BRP Athas

[Chaot]

So, my darling wife surprised me this Valentine's Day by going into my Amazon account and buying a bunch of Darksun stuff I'd had on my wish list. . I have most of the supplements in pdf format, but nothing gets me wanting to run something like having a physical book in front of me.

I already have some of the books and I've read a little of the horrid fiction. I also spent some time over at the Wizards boards. I've seen Chromebob's translation and borrowed from it when my players had a brief stay on Athas during a world hopping Elric! game.

Years ago I started a fuller translation, but it's kind of been on the back burner. These new books might push me forward to complete it (or at least get a little more done). And, with the new BRP book, it seems like a good time to do it. Anyone interested in discussing? I'm about to run off for work now, but I'll dig up my notes.

[Simlasa]

One of our regular game settings has a huge area that is basically Athas with the serial numbers filed off... and minus some of the more obvious D&D critters.
Most of what we've played has revolved around the slave tribes and the Veiled Alliance.

[GreatBear]

Athas for me is the only D&D world that really transcends the Elf/Dwarf/Orc/etc. paradigm that is D&D. It would certainly be a better fit for the BRP system than it ever was for D&D. I'd chuck all the obvious D&D critters and chose either Magic or Psionics (not both for crissakes!) and there you go.

[fmitchell]

From what I understand, psionics would fit better into the setting.

On the other hand, I can't imagine how much more of a walking cuisinart a Thri-Kreen would be in BRP, unless someone toned it down (e.g. eliminated its extra attacks due to having four arms).

[tedopon]

I'll do some digging around, but there was a pdf floating around a few years back that had a BRP conversion of Dark Sun. It was like 70 pages long. I guess I'll try google first, then hit the mountain of discs in my closet if that doesn't work out.
We never ran a straight DS campaign from it, but I remember grabbing a lot of things from it, like the corruption mechanic for psionics/magic.
I'll post again whenever I come up with something.

[Puck]

tedopon wrote: "I'll do some digging around, but there was a pdf floating around a few years back that had a BRP conversion of Dark Sun".

That sounds very interesting. I would love to take a gander at that. The Brom artwork alone created so much mood to that setting.

[Chaot]

I'm not a cannon purist. Some things that bother me about Athas, like its ecology, which the online pdf Ecology of Athas went a bit of a way of reconciling. The books keep pounding on the thought that Athas is some barren wasteland that can't support life, while a look through the beastiary illustrates that this is not the case. Or the ripped off, poorly adapted monolithic earth cultures for the various city-states.

Sorry, I wanted to get a bit farther with this post, but my daughter calls.

[Chaot]

Alright, my train of thought was interrupted, so I'm going to post something different. Here's some things I was thinking about doing for Darksun (and I'm talking in broad strokes here. I'm not accessing my notes, which I haven't looked at in a long time).

I'd like to see a Defiler/Preserver that is unified and draws energy from the surroundings. I've just been calling it Channeling. The thought would be that Channeling builds up a 'residue' in the mage's body which subjects the mage to a CON:POT check (or something). Failing the check leads to addiction, and the mage would have to make a check not to defile, becoming a defiler. This residue could cause other adverse effects like an insanity or two or present itself in some physical manifestation. A mage wouldn't be utilizing their own MP reserves, but would be limited on how much their body could handle.

For elemental worship, I had been thinking along the lines of a cleric devoting POW to an entity and receiving powers that are aligned with that elemental's plane and in return, the character would have certain restrictions placed on them. Originally, this had been inspired by a section of Sandy's Sorcery rules. I had to smile when I read Loz's MRQ Elric book because his pact system was very similar to what I was thinking of doing.

For Psionics, I was just thinking about adapting the GURPS Psionics book. Psions would use their own MP reserve to power their abilities. I'd like to tie psionics and channelling together somehow for dragon/avangion magic but haven't really sussed out how to do it.

For druids, I was thinking about using the RQ3 shaman rules. The fetch would represent the awakening relationship between the druid and the world spirit (or whatever).

Anyway, like I said, these are broad ideas. For some of them I've hammered out a few ways of doing it. The others are just general ideas.

Whatdayathink?

Greatbear: Which D&D critters? Are you talking elves, halflings and dwarves or something I'm not seeing? Are you talking about getting rid of magic or psionics, or having them operate under the same mechanical system and vary them by description? (Sorry, these are short questions, but don't take them as being terse. I'm interested in your take on it.

fmitchell: Yeah, psionics are all over the place. You can't spit with hitting someone with a psionic power. Still, defiling is a really big part of the athas mythos.

Yeah, I'm thinking Thri-Kreen get a normal attack and if they want multiple attacks, they have to split their skill like everybody else.

tedopon: love to see that doc. I thought I had found everything BRP Darksun web based but this is news to me.

[NickMiddleton]

My instinct has always been to use pretty much full bore RQIII to capture the brutal feel of the original setting: Spirit Magic and the Shaman rules (with a little adaptation) cover the Will; Elemental and Dragon-King Worship is neatly covered by Divine Magic and Defiling / Preserving is an adaptation of Sorcery where the MP's DON'T come from the individual but from the surrounding flora (terrain dictates the rate at which MP can be drawn, defiling is significantly faster but defiles the area affected, MP drawn and terrain determine the area of effect of the defiling).

However, now BRP Zero is out and the full version hopefully soon, I'd be tempted to look at adapting the Psychic powers and Magic systems from that for Athasian Psionics and Preserving / Defiling. I still think RQIII Divine Magic is pretty good fit for Templar / Elemental worship powers though.

Cheers,

Nick Middleton

[drohem]

A BRP/Athas conversion would be awsome! It's grim-and-gritty feel is a perfect fit for BRP.

tedopon, if you find that conversion, let us know. I would definitely be interested in looking at it.