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3/22/2015 10:18 am  #1


Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

I am curious if anybody here ran Beasts & Barbarians with BoL rules?

I really like Dread Sea Dominions setting but I find Savage World sistem too crunchy for sword and sorcery, so I am considering to run it in BoL.

I am still considering how to handle priests (in Dread Sea Dominions priests don't get any blessings from gods) and Path of Enlightenment followers (shaolin-esque monks with supernatural powers).

I was thinking to drop whole priestly magic and make priest just mundane career.
Path of Enlightenment monks on other hand would have access to priestly magic, but instead of praying and service in temple, they will need to meditate and train. The Fate points they would get could then be used for supernatural feats (priority rolls=super spead, jumping, climbing etc.).

I am mainly looking for ideas how to port B&B setting in BoL sistem.

 

3/22/2015 10:31 am  #2


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

Love BB, one of reasons is that my bud (Gramel) released it in Poland. I'm waiting for next books. Now on progress is supplement describing Tricarnia - land of evil sorcerers.
BB does utilise SW engine, I don't see it on BoL. Conan, Thongor on BoL - naturally, BB has its own mechanics and straight adaptation doesn't match.


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3/22/2015 12:11 pm  #3


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

Tbh I don't see why it wouldn't match. The hardest part to adapt would be magic, but sorcery is sorcery, lotusmastery can be adapted as alchemy (you just need to rename alchemist career in lotus master) and path of 
enlightenment could be done as priest career (as I mentioned).

The feeling wouldn't be 100% same, but you don't get that anyway if you port setting between two different sistems.

I still find BoL better sistem than SW for B&B, the feel is more in the line with what I think of sword and sorcery RPG game.
The playing cards for initiative, crunchy combat, edges... stuff like that just doesn't feel at home in S&S RPG for me.
That said Dread Sea Dominions is still fantastic S&S setting and seeing how most of the B&B books are fluff I don't see problem in porting it to BoL

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3/22/2015 11:54 pm  #4


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

I don't see why it wouldn't match.

That's only my subjective opinion. I think SW worlds have coadunate or incorporated in flesh its own engine.

I still find BoL better sistem than SW for B&B

MMuch better, that's the reason why I'm playing Conan, Lemuria on BoL. Simple rules, fast mechanics, two dice...

The playing cards for initiative, crunchy combat, edges... stuff like that just doesn't feel at home in S&S RPG for me.

It's a great solution for Wild West games. S&S or high fantasy not necessary. Too much gadgetry slows down the game.
Umberto Pignatelli told that Dread See Dominions it's a weak reflection of Hyborian World. He made similar world because of lack cash for an expensive license.


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3/23/2015 5:48 am  #5


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

Personally, I'm a great fan of Savage Worlds and I have been running SW games for years now. A lot of people think that SW has too many gimmicks and is overly complicated - it really isn't. The cards for initiative work really well and combat can move very quickly and smoothly.

BoL is a very different game engine and I think it is terrific. It certainly is easier to teach and very fast to run. I also think it is one of the more flexible systems on the market right now with regards to converting other games.

Beasts & Barbarians can certainly be converted from SW to BoL but, as Mruf has pointed out, a straight adaptation may not exactly match; that doesn't mean it's not worth attempting and, at the end of the day, it should be fairly simple to use the GRAmel products to convey the atmosphere and style of the Dread Sea Dominions.

Last edited by The GIT! (3/23/2015 5:49 am)


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3/23/2015 9:14 am  #6


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

The GIT! wrote:

Personally, I'm a great fan of Savage Worlds and I have been running SW games for years now. A lot of people think that SW has too many gimmicks and is overly complicated - it really isn't. The cards for initiative work really well and combat can move very quickly and smoothly.

I too ran and played a lot of games in SW and I think is fantastic sistem. However I don't think is that great for S&S (well it depends what GM and players expect from S&S RPG.). The edges just don't click with my and my players idea of S&S, not that there is anything too complicated with edges, It just doesn't feel right that our "not-Conan" barbarian hero needs for example ambidextrous edge to effectively wield two swords (well you can do it without it but with great penalty). S&S hero should wield two swords,chair, axe...etc. as easly as any other melee weapon without needing some edge or special training, thats at least what I think of S&S.


The GIT! wrote:

Beasts & Barbarians can certainly be converted from SW to BoL but, as Mruf has pointed out, a straight adaptation may not exactly match; that doesn't mean it's not worth attempting and, at the end of the day, it should be fairly simple to use the GRAmel products to convey the atmosphere and style of the Dread Sea Dominions.

Well, I am not looking for exact match, I think that if you convert setting from one system to other, you can't get 100% same feeling no matter what.
The only thing I plan to keep and is somehow problematic, are three magical traditions (lotusmastery, sorcery and path of enlightenment) with BoL magic/alchemy system. And from that three, path of enlightenment is only one who is really problematic to shoehorn into one of BoL magic systems.

