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Originally Posted by seycyrus
I run a game in that setting using the larger world of Mystara as a backdrop.
The first thing I did was to make it a bit more "plausible".
In the original, the caves are within an hour's walk of the keep. Even if you make it 3 hours because of difficult terrain, that still seems way too close for a threat that of that nature to exist near the local symbol of law.
I put my caves at about a day's travel, with the safest route taking about double that time.
The caves themselves are also way too close to each other for my taste, in some cases being within a few minutes travel. I spread em out a bit more, and made sure that traveling "up and down" between "levels" of the hillside was not that straightforward.
I replaced the evil priests with a highly Charismatic Leader who is the leader of a "Third Party" in the valley. He keeps the various tribes from each other's throats (most of the time) as he tries to get the humanoids focused on his ultimate goals - apparently the excavation and continued exploration of the temple. He brought a few human allies (but are they?) with him.
Granted my knowledge is at least a few editions out of date, but in DnD it seems the languages come too easy. In my game, very few of the PCs and/or NPCs speak ANY of the humanoid languages, and the humanoids can't automatically communicate with each other either. The Charismatic Leader CAN speak all the humanoid languages, which helps him immensely in keeping everyone working towards his goal.
Each of the humanoid tribes has their own goal of course.
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I have been watching Mr. Welches series on Mystara recently myself, it's actually what convinced me that running or playing Keep would be awesome, though Dungeon Crafts Vids had originally peaked my interest. Sadly I got stuck running... I'll definitely keep the distances in mind... I won't have to necessarily worry too much about the different caves and how each one relates to one another due to the villain group I will be using for the caves... Though I might consider having them be a bit more at odds now that you bring up the idea of different agenda's...
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Originally Posted by Kromm
"Magical weapon to hit" was originally a scrim pulled over all the various ways folklore recommended for fighting the supernatural. "This object has had the right prayers or magic words said over it" is fine in a culture with specific beliefs concerning a small number of bogeys, but less fine in a kitchen-sink fantasy with all the world's beliefs and bogeys hacked 'n' slashed in a blender and poured out for easy consumption. It's very definitely the case that requiring magical weapons to hit monsters was a quick-and-dirty way to finesse the issue generically (though thanks to early RPGs being group efforts with minimal line direction, a few monsters got more specific despite this, muddying the waters).
GURPS has MUCH higher resolution, so it's better to go with specifics. Yes, some rare few beings are very specifically vulnerable to the spells of wizards, and probably should require magic weapons . . . but for the rest, mix in blessed weapons, silver weapons, thorn trees, prayers, incense, peach blossoms, and all the rest. Match the solution to the problem.
Which said, all-or-nothing approaches like "total invulnerability unless . . ." make for boring games. GURPS uses only one example of that with any regularity: insubstantiality. Otherwise, it's better to go with increased-but-finite DR or Injury Tolerance (Damage Reduction) vs. everything but one item, Regeneration with Accessibility not vs. that item, Supernatural Durability with that item as its flaw, Unkillable with an Achilles Heel to that item, Vulnerability to the item, etc. Note that all of these can specify generic "magic," if that's suitable or just floats your boat.
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Yeah that's pretty much how I do it in my setting. Insubstantial, DR and Resistances with a limitation. Generally Silver (Or Silvered) Weapons, Magic Spells, or Magicked Weapons get thru it. Took it from the Elder Scrolls.
Havent used Unkillable for that yet... Might try that one.