I seem to do this a lot - I’ll find a game whose setting I really like, but dislike the ruleset it uses, so I end up converting it over to the ruleset I prefer (usually Cypher System). I’ve learned that to some people, this is blasphemy of the highest order, which is surprising. I still do it, though. 😬
This is the secret to being a dm and “having so many cool unique ideas”
I used nWoD for fantasy games. The core dice pool system works pretty well, and few things are tightly coupled to any setting in particular.
I mostly don’t like d20, so when someone tells me they’re doing a game about secret vampire societies in it, I’m a lot more disappointed than if they ported a system I like or am neutral on. Also 5th edition in particular makes a lot of assumptions about how things work.
This. NWod/ChoD system just works so well. Of course I’d avoid it if the setting does not fit, but non-thematic d20 should be replaced by dice pool whenever one can do it. I haven’t tried this yet but I really want to run a medieval fantasy game with Mage magic system. Pretty sure there are some games already implementing something like that from the start, but if magic was ever a thing then mage seems like the way it would be approached, messy and dangerous.
I love mage, but its magic is so involved and powerful I wouldn’t want to use it in a game unless everyone was a mage. You don’t really want one players options to be “I hit him with my club” and the others to be boundless.
Awakening 2nd edition was really good, imo, but I never actually got to play Ascension
Not what you are talking about but one reason I learned to love the champions system from the early 90’s was a guy there ran a fantasy setting using it. He had a program to he made himself to do the heavy lifting but the variable power pool rules gave him a great ability to have characters have any spell they wanted by talking to him. Just had to fit within the pool which as a magic user would level as points were put in.
My first “Shadowrun” game was just taking the setting and using D20 Modern for the rules since I didn’t have the actual Shadowrun books (and couldn’t find them for sale either).
Sometimes, after playing actual Shadowrun, I feel like the D20 Modern rules worked better. 🤣
Depends on the edition of Shadowrun :lol
And there is a Shadowrun inspired d20 setting, iirc!
Blades in the Dark loadout mechanic I’ve used in almost every one shot regardless of system. Too useful
I’m not familiar with that. Is that like letting players choose a set of equipment at the beginning of play, or…?
One of the key ideas in Blades in the Dark is avoiding lengthy planning discussions. You go on missions called Scores and you only plan very minimally how you want to achieve your mission.
Then through play you can flashback to when your characters were preparing the score and say “of course, I bribed this guard yesterday so that he’d let us in the back doors”, that kind of thing.
So for equipment you just choose whether you have a lot, some or a little, not what you actually have. There is a stealth penalty for having a lot.
Then during play, when you need something you just mark off a slot on your sheet - obviously it needs to be something you reasonably have access to.
So I’ll often say “you have 3 things with you but you can tell me what they are when you need them”.
I mean, I liberally plumb other systems for content in general, so relatively all the time. Mechanics, setting, anything I can pull that sounds good to me.
Your game table must be a lot of fun. :)
Greyhawk is far and away my preferred setting for D&D-like games, I’ve run a bunch of rules in it but mostly 13th Age and Shadowdark.
Did you find it easy to make the switch to those game systems?
Yeah they both are built around the classic D&D gameplay loop of exploring and dungeon crawling. I run my own adventures rather than using purchased modules so I don’t have to worry about converting monster stats and stuff. But Shadowdark converts very easily to old D&D versions, it would be straight forward to run any old pre-3rd edition D&D modules in it.
That sounds really cool. I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!
Does it count if it is my own setting that I bring to different systems?
That’s not really what I meant, but you still get points for writing your own setting. :)
@mr_noxx I’m slowly rewritting Babylon 5 as a Daggerheart hack…
I would be very interested in this if you ever post it 👀
I’ve heard a lot of praise for Daggerheart, but have not played it. What made you decide to use that ruleset for Babylon 5?
@mr_noxx Many things made it vibe with what I wanted to do, but the top 2:
I ♥️ the core dice mechanic. It has a bell curve with a +/-vs side effect using standard D12s (I 💕 D12s). It is like the Yes But you find in PbtA but more relaxed about possible outcomes.
It arranges special abilities so that classes have access to two overlapping sets, which really lends itself to building a commercial and security telepath classes which share Teep powers but get either Diplomacy or Combat.
Nice! Good luck with the conversion - sounds like a labor of love. :)
@mr_noxx Thanks! I need to crack on with it. Life has been a bit busy of late.
I am starting out by playtesting my capital ship rules which, to avoid having to build 40% of the rest of the game, I am reskinning in the style of Spelljammer to use with the regular Daggerheart rules.
Ooooh…a triple mash-up! You mad genius, you! :D
That depends. Sometimes the mechanics are kind of integral part of the setting. Those reflect some realities of the setting. But then, if the mechanics are too crunchy for me, I would be looking for “X with serial numbers filed off” hack of another system
Never.
