Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

[MordeanGrey]

Hi all!

 

It's been a long time since I've posted.

 

I'm in the early stages of creating a Fantasy Hero game set in the Skyrim world.

 

I'm planning to avoid having any "Dragonborn" characters, and focus more on the civil war between the empire and the storm cloaks.

 

I'm just curious if anyone has done this, or if anyone has seen something similar, even in a different game system?

 

Mainly, I'm just looking for feedback from anyone who wants to chime in on the concept. There are already a plethora of plot ideas available directly from the game.

 

My first challenge is to create racial package deals (Nords resistant to frost/cold, etc.) and recreate some of the spells lists from the game.

 

Thoughts?

 

[Nolgroth]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

I think that, as long as you are willing to keep the flavor text up front and gut the existing computer RPG for Hero (or system of choice) you should be okay. That's going to be a monumental task though; especially if you add in the Sigil stones, racial abilities and other trappings. I'll be willing to throw some feedback your way, but it has been a couple of months since I actually played. Even I eventually got bored with it. Took near a thousand hours and more characters than I can shake a stick at, but it did happen.

 

I think your first step is to define point totals and games settings (CV, DCV, Def, Active Point, Stat and Skill ranges). Once you have that little chore done, it will be easier to define each component from there.

[MordeanGrey]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

I prefer a dark-fantasy type of world, and I think Skyrim will definitely lend itself to that end. I like a gritty and tough feel to my games.

 

I'm thinking somewhere between 100-150 point characters. I normally ask my players to create characters with a good balance of skills vs. stat points. We've always used a house rule in previous games that limits your OCV/DCV bonus to +10 max combining skills and combat maneuvers. A 3d6 HKA or RKA is usually around the upper limit for damage from spells or weapons. I use the rules for hit locations, stunning, and knockout in all of my games.

 

I try to challenge the players with a mix of roleplaying and combat, and I'm not afraid to add in opponents and adversaries that probably should be avoided (at least in direct head-to-head combat). My long-time players have learned this through a couple of games that ended with 75% of the party dead when they tried to use brute force to solve problems.

 

I've already told the players that they should think carefully about what race they want to play. The Nords tend to be xenophobic toward other races. Argonians (the lizard people) are second class citizens in most of the world, and tend to be laborers and servants. The Khajiit (cat people) are seldom trusted, and most are assumed to be liars and thieves. Many cities don't allow Khajiit inside the city walls.

 

On the other end of the spectrum are the Altmer (high elves). Because of the recent war between the humans and high elves, the Altmer and their superior attitudes are disliked by just about everyone in Skyrim.

 

As far as starting ideas, I'm hoping the players can decide on a group made primarily of Nords or other humans. I would like them to start out being sympathetic to the Stormcloaks. I would then offer them some opportunities to do small missions and possibly join one of the factions. Of course, there is also the opportunity to be mercenaries working for merchants or lesser political figures.

 

The ruins of Skyrim are filled with ancient treasures and everything from Draugr to Dremora guard them. It should be fun!

[Nolgroth]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

Just playing with concept, the Orc Berserk power would be expensive as direct translation (49 points). Of course, people who play Skyrim pretty much agree that the Orc Berserk power is one of, if not the, most powerful racial ability in the game (takes 50% less damage, inflicts 50% more damage for 60 seconds.)

 

For this I chose Damage Reduction 50% Physical and Energy and added Combat Skill Levels with HTH, Only to Provide Extra Damage Classes. I chose +3 DC, being as I'm guessing the average DC will be around 6. Once I started that, I tinkered with the settings a bit to show different cost options. Noted that cutting the Continuing Charge time has the least impact on cost. Cutting down the value of the Damage Reduction had a pretty substantial cost savings attached to it, because it drops the Active Points. No matter which way you cut it, the ability is expensive. It is expensive because it is useful. You could also cut costs by having it only affect Stun (not Body) damage. One of those things that makes sense but shows the glaring differences between the CRPG and Hero.

 

Direct Translation

Berserk Rage: (Total: 108 Active Cost, 49 Real Cost) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1) (Real Cost: 15) plus Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1) (Real Cost: 15) plus +6 with HTH Combat (48 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1), Only to Apply Extra Damage Classes (+3 DC) (-1/2) (Real Cost: 19)[/Quote]

 

Tinkering with the concept and making it more manageable in terms of utility (25% Damage Reduction).

Berserk Rage: (Total: 78 Active Cost, 33 Real Cost) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25% (15 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1) (Real Cost: 7) plus Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25% (15 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1) (Real Cost: 7) plus +6 with HTH Combat (48 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Minute (-1), Only to Apply Extra Damage Classes (+3 DC) (-1/2) (Real Cost: 19)

 

Cutting down the time (1 Turn instead of 1 Minute)

Berserk Rage: (Total: 108 Active Cost, 43 Real Cost) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4) (Real Cost: 13) plus Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 50% (30 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4) (Real Cost: 13) plus +6 with HTH Combat (48 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4), Only to Apply Extra Damage Classes (+3 DC) (-1/2) (Real Cost: 17)

 

Cutting down the time and utility

Berserk Rage: (Total: 78 Active Cost, 31 Real Cost) Energy Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25% (15 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4) (Real Cost: 7) plus Physical Damage Reduction, Resistant, 25% (15 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4) (Real Cost: 7) plus +6 with HTH Combat (48 Active Points); 1 Continuing Charge lasting 1 Turn (-1 1/4), Only to Apply Extra Damage Classes (+3 DC) (-1/2) (Real Cost: 17)

[MordeanGrey]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

Thanks for the examples!

