Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[feuer_faust]

Edit April 19, 2012: Title reworked for clarity for future searches. If you are reading this in the future, I hope this thread is helpful!

So, while working on an RPG version of a particular card game, I realized how much nicer the game might work if I simply Savaged it instead. Now, I'm aware of the copyright rule, so my first bit of feedback would be regarding whether or not I can post my ongoing efforts here for people to peruse.

Secondly, this is more or less going to be a work blog post... I'll be sure and update the main post with the relevant materials as it is finished.

Thirdly, I have absolutely no desire to either a: directly convert cards to RPG format or vice versa, or b: "and when they fight, just stop the game and whip out your decks and fight like that." No thanks. While either thing is possible, I don't think it helps what I want to achieve here.

Lastly, I could have swore that I saw some efforts like this elsewhere on the forums, but I have no no luck in tracking it down. Any leads?

Hasty Edit: I figure the player characters themselves can be built as 15-point Supers. It allows them some epic signature abilities and makes them formidable right off the bat.
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[Table 1-1: Signature] D6: 1 (nothing) 2 (quote) 3 (image) 4 (WLD record: relevant game [table 1-2]) 5 (internet meme) 6 (Critical Sig: roll 2 more times)

Rolled a 2:

[Snate56]

This wouldn't involve some wizardly types constantly running around fighting each other while generally screwing up the environment, would it?




SteveN
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"We've got a blind date with destiny... and it looks like she's ordered the lobster." <The Shoveller>

[feuer_faust]

There's a fair chance that such a conversion involves plenty of walking, dueling, and summoning things. /subtle

I sit here at work, diligently working on the finer points of the conversion. Specifically, the custom arcane background. It functions identically to Arcane Background - Superhero from the Super Powers Companion, although it (as of now) has about five arcane skills associated with it.

I felt that, as the player characters are a coalition of wizardly types, an emphasis on different types of magic serves a couple of good purposes. One, it allows characters to specialize in specific methods of spell casting and thus allow for a nice group dynamic. Simply rolling the same skill each time works if you have one spell caster in a group, but is sort of boring and stale if you have a whole pile of them. Two, it fits the nature of the setting.

I figure simply having the background allows a D4 in each school to cover the bases, and the guys that walk on planes a lot can specialize from there.
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[Table 1-1: Signature] D6: 1 (nothing) 2 (quote) 3 (image) 4 (WLD record: relevant game [table 1-2]) 5 (internet meme) 6 (Critical Sig: roll 2 more times)

Rolled a 2:

[tigerguy786]

Are you doing anything with the color aspect of this Gathering of Wizards that my live somewhere near the sea?

I'm working on a setting that's inspired by the recent stuff, though I'm thinking for the most part I can just base it on Rippers, but add a few racial options and remove a few bits that don't quite fit.
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Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

[Zadmar]

Strikes me that players could divide their PP up by mana colour, which might not be too bad from a micromanagement perspective as long as they used colour-coded beads to represent their power points.

If you don't want to create a spell list with mana costs, you could also just rule that each colour of PP has a different use. For example, perhaps you need at least 1 red PP for an offensive spell, and using an additional red PP gives you a stronger trapping.

I've always felt the five colours of magic were one of the key features of the game, so IMO they should definitely be savaged in some way.

[feuer_faust]

Yeah, regarding colors I went through a lot of different ideas. Still am, really, although some work better if you're making a new system as opposed to Savaging stuff.

The arcane skills one gains access to as a part of Arcane Background: Planeswalker are as follows:

Summoning - calls allies forth from the aether.
Sorcery - combat-oriented spells and effects.
Channeling - the ability to build up mana and disrupt the flow of existing mana.
Enchanting - enhancing and debilitating things.
Artifice - the ability to create magical items or make use of existing ones.

So, in the homebrew system, one rolled channeling to produce the colors of mana they wanted, etc. In the Savaged system, channeling sets the rate for mana (Power Point) regeneration, and can be used to oppose casting rolls to counter spells... the details of the last bit are not yet fleshed out so as to be balanced. The counterspell will probably require a commitment of an equal amount of Mana/PP for the opposing spell regardless of success or failure.

As for color identity, here's an idea I had. It keeps it simple (very important) and still retains the idea of color mattering (also very important). Ideally, since the game play would assume a party of planeswalkers, the GM should allow this feat for free at each new rank. Non-wildcard creatures have to purchase this normally.

