Other fantasy games that would be good for ideas

[Toadmaster]

Anyone have recommendations for fantasy games that would be good to pick ideas from. Along with recommendations why would be nice to know as well (what makes it a good referance) whether its the game world, the magic system or something else.

[Steve Long]

Ars Magica, for the magic system.

The Dying Earth RPG, for just about everything.

Authentic Thaumaturgy, from SJG, for interesting (if often biased) ideas.

Shadowrun, for the magic system (in re: the way it sets laws and boundaries and then works within them).

Deadlands, for the flavor of the magic.

[ShadowRaptor]

Exalted, Wheel of Time, and Earthdawn are also unique games with a good magic system.

[Thag13]

Steve nailed it right on the head.

Deadlands Machanic of using a deck of cards and drawing poker hands for how well magic spells work in a given situation was genus.

ShadowRun's Magic system has a great feel to it as well. It can be a little slow running a combat with it, but the results are worth it when you can get the system down.

[Midhir]

Warhammer Fantasy RolePlay has a great series of modules (Power Behind the Throne series) that set a great dark fantasy gaming world perfect for roleplaying and down and dirty fighting.

[jtelson]

If you're looking for detail try Mythus or Rolemaster. They both have rigid but in depth magic systems - Mythus in particular could be described as downright complicated.

[Peregrine]

I'll be the heretic.

D&D, for all it's chronicled faults, has some nice ideas. Of particular recommendation are the Van Richten's Guides. They have a lot of good roleplaying advice for different types of undead and lycanthropes.

[Shadowpup]

I'll agree, the game itself is pretty lacking but the worlds and backgrounds are pretty good. I know some people that enjoy the Darksun setting.

I HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender. If I had to play in a campaign, I would take Extreme Hatred of Kender 20 pts as a Disad.

[Zoth]

Originally posted by Shadowpup
HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender.


Dragonlance. Dragonlance! I HAVE to like the Dragonlance setting.
See when I was a kid on one of our family summer trips I read Dragonlance -- The Legend of Huma. In the very back of the book was an add about playing the book or let you adventures continue or something like that. The add was for the D&D basic box set. I remembered getting something like that for a gif from my cousin but at the time my mom though I was too young and put it up. When we got home I dug it out and it was the 2nd box-set the blue one so later that week I went and got the 1st box-set the red one and it all started from that book.

Z.O.T.H "MEMORY QUERY COMPLETE"

[ShadowRaptor]

I forgot about this, but another really good source of ideas is from all the many video rpgs we have available to play. Any number of them can give you ideas.

[Tetsuyama]

If you're looking for interesting source material for your world, I find that Dragon magazine frequently has some interesting stuff on world building. It also occasionally has some cool character ideas and scenarios which I puree with elements from my homebrew world to come up with something useful.

I haven't followed Dungeon magazine particularly closely, but it looks like it also might have some decent stuff in it.

[ShinDangaioh]

Let's start it off big.

Talislanta. The world is one of the richest I've seen.

Next up, Rolemaster and its setting Shadow World. ICE does put a lot of detail in their modules, despite their small size

Powers & Perils has a rigid magic structure that can be easily emulated by Hero.

[Steve]

I would agree on the Shadow World setting. It has a rich feel to it, and a long history to mine for campaign ideas.

If you like the notion of Urban Fantasy, there is an out of print (I believe) game called Cuttthroat. It was set in a sort of Thieves World type of fantasy city.

For a more modern take on fantasy, try Bloodshadows. The notion of film noir mixed with fantasy elements inspired some good games. Picture a 1920s-era private eye going up against vampire-controlled syndicates and accompanied by a gorgeous "moll" type, and you start to get the idea.

[Lucius]

The world of Glorantha from the Runequest game. One of the most detailed and fascinating settings ever. The myth, the magic, the cosmology, it was incredibly detailed and it all WORKED. A lot of it could probably be emulated in Hero too.

Lucius Alexander

And the verdict is - innocent! Feed them to the palindromedary!

[Captain Obvious]

While there's not much in the way of cool rules to convert, Warhammer Fantasy Role Play has atmosphere in spades. Overall history isn't too shabby, if that's what you're into.

[Old Man]

The best FH game I ever was in was in the Dark Sun setting, which was close enough to the usual fantasy world to not totally lose the players, but different enough to be a real treat.

