hello internet!</p><p></p><p>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...</p><p></p><p>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.</p><p></p><p>In the past few years, I have run different re-skinned campaigns. Here are the ones that worked best:</p><p></p><p><strong>d20 Conan as a Western</strong></p><p> 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.</p><p> 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).</p><p> 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!</p><p></p><p><strong>Third Edition D&D as a Pulp Adventure Game</strong></p><p> 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.</p><p> 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.</p><p></p><p>What re-skinning have you done? What would you want to do?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="BookTenTiger, post: 5738534, member: 6685541"] 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: [B]d20 Conan as a Western[/B] 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! [B]Third Edition D&D as a Pulp Adventure Game[/B] 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? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Re-Skinning Rules Systems
Top