Post by Malcadon on Sept 28, 2016 14:12:33 GMT
For those who don't know, Judges Guild is a line of third-party supplements for games like AD&D, RuneQuest, Tunnels and Trolls, Traveller and others. Due to all the fantasy games they cover, and the fact the TSR recalled their licenses to use the D&D brand, they came up with the Universal System: A set of player and monster stats with no supporting core-rule/combat system, listed with a somewhat vague description of how they work. The Universal System is not a rule-set in its own right, but a system to help DMs to convert the game notes into ones desired game system. You can find the notes (as printed in the books) here, and the updated "v2.0" notes here.
As of late, I have been interested in their principle setting The Wilderlands of High Fantasy (origonally knowed as The City State of the Invincible Overlord). I like the core idea of it — An old-school pulp point-of-light sword & sorcery setting with more Barbarian and Amazon characters than lame-ass vanilla Fighters — but there are many things I want to add, and things I want to remove. For starters, I want to remove the generic Tolkienesque races as they are a dime-a-dozen, as well as to remove or alter the real-world gods and cultures to make it feel more original. I have been looking through the books, trying to get an idea on what the people are, as wall as their leaders and how their warriors are armed. At first I was confused by the Universal System stats until I read the notes on them.
You can find info about the setting here.
Here is an example of a character stat-block from the book: Wilderness Book #3: Shield Maidens of Sea Rune (a great book, full of adventure and NPCs)
Note that this is not the primary antagonist of the adventure, but a major enemy NPC within the area the book is set in. Although, I don't like the Paladin class (even "anti-paladins", aka "black guards") in my games, this is a fine example of a powerful, self-made warlord. Maintaining large community does require a great deal of might. The tenets of divine right and hereditary is meaningless in a world were a giant monster could drag its massive scrote over your community like it was nothing! Leaders need to be able to kick ass like larger-than-life heroes. Just like the titular Invincible Overlord himself, such "heroes" need not be good nor just.
Here is the breakdown, as noted form the conversion notes:
All of the attributes are x10 that of D&D. The 1/10th score is haw often you can exert that attribute. So a Strength of 145 means that it 14 in D&D, and the character can push his strength to the limit five times a day. The latter can be ignored while playing D&D. There are a number of attributes — Personal Social Level, Endurance, Agility, Leadership, Luck and Psionic Ability — that are unnecessary for D&D (or useful if you house-rule you attributes), and can easily be ignored or dropped.
Level is similar, but the last digit is "total number of occupations in which the character has gained skill", so it might mean secondary skills as seen in the DMG.
HTK (hits to kill) is just Hit Points.
Alignment is more unusual in that it is placed by priority, so "EL" means the character is more evil than lawful. The third letter "indicates only a suppressed desire." It uses D&D's L, C, G, E and N categories, but I have no idea what "X" means in this system. It might mean "indifference" or "not applicable", with Neutral being that old-school cosmic-balance outlook. I really have no idea!
ARM and WEP are you armor and weapons. The system rates ARM as damage absorption (likely for the sake of RuneQuest and T&T). In the above stats, 040 means that he can ignore 4 points of damage per hit.
Figuring out armor will require a bit of conversion, as the books like to list a score, but not what they are. Armor is made up of components spread across ones body (head, body, arms, legs and shield), with each rated by: coverage on body (belt vs tunic), coverage of materials (rings vs solid) and hardness of materials (cloth vs adamantium). The lack of description can complicate thing greatly, requiring a judgment call an a case-by-case basis. In the case of the character listed, "4" seems light given all the powerful weapons he owns. As a character billed as an "Anti-Paladin" warlord of an army of humans, Orcs and Half-Orcs, heavy armor should be a given. It is safe to assume he is in +2 plate mail. (With how I run my games, the Orcs and magic items would be greatly down-played.)
(By the way, I'm not going to run the game using AD&D, as it is too needless cumbersome. I used AD&D as an example that is largely recognized by this community, and to help give guidelines, if anyone else it interested.)
So here are the stats above adjusted to (1e) AD&D:
As of late, I have been interested in their principle setting The Wilderlands of High Fantasy (origonally knowed as The City State of the Invincible Overlord). I like the core idea of it — An old-school pulp point-of-light sword & sorcery setting with more Barbarian and Amazon characters than lame-ass vanilla Fighters — but there are many things I want to add, and things I want to remove. For starters, I want to remove the generic Tolkienesque races as they are a dime-a-dozen, as well as to remove or alter the real-world gods and cultures to make it feel more original. I have been looking through the books, trying to get an idea on what the people are, as wall as their leaders and how their warriors are armed. At first I was confused by the Universal System stats until I read the notes on them.
You can find info about the setting here.
Here is an example of a character stat-block from the book: Wilderness Book #3: Shield Maidens of Sea Rune (a great book, full of adventure and NPCs)
Note that this is not the primary antagonist of the adventure, but a major enemy NPC within the area the book is set in. Although, I don't like the Paladin class (even "anti-paladins", aka "black guards") in my games, this is a fine example of a powerful, self-made warlord. Maintaining large community does require a great deal of might. The tenets of divine right and hereditary is meaningless in a world were a giant monster could drag its massive scrote over your community like it was nothing! Leaders need to be able to kick ass like larger-than-life heroes. Just like the titular Invincible Overlord himself, such "heroes" need not be good nor just.
