Topic: Revisiting Scaling Diomin to HARP

[Zhaleskra]

As seen in this thread: http://www.ironcrown.com/ICEforums/index.php?topic=5810.0, I had worked on scaling the least Human/Elven Diomin races to HARP. Because I am realizing more reasons why I have grown away from D&D, I have been giving this more thought. Also, I think the threat of instant death really helps a Dark Fantasy world.

For starters, I've given a little more thought to the scaling of the Hearthom race. They will have Stamina +20 (hey, their skin is made of stone), Will +10, Magic +0.

I also think the lack of a morality mechanic in HARP makes it easier to write the requirements of the MacGuffin's powers in one of the adventures.

[Zhaleskra]

I also need to look for a Profession and skills that are close to the spirit magic of Diomin's shamans.

[Zhaleskra]

Here's a little bit of writeup I did from memory of the World Book, the previous topic, and State of the Nations. I wanted to get the feel for these races without revealing too many secrets.

[Cormac Doyle]

strangely, I can see that there's an attachment on your post, but I can't work out how to access it

[Zhaleskra]

The paperclip doesn't do what I thought it would. I hope I didn't use a bad file format. As I only made that post a few minutes ago, it probably hasn't had time for moderator approval. Or was that what you were trying to do?

[Cormac Doyle]

nope - I haven't been a moderator for quite a while

[Thom @ ICE]

It's now approved.

[Cormac Doyle]

Only one page? or is that because I'm trying to read it with MS Office instead of OpenOffice ?

[Zhaleskra]

There is currently only one page. Like I said, I'm trying to avoid revealing those races' secrets.

[Zhaleskra]

Working from the Mongoose RuneQuest 1 conversion of one campaign's MacGuffin, I have figured out its HARP equivalent powers.

Character of appropriate religion only: Sword can be picked up, Bonus Weapon II
Specific NPC or direct descendant of culture's founder: Sword can be picked up, Bonus Weapon V, Weapon's Fury on itself 2x/day (unscaled, basic)

Character of opposed religion: Sword cannot be picked up, Attacks would be grabber with Elemental Bolt (Fire) scaled to cause a Medium Heat Critical

Anybody else: Cold presence warns would be taker off, sword cannot be picked up.

This MacGuffin is a named weapon of spiritual and cultural significance to a specific human culture.

The MRQ Spells I worked from were Sunspear for the attack, and True [Weapon] became Weapon's Fury. As a +2/+5 in D&D, and the equivalent in MRQ, the Bonus Item values were a no-brainer.

[Zhaleskra]

The adventure trilogy the above MacGuffin appears in, would seem to suggest that the attack (to the person of wrong religion) is not a function of the sword. Especially because it's also the Sword of Plot Advancement. Though perhaps I should add the option of scaling Weapon's Fury to "of Slaying" with the choices of "Gadianti" and "Zeredite", yeah the second one is a culture not a species but . . .

Anyhow, I was going over professions in HARP, CoM, and the Codex, to see how they'd fit Diomin's theme. Really, I can't think of any profession that isn't appropriate, except perhaps Elementalists. While these two professions are not objectively evil, given the Dark Fantasy bent of Diomin, they'd be associated with evil people: Mystic and Shadowblade. Necromancers tend to generally be assumed evil, so restricting them to the bad guys. Doing the same with Vivamancers, again to fit the theme.

[Zhaleskra]

Come to think of it, the whole Goals angle of HARP should make a conversion of the campaign a breeze. Though the definition of "mundane" item might encompass a little more.

[Zhaleskra]

How do I convert a weapon that only does 1 point of damage in D&D? The weapon in question is called a tihss, an invention of the Gadianti, worn on the tail tips of those who have prehensile tails (talent hook). While the papercut puncture isn't much, tihsses are often poisoned.

[markc]

Maybe the blow gun table? It is just a guess and I do not have the books in front of me right now.
MDc

[Thom @ ICE]

He's converting to HARP so it's not so much which table, but more about how to create a weapon with extremely limited damage.

Two options that I see, but since I am not familiar with the weapon it's up to him...

* Option 1 - Go with a Tiny Slashing or Tiny Puncture weapon.  The damage is limited, but there is still a potential for a significant hit.  (This would be my choice)

* Option 2 - Treat it similar to arcane bolt if it manages to hit.  Simply roll 1d10 and apply that as straight damage - no crit possible.  I personally don't like this option, and actually don't like this damage even for the spell itself.

[markc]

Sorry I use Arms Law with HARP and I forget the others do not.
MDC

[Zhaleskra]

I was thinking the Tiny Puncture, with a high likelihood (90%, perhaps?) of an additional Tiny Internal Poison, and I wanted to get other people's ideas too.

One thing I really like about HARP is the lack of a chart for every single weapon.

Another conversion subject, I'm actually thinking about limiting what weapons are available in Diomin. This is based on the cultures and on real world weapon development.

Arak: Blue skinned, red eyed, "native" Americans
Gnolaum: Feudal "Asian" elves
Hearthom: Mysterious humanoids made of rock (who none the less still grow hair)
Tirasim: Ancient Greece/Rome
Zeredites: Ancient Summarians
Gadianiti: Having once been Arak, I expect a similar starting point.

Going from that, Rapiers are right out.

[Thom @ ICE]

In that case, make it a tiny puncture, but any bleed/stun/man penalty is treated like an Internal Poison. This cuts down on the lethality of the weapon itself, but adds in a decent chance of poison injection.

[Zhaleskra]

While I don't have my Diomin worldbook at my apartment, I do have the MRQ1 version of the first leg of an adventure on PDF, and 2 copies of the D&D version of the middle leg here. Dragons not being color coded for your inconvenience in HARP is helpful for the second module.

[Zhaleskra]

Updated the conversion file, and made it match the style of official HARP books.