Edges I don't plan to convert. Most of them either exist as a Boon (loincloth hero edge = battle harness boon) or they can be roleplayed or incorporated in career, for example Temptress, Sewer Sorcery, Black Staff Sorcery (is called that way? don't have book here).

The older I am the less I care about: you need edge/feat to represent the thing that would be easier to just roleplay. Sewer/Black Staff Sorcery is clear example of that, you have additional sorcerous powers with the drawback of having alien monsters/arch sorcerer as a evil patron. Instead of feat/edge "tax" you can just as easily represent this with RP (and case by case agreement with GM when and how this power/evil patron relationship comes into effect).

Well, I blame my feat/edge fatigue on too many years of playing D&D 3.x.

Sorry for the rant. But with that out of the way, did anyone by any chance create boon/flaw list for B&B races/cities/lands?

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3/23/2015 10:11 am  #7


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

I shan't create mentioned list, but tell sth, as an effect of consideration: are Dread Sea Dominions as attractive to play it without a savage-engine skin? Really appreciate your affection to B&B (I like it too, with no doubt) but Conan's world, Lemuria or Atlantis (Khepera Publishing) are much more interesting. BB without its native "coat" is simply "naked". Much more interestig naturally in my opinion.

Last edited by Mruf (3/23/2015 10:12 am)


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3/23/2015 10:57 am  #8


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

Mruf wrote:

I shan't create mentioned list, but tell sth, as an effect of consideration: are Dread Sea Dominions as attractive to play it without a savage-engine skin? Really appreciate your affection to B&B (I like it too, with no doubt) but Conan's world, Lemuria or Atlantis (Khepera Publishing) are much more interesting. BB without its native "coat" is simply "naked". Much more interestig naturally in my opinion.

Was thinking about that, to be honest.
Here is what I came up with:

Let's start by Lemuria, well it's nice setting but It for some reason just doesn't click with me. I don't like it's reptilian centric fauna and weird science (flying ships). It's too weird for my taste.

Atlantis: I was thinking to run Atlantis but I don't like system to much. More specifically I don't like detailed skill lists. 
Now while I could convert it to BoL system, I think it would be far harder to convert all races to BoL and some races would loose much of the flavor (Jinn). I think it's still easier to convert B&B to BoL that Atlantis, and I think you lose less flavour.

Conan: Well thats hard one, it's partially because B&B comes with less baggage. While Conan has more fluff and that gives me far less maneuvering space as a GM. B&B while it my feel naked it's in my opinion much more sandbox friendly. However with books such as Jalizar, City of Thieves, Citadel of Winged Gods, The Amulet of Dogskull you get much more insight in lands of Dread Sea Dominions. All adventure books have around 1/3-1/2 of the page count dedicated to description of wider area where adventure happens. And with those books B&B suddenly feels less naked.

Secondly while my players would love to play some sword and sorcery, they know Conan only from the movies (I am only one in the group who read books). So much of the fluff is lost to them and it doesn't matter.
If I think from these perspective B&B has less fluff baggage that players don't know or care about.



Now I am really interested why do you feel that B&B as a setting is naked without savage-engine coat? What does SW system provide that makes B&B as a setting complete and cannot be represented in other system in some way?
(I know I may come off as a bit antagonistic, but please don't take any offense. I am merely interested in this debate).

 

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3/24/2015 1:31 am  #9


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

I know I may come off as a bit antagonistic, but please don't take any offense. I am merely interested in this debate).

Come off it! I'm not as sensitive

Let's start by Lemuria, well it's nice setting but It for some reason just doesn't click with me. I don't like it's reptilian centric fauna and weird science (flying ships). It's too weird for my taste.

That's very clear, rational explanation. My valuation is different, but that's simply personal. I like reptillians and flying ships, can accept anthropoidal insects, too (They aren't here but match to genre).
Atlantis has one, big fault: SIZE. I don't want to learn about thousands of subjects, life's too short. I prefer smaller worlds and creativity instead of hectares of paper.
In B&B adventures (official ones) are very strong forte. I've played four of them (till now) and am still in the mood of fight

Now I am really interested why do you feel that B&B as a setting is naked without savage-engine coat? What does SW system provide that makes B&B as a setting complete and cannot be represented in other system in some way?

It's a feeling, B&B connotes with SW, is soaked with statistics, edges and flaws connected to particular nations. I can't prescind from mechanics thinking about the world. So I personally preferably adapt Conan's world to my most beloved S&S playing. I consider B&B as a smaller creation, as a result of some impossibility (gathering big amount of cash for license).

Sorry, my english is exhausted as an old mine
 

Last edited by Mruf (3/24/2015 1:35 am)


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2/08/2016 3:28 pm  #10


Re: Barbarians of Dread Sea Dominions

Ophidian wrote:

I am curious if anybody here ran Beasts & Barbarians with BoL rules?

I was kind of thinking of doing the opposite. Use a lot of the Dread Sea Dominions to flesh out things in Lemuria. 
 

 

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