tkdguy

Mithras and Isis? Now there's a kinky couple for you.

Seriously though, Rome would have collapsed eventually because of economics and bad leadership. Its army had become primarily non-Roman, the the lack of new conquests made it more difficult to pay the soldiers (no more looting).

Also don't forget Atilla and his boyz rampaging around Europe. My friends and I got into a big discussion whether the Huns would have been able to get away with it at the height of the Empire's power. I said Rome would have crushed the insolent fool; my friends weren't too sure.

Not strictly true. While the armed martial arts predominated, unarmed martial arts were used as backup. The samurai used jujutsu if they were disarmed in the heat of battle, at least until they rearmed themselves. Knights learned wrestling as part of their training for the same reason. Monks were notorious wrestlers during the Renaissance; they just didn't fight in wars like the Shaolin monks or the Hanebushi.

Don't foget that during the Renaissance civilian combat flourished. While long swords and armor still ruled the battlefield, unarmored warriors duelled with rapiers and side swords. And most commoners didn't have swords and armor; they relied on daggers and wrestling. Unarmed combat was definitely more popular with them than with the nobility.

If I may make a suggestion, I suggest using Aikido, Tai Chi Ch'uan, or another internal art for the Order. These arts focus on submission and redirection, making them more merciful (for lack of a bettter word) than other arts, but still capable of dealing damage when necessary. You can always westernize the names if you desire. A Code Against Killing also seems to be in order here...

Just my 2 cents.

The whole point is to figure out what would be almost (but not quite) the same, and what would be radically different. Keep in mind there is more than one reason for doing something.

Let's stick with the Europe vs. the Ottoman Empire storyline. Even without religious differences to fight about, there's still a possibility of a conflict because someone decided he needed more territory. Or both sides wanted a monopoly on trade with China. Never underestimate the power of human greed.

Also, what would have happened if Harold had repulsed William at Hastings? Definitely English would sound very different today. The Hundred Years War would probably never have happened, but does that mean the Magna Carta would also go the way of the dodo? England may still have conquered the rest of the British Isles, albeit under Saxon or Danish kings rather than Norman kings.

Keep in mind that this is just a mental exercise. You don't have to use athises things. Since my ideas never even happened, all it's good for is flavoring for the campaign.

Of course, there's a lot of stuff that did happen that you can use. A campaign set in Renaissance Europe could emphasize Machiavelli and the Spanish Inquisition. I' think I'll reread The Prince.

I'm toying with the idea of how Renaissance Europe would look like if certain events were replaced by other events.

I read somewhere that if Zoroastrianism and its offshoot Mithraism had remained the dominant religions of the Middle East and the Roman Empire respectively, the Crusades may never have happened. Of course, the Romans were fairly tolerant of other faiths as long as the followers paid both their taxes and some lip service to the state gods. So the witch burnings may never have happened either.

The Moorish conquest of Spain and the spread of the Ottoman Empire would probably have happened, though. Greed would still be a major factor.

If Clovis had never conquered Gaul, there would be no France to speak of, and no Charlemagne either. The French and English languages would be very different. Same deal for England if William the Conqueror had been repelled at Hastings.

If Charles I beat the Parliamentary forces and hanged Cromwell, he would have become an absolute monarch. He may have eventually rescinded the Magna Carta.

If Marco Polo had returned to Venice with a few kung fu masters, would that have had a major development in western unarmed combat?

What do you guys think?

Looks pretty good so far. Have you made a package deal for the Order of St. Anne?

If you want a Highlander theme in your campaign, just modify the Immortality Jar spell from The Arts Arcane and use the Chaos Blades abilities. That would work. After all, nothing is stopping you from learning spells from different schools.

If everyone in the kingdom is immortal, such as the elves, the society would either be very conservative or somewhat reactive. In the former case, everyone has his or her place in society and will not expect to change, barring events such as wars and accidents.

On the other hand, there could be a relatively reactive society. I say relative because mortals would perceive the kingdom as stable, but the immortals will see a revolution take place every few centuries or so. "Dad has been king for 2000 years now, and what has he done for the kingdom all this time? It's time for a change in leadership!"

Sounds interesting. I'll post when I design something. How about a castle?

How common are epople with superpowers? Where do they get their powers? Do their children inherit their powers? It seems to me that superheroes can carve their own kingdoms. If they can pass on their abilities in part or in whole, you could have dynasties where superpowers are a sign of royal blood. Something like the Birthright campaign for AD&D 2nd Ed.

You can also convert stuff from other systems. AD&D Oriental Adventures had the Kara Tur setting, while 3E has Rokugan. 7th Sea came out with the Cathay sourcebook, and you can also look for GURPS Japan and Bushido I vaguely remember Runequest having a Japanese setting, but don't quote me on that. The trick is many of these products are out of print now.

Or you can look at the literature of those countries and write everything yourself. Either way, you havea fair amount of work to do.

That all depends on your definition of martial arts. Anything that has to do with combat is a martial art, armed or unarmed. Elves and orcs already practice armed martial arts. Since elves are reputed to be great archers, some Kyujutsu maneuvers could be appropriate, GM allowing.

