My desire for instant gratification is annoying me....

[estirose]

For some reason I want to convert Darksword Adventures to D20. Unfortunately, my copy of said book died, I can't find a torrent of it, and there seem to be no ebook sites that sell it.

(If you're unfamiliar, it's based on the Darksword trilogy books and features a world where everybody has magic and those who don't die. What I mostly remember about the game is that you only had x amount of points at 1st level, and you could burn through them *floating* like most everybody in the stories did, much less doing anything useful.)


Okay, some of the considerations:
1. Most of the people in that world float and fly most of the time. The exceptions are the catalysts and the Dead (who aren't really dead, except to magic). Therefore, most of the "floating" characters would need to be a different variety than people taking Catalyst or Dead folk. Floating characters would have to have a species trait to float. Would this be a +1 level adjustment? It's close to the fly spell.
2. IIRC, there is no multiclassing. You can't be a Catalyst 1/Technologist 1, or things like that. At least I don't think so. You're born into the class you have.
3. The harder part will be modeling the classes. Each class has magic you can or can't use, or use soo well. So, for example, about half the classes have some sort of healing power, but it's not as good as the healer classes. This may involve a point system for improving individual magic "skills" that may or may not be different from the skill system.

It occurs to me that GURPS or FUDGE (both universal systems) might do better for this, but there would have to be some restriction on these, too. A custom game system based on D20 might be best. (Of course, it would not have the D20 logo, because somebody or somebodies at Wizards is/are idiots.)

Gah. As soon as I can get a copy, I'll have to get things together.

Comments

[starandrea]

♥ YAY SIMKIN ♥

"Do you like my new outfit? I call it 'Corpse Blue.' Dreadful name, I know, but it was the first thing that popped into my head, and since things so rarely come into my head at all I thought I'd better latch onto it, make it feel welcome, so to speak."

"I say, Messiah, this squirrel didn't happen to stagger in here and die of old age in your arms, did it, dear boy? If so, you should have given it a decent burial. I've been chewing on this piece for five minutes."

"I can't see a thing in this armor! No wonder Arthur had a round table; he couldn't see the bloody thing. Probably kept bumping into it and knocking off corners."

[scifisentai]

Do you know who wrote those books? 'Darksword' sounds really familiar to me but I can't place it and the premise sounds interesting enough that I might go digging for it.

[estirose.livejournal.com]

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, I believe.

[scifisentai]

And that would be why it sounds familiar. *grins* I picked some of their stuff up a few years ago and never got round to reading it.

*stares at book backlog and sighs*

[nikkisilver.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about trying Savage Worlds? I've found that system so easy to use and able to dish out so many interesting worlds. The magic system is very flexible and they have "Trappings" that allow you to describe how the magic of each class/race/whatever looks and acts to set them all apart. Just a thought.

Good luck!