Lokaug Vishnakh (M)
The Sword: Bartuluk. Lawful Evil, +4 (+5 vs. Paladins and Lawful-Good Clerics). Made of Adamantite, enchanted to its present state by the Evil Wizard, Zurbagrim of Gheulost Island, now ruled by Viridistan, sometime before Zurbagrim's death in 79 BCCC. It incorporates a trace of the red metal, Garbelium, which reacts in near-magical way when encountering iron. The Sword's blade quivers and glows with a reddish hue when any intelligent creature of lawful alignment is within 120'. It will also quiver and point to any invisible object, and can speak, describing the object. Its intelligence is 12 and its ego is also 12. The Horsebow: UI-Zarbalga. Lawful Evil, +2. It requires a STR: 187 to string it and a STR: 184 to draw and fire it. Its range is 750'. The Dagger: Karad-gorosh. Lawful Evil, +2, enchanted to its present strength by Zurbagrim of Gheulost. It, too, incorporates Carbelium and will quiver and glow with reddish hue when an intelligent Lawful-Good creature is within 30'. It is balanced for throwing. The Lance: Golanzim. Lawful Evil, +5, made of Adamantite, enchanted by the Evil Wizard, TUbal-Zarak, of the Monastery of Tsathoggus in 2979 - 81 BCCC and initiated in the heart-blood of a dozen Paladins of Mitra. Lokaug also wears a Helm of Telepathy and a Cloak of Blending for scouting purposes. His horse is Worodlim: HIT: 5; HTK: 037; ARM: 050; ATK: 2 x (1 DB), 1 x (103); SPD; 144. Thus, Lokaug Vishnakh, upon his horse, is a master of reconnaissance and can choose his own time and place to attack any foe. He has been the victor of many bitter and desperate little battles in the wilderness, far from any settlement, and has been the cause of many an expedition's failure to return. |
Here is the breakdown, as noted form the conversion notes:
All of the attributes are x10 that of D&D. The 1/10th score is haw often you can exert that attribute. So a Strength of 145 means that it 14 in D&D, and the character can push his strength to the limit five times a day. The latter can be ignored while playing D&D. There are a number of attributes — Personal Social Level, Endurance, Agility, Leadership, Luck and Psionic Ability — that are unnecessary for D&D (or useful if you house-rule you attributes), and can easily be ignored or dropped.
Level is similar, but the last digit is "total number of occupations in which the character has gained skill", so it might mean secondary skills as seen in the DMG.
HTK (hits to kill) is just Hit Points.
Alignment is more unusual in that it is placed by priority, so "EL" means the character is more evil than lawful. The third letter "indicates only a suppressed desire." It uses D&D's L, C, G, E and N categories, but I have no idea what "X" means in this system. It might mean "indifference" or "not applicable", with Neutral being that old-school cosmic-balance outlook. I really have no idea!
ARM and WEP are you armor and weapons. The system rates ARM as damage absorption (likely for the sake of RuneQuest and T&T). In the above stats, 040 means that he can ignore 4 points of damage per hit.
Figuring out armor will require a bit of conversion, as the books like to list a score, but not what they are. Armor is made up of components spread across ones body (head, body, arms, legs and shield), with each rated by: coverage on body (belt vs tunic), coverage of materials (rings vs solid) and hardness of materials (cloth vs adamantium). The lack of description can complicate thing greatly, requiring a judgment call an a case-by-case basis. In the case of the character listed, "4" seems light given all the powerful weapons he owns. As a character billed as an "Anti-Paladin" warlord of an army of humans, Orcs and Half-Orcs, heavy armor should be a given. It is safe to assume he is in +2 plate mail. (With how I run my games, the Orcs and magic items would be greatly down-played.)
(By the way, I'm not going to run the game using AD&D, as it is too needless cumbersome. I used AD&D as an example that is largely recognized by this community, and to help give guidelines, if anyone else it interested.)
So here are the stats above adjusted to (1e) AD&D:
Lokaug Vishnakh (male human)
Bartuluk: Intelligent Lawful Evil +4 two-handed sword, +5 vs. Paladins and Lawful-Good Clerics. Damage: 1d10+6/3d6+6. The blade quivers and glows with a reddish hue when any intelligent creature of lawful alignment is within 120'. It will also quiver and point to any invisible object, and can speak, describing the object. Its intelligence is 12 and ego is 12. UI-Zarbalga Lawful Evil +2 horsebow. Damage: 1d6+2. It requires a STR 18 to string and fire it. Its range is 750'. Karad-gorosh Lawful Evil, +2 Dagger. Damage: 1d4+4/1d3+4. Balanced for throwing. The blade quivers and glows with a reddish hue when any intelligent creature of lawful alignment is within 30'. Golanzim Lawful Evil, +5 heavy lance. Damage: 1d6+10/3d6+7. Helm of Telepathy (see DMG) Cloak of Blending (as Cloak of Elvinkind; see DMG) Worodlim Warhorse (see MM) *armor is AC 1, minus 3 for DEX. |