 Anyone use SR rules for Pure Fantasy? |
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 Feb 2 2007, 05:17 AM
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#1
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Target  Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405  |
Hey There,
Has anyone here used the SR4 rules for a pure fantasy (e.g. D&D) setting? I'm going to run my players through a metaplanar adventure set in a D&D type of setting (hopefully they're not reading this!). Just wondering if anyone has done the same and how it worked out, what new rules you created, etc... Regards, Stryker |
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Feb 2 2007, 06:19 AM
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#2
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Uncle Fisty Group: Admin Posts: 13,891 Joined: 3-January 05 From: Next To Her Member No.: 6,928 |
well if you're talking 3rd edition (which I assume you are in this forum), there is a pseudo fantasy setting in one of the adventures, Harlequin's Back. I ran that once, and it worked out just fine. Mostly because I love the magic system. I don't think SR's melee system lends it's self well to grand melees like you get in a lot of high fantasy settings. No Great Cleave here. So it depends on just what type of fantasy you're looking for here. If it's more like D&D with taking on hordes, not so much the SR system. If you're looking for something a little more personal, it works good. Basically not the kind of systme to tkae on ork hordes and lots of giants and such.
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Feb 2 2007, 06:37 AM
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#3
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Manus Celer Dei Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 16,954 Joined: 30-December 02 From: Boston Member No.: 3,802 |
Yeah, Ork hordes (and schoolgirl hordes) will eat SR characters for lunch. Not a game for open-field Thermoplyae.
~J |
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Feb 2 2007, 06:47 AM
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#4
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Uncle Fisty Group: Admin Posts: 13,891 Joined: 3-January 05 From: Next To Her Member No.: 6,928 |
combine the two, and you've got some happy tuskers though.
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Feb 2 2007, 06:48 AM
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#5
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Target Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405 |
I was thinking of the SR4 rules in particular. I can see what you mean with respects to large scale battles against multiple foes, but I like the realism of the system. Really... even if King Arthur tried to lay waste to a horde orcs he'd get dog piled! :D In reality it was an army vs. another army, not one against many.
In that Harlequin's Back - how did it deal with cybered characters? I'm thinking particularly around initiative and initiative passes. Thanks for the replies thus far... |
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Feb 2 2007, 06:58 AM
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#6
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Uncle Fisty Group: Admin Posts: 13,891 Joined: 3-January 05 From: Next To Her Member No.: 6,928 |
well, ,in that particular instancee, there was no cyber. It took placec on a metaplane. So sorry, cna't help ya there. But if you're looking for a bit more .. ummm... realistic (*shrug*) fantasy game, then it should work fine.
Since someone else will probably mention it, there's also Earthdawn. But it's a completely different rules system, and I figure that's defeating the purpose. |
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Feb 2 2007, 07:05 AM
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#7
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 870 Joined: 2-October 06 From: Athens Ga Member No.: 9,517 |
I am running a Fantasy game AND a Space game in a version of the SR4 system rules. For the fantasy game I am running a setting based on Avatar the last Airbender. I loved the magic in it.
I altered the rules a bit. I made the system more freeform but I added more traits to weapons. I added a few things from the base system for Exalted so it is a combination of the two. The space setting has more skills, no magic and some of the same mechanics changes I made for the Avatar game. I also used my matrix rules in it. You kind of have to go through and think of the system from the beginning to make sure everything fits. I changed the attributes around to reflect the different priorities for each setting. |
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Feb 2 2007, 04:22 PM
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#8
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ghostrider Group: Retired Admins Posts: 4,196 Joined: 16-May 04 Member No.: 6,333 |
I haven't used them for straight fantasy, but I am working off and on on a Western variant.
