Steampunk/Fantasy

[shadowmane]

I've developed a Steampunk/Fantasy setting for my players to run through, but it was developed using GURPS. I cut my teeth on Star Wars back in the 90's, and am coming back to GMing after about a 10 year break. I'm slowly learning the GURPS rules, but I would love to port this whole adventure to D6, a system I know and love.

My question is, which sourcebooks should I use? The setting is going to have steam-mechs, airships, trains, and the characters are going to have latent powers from the four ancient elements, plus light and dark (or yin/yang), as well as gravity/electricity/magnatism (one element for each of the characters/NPC's).

The mech drivers will be knights, but there will only be a couple of these characters. The mechs are going to be in the background of the adventure and not take a major role in it. The characters will travel to a gateway (through several adventures, of course) and go to several planets (each representing one of the elements mentioned above except for gravity/electricity/magnatism).

My idea is to use typical Fantasy character classes, brought up to a steampunk TL of 5+. Instead of swords and bows and such, they will use guns, pistols and shotguns. There will be no magic, but they will have their powers that will develop during the adventure (I pulled the powers from the GURPS Powers sourcebook... and I haven't seen an equivalent here).

The whole idea is based loosely on the Transformers: Cybertron with my own twist to it. Basically, they are finding the mystical keys to their powers in order to awaken a sleeping mega-NPC, while at the same time, being maneuvered by an unseen enemy in the background.

Anyway, that give you the rough outline. Where should I draw the rules from to bring this creation of mine into the d6 system?

[Lee Torres]

Welcome, Shadowmane!

The first thing that sprang to mind when I saw your question was to use the old World of Aden (http://www.rpg.net/news+reviews/reviews/rev_4494.html) rules, but they've been out of print for a good long while.

I'd look on eBay (http://cgi.ebay.com/WEG-29200-The-World-of-Aden-Near-Mint_W0QQitemZ5914185375QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_Defa ultDomain_0?hash=item160834e9f&_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116#ht_500wt_1182) for that, first of all - if you can't get it, you should need only D6 Adventure (http://www.westendgames.com/files/weg51011OGL.pdf) and D6 Fantasy (http://www.westendgames.com/files/weg51013OGL.pdf) to cover almost all of those bases. Having the Magic (http://www.westendgames.com/files/weg51024OGL.pdf) book would probably help, but if you're already familiar with Star Wars, you can probably build your own multiple magic system from scratch easily enough.

But if you can get World of Aden, man would that save you a ton of work! :D

[Lubidius]

Also, take a gander at the Age Of Enlightenment fan d6 classic based rules here ->

http://www.northernmountains.com/hd6/aoe_toc.htm

It may get you in the right direction. It is a victorian era fantasy game based upon D6. You may need to adjust it to match your setting more closely, but I've always found it to be one of the cleanest online iterations of D6 to date.

Anyhoo... good luck! and keep everyone here posted.:D

[Lee Torres]

Good call, Lubidius, I'd forgotten about that! Shadowmane, you might not need Aden after all - AoE should cover enough of the Steam stuff to get you by...

[shadowmane]

Thanks guys. I'll check out that website before I try to buy World of Aden.

[shadowmane]

So I tried to get this started last Monday, but we wound up playing Cosmic Encounters instead. Intriguing game.

What I've done is transformed the game somewhat. Its still going to have the elements, and the powers. I've decided to use the Mini Six rules set, with an "elementals" perk that will enable them to use the elemental powers I am going for.

It'll be set on a world of my own creation, but with the countries on that world resembling those of the Guilded Age. I've pulled an idea I found on the Forgotten Futures website (the Astronef idea, with some tweaks of my own), and I will definately use a few of their adventures over there (anyone know where I might find some other canned Victorian style adventures to help me along?).

I'm also going to throw some Lovecraftian ancient creatures into the mix as well. The whole setting will be in a pocket universe, from the original setting the characters begin in, to all of the elemental settings, and the eventual space setting. I'll throw some ideas from Space 1889 in there as well (I like the Martians found in that whole setting, and will probably use them, though not on Mars, but a similar canal laden planet). I also like the idea from GURPS Tales of the Solar Patrol to have 4 main technologies that lead to the exploration of space. The characters will probably be involved in the development of those technologies, if even by pure accident (or being in the rigth place at the right time).

I chose Mini Six for this because of the adaptability of the rules lite system to the setting I have chosen. It is a perfect fit, though I have drawn elements from the main sourcebooks of D6. I really like D6 Powers. Its where I'll be developing the elemental perk from. I think I'm more psyched on this than my players, but of course, they don't know what they are getting into. I've been very vague with them on this one.

[Whill]

Cool. Let us know how it goes.

[shadowmane]

If all goes according to plan (and it hasn't so far, with people changing plans on me at the last minute and what not), my group will start this tomorrow night. Here's crossing my fingers it actually happens. I think I'm pretty much prepared by now.

[Lubidius]

Occasionally post a story run-through. I would definitely like to hear about your game.