 

I agree that some of the powers will have to be modified/reduced to make them fit in an affordable racial package. I'm really more interested in achieving the feel of the Skyrim setting, and I'm not hung up on having every literal power translate exactly to the FH version.

 

Balancing the racial packages as far as ability gained vs. cost is probably the primary challenge to getting this going. I think the spell lists from the game should be fairly easy to recreate using minor tweaks to existing spell college samples from previous Hero products.

 

Now I need to sit down and crunch some numbers on the racial packages.

 

Thanks for the help so far!

[BhelliomRahl]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

Have a look at the Legendsmiths website. They have done some adaption work on Skyrim. I warn you it is Extremely in Progress but offers some good ideas on starting.

http://www.legendsmiths.com/adaptations/skyrim.

 

They have two methods: Adapt 'Skyrim to Hero' or 'Hero to Skyrim'. Most of the material relates to converting Hero to Skyrim. Even if you choose not to use the material it may spark some ideas.

[Tom]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

I'll admit to using Skyrim for a certain amount of inspiration in my current (sporadic) efforts at doing a FH game (I'm much more familiar with Champions). Making it match perfect is probably more effort than it's worth, but the 'feel' should be doable.

 

Hero already lends itself to 'classless' gaming. Reduce the classic 'mage', 'cleric', 'fighter', 'rogue' archtypes to 'mage', 'warrior', 'rogue' (think the Guardian Stones). Merge clerics into mage (Skyrim already seems to do this, imo)...

 

I am currently planning on emulating the magic with a VPP setup. This is the base VPP any character can buy and costs 5 RPts.

 

Magical Talent: Variable Power Pool (Magic Pool), 3 base + 10 control cost, Limited Special Effect Very Common SFX (Magic; -1/4); all slots Increased Endurance Cost (x4 END; -1 1/2), Gestures (-1/4)

 

Incantations and material components don't play any role in Skyrim magic, but binding the character's hands prevent casting. Since spells can be found and purchased the same as any other equipment, having a PC (especially one used to Skyrim -- my kids will be my vic... errr.. playtesters) spend XP on spells will feel alien. Building the size of the VPP and reducing the increased END Lim will be at least conceptually similar to buying up Magika and spending perks.

 

A couple of starter spells (emulating the common pair in the game):

 

Flames: RKA 1/2d6 (10 Active Points); Limited Range (15m; -1/4)

 

Self Healing: Healing BODY 1d6 (10 Active Points); Self Only (-1/4)

 

Both spells will fit in the base VPP w/o modification.

[Nolgroth]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

Agreed on the Spells for Points thing but I believe that across the board (not just for Skyrim).

 

I personally think the hardest things to translate are going to be some of the racial abilities and some of the guardian stone abilities. The three initial guardian stones (Rogue, Warrior, Mage) grant faster improvement on certain skills. That's not really very doable in Hero as there are many more skills than in Skyrim. I could think of a couple of ways to do it, but they seem to me as artificial as the Berserk thing above.

 

Method 1: +1 Skill Level for a list of skills that apply to the stone. Examples;

Warrior:

 

• 
  [*=1]+1 Overall Combat Skill Level
  

Rogue:

 

• 
  [*=1]+1 to Concealment, Lockpicking, Security Systems, Shadowing, Stealth
  [*=1]+1 to Conversation, Persuasion and Trading
  

Mage:

 

• 
  [*=1]+1 to all Spellcasting skills (Destruction, Conjuration, Illusion, Alchemy, Enchanting, and Restoration) assuming that each of those schools has its own skill associated with it.
  

Method 2: Trickier, but more in the spirit of Skyrim, make the base three like Skill Enhancers. You can take a list of skills and make the cost to improve them less expensive. I really don't like this method but I figure that I can at least throw it out there.

 

Method 3: The full Archetype: Create a package for each stone and apply that package to the character. Does not really work because switching stones is common.

 

None of the above methods address other stones like the Lady or the Shadow.

 

I think that I would need to sit down and invest a lot of time balancing out the various nuances of converting Skyrim over. I think I would personally ditch any mechanical translation and just use the flavor text from the multitude of tomes as background material. I even believe there are websites devoted to cataloging the contents of those tomes. The quests, large and small, would make for good adventure material.

[mhd]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

There's also the option of skipping the guardian stones and doing it the way the older TES games did it (i.e. star signs). After all, Skyrim mostly did it so that you didn't have to do anything at character creation besides picking your race and appearance. And you're probably not doing that in HERO. (Possible, but I guess this is more "HERO: Nirn" than "HERO: Bethesda Video Game")

[MordeanGrey]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

Hi all, thanks for the continuing discussion. My personal schedule has become busy during the past couple of weeks so I haven't had much time to work on this lately.

 

I do intend to move forward with this when my schedule clears up a bit.

 

I'm going to search for the websites that have catalogued the contents of the various Skyrim books that are found in the game.

 

If anyone already knows of some, please feel free to share.

 

The books have lots of great plot ideas and world history details.

[Sepia]

Re: Converting Skyrim to Fantasy Hero ... any thoughts?

 

I have found this website to be very helpful: http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Skyrim and http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Skyrim#Character_Information