Plus it gets around the whole tank problem quite easily. Even if you could find enough steel to make armor, you'd never wear it because the heat would kill you by lunchtime. :)

[tomd1969]

Nephilim from Chaosium has an incredible magic system, particularly if you use the Liber Ka rules for Sorcery. Only in this game will you find cool and evocative spell names like "The Powerful, Pale Queen of Pain with Tears of Flame." :)

I've been working on and off on converting it to the Hero System for some time now.

[Trencher]

You can also get some good ideas if you ask for sugestions here.

[Wyrm Ouroboros]

I hate be that guy who says 'me too', but in regard to WFRP, 'me, too!!' WFRP, IMO, actually does have a good system (which is why, for fantasy, I prefer it over anything else), but what it really has is a most excellent atmosphere. With a good GM (and I had one of the best), 'good' translates into 'phenomenal'...

[Old Man]

Originally posted by Shadowpup


I HATE the Dragonlance setting primarily due to Kender. If I had to play in a campaign, I would take Extreme Hatred of Kender 20 pts as a Disad.

I don't think you can get points for that... I think it's kind of just assumed.

Kender are frickin irritating, though. Just like elves, only smaller, and harder to hit. :D

[Nolgroth]

Originally posted by Old Man
The best FH game I ever was in was in the Dark Sun setting, which was close enough to the usual fantasy world to not totally lose the players, but different enough to be a real treat.

Have you ever tried converting Dark Sun to HERO? I also really liked the setting and am planning to use it, or something like it, in one of my eventual games.

[Old Man]

Converting it? We played it for over a year, up until our characters were nigh unto Champions level (but for SPD). I'm afraid I don't have much left over from the campaign to give you in terms of weapon stats and whatnot. A few things I can remember:

Weapon breakage: Rather than having to roll for breakage on every swing, we fudged it so that the to-hit roll was what mattered:
chitin breaks on 18
bone breaks on 17+
obsidian breaks on 16+
Obsidian weapons were usually -2 str min just to make up for the hideous breakage rate.

Magic: Sorcery ran off an end reserve with a slow recharge rate. Every spellcaster had to buy one 'spell' that was an aid END with a 60 pt SE (RKA radius vs. plants). (An area effect xfer body to end might have made more sense, but it would have been obscenely expensive.) Reduced end was not allowed. It could be fun to watch a preserver run out of end, and then fight the temptation to kill everything green within thirty feet... Otherwise spells were bought the usual way: no power framework; at least -2 in lims (skill roll, inc, gest, concentrate).

Psionics: Characters were permitted to buy exactly one psionic power with AP no greater than 2x INT, and the invisible advantage was required. That kept psionics to reasonable power levels. No lims were required, though.

I don't remember the specifics of the racial packages but I don't think that's hard to figure out. I believe we used the ad&d conversion guidelines out of the back of 4th ed. FH to handle the critters.

[Old Man]

I found this Dark Sun FH link on google. It's sparse but it's another take on the setting.

http://freespace.virgin.net/michael.cugley/Athas/

[Nolgroth]

Thanks for the information and the link. Unfortunately, it didn't provide what I was looking for, but the effort was appreciated. Now all I have to do is convert the more "exotic" of the Dark Sun races to HERO and I should be set. :rolleyes:

[Delthrien]

... someone already mentioned Earthdawn. After Ars Magica, I'd have to say it's my favorite magic system. The setting was quite spiffy as well though, I might be biased, having been one of the playtesters on the 1st edition...

[mrswing]

I'll second Talislanta. I used to play in a FH Talislanta campaign a long time ago and in general the game archetypes were perfectly transferable. The campaign unfortunately ground to a halt when our party was attack by shadow-like wraiths and the only PC with a magic weapon capable of harming them decided to do a 'Predator-Schwarzenegger' (i.e. burying himself in mud and leaves to camouflage himself from the monsters) while we were already under attack. By the time he had unburied himself all of the other characters were dead...:rolleyes:
There are a lot of pretty good settings out for D&D right now as well. Dark Sun was excellent in conception, and nowadays Scarred Lands, Arcanis, Bluffside, Kalamar have a lot of different but good material to offer. Also, check out the new Midnight setting which seems very promising and actually takes another step closer to HERO by making wizards almost extinct as a single class but allows every character to take magic as a skill...
And if you can find it, the old Bard Games The Lexicon (a fantasy version of Earth at the time of Atlantis and Cimmeria) is extremely intriguing stuff. Since it's not geared towards any single game system using it would be fairly simple.