For fantasy, I just use my favorite fantasy rules. Likewise for space and sci-fi. |
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Feb 2 2007, 04:55 PM
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#9
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Target Group: Members Posts: 49 Joined: 9-November 06 From: Doing surgery with shotguns Member No.: 9,810 |
Neat! My buddies and I discussed running a zombie western with SR3. Yet another project to work on. For a while, we played a SR3/Palladium hybrid, using shadowrun rules and Palladium sourcebooks for items and maps. The big thing we had to deal with was the frightening power of magic without cyberware (or even guns) to balance it. We had to tone down a lot of things, and make initiation insanely expensive. Since your runners already have a lot of that, you may want to consider whether their cyberware works on the metaplane in question, as well as guns. If you are going to fight proper fantasy enemies with cyberware and guns as well as magic, you'll need to buff the enemies a bit. Its amazing how fast you can cut people in boiled leather down with a fully automatic weapon. Edit: I thought of something else. For large scale battles, we used unit combat. Basically, 10 guys constitutes 1 unit on the board. You roll an attack for 10 on 10, with the resulting number of boxes of damage being how many people died. So if you have 10 knights versus 10 pikemen, the knights have more armor, but the pikemen have +1 reach. If the knights (on a single roll, mind you) do a moderate wound to the pikemen, 3 pikemen die and continue. Standard 1 on 1 melee rules apply, so the pikemen then have a +2 modifier to future attacks. Player characters still play as a single character, so they wound up being most useful taking out officers. Most officers would have small unit tactics, so killing the officer raises the unit's target numbers. |
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Feb 2 2007, 05:10 PM
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#10
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: 14-January 07 From: Zurich Orbital Member No.: 10,642 |
Each of the metaplanes in Harlequin's Back dealt with cyber differently. In some you still got the benefits though the cyber was gone, in others the cyber changed (Fist Full of Karma), etc.
If you're planning on taking your players to the metaplanes, it's essentially up to you how their cyber translates. Though I'd personally go with the "it's gone" approach. |
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Feb 2 2007, 06:53 PM
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#11
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Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
SR rules are terrible for high fantasy, but they are good for low fantasy.
As mentioned, for a metaplanar adventure, cyber can translate any way you want. Stat bonuses should always be functional, while other types of cyberware could be translated as magical or pseudomagical items. I'm of the opinion that a complete fantasy game (instead of just a metaplanar adventure) by replacing cyberware and bioware with pseudomagical implants and grafts with the same essence costs. For example, instead of getting muscle replacement, a character might get a strength-ehancing rune carved into his body if you want to go that way, or he could have his real muscles cut out via magical surgery and replaced with the muscles of a unnaturally strong creature. |
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Feb 2 2007, 07:49 PM
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#12
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Uncle Fisty Group: Admin Posts: 13,891 Joined: 3-January 05 From: Next To Her Member No.: 6,928 |
Talk to Grinder, he's got some ideas for "magical cyber" that he was working on for his ED campaign.
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Feb 2 2007, 09:27 PM
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#13
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: 14-January 07 From: Zurich Orbital Member No.: 10,642 |
Depends on the type of fantasy you're doing. Steam-powered cyberarms? Why not? Cyber would be the easy part. Bioware would definitely need magic.
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Feb 3 2007, 05:55 PM
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#14
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Target Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405 |
Yeah, I figured I would keep all character attributes and bonuses, cybered or not. Because if you don't the magical characters - mage and adept, will end up being all powerful. So, what I've done is altered the cybered characters. Their power is derived from Runes tattooed on their bodies just as you said (great minds think alike). And cyberlimbs are replaced with magical armour grafted onto their bodies. The essence cost is still the same to balance things out in terms of healing, etc... I've also upped drain universally for all magic to keep things a bit more balanced. Of course any enemies will have the same options... As for weapons - no guns, just your run of the mill medieval weaponry. We'll see how it goes. Thanks for all the replies! |
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Feb 3 2007, 05:56 PM
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#15
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Target Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405 |
Steam powered... that's a cool idea. It would fit in nicely in an Ebberon setting. |
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Feb 3 2007, 05:59 PM
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#16
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Target Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405 |
Does anyone have the stats or know where I could find them for medieval armour? Platemail, chainmail, etc...
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Feb 3 2007, 07:20 PM
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#17
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Another possiblity is to treat both Cyberware and Bioware as enchanted items, and explain the magic loss from using them as different magical fields interfering with each other.
Of course, this idea would allow the enchanted items to be changed out and replaced as needed, making the Essence record keeping alitte more complex but I think it fits with the genre. Of course, magical Runes and life altering potions are really cool ideas that I'm stealing for use in my games... *Edit* Call me lazy, but I think I'd just file off the serial numbers of the existing armor stats and rename them, using Full Security armor as relics from whatever ultra-powerful ancient empire your world has, Armor Jackets as Plate Mail and go down from there... *Edit* After alittle more thought, perhaps you could save 'Harden Armor' for the ancient empire, using normal security armor as Plate, ect... |
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Feb 3 2007, 07:35 PM
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#18
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Runner Group: Members Posts: 3,066 Joined: 5-February 03 Member No.: 4,017 |
As a random thought, you could get the armor values from D&D 3rd as the impact values. Full plate would be 8, chain mail 5, leather 2, I don't remember looking at others while I was just playing NWN2. It actually doesn't sound as bad as I thought it would when I started this post. |
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Feb 4 2007, 05:53 AM
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#19
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Target Group: Members Posts: 22 Joined: 26-March 06 Member No.: 8,405 |
Actually that doesn't sound like a bad idea at all! There was a leather jacket in the SR4 rules that has 2/2 ballistic / impact. The Armor Bonus for leather in 3.5 D&D was 2.... at least that gives me something to go on. Thnx, Stryker |
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Feb 4 2007, 08:38 AM
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#20
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 870 Joined: 2-October 06 From: Athens Ga Member No.: 9,517 |
Well one thing you might want to think about is long bows. The long bow was very powerful because of it's penetration value. Now what I would suggest is either make the ballistic almost nothing on most armor or get rid of ballistic and just have one stat for armor but give long bows a high bonus to penetration. Keep in mind that you don't have to really worry about balencing them with modern equipment. You just need the traits that make sense for your setting.
I would also suggest getting rid of IPs and Reaction as traits. Unless you are using magic to go fast you don't need them. Go back to Quickness for anything related to it. It's not like you will have a lot of vehicles in this that you have to deal with the speed of modern vehicles. Quickness will do. |
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Feb 4 2007, 08:37 PM
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#21
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Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,180 Joined: 22-January 07 From: Rochester, NY Member No.: 10,737 |
I have a friend--the guy who introduced me to Shadowrun, as a matter of fact--who modified the SR4 rules for the Naruto universe (he calls it NarutoRun); I don't know if an anime setting qualifies as pure fantasy, but it's definitely a departure from cyberpunk
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Feb 4 2007, 10:11 PM
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#22
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Of course to be fair, based off reading these forums, I'd say that most of the posters here don't play Shadowrun as 'Cyberpunk' anyways. *winks*
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Feb 4 2007, 10:46 PM
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#23
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Great Dragon Group: Members Posts: 6,640 Joined: 6-June 04 Member No.: 6,383 |
I've used the SR3 rules for a variety of settings since I prefer it over D20.
I've enjoyed the firearms system for contemporary setting games. Regarding high fantasy the problem is that Friends in Melee is too powerful, I think. |
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Feb 6 2007, 03:36 PM
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#24
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Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 184 Joined: 14-January 07 From: Zurich Orbital Member No.: 10,642 |
Just thought of a great way to explain essense loss for your runeware. Depending on how dark you want your setting to be, you could make it that those runes require blood magic to be inscribed. Maybe just an animal sacrifice or ritual cutting for the lesser stuff to a full on human for the major stuff.
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Feb 6 2007, 04:16 PM
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#25
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Cybernetic Blood Mage Group: Members Posts: 3,472 Joined: 11-March 06 From: Northeastern Wyoming Member No.: 8,361 |
Aye, or maybe they could be literally selling their soul...
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