Thursday, May 24, 2018

Crazy or at least heretic idea: take 5e, remove everything that doesn't appear on Holmes, and see what can be done.

Crazy or at least heretic idea: take 5e, remove everything that doesn't appear on Holmes, and see what can be done.
Would be possible to create a Holmes inspired 5e?

15 comments:

  1. Do it and share. It would be fun to see something like that. You could start by editing down the text of the free 5e PDF. Fight on!

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  2. I imagine it'd be somewhat similar to Microlite74/75/81. In fact if you're removing everything that isnt in Holmes, it might be closer to that then 5e.

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  3. Don't see why not, since the various retroclone OSR systems out there have their roots (some moreso than others) in the OGL and d20 SRD. If you wonder what a Holmesian-style 5e might look like, I'd suggest taking a look at Blueholme for starters to see what a Holmes inspired system looks like.

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  4. Was thinking the same. Was also considering a 1e rule set.

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  5. Absolutely. I've kinda discussed it a bit on my blog.

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  6. You mean something like the Basic 5e PDF, but more cut down? A version of Holmes that runs on the 5e rules? I'd find the opposite more interesting, a game with all of the options of 5e but using the OD&D/Holmes rules.

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  7. Shane Ward , I think I haven't seen it yet. Link, please?
    Andy C Blueholme is not exactly what I'm looking for. It's more like a mixed version.
    Zach H Yep, even more focused than Basic 5e, including race as class using 5e framework. It'll be a lot more verbose (at first) than Holmes, but with a familiar structure for 5e players. Yet this is still just food for thought.

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  8. It would be possible, I play around with a file I have based on the 5E SRD from time to time. I took this approach with BLUEHACK™, taking The Black Hack as a core and making it entirely Holmes-specific (though I did pull in higher-level stuff from OD&D).

    However: what I'm really interested in is taking the Blue Book only, and crafting a Worlds of Wonder/ Magic World (not the big Magic World book from a few years back) around it. Damn, you've distracted me, I'll have to get back to that now ... ;-)

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  9. The BlueWoW project would even stick to the spells in the book, so a distinctly low-magic setting.

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  10. If you do it, though, stay true to form—no higher than 3rd level!

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  11. I should note, that when I wrote that blog post, I was working off a different version of blueholme, race as a class was included and then changed later. That said I'd go either way on a 5e version.

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  12. I am intrigued. But I'm always in favor of other people doing interesting gaming things. :D

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  13. Maybe I may disappoint some when I think about going 9 levels (assuming the Holmes Companion 4-page PDF as part of the structure). Nothing would prevent one to stop at level 3 though.
    I'm also considering make it kind of backwards incompatible. Let me explain. It's easier to port 5e monsters to this hack then using them as presented originally. So I'll follow the 5e statblocks structure for this.
    Well, at least this is the initial plan. I'm writing this on the side as I'm about to launch a crowdfunding: a Bronze Age setting for Dungeon World inspired by Egyptian Mythology.

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