[shadowmane]

Okay, so you have a chance to see kind of what I intend for tonight, I will now post my GM notes for this game. I'll get back some time this weekend to let you know what the guys actually did, and how the plot was twisted by the antics of gamers and evil game masters ^evil grin^

edit: I pulled this down because I might use it for an online game in the forums or something like that.

[shadowmane]

I'm beginning to think this just isn't going to happen. One got stuck at work, another is sick, and the two left want to wait on the others. Oh well. I'll wait another week.

[copeab]

I'm beginning to think this just isn't going to happen. One got stuck at work, another is sick, and the two left want to wait on the others. Oh well. I'll wait another week.

You could run your game online here in the chat room.

[shadowmane]

I've considered running a game (though not this one) through Google Wave. Probably a Transformers campaign that I developed over the course of the last few years. This game will kick off some time this year. I just have to get my gaming group together and serious enough to do it.

[shadowmane]

Okay, we finally got together last night and ran a little game. It was me and three others, and we decided to play a Fantasy setting to familiarize them with the game system. We used the basic Mini Six rules as is. I did add one house rule that you will see later. It was your basic Fantasy setting, where they began in a little village, in the tavern, of course. I had them introduce their characters to one another, and then come up with why they were traveling together. There was Jasper Wylde, the Fighter/Mage, who was the default leader of the group (as he was rich and all... this was something I threw in at the last second to make things interesting); Rob Anybody was the party thief who grew up on the streets and is only 15 years old; and finally, Wren Tosh Fowler, elf by birth, thespian by night, the Elvin Ranger. I then gave them a little scenario that I made up out of my head. Actually, it was two, but they were connected. Only the players didn't know that (and still don't know, as you will see). The first was that a party of adventurers left from the town a while back, and were never heard from again. They were investigating this cave that was supposed to have treasure in it (this was supposed to set up a Dungeon Crawl, which we never actually got to). The second was that there has been a tribe of Orcs harassing people in the area, and the local magistrate was offering 60 gold per set of Orc ears.

The party finally got their equipment bought, got three horses and took off on the trail. They traveled about half a day, when they found an overturned wagon, with bodies laying around (had they asked, they would have found out that this was the party that had disappeared, but they never asked, so I didn't volunteer the information). They determined that the tracks all around were those of Orcs, and at least one Troll. They also determined that the ambush on this wagon happened the night before. Incidentally, this was the first time the magic user tried to cast a spell. He tried to animate dead so that they would have at least one "helper" against the band of Orcs they were going to have to go against. The spell failed by a few points (the spellcaster had a 9D in magic... he needed a 36 to succeed, but he rolled a 26, with a 1 on the bogie die and the elimination of a 5 roll), and the dead guy got up on his hands and knees, then fell back to the ground. I like letting them see the effects of what they are trying. Incidentally, I was using Harmyn's diminishing dice pool rule (http://www.wegfansite.com/forum/showthread.php?2257-Strange-Rule-Idea-Diminishing-Dice-Pool-Resource-for-Powers), which made things that much more interesting for the spellcaster. With the failure of the spell, the party decided to scout around to see which way the Orcs went. Once they determined the direction, they decided to follow the tracks, since they were in the general direction of the cave they were going to investigate.

They continued to travel for the better part of the day, until just before night fall, when they decided to pitch camp in the woods. They had the idea to build a fire, but to hide out in the trees around it. This, of course, drew a group of three Orcs to investigate. As the Orcs closed in on the camp fire, the spellcaster tried to cast Summon Elemental, but it backfired. All that happened was that the fire flamed up for a moment, then died down. The Orcs were spooked by this, and began looking around. The spellcaster cast Paralysis on one of them, and when it succeeded, he jumped out of the tree and yelled "Yeah, who's your daddy!" Of course, as any good GM would do, I had the other two Orcs turn and bum-rush him. At this point, the Elvin Ranger decided to try a trick shot with his +4 magic bow. I made him take a die away from the roll, and made him roll twice, once for each arrow. One hit, and since it was a +5 arrow, it downed the Orc immediately (I gave them all a couple of magic items so that they could go against just about anything I threw at them). I then made them roll for initiative, as the element of surprise was finally gone for at least two of them. The thief hadn't made himself known yet. Having won initiative, the Elf fired off another shot with his trusty bow and downed the other Orc without trouble.

The characters then decided they wanted to interrogate the other Orc. I went along with it, and allowed the spellcaster to cast a cantrip that eased the paralysis on the Orc's face and head. The Orc was not very forthcoming with his information, but they did find out that there was someone he called "The Master", and that that someone was a pale man. Getting no further information from the Orc, they pushed him into the fire and began collecting ears. As they interrogated the Orc, I kept making secret rolls to add to the suspense. They did ask me once why I was rolling. I just shrugged and kept making the rolls. At this point, than they began to hear large footfalls. "Um... guys... methinks there comes a Troll," said the Elvin thespian. At this point, the magic user, having cast three spells, and two of them having failed (question: why is there no fireball in the Mini Six rules? How can you run a fantasy game without the obligatory fireball?) decided that he was going to try Summon Elemental one more time. This time, he took advantage of the dice pool rules, and bumped up his dice so that he had a better chance to succeed. He successfully summoned a Fire Elemental, but now had to see if he could control it. He barely made the very hard roll, and was able to Command the Fire Elemental to attack the Troll. A battle ensued. The Troll actually got in a few really good licks, but in the end, the Fire Elemental won out. Unfortunately, it drew the attention of all of the Orcs in the area.

