Sunday, May 29, 2011

Arriving at the City


It’s been a long time coming, but the Warriors & Warlocks game I was GMing is drawing to close, and I’m going to be running a game set in the City. Hopefully, I’m going to have a couple of new players joining as well--two folks whose games I’ve had the pleasure of playing in--who were interested in getting in on a City-based game.

One of the questions has been: What system? I wanted something fairly “rules lite”--I have better things to do than learn and adapt a complicated new system. It also needs to be fairly amenable to tweaking since I wanted some rules elements to reflect the setting.

I was initially thinking of using Labyrinth Lord as my base, but I’ve recently changed my mind. Stuart Robertson’s Weird West has the elements I like in old school systems distilled to their basic elements, and given a little more flexibility, thereby.  

So as I gear up for the game, I’ll be talking about some of my modifications. Honestly, I’m not as much of a rules-fiddler as I was in my youth. This heresy in some circles, no doubt, but "perfection" of rules just just doesn’t interest me that much, now (though I’m glad it interests others, so I can benefit from the fruits of that interest) .

Like I said, I'll make some modifications/additions, though.  I've already thought about some cosmetic changes.  I thnk I'll rename Skill; It seems like the name confuses some people initially as they think of it as representing knowledge, whereas mechanically, it stands in for dexterity and physical skill.  Maybe "knack" or just back to "dexterity?"  Likewise, I may broaden Magic to "knowledge" which more broadly reflects its game use (though I don't find that name as snappy, admittedly).
   
I think magic will be something that gets some attention--not so much to change the basics, but to add some detail in keeping with the diversity of magical practice among Weird Adventures setting spellcasters.  Like I say, I think the basic system is resilient and can handle these additions with little fuss. 

Anyway, more to follow in days to come.   And of course, my choice of system for my game won't affect Weird Adventures--which is designed to be rules lite to begin with, but uses the OGL where it does touch upon rules elements (like monsters).

15 comments:

Alex Osias said...

Weird West, eh? Interesting. Does this mean all your past stuff will have Weird West stats as well?

Brutorz Bill said...

Guess I'm gonna have to check out this Weird West everyone keeps raving about. Love the picture!

Trey said...

@Ka-Blog! - Anything I'm gonna have show up, I'll have to adapt but since the basic "engine" of Weird West is OD&D, it's really just trimming stuff away more some than anything else. Some magical abilities will require some though, and "ability draining" type things will as well, I guess.

I'm sure I'll post some things as we start playing. New monsters and what not I post, I'll probably will keep mostly in the traditional D&D-ish mode just to keep a "common language."

@Brutorz Bill - Yeah, that's from the DeMille film Madame Satan(1930).

BigMike said...

Any chance your in northern S.C. and looking for more players?

Trey said...

We're in Columbia, but I could manage another player or so if somebody wanted to make the trek here. :)

You can email me if you think there's a possibility and want the details.

christian said...

With all of the bizarre elements of the City, I thought you were going to say World of Darkness, but Stuart is a heck of a guy, so I look forward to reading about your Weird West foray.

Trey said...

@Christian - While I like the setting of several WoD works (old Mage in particular) the system has never really grabbed me. It may be that I just never played it long enough for it to "sink in."

Needles said...

I'm very excited Trey! I'd love to hear how this goes. I can wait to see the results my friend! Excellent stuff.

Captain Jack said...

I've had similar ideas about re-skinning Weird West for pulp gaming. I was thinking a better name for Magic might simply be "Weird" since it cover weird science powers and psionics as well as magic. While Skill is a bit vague I think I'll keep it to represent physical skills.

Trey said...

@Needles - Thanks.

@Captain Jack - I like "weird" as a term a good way to go, but then where do you put scientific knowledge that isn't be--well, weird? Maybe I'm being overconcerned about names. Maybe just let a career path handle that other knowledge?

Dan said...

That seems like a fantastic fit for the setting!

I like the ring of 'Knack'. How about 'Lore' to replace Magic?

Trey said...

Hmmm...Yeah, Lore's good. Thanks, Dan.

Unknown said...

I think Weird West is a fine choice. I immediately thought of its applicability to the City.

Simon Forster said...

Have you considered using Raggi's LotFP Weird Fantasy as a basis, tweaked to suit your needs?

Trey said...

While I've heard a lot of good things about LotFP, I'm not sure what would make it better for my purposes here than LL or S&W, though I admit my knowledge of it is fairly superficial.