Im a big fan of Frazetta! I had a poster of the Death Dealer when I was a kid. Even dressed up as him for halloween once. ha ha. I didn't know there are books based on the character. must read them. A BOL hack sounds cool.

nerosfiddle wrote:

A Frazettaverse BoL hack would be very cool indeed. I think I may have to start work on that right away.

In fact, I'm pretty sure I know where to start; in the 90's there was a French rpg called Bloodlust that was heavily inspired by the works of Frazetta, the Death Dealer in particular.

You played characters that were known as Weapon Bearers, warriors that wield sentient artifacts. Each one a god (or demon) that had taken the form of a weapon (or helm in the case of the DD) to better experience the mortal world and live vicariously through the wielder.  Players create their character, but also create a weapon that had it's own desires and motivations (characterized by a set of Urges: these were Glory, Infamy, Wealth, Sex and something else that I can't recall at the moment. The weapon grants power to the bearer but often engaged in a battle of wills with them too. If the weapon wins out, it turned into a mild form of possession during which the weapon would indulge in its most extreme of urges. Needless to say, this was not a game aimed at minors, but we had a fantastic time playing. It was the first time I had actually gotten to play a honest to goodness Swords & Sorcery game. It felt very metal

I'd heard of that game and would have loved to have had a copy (translated into English, of course). Anyway, I'd love to see what you do with your BoL "Frazettaverse" hack.
 

I knew the adventure existed but I've never read it.
I'm intrigued. It'd be interesting to see how they handle the Death Dealer.
I've been told it reminds people of Tim Burton's "Sleepy Hollow" for some reason.
That alone has me curious.

I busted out Bloodlust as a starting point for my Frazettaverse BoL hack yesterday (hereby dubbed BoL: Bloodlust). At first, the more I read, the more convinced I was that all that was required was a simple system to create sentient weapons that can grant some form of power. But then it dawned on me; given the power level that most BoL heroes already have, having a group of warriors running around, each with their own version of "Stormbringer" would make for a grossly overpowered game that would likely collapse under its own weight.

I'm not sure how I'll approach this yet. I think the first thing I need to do is re-visit Frazetta's paintings and see if I can get my hands on the other Death Dealer books and comics. Once I've read through the source material, I might be able to put together some kind of coherent setting.

I suppose sentient weapons can be represented by a simple list of "Urges" and a list of Boons that they grant to the wielder.

This is all just a stream of consciousness post, so please forgive any half formed thoughts at this point...
   

I've realised that there are currently three versions of the Death Dealer written up in three pieces of literature. There's the DD from the James Silke novels, known as Gath of Baal, a barbarian from a primordial forest, there's the DD from the Glenn Danzig comics of the 90's, a nameless warrior that is used as a symbiotic host by the horned helm and acts as an instument of vengeance against those that killed its previous wearer, and there's the DD from the Image comics that were published a few years ago on which the adventure umungus highligthed above is based. This version of the DD is more of a force of nature than anything else. These are not counting the interpretation by the French rpg I mentioned earlier...

I think I'm going to start by stating up the Death Dealer in BoL terms and see where that takes me. Maybe if I see it on paper, I'll have a better idea of where to go.