Converting 5e campaigns to BRP

[g33k]

11 hours ago, Anunnaki said:

Heya,

That would be The Glorantha Sourcebook.

https://www.chaosium.com/the-glorantha-sourcebook-hardcover/

It's a condensed summary of things Glorantha in a single book. And yes, there is a lot to Glorantha. The GM Screen Pack has an Adventure Guide in it that looks at a slice of Sartar, so that's a good starting point gamewise.

There is a RuneQuest Starter in the pipeline, but that's still a work in progress. But something to look out for also.

Hope this helps!

I was about to write... well, exactly this.

Also, the "King of Dragon Pass" computer game, and  Griselda  and  Prince of Sartar  and other bits of fiction.

[Al.]

On 10/21/2020 at 1:04 AM, GothmogIV said:

I have been working with the idea that each MP expended is a point of effect, like you cast a fireball--it costs 1MP to initiate, then each MP spent is a point of damage and increased radius. So a wizard with 18 MP could blast off a fireball that does 17 HP of damage in the area of effect. Same with sleep: 1 MP to cast, 17 MP of sleepy-sleepy to go around, beginning with the wizard's target, or an area of effect. Or something. Magic is hard. 

I rather like that.

It avoids the huge, escalating damage of XD&D spells. Which is a good thing by and of itself in my view, and doubly necessary in BRP game because we don't have huge, escalating Hit Point totals as well.

The dice-rolling rolePLAYER in me would like there to be some randomness in there. But I'm not absolutely convinced that such a change would be worth the increase in complexity.

[Lloyd Dupont]

On 10/21/2020 at 10:04 AM, GothmogIV said:

I have been working with the idea that each MP expended is a point of effect, like you cast a fireball--it costs 1MP to initiate, then each MP spent is a point of damage and increased radius. So a wizard with 18 MP could blast off a fireball that does 17 HP of damage in the area of effect. Same with sleep: 1 MP to cast, 17 MP of sleepy-sleepy to go around, beginning with the wizard's target, or an area of effect. Or something. Magic is hard. 

There is a problem with that.. you need more that 15 MP to kill someone with a fireball, meanwhile you can teleport them, polymorph them, mind control them with 3~4 MP...

Also.. I don't want player to be super powerful just because they chose magician as their starting career.... 😕 

In the end, in my custom in progress magic revamp.... I did a few significant things...

I limited the MP of a spell, not its level, while also reducing the cost of elemental attacks. This make elemental attacks cheaper, yet more limited.

And the limit is not just INT/2, it's also limited by Arcane Knowledge/10%, which add additional XP requirement to become a good wizard.

Also change costing.. it's not N * Level, it's A + N * Level (if the spell even have level!)(for example I have a ball spell, that turn single target spell into area effect, it adds 4MP to the overall cost, limiting what you can do)

Edited November 4, 2020 by Lloyd Dupont

[Mugen]

On 10/21/2020 at 2:04 AM, GothmogIV said:

I have been working with the idea that each MP expended is a point of effect, like you cast a fireball--it costs 1MP to initiate, then each MP spent is a point of damage and increased radius. So a wizard with 18 MP could blast off a fireball that does 17 HP of damage in the area of effect. Same with sleep: 1 MP to cast, 17 MP of sleepy-sleepy to go around, beginning with the wizard's target, or an area of effect. Or something. Magic is hard. 

That looks a lot like RuneQuest/OpenQuest Sorcery or the BGB Wizardry.

@Lloyd Dupont 's advice is sound. The cost of your elemental attacks is way too high, and you need to put a limit on the maximum number of MP one can spend, preferably based on the caster's magic skill.

As for the right cost for direct damage spells, it's hard to tell based on BRP examples.

RQ Disruption deal 1d3 for 1 MP, but can't be increased.

BGB Wizardry spells deal 1d6 per 3 MP spent, which is on average only slightly better than 1 MP per HP, but more random.

Sandy Petersen's Sorcery rules for Sorcery propose 1d(X), where X is basically the MP cost, but that ruleset is full of tricks, such as the very D&D-esque idea of preparing spells (and paying their cost) in advance. But those prepared spells also reduce your capacity to sustain long-duration spells, which are the greatest assets of a Sorcerer.

I don't think OpenQuest Sorcery has any direct damage spells.

Mythras is completely different. The direct damage spell, Wrack, deals damage based on his caster's skill and allows him to deal damage every turn for his duration. It also costs only a few MP : 1 base, plus 1 per parameter of the spell you want to enhance (duration, range, resistance to dispelling, etc. but not effectiveness). So, with a 60% skill you can deal 1d6 damage every round during 10 minutes, for 1 MP. Mythras damages are a little lower than BRP, too, so these 1d6 are equivalent to 1d6+1 or 1d8.

It's also quite common for those spells to bypass armor.

Edited November 5, 2020 by Mugen

[Mugen]

1 hour ago, Mugen said:

The cost of your elemental attacks is way too high, and you need to put a limit on the maximum number of MP one can spend, preferably based on the caster's magic skill.

Why this is important is because it's very difficult to balance correctly a system where you can either spend 3 MP or all your MPs on one spell.
You either end up with low MP spells that are useless, or high MP spells that are way overpowered.

Also, casters will use their magic very differently if they think they will have multiple occasions to use their magic, or just one.

Edited November 5, 2020 by Mugen

[Lloyd Dupont]

Well, why not, I am sharing my work in progress magic revamp document. It might give you some ideas!

I got 70 more spells planned, some of them real cool enchantment or necromantic spells.. but hey, you'll get the idea!
And it might take a while, working more actively on my Master of Orion Scifi setting booklet!

BRP-Magic2.pdf BRP-Magic2.docx

Edited November 5, 2020 by Lloyd Dupont

[GothmogIV]

On 11/5/2020 at 5:43 AM, Lloyd Dupont said:

Well, why not, I am sharing my work in progress magic revamp document. It might give you some ideas!

I got 70 more spells planned, some of them real cool enchantment or necromantic spells.. but hey, you'll get the idea!
And it might take a while, working more actively on my Master of Orion Scifi setting booklet!

BRP-Magic2.pdf 778 kB · 0 downloads BRP-Magic2.docx 47.9 kB · 0 downloads

Thank you, Lloyd. That's very generous. I'll give it a read. 

[Lloyd Dupont]

On 11/7/2020 at 11:57 PM, GothmogIV said:

Thank you, Lloyd. That's very generous. I'll give it a read. 

Hey, feel free to share if you have any feedback...
While on one hand it's both and unfinished and try to emulate my personal magic vision (which I know for a fact is not shared that much around here.. the RuneQuest, Mythras, RevolutionD100 tradition is totally into over the top magic, much more so that D&D I think), I am always curious to know if you had a few ideas that could fit in!  

Edited November 9, 2020 by Lloyd Dupont