Needless to say, a battle ensued. However, the characters were not involved in it. The Orcs all attacked the Fire Elemental. After I went through several rounds of rolling, I let the players know that what they saw was a lot of fighting and a fiery glow, as the Fire Elemental did battle. Finally, the Fire Elemental went nova, taking out a bunch of Orcs with it (I had made the house rule, that instead of being permanent, the Summon Elemental spell would only summon the elemental for 24 hours). At this point, the characters decided to collect as many Orc ears as they could, then travel till they were about a quarter mile from the cave. They stopped to eat, so I started messing with them. I had my secret Vampire Mage NPC cast Death on the party. He came up short, but I wanted to mess with them, so I made them get sick. I then gave them time to recover, and a day and a half later, they were recovered, only to wake up and find that everything around them looked dead. I had succeeded on my roll to cast an illusion spell, and this was the illusion (I completely ignored the rule that the area of effect was 50 meters). The spellcaster finally decided to try casting Dispel Magic, which he botched, but carrying on with the theme I have been using, a failure doesn't exactly mean the spell failed. For an instant, everything returned to the normal, lush, greenness of Summer. The characters now understood that they were going against someone very powerful. But at this point, the clock on the wall was getting close to midnight, and we were all getting tired. Therefore, I ended the adventure here.

The system held up pretty good. I think we were trying to use magic spells that were way out of the league of the characters being played. The thief didn't really get to do a whole lot, but he did act as the scout of the party. The Elf did the same. Since I know the D6 System so well, the game play went really smooth. We all had a good time, and they got to get their feet wet on the system, this being the first time they have played it.

[retriever]

Sounds fun (nothing says "fantasy roleplaying" like orc genocide); thanks for the action report. Did you make it all up on the fly? And did you figure out a dungeon to use, or is that a bridge to be crossed when you get there?

[harmyn]

Sounds like you had a great time and the rules played out well for you. A good old fashioned fantasy adventure is always a fun time to be had. :)

As to no Fireball spell? We were going for an assortment with a limited space. But we are going to put up more spells, possible a nice little grimoire of magic to give more options for various fantasy games in the future. Right now we are just waiting for the art so we can complete and release the reformatted version of Mini Six.

[shadowmane]

Sounds fun (nothing says "fantasy roleplaying" like orc genocide); thanks for the action report. Did you make it all up on the fly? And did you figure out a dungeon to use, or is that a bridge to be crossed when you get there?

I did make the whole thing up on the fly. It was quite fun. I haven't done that in a while. As for the Dungeon, no, I will probably have to design it myself before the next time we get together. Of course, the next time, we'll probably be starting our Steampunk adventure, which will give me a little more time to come up with the dungeon. The Steampunk adventure will have quite a bit of house rules. I'm cutting the attributes back to three... mind, body and spirit, with spirit being the key to any magic or special powers.


As to no Fireball spell? We were going for an assortment with a limited space. But we are going to put up more spells, possible a nice little grimoire of magic to give more options for various fantasy games in the future.

A Grimoire would be nice. Of course, if you want to keep it simple, and to as few pages as possible, you might consider coming up with several based on the different types of magic typically used in gaming. For instance, the magic (or rather, powers) in my steampunk game will be atomic in nature, and based on scientific prinicipals. It will allow the characters to control heat, solids, liquids, gases, magnetism, electricity, gravity and light. It will use the control, sense and alter skills to control them, along with the dice pool you came up with.

For the fantasy game, it'll use the simple magic system you have in the basic rules, plus anything I can glean from the D6 Fantasy rules that can be useful. Most likely, though, I will pull from the force powers from Star Wars as the magic system. But thats' mostly because I have those books in hardback, instead of in PDF format. Still, a fantasy setting without a fireball is a must fix. :P

[shadowmane]

You could run your game online here in the chat room.

I have been thinking about this, and I might run the steampunk game on the forums, or through Google Wave. I just have to get a list of people interested. Granted, I haven't run an online game in a long time. The last time I did, it was run through a forum, and the game master was just sort of a narrator.

[Grimace]

Just as an aside question, isn't Google Wave going to be shutting down? I thought I heard Google was pulling the plug on that.

[Jeffrywith1e]

Just as an aside question, isn't Google Wave going to be shutting down? I thought I heard Google was pulling the plug on that.Yes, sir. That is true...

http://googlesystem.blogspot.com/2010/08/google-wave-to-be-discontinued.html

[shadowmane]

Well, that settles it, then. I'll have to figure something out.