RPG stuff

[masque12]

My very first roleplaying game was MERP, Middle Earth Role Playing, which was a simplified version of Rolemaster. It was a class/level system, but advancement was handled through a point-based system when the levels went up. I thought it was great, and when I went on to my next game, West End's Star Wars, (also a point-based system) that was even better. Every game I've played in since then has usually been some form of point-based one, and I never got into D&D. When I finally looked at D&D, I was amazed by how non-intuitive and limiting the magic system was (you forget the spell after you cast it?), and how limiting the character advancement was. I haven't played any fantasy RPG's since my early MERP days, I've been mostly playing sci-fi or modern dark fantasy.

Anyway, now that I have found HARP, which is sort of a newer, better, even more flexible version of MERP, I'm thinking about getting into a fantasy campaign, either playing in or running it. I have two concepts I'm kicking around. The first is the idea of having a party consisting entirely of dwarves, or dwarves, halflings and gnomes only. Loosely, this is based on The Hobbit, at least as concerns party makeup, if not plot, but aside from that, I just really like dwarves and would like to play around with the conventions of the various cultures of those races.

The other concept I'm kicking around is that of completely eliminating the cleric profession from the game, and instituting a newer religious system that more accurately reflects polytheistic culture. As I pointed out in my comments to this RPG.net column, which rightly points out that the cleric is pretty much a priest from a monotheistic, authoritarian religious structure, most historical polytheistic cultures didn't have those types of authority figures. What I'm thinking of doing is eliminating the cleric and letting his abilities be available to anyone who wants to spend the points to buy them. I haven't quite figured out how to do this logistically yet, but the idea is that I'm going to set up something based (very loosely) on Germanic/Norse culture, where the religious elements are fairly clan-based, and that everyone participates on a fairly equal basis in what religious observances there are.

Now, I'm still trying to make it fit the high-adventure aspect of the game, not recreate actual religious traditions, so there will still likely be things like healing spells and what not, but I think that anyone should be able to "pray" for divine intervention. This, I think, will have the advantage of not burdening anyone with the somewhat stereotypical role of the cleric who hangs back until the fighting is over, and then heals the injured, but will also contribute towards what I regard as a more accurate depiction of polytheistic life. If anyone has comments or suggestions, I welcome them.

Comments

[xi-o-teaz.livejournal.com]

If anyone has comments or suggestions, I welcome them.

I've never played the systems you're talking about. I've played maybe half a dozen different systems total, mostly because nearly every single group of players I've ever formed and/or been a part of, always seem to migrate back to some variation of Dungeons & Dragons. I think my personal favorite version was a cross between ist & 2nd Edition AD&D. We always modified the game, though, particularly when it came to psionics and magic. I created a very simple Mana system that I used for all variations of D&D, and I got almost all of the groups I played with to adopt it.

As far as the clerics go, I'd agree with you to an extent (as far as the monotheistic ones go, anyway), except that in over half of the forms of D&D they specifically have specialist Clerics, just like they have specialist Mages. If I ever played a Cleric, it was always as a multi-class with something else (often a Mage/Cleric). Personally, I always preferred the shapeshifting Druids, who were always much more fun to role-play for me, anyway.

But you could easily modify systems in a variety of ways, to either cover the Healing aspect, or to make the individual Priests more specialized. In Gary Gygax's "Mythus", you could buy different schools of magick (as with other skill-sets) either during character creation, or as you advanced. It was quite nice, as you could craft a rogue with the ability to heal, along with cast spells from the School of Shadow, etc.

In Mage: The Ascension, you just need to buy the proper Spheres (Life, mostly) to Heal. Worship of Deities can be crafter however you like, in this game, and Prayers (or different Devotional acts) could act as Foci.

[masque12.livejournal.com]

The beauty of HARP is that I don't have to write my own mana-based magic system, they already have one. The fact that character advancement is a lot more freeing is another plus. As I mentioned in a discussion with a D&D-playing friend of mine the other day, while he was trying to figure out a way to make D&D more elegant, I have nothing invested in D&D like he does, so I have no desire to spend a lot of time fixing it to something I like, particularly when I have other systems available to me that I do like. D&D doesn't meet my desires, so fuck it.

Just for shits and giggles if you want to see how HARP works, you can download the HARP Lite rules for free, here:
http://www.harphq.com/free_downloads/3000L_HarpLite.pdf
That's pretty much half of the basic rulebook. You won't get all the professions and what not, but it's a good overview of how the system works.

