GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1: Mirror of the Fire Demon

[Kromm]

The Wind Spirit says,
"To disperse the orcish horde,
Strike the goblin's head."

— Some hack

This week's e23 release is sure to bring joy to the hearts of old-school gamers everywhere. It's GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1: Mirror of the Fire Demon, by Matt Riggsby. The long title means exactly what it says: "The first adventure ever for GURPS Dungeon Fantasy. With demons. And fire." The Old-School Fun™ includes:

• A quest given in town – and not by an old man but by several old men.
• A dungeon with numbered rooms keyed to monsters and treasures.
• Stats for all monsters . . . including several new, original ones.
• Random encounter tables.
• A treasure table.
• Tactical maps of all important locations.

Best of all, perhaps, this adventure isn't "one size fits all." It comes with concrete advice on customizing the backdrop and events to your campaign's setting, your PCs' abilities and attitudes, and your group's power level. All of which makes this adventure worthwhile even if you don't use Dungeon Fantasy.

Get it now or the orcs have already won!

[Bruno]

It also includes seven geomorph tiles suitable for outdoor wilderness encounters - a very pleasant surprise!

[Langy]

I'm going to be running this adventure, probably in a few months, though I'm going to replace the Desert with an Ocean (the starting adventure of the campaign is on an island, and there's a great hook into the start of Mirror of the Fire Demon in it). It's going to be heavily modified to fit the setting, but I think I can still use the majority of it. Hell, I can probably use the Bounding Turtles as-is (they'd just be sea turtles rather than desert ones:D).

[Greg 1]

Oh boy!

Bought it immediately. I can't wait to read it. What geeky fun! :)

[Stripe]

I still haven't read it yet, but I'm looking forward to doing so.

[Phaelen Bleux]

Are the maps printed in light blue so I can't Xerox them??

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Kromm

It's GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Adventure 1: Mirror of the Fire Demon, by Matt Riggsby.

So how hard would this be to adapt to a GURPS Banestorm/DF campaign. I recall someone having a thread about Banestorm/DF crossover which I found interesting -- in that I think that clerics and druids would be hardest to workout in the setting. Still I like in depth settings and that's pretty much the best one for GURPS (at least the best supported and most detailed).

If I were to use the adventure this way, where would be the best location to put it given the map for Yrth/Ytarria? Cardiel is probably where I'd want to start a campaign so I'd want to place the adventure somewhere there or in one of the surrounding areas. The islands are a possibility also since sailing from Cariel isn't out of the question.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[Woodman]

Clerics and Druids dont seem like a big Problem, i'm not finished with the npc chapter, but there seems to be only one cleric and one Holy Warrior as major NPCs, both could easily be based on Faiths that exist on Yrth. For the Location i would say Caithness is a perfect fit, just use the Border to the Great Desert in the West and the only thing you have to change is rotating the directions 90° counterclockwise.

PS: I think Transhuman Space and Traveller both outperform Banestorm when it comes to details

[griffin]

Originally Posted by Woodman

Clerics and Druids dont seem like a big Problem, i'm not finished with the npc chapter, but there seems to be only one cleric and one Holy Warrior as major NPCs, both could easily be based on Faiths that exist on Yrth.

Can you be more specific on that point. What faiths could the Holy Warrior and cleric be based on? Any druid NPCs to consider? If so how would that one be handled in Banestorm?

It seems to me that DF style clerics and druids don't work well at all in Banestorm. There don't seem to be any gods to work with clerics -- at least not ones you can gain power from in the plane Yrth exists in. Perhaps I've overlooked something. Perhaps druids can work, though I'm not sure. The elves seem to have some connection with an eternal nature, but I don't see them gaining any power from the connection and that seems key to DF druids. Please correct me if I'm wrong on this.

I would really like to have druids and clerics as good PC options for my players. I'm just not sure how to handle them in the Banestorm setting.

[quote]For the Location i would say Caithness is a perfect fit, just use the Border to the Great Desert in the West and the only thing you have to change is rotating the directions 90° counterclockwise.[quote]

Cool.

PS: I think Transhuman Space and Traveller both outperform Banestorm when it comes to details

I was speaking strictly on GURPS Fantasy settings, specifically where I could fairly easily adapt the adventure in question.

I'll probably have some free time on my hands next week, so I'm looking for input this weekend so I know if I should buy this adventure. I haven't run a campaign in ages and I'd really like something I can use in Banestorm setting.

I'm planning on using at least one adventure from GURPS Fantasy adventures -- the Mordag's Little Finger one. I will probably start with that one but will need to convert to GURPS 4e and probably power it up a bit since the characters I'm planning on using will be DF style 250-300 point, though they will also need to use some of those points for non-dungeon crawling stuff that can be used in more general adventuring in the Banestorm/Yrth setting.

[Bruno]

There are specifically options for mystically empowered religious characters in Banestorm - it's not clear it's religiously empowered, or some sort of odd psychic effect, but it's there, and it's an option.

If you're not using that, you can definitely remove the two religious NPCs entirely without doing damage to the adventure. If you're using that, drop the cleric and either handwave the Holy Warrior as someone who is religiously empowered and Christian, or drop the Holy Warrior as well to keep things tidy.

There are orc shamen, but they're wizards.

The orcs don't have the orc racial template from Banestorm - it's up to you whether you want to run them as is, retune them to have the Banestorm template, or just shrug and say they've been mutated by exposure to the Mirror of the Fire Demon (dun dun duuuuuuuuun) and add that to the list of reasons to get rid of it.