[Rq-rules] Conversion of D&D module?

[Gary Sturgess]

On 1/7/07, Peter Brink <peter.brink at brinkdata.se> wrote:
> I've posted a few more suggestions on how to convert other games to BRP
> at my site recipes.rollspelshornan.se.
>
> Comments are welcome (as always).

When doing a conversion from one system to the other, you generally
have one of two ideas in mind:

a) You like the feel of the original system, but you prefer the rules
of the new one.
b) You like the feel of the new system, but you want to add some
elements of the old.

Generally which of these two you're most interested in will affect
your conversion. For example, let's take the old favourites Magic
Missile and Fireball, latest versions from the d20 SRD.

If you're a D&D fan but you prefer BRP/RQ rules, then you basically
still want spells to feel like they did in D&D. So Magic Missile
should ideally still automatically hit; Fireball should do some damage
even to those who are able to dodge out of the way of most of it.
Therefore, you certainly won't make Magic Missile like Speedart, since
the latter still needs a hit roll; instead, it should be something
more akin to Disruption. The actual "autohit" part is pretty much
anathema to RQ, but you can use the "prior art" of spells such as
Sever Spirit to have a minor effect if you fail the MP vs MP roll.
Let's say a 4 point spirit magic spell that does 2d6 to a random
location, and 1d3 to general hit points if the MP vs MP roll fails.
For Fireball, we're really out of the realm of what Spirit Magic can
really do, but the closest conversion would be a 4 point spirit magic
spell that does 2d6 to a random location of every target within 5
metres of the blast point, but armour protects as normal, and in
addition targets may make a Dodge roll for half damage.

On the other hand, if you're a RQ fan that would like to convert some
of the D&D spells over, then Disruption is pretty much all you need
for Magic Missile, and for Fireball you're probably going to go with
something that requires an MP vs MP roll vs all the prospective
targets (unless you really do want the "set things on fire" part, I
suppose).

You may disagree with the specific "off the top of my head"
conversions here - that's fine; it's more to illustrate that we get
different results even with two simple spells depending on which angle
we're coming from.

Bringing us back around to Peter's page - what you've essentially done
is create a new mechanic here. I suggest that this is the sort of
thing that doesn't really fit anybody's needs - there are 3 forms of
magic already (discounting dragon magic and other esoterica) and no
really clear reason why D&D mages would not be sorcery users in RQ. In
fact, your mechanic is not dissimilar to those used by Sandy
Petersen's rules for RQ sorcery, and I would imagine that the latter
would do the job of conversion slightly better (you could do Fireball
via some sort of Multispelled Evoke Fire, for example).

Note for GURPS purposes I _believe_ (but could be wrong) that all the
different power systems (psionics, magics, superpowers) are all
unified in the new 4th edition; your notes appear to be addressing the
3rd edition spells. GURPS spells probably could be done fairly
straightforwardly via the Sandy system as well, if you were in the
camp that liked RQ but wanted to graft on some GURPS spells. If you're
from the perspective that you want RQ spells to feel like GURPS, then
the hard part is the difficulty levels of spells in GURPS, but I
believe the unpublished RQ4 had this concept.
-- 
GAZZA