Steve Jackson Games - Site Navigation
Home General Info Follow Us Search Illuminator Store Forums What's New Other Games Ogre GURPS Munchkin Our Games: Home

Go Back   Steve Jackson Games Forums > Roleplaying > GURPS

Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 02-03-2017, 10:43 PM   #21
Dalillama
 
Dalillama's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
I've been reading Discworld books for over twenty years now. Soul Music is my personal favorite of the novels. And checking a Discworld wiki, I see Pterry chose "Hersheba" specifically as a joke Americans would get.

Daaaamnit. :D
And yet I did not, until this moment.
Dalillama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 12:57 AM   #22
Phil Masters
 
Phil Masters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
I've been reading Discworld books for over twenty years now. Soul Music is my personal favorite of the novels. And checking a Discworld wiki, I see Pterry chose "Hersheba" specifically as a joke Americans would get.

Daaaamnit.
I suspect that it's a double pun in that it's a place where stories like She would be set. As well as the obvious reference to the Queen of Sheba, of course.
__________________
--
Phil Masters
My Home Page.
My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG.
Phil Masters is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 01:10 AM   #23
Dalillama
 
Dalillama's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by Phil Masters View Post
I suspect that it's a double pun in that it's a place where stories like She would be set. As well as the obvious reference to the Queen of Sheba, of course.

I had assumed that was the only reference...
Dalillama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 05:55 AM   #24
evileeyore
Banned
 
evileeyore's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by ColBosch View Post
I've been reading Discworld books for over twenty years now. Soul Music is my personal favorite of the novels. And checking a Discworld wiki, I see Pterry chose "Hersheba" specifically as a joke Americans would get.

Daaaamnit. :D
I've been reading and rereading Discworld since the early '80's.... and I didn't get those candy references until yesterday.


Sigh.
evileeyore is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 06:00 AM   #25
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by evileeyore View Post
I've been reading and rereading Discworld since the early '80's.... and I didn't get those candy references until yesterday.
Terry was better at this stuff than most writers. It was years after I read The Truth that a book about the invention of printing told me that Guttenberg's first assistant was William de Worde, and I was immediately sure that this wasn't a coincidence.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 12:28 PM   #26
Dalillama
 
Dalillama's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Terry was better at this stuff than most writers. It was years after I read The Truth that a book about the invention of printing told me that Guttenberg's first assistant was William de Worde, and I was immediately sure that this wasn't a coincidence.
Did you catch the names of the dwarfs?
Dalillama is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 12:46 PM   #27
johndallman
Night Watchman
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Cambridge, UK
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dalillama View Post
Did you catch the names of the dwarfs?
Yes, those were easy to spot.
johndallman is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 01:37 PM   #28
Astromancer
 
Astromancer's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: West Virginia
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelly Pedersen View Post
Literally, "Child of the Djel", yeah. :)

Also consider the name of one of the other countries in Klatch, "Hersheba".
The study of names is sweet indeed.
__________________
Per Ardua Per Astra!


Ancora Imparo
Astromancer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-04-2017, 03:59 PM   #29
ColBosch
 
ColBosch's Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2007
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Quote:
Originally Posted by johndallman View Post
Terry was better at this stuff than most writers. It was years after I read The Truth that a book about the invention of printing told me that Guttenberg's first assistant was William de Worde, and I was immediately sure that this wasn't a coincidence.
Terry was a brilliant man, fantastic with making connections and with a rare sense of wordplay. For one of my favorite examples, "Elves are terrific. They beget terror." That one line displays so much intelligence and knowledge that it chokes me up a bit.
ColBosch is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 02-06-2017, 02:42 AM   #30
Phil Masters
 
Phil Masters's Avatar
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: U.K.
Default Re: Discworld, Dungeonworld

Characters, Cont.

The classes that use supernatural power make things a little more complicated.

For simplicity, I'd run with the Wizard as written in Dungeon Fantasy 1. Okay, that means using the standard GURPS magic system, which isn't especially close to magic as hinted at in the early books (which seems vaguely Vancean with "memorised" spells) or as seen in later stories (which seems more improvisational), but, frankly, meh, close enough for government work, and it fits the tactical, resource-management feel traditional in dungeon fantasy. GMs can op to to use the Discworld RPG magic system instead if they wish, with characters switching the points that the templates assign to spells to Magic and Magical Form skills and improving specific spells, but that may slow combat down a little.

Following the lead of the books, actual wizards would all be male - presumably Unseen University graduates who've decided on a quick and dirty route to wealth and power rather than trying to hatchet their way up the pre-Ridcully UU hierarchy - while female spell-casters would mostly be witches, and would mostly have better things to do with their time than go down dungeons. However, there's no need to enforce rigid sexist limits; the early books hint at the existence of enchantresses, Krull certainly produces female wizards, and so on. And witches might join dungeoneering parties anyway, if they decided that those irresponsible delver types were doing a necessary job in keeping monsters down and just needed a bit of supervision.

Wizards really need power items (Dungeon Fantasy 1, p. 28; note that after converting to Ankh-Morpork dollars, every AM$ of item value would let it hold 2 FP), and the obvious item of choice for a Discworld wizard is his staff. Strictly speaking, ordinary staffs are dirt cheap and hence can't hold much power, but wizards can acquire fancy, ornate, hand-crafted staffs, and look out for rare woods (sapient pearwood being the ultimate option), so GMs can let characters spend more or less what they like on a staff. The only catch is that you'll be taking a flammable, breakable masterpiece of finely carved wood into combat. Other spell-users might have other appropriate options; for example, enchantresses might invest in flashy jewelry. For local colour, witches might treat their images and lifestyle as a power item; instead of spending money on staffs, bling, or whatever, they can invest in cottages full of cauldrons and iron ovens, pointy hats, cat food, and the rest, with the "item value" being fixed costs (the cottage, cauldron, etc.) and the "charge cost" being upkeep costs (fuel for the oven) and increased living expenses (travel to and from that remote cottage in the woods, say). Whereas an ordinary power item can be broken or stolen, a witch can be forced or induced to blow her "witchy" image by acting in an uncharacteristic fashion, losing the bonus FP until they get their groove back. Note that confectionery architecture is likely to be amazingly expensive to build and maintain, so this rule can actually explain the gingerbread cottages.

Bards, the other secular magic-worker type in Dungeon Fantasy 1, are harder to fit in. They really don't fit the Discworld feel at all, and there's no real precedent for them in the novels. (There are some very talented wandering entertainers, but they're strictly non-magic-wielders, despite their relationship to the power of narrative, and they're definitely noncombatants.) To keep it simple, I'd just drop this template entirely; bards honestly aren't essential to dungeoneering adventure.

Which brings us to the divinely-powered character types.

To Be Continued...
__________________
--
Phil Masters
My Home Page.
My Self-Publications: On Warehouse 23 and On DriveThruRPG.
Phil Masters is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
discworld, discworld dungeons, dungeon fantasy, dungeonworld

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Fnords are Off
[IMG] code is Off
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 11:28 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.9
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.