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URUK, a new standalone rolegame


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Hee hee. I saw my picture in there.

I skimmed through it, and it's a very nice effort - definitely a labour of love. If I had time and a printer I'd give it a more thorough read to see specifically what you did with the magic systems. Ancient Mesopotamia is a very rich period and hard to capture in a short game document, to be sure.

Incidentally, it's not a standalone RPG - it requires BRP or BASIC to play (not that that's a problem for anyone here).

"Tell me what you found, not what you lost" Mesopotamian proverb

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Hi Ebi-Il ;)

Well, I tried to tanslate into rules the understanding of the World of very ancient Mesopotamian (at least as I understood it). Everything is granted (or caused) by the gods and "magic" is not a kind of manipulation of natural forces like in classical fantasy magic. All surnatural deed are obtained through proper rituals and sacrifices, taking the piety into account. No "battle magic", no "divine magic" with POW sacrifices: sacrifices are very real, like food, animal or money, just as the gods are very real, living in temples as statues. All the rituals are written on tabletts: mesopotamian "magic" is a science, as they understood it, requiring years of studies and of course to know how to read Sumerian. Almost all the "magicians" are actually priests and scientists, which may sound weird in the XXIst century (AD!).

Divine help is gained in temples, every God helping in his domain at a level depending on the piety and the amount of sacrifices.

A big part of "magic" is the exorcism, which is not seen as a magical power but instead as a science of chasing demons away from the victim, again with rituals and sacrifices: almost all the troubles and diseases are caused by demons sent by the gods, who also teached the humans how to chase them. Any exorcist may deal with any demon, like a doctor can try to cure any disease. Exorcists may call demons for their proper use, but not without danger.

Sumerian magicians are like demons summoners. This recalls the older times of Sumer when all the demons and rituals hadn't been recorded on the tablets : the science of exorcism was at the begining and much more limited than later.

There are also a special chapters for necromancy and divination.

Note that I wrote this setting for Sumer and Akkad in the 3rd millenium, not for Babylon or later empires, even if many things stayed relatively constant in time.

Wind on the Steppes, role playing among the steppe Nomads. The  running campaign and the blog

 

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  • 9 years later...

First have a look at the Sumer Package in the downloads section of this forum. It is a short Uruk in a nutshell for Revolution d100 and in English.

For the full 100 pages Uruk in French (skills in English - I would write it differently nowadays, but you can find game and background material) and grab your Harrap's English-French dictionnary : https://drive.google.com/file/d/134akzYBaSZY_KS425NdPzSBbeUw35HhH/view?usp=sharing

 

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Wind on the Steppes, role playing among the steppe Nomads. The  running campaign and the blog

 

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43 minutes ago, Zit said:

I'll send you a link, but it is all in French and quite old (although I think I have a version with at least the skills in English). I'll send you a condensed version as well, using the Revolution D100 version, in French as well.

Thank you!

Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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24 minutes ago, Zit said:

First have a look at the Sumer Package in the downloads section of this forum. It is a short Uruk in a nutshell for Revolution d100 and in English.

For the full 100 pages Uruk in French (skills in English - I would write it differently nowadays, but you can find game and background material) and grab your Harrap's English-French dictionnary : https://drive.google.com/file/d/134akzYBaSZY_KS425NdPzSBbeUw35HhH/view?usp=sharing

 

Thanks again! I am going to see if I can use Google Translate to translate it to English first!

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Check out our homebrew rules for freeform magic in BRP ->

No reason for Ars Magica players to have all the fun!

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Oh, I am disappointed. I thought that Gianni had produced Uruk in a new version.

4 hours ago, rsanford said:

I am going to see if I can use Google Translate to translate it to English first!

Google Translate does a good enough job. I read through it in French and then used Google Translate, which did not affect my overall understanding.

Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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15 hours ago, Zit said:
On 8/25/2020 at 8:17 PM, soltakss said:

Oh, I am disappointed. I thought that Gianni had produced Uruk in a new version.

ahem, he did not even produce the first one. But he announced it on this forum, for what very grateful.

Oops! Sorry!

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Simon Phipp - Caldmore Chameleon - Wallowing in my elitism since 1982. Many Systems, One Family. Just a fanboy. 

www.soltakss.com/index.html

Jonstown Compendium author. Find my contributions here

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