Had a perhaps odd thought, what about producing a Holmes based minimalist ruleset, but with a different old school magic system, could be basic conjuring/summoning or with some form of spell points like taken from a pre D&D system as outlined in some of the old zines or similar. Besides that the interior would have some or all monochrome color art instead of all black & white. There are probably already too many rulesets out these days, just thought it sounded cool.
Write it. Just because there are a hundred soup recipes, doesn't mean people won't prefer yours. Do it.
ReplyDeleteInstead of a whole new ruleset it would be easier to just produce a short alternative magic system book with the cool monochrome color interior art. So basically you could use Holmes and then scrap the magic user /elf spells and system and use the book instead. Could be minimalist but completely different. Maybe based on Conan/Zefrs or early Stormbringer or an early publication like Midgard as recently posted about. But that would mesh well into Holmes.
ReplyDeleteLeave Clerics as is.
'77 Sorcery Compendium'
ReplyDeleteDo it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a good idea. One possibility would be the Warlock system, a spell point system that can be layered over the existing system. I wrote about it here: zenopusarchives.blogspot.com - The Warlock OD&D Spell Point System
ReplyDeleteBut you may be considering something more exotic.
I was going to say Warlock, but of course Zach H beat me to it. :-P
ReplyDeleteOne of the most rewarding things you can do in this hobby (besides play with your friends) is to make up your own game! There's no special magic to being a game designer. Just go do it. You will learn a lot about the game you like best, you will learn a lot about game mechanics in general, you will learn a lot about how to put together a book, and you will learn a lot about yourself too!
ReplyDeleteI totally recommend giving it a try!
Game "design" is one of those journey not the destination things. We'll all still be hanging around at the destination, wherever that is. :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the replies. I will give this a whirl mostly as a labor of love. I have written some things previous rpggeek.com - Scott Moberly | RPG Designer | RPGGeek
ReplyDeleteI love that monochrome color art those early modules had, would love to see more done in that style. And this sounds like a great project - go for it!
ReplyDeleteWhere do you plan to get the art?
ReplyDeleteMichael, that would be a good question. I like what Luigi C recently did for Geoffreys deal. His sty;e seems to fit this mode. But paying for art would make this a bonified project. I don;t know of any public domain art that would potentially fit the bill for this though..
ReplyDeleteDo it! (by which I mean writing the thing. I really don't care about the art stuff)
ReplyDeleteLuigi Castellani is great (he's not a member here so I can't tag him), I'm very pleased with the work he did for BLUEHOLME™. There are a few others out there who might fit the bill. But you're right, that would make it "real", so you'll have to consider how much work you're willing to put in. The BLUEHOLME™ Journeymanne Rules took me around 5 years from concept through Kickstarter to finished book. The good news is that you shouldn't worry about the art until you've actually written and laid out the book! So just go for it and see where it takes you. :-)
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could always consider producing a point-based magic system as a supplement to BLUEHOLME™ ...
ReplyDeletedreamscapedesign.net - Compatibility Licences
Hmm, I read thru the Warlock system and was a bit dissapointed. Still uses the same basic spells (Sleep, magic missle etc etc) and doesn't really sound great in practice. I read back thru the Conan/Zefrs 2 pages on magic and it wasn't as useable as I recalled (you basically have to tell the DM what you want to try, no set spells). Next up is to find my copy of Stormbringer 2e and re read that magic system in search of basic inspiration...
ReplyDeleteI remember Elizabeth Stewart mentioning a simple spell point system she used. I can't recall the details, but I think it was along the lines of adding up all the spell levels available under the normal "spells-per-day" system, and letting casters cast any spell they knew up to that limit. I may have that completely wrong, but it sounds very much in tune with simple and non-restrictive Holmes-style play. Perhaps DM Liz could enlighten us? :-)
ReplyDeleteMichael Thomas, you remember correctly. So say you had a character who could via the table cast 2 first level spells (2 pts) and 2 second level spells (4 pts). They would have 6 spell points to use as they wished amongst first and second level spells. I also gave M-Us intelligence bonuses for spells the same way Clerics got extra spells for high wisdom scores. :)
ReplyDelete