Could the 'holy grail' in my quest for a Medieval Fantasy TRPG have been sitting right in front of me for some time now?
Could Space Opera Heroes work as 'High Fantasy Heroes'?
"Thou hast been left with Good Leave! Dost thou surrender?"
"Bite me Mage Boy."
Let's go back to my post 'Magic Eight Ball', a response to Tim Knight's 8 Factors I'm Looking for in My Holy Grail Fantasy RPG and see if a Fantasy hack of Space Opera Heroes fits the bill.
1. A single die type. Preferably D6s.
Check. Space Opera Heroes uses only D6s and often you're only rolling one. The die 'explodes' on a 6, meaning you roll it again and again with each 6 until you get a result that isn't a 6.
Sometimes you may be rolling additional D6s in situations involving an Advantage or Disadvantage.
2. Armor reduces the Damage a Character or Monster takes.
Check. Armor increases your Durability and Durability decreases the amount of damage you take. Heavier Armor applies penalties to a character's Evasion, making them easier to hit [but usually harder to hurt].
He's a Knight who's hard to hurt. She's a thief who's hard to hit.
Together THEY FIGHT CRIME BRIGANDS!
3. DM able to summarise all relevant information on any and all aspects of the game quickly and easily.
I'd say Check for the most part. I was able to sum up the basics in roughly 10 pages for one of my groups.
4. Archetypes/Templates instead of Race and Class.
Check! One of my favorite aspects of Space Opera Heroes and one easily translated into a Fantasy game. Want to play an Elf Wizard? Pick the Elf Wizard Archetype. Interested in being a Hairfoot Thief? Here you go, the Hairfoot Thief Archetype.
Couldn't be simpler and it's quite easy to modify Archetypes and make new ones.
Choose your Archetype!
5. Contingent Advancement. No Levels. Maybe no XP.
Hmm. Ok, this is the first area where the 'Rules As Written' don't match what I'm looking for. Space Opera Heroes definitely uses Experience Points, which are spent to improve abilities and skills as well as purchase modifications for ones robot or spaceship.
All that said, changing this to a Contingent Improvement system is a cinch. PCs might raise one or two skills at the end of an Adventure or when they accomplish a particular goal.
I could also just stick with the XP system as I don't find it to be a big issue or anything. It's certainly not a dealbreaker.
6. Flexible Magic of different types that comes with a cost.
Flexible Magic? Check. Different types. Hmm. Maybe. Sure. Comes with a cost? Occasionally.
While I definitely have some thoughts regarding how Magic would work in this game, I don't have a completely fleshed out idea of how the Magic system would work. For now, here are my initial thoughts:
Basically it would function the same way Psychic Powers do in Space Opera Heroes: Magically gifted Player Characters would have an additional Ability Score called Magic Ability and one or more Magical Skills.
The more powerful and/or complicated the Magical Spell or Effect is that the PC is trying to achieve, the higher the Target Difficulty Number would be when attempting to Succeed in their Action Check.
As far as types, I don't want to get too granular but I might steal a page from my Aerth/Winghorn Guard setting. There, Magic falls into broad categories based on how it is performed and/or what it does. There's Alchemy, Spellcasting, Summoning, Runes, Miracles or 'Holy Magic', and Shamanism or 'Spirit Magic'. There are others but you get the idea.
When you use Magic you make an Action Check as you would for any skill use but here, if you fail the Magic doesn't work or have the desired effect and there is a negative consequence. Something goes very, very wrong.
That did not go as planned.
If the player spends a Hero Point they Succeed with a Consequence but one somewhat less severe. Obviously a Success works the way the player intended and if you rolled high enough there will be additional effects or bonuses.
More thoughts on this in a future post.
7. Speed & Simplicity of play
Super Duper Check! I taught a group of five people how to play and their were only a few of rule questions in the first session and really only one clarification in the second.
Check.
One of the things I really dislike is when mastery of a game's mechanics is the key to overcoming challenges in the game. Games where the in-game narrative is less important to overcoming the challenge than having the 'right build' or knowing what the rules are in order to have some in game advantage completely turns me off to that RPG.
Space Opera Heroes doesn't have that kind of dynamic. It's designed with a totally different mindset. The game remains challenging because the challenge doesn't come from the rules of the game. Many of the game's rules are actually designed to prevent things like permanent PC death for example. Instead, there are consequences in the story, for your gear, starship, robots, allies, friends, and the world around you.
IMHO, this is far more engaging then losing my 1st level collection of random rolls to a pack of giant rats.
'High Fantasy Heroes'?
The more I think about this, the better it fits.
Expect to see more High Fantasy Hero in the near future.
For now, Later Days,
AD
Barking Alien
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