If you're looking for unarmed combat, why can't elves and orcs develop their own styles? Orcs would probably go for hard styles like Boxing and Muay Thai, while the graceful elves would prefer fluid styles like Aikido and Tai Chi Ch'uan.

The first Romana (Mary Tamm) was way hotter than the second one (Lalla Ward). I always thought Ms. Ward looked like an emaciated Cabbage Patch Kid (sorry, Lalla!). I heard she and Tom Baker got married. Is it true?

Let's see... Halflings... small size, reputed to be good at archery and thrown object, usually know their home area like the backs of their hands.

Sounds like they'd be great at guerilla warfare, especially if they shape their land to create lots of places to ambush outsiders. Maybe you have great strength and are the greatest swordsman in the world. But try to invade halfling lands, and you'll never have the chance to flaunt your virtues. You'll never even get close.

Depends which group I'm playing with. One of my groups don't like historical or pseudo-historical games; they can't roleplay characters in those time periods. One of them just doesn't like fantasy, period.

It may work with my current group. I'm running a swashbuckler/martial arts game, but again, they may not be able to get into it. If this campaign fails, I'll try a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen type of campaign.

There's always translating stuff. You could:

A. Use a D&D setting for FH to give the players some familiarity with the world. Learning a new system can be difficult enough. I know a couple of people who post here have done conversions.

B. Integrate some HERO mechanics in your D&D game. Maybe let BAB = OCV, AC-10 = DCV. I know it's not a perfect fit, but it could work. Also, use STUN as a measure of subdual damage the PCs can take, maybe hit points + twice the maximum hit die type for the character [ex. fighter rolls d10, so a fighter with 24 hp has 24 + (2 x 10) = 44 STUN]. Use STUN multipliers so that a sword strike would do 1d8 hp and 1d8 x 1d6-1 STUN (minimum value x1). Allow extra skill points (up to 8) for taking disadvantages. Use disadvantage cost/5 for number of skill points awarded. Or 10 points/disadvantage = 1 extra feat.

Okay, I just posted this on the d20 forum, but I think HERO would probably be a better fit. What do you think about a campaign based on the works of Jules Verne or HG Wells? I know Castle Falkenstein used War of the Worlds and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (among others) in the Steam Age sourcebook. Does a HERO version of this kind of campaign appeal to you?

Just a few questions to consider:

1. Do you already have a setting? If not, you can always use your own city/town as the background. That way, the players will already be familiar with the area.

2. Have the characters already met? If so, how did they meet, considering their varied backgrounds? If not, how could they meet? That would probably be the first advenure.

3. Why not use your local newspaper for ideas? The stories covered -- rape, murder, arson, etc. -- are perfect plot hooks for any Dark Champions campaign. Just change the names.

I usually use different sources for cities. I use maps from the Forgotten Realms, Middle Earth (ICE, not Decipher), Harn, Shadow World, and 7th Sea. I just change the names and do whatever modifications I need to do.

You can even go that other company's website and clivck on the Map a Week section. There are at least a couple of city maps there, usually divided into several parts. Since they're just maps without text, you can use them however you want.

And people think I'M bad after a mostly sleepless night...

Well, I'm still waiting for FH to be delivered to the gaming store I frequent. Then I have to wait until my paycheck arrives, etc. I'd order online, but I already owe my soul to the credit card companies.

Congratulations on losing your mind, by the way. What took you so long? I lost my mind before I even knew I had one!

You weren't talking about Gamescape, were you? 'Cause the guys there were acting wackier than usual yesterday. Okay, everyone who goes there (myself included) is wacky on any given day, but yesterday seemed a little stranger than most. Another time I was there, tow girls came in to see what their boyfriends were up to. They left looking like they landed on an alien world. As one of the girls put it, "very educational!"

I guess you can always make photocopies. Shrink the pages so you can fit 2 pages in 1 sheet of paper. Then you cover it with a transparent page protector and put it in a 3-ring binder. Just do this with the pages you really need. That should save some space. I know someone who did that. No copyright infringement meant; just lightening the load.

If the pet is trained and has a useful skill or two (It doesn't have to be combat; tracking is a good skill for dogs), then the pet can be written up as a follower. If on the other hand, it's just a companion, it should be classified as a DNPC. Keep in mind that it really sucks to have your pet constantly harmed or taken away from you.

There was also Max Shrek, who played Count Orlock (the bald, pointy-eared, long-nailed, saber-toothed vampire in Nosferatu). I also created a villain called von Shrek, and I made sure my players learned to hate him.

Originally posted by Dr.Unpossible

Hawk the Slayer How can you not love this movie!

 

http://www.badmovies.org/movies/hawkslayer/index.html

 

It's every DnD game I ever played in Elementary school.

Do you know how long it took me to find VHS versions of Hawk the Slayer and Ralph Bakshi's interpretation of Lord of the Rings? I practically called every video store to find these. One guy said he had them and asked for $40 for each of them. When I got there, he didn't have Bakshi's LOTR, but he was willing to sell Hawk for $80, double the price we agreed on. I left without the tape. In the end, I rented the Bakshi flick and copied it. My friend rented a laserdisc copy of Hawk the Slayer and made me a copy on VHS.

Okay, it wasn't an epic quest. But it was a lot of effort.