As for the cleric thing, my goal here isn't really to reform the cleric class, as I do see it's usefulness at times. My goal is to simply see if I can create a more egalitarian religious system for my game, which necessitates eliminating the clerical role, since I'm trying to avoid that type of authority figure.

There likely will be a profession to replace it for those who specialize in religion, but it will likely be called a lore- or rune-master, and be more of a bard-type figure. He will likely have some advantages in religious magic, that being his speciality, but he won't be any kind of heirarchical figure. At best he might organize things like sumbles or other group-like rituals, but he won't be any kind of intermediary between the people and the gods like the standard cleric is. He'll know the myths, and tell the stories, but any of the people should be able to call for the intercession of the gods, in my view, so while he might have an advantage in that area as a specialist, those abilities won't be exclusive to him.

I am quite fond of Mage, as well as Witchcraft, Unknown Armies, and a host of other modern fantasy games, but those systems aren't useful to me in this project. I'm definitely keeping the High Fantasy milieu of HARP, and I like the rest of the system, I'm just tweaking the religious intervention aspect of it here.

[xi-o-teaz.livejournal.com]

Given the Nordic vibe I get from your description, it sounds like everyone should have a certain degree of Runic and/or Seething Proficiency. Specialists would, at most, consist of Bards, Druids, Helrunars, & Seidhr masters.

But, yeah, you could easily make it so that everyone has access to some amount of magick--e.g., to heal, to go berserk, etc.--somehow.

[masque12.livejournal.com]

Although in different terms, that is basically what I'm talking about. In HARP, everyone already does have access to magic from the universal sphere, as long as they spend the points on them, so if I wanted to just open up the clerical sphere, that's not really a big deal. That will probably be one thing that I do, but not all. That type of "bought" magic will be just as dependable as it is in a usual magical class situation

I think the more interesting idea that will go along with it is that I think I'm going to grant free cleric-style magic to everyone, activated through a dice roll. I think I'll create a new skill called something like "Faith" or "Prayer" as a measure of their devotion to the gods, and have that skill be a modifier to a roll on whether the gods decide to intervene in their favor. They can get additional bonuses by making offerings, living as an example, things like that.

HARP is an open-ended D100 system
For example: Gimli Wartooth, Dwarf Warrior, wants to invoke a Blessing from the gods on himself and his party before going into battle. Bless is a spell that will grant a +5 to the target's Offensive Bonus, Defensive Bonus, Resistance Rolls or Maneuvers for the duration of the spell. He and his fellow warriors don't have any innate magical ability, but they are rather devout. Fortunately, everyone in HARP has access to Power Points (which fuel magic) even if they don't use magic. Gimli will have to spend the power points needed (4) to power the spell, but doesn't have any ability in the spell itself. He does, however, have 5 ranks in Devotion, giving him a skill bonus of +25, which means he rolls D100, adds 25 to the number, and hopes that he rolls over 100 (the base difficulty).

For each additional person wanting in on the spell, they also have to pay the power point cost, and the difficulty goes up. I figure this can be offset by sacrifices or oaths to the gods when asking for the blessing. Gimli, for example, can sacrifice a boar to his god for a +20 to the roll, or Thorin Snagglebeard can make an oath to craft a fine sculpture for the gods' shrine after the battle, things like this. The more offerings that are made, the easier it is to achieve the Blessing, and possibly the more beneficial it will be to them in battle. This can also be helped by increased power point expenditure.

That's just what I have so far, but I see it as workable. Probably not too hard for someone to port into a D20 framework, if they are so inclined, although I'll let them do that work themselves.

[joecrow.livejournal.com]

You might wanna take a look at Artesia: Adventures in the Known World. It's put out by Archaia Studios. http://theknownworld.com/the_game.html It's an adaptation of the Fuzion System to Mark Smylie's Artesia comic book setting. Anyway, he did some interesting things with religious rituals and magic as an integral part of society, rather than as the exclusive realm of magical specialists. Well worth checking out for its own merits, but that specific area seems like it'd point you in some useful directions.

[masque12.livejournal.com]

I'll check it out, that sounds groovy.

I'm still kicking around the logistics of this idea, and I may end up writing it up in a fairly generic manner and then seeing if I can get it published in Pyramid or something.