Edge: Color Identity. As an individual connects to the same sorts of mana sources and wields particular colors of magic over time, it begins to resonate with them. The person often changes physically and spirtually to reflect their affiliations with the essence of the cosmos.

Color identity can be purchased once per rank. Each time it is purchased, choose one of the five colors of magic (white, blue, black, red or green). Your color identity for the chosen color increases by one. You gain a bonus to casting rolls for spells that share color identity with you, at a rate of +1 for each shared rank of color identity. Spells with color identities opposing your own incur a -1 penalty per rank.

Example: Oscar has Color Identity White 2, and the spell "Heal" has Color Identity White 1, reducing the difficulty to cast it down by 1 (to a 3). "Blightning", on the other hand, has Color Identity Black 1 and Red 1, increasing the difficulty to cast it by 2 for a total of 5 (1 per rank of opposed colors). Green, blue, or colorless spells are cast at the normal difficulty of 4.

That said, anything that sounds better and shorter than Color Identity "color" would be awesome.

EDIT AGAIN: I forgot to acknowledge the split the PP idea. That's not a bad idea, and one I will look at developing later alongside my current idea. I want however this works to feel correct, and be simple, to boot. My above idea is simple, but I tend to be verbose when it come to rules writing.
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[Table 1-1: Signature] D6: 1 (nothing) 2 (quote) 3 (image) 4 (WLD record: relevant game [table 1-2]) 5 (internet meme) 6 (Critical Sig: roll 2 more times)

Rolled a 2:

[VonDan]

http://s831.photobucket.com/albums/zz234/DanCoGames/Magic%20The%20Mockery/
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[HeavyMetalProphet]

Cards depicting various landscapes (/subtle) could also be used to track different colors of PP, it might be better for evoking the desired feel of the game. Depending on how much wanna trust your players, they could either hand you the cards as they're spent or they could be ta- turned sideways as they're used and then turned upright again when PP replenishes.

[feuer_faust]

I just had an apostrophe! After re-reading some comments, here's a fairly simple idea: when a player first picks Arcane Background - Planeswalker, they further select a color. The 10 PP they start with are that color for the purposes of casting spells. Each selection of the Extra Power Points edge also comes with a color, making those 5 PP match the new color. Spells then can have relatively specific power point costs: Say "only red mana" for Bolt, and heal must use at least two white mana.

A little complex on the tracking, but not cumbersomely so. When PP refreshes, the planeswalker decides how many of which color PP/mana they want, up to the limit.

We have a winner?
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[Table 1-1: Signature] D6: 1 (nothing) 2 (quote) 3 (image) 4 (WLD record: relevant game [table 1-2]) 5 (internet meme) 6 (Critical Sig: roll 2 more times)

Rolled a 2:

[HeavyMetalProphet]

Sounds about right to me. THat hits the nail on the head pretty much
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[feuer_faust]

So, I have divided the spells into Enchantments (which buff/debuff/modify the target) and Sorceries (which are one-time effects, attack spells, etc). Summon Ally and Zombie are being replaced with a specific Summon Creature spell, which goes off of the Summoning skill (additionally, all planeswalkers have this for free at D4 since it is an integral skill).

I won't bore you with the list, but I did have trouble assigning colors to things. I mean, I did so, but a: blue has the most spells out of any of them, and b: most colors have one or two cards -somewhere- that do something that the color normally doesn't. Colors were assigned based on how it felt to have that color be able to do stuff, but it is a lot of work and really jive.

So, instead, I am thinking that there could be a selection of benefits for using colored mana (PP) for certain effects. For example, using white mana with a healing spell ignores 1 point of the recipient's wound penalties while casting, or a red mana spent on a damage spell does an extra point of damage or two with a raise.

I could just leave color entirely up to trappings, and let the GM and party sort it out... but that's sort of cheap. It's frustrating to be looking at a download or a book for a specific bit of guidance, and be told "figure it out yourself." Thoughts?
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[Table 1-1: Signature] D6: 1 (nothing) 2 (quote) 3 (image) 4 (WLD record: relevant game [table 1-2]) 5 (internet meme) 6 (Critical Sig: roll 2 more times)

Rolled a 2: