GURPS Dark Sun Conversion

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

"You seem to be refuting a point I'm not making."

Really? We can't be civil anymore?

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Where did this obsession with psychic mutant dinosaurs come from?

Because Dark Sun has psychic mutant dinosaurs that you fight. That's what higher level games tend to be about. And overthrowing god-kings. And looting ruins of ancient magical kingdoms.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

You seem to be trying to put words into my mouth.

No. I'm saying that a conversion should allow people to play all different types of games, from trying to cross the desert from one city-state to another Caravan to Ein Arris style, to going all jackie chan with a sharpened shinbone on something that outmasses you by 5 tons in an arena, to facing down the closest thing to a god the setting has.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

And your point is? I haven't disagreed with the "JUST worry about the environment" angle. Howeve, the Thri-Kreen template isn't designed to worry about crossing the wastelands, because that's exactly what they're good at!

They don't need three extra attacks that D&D says they get. They don't need to jump exactly as high as D&D says they do. They don't need lots of things. You just need to model "big insect-man who is a social misfit." They don't need to be 300 points. They can be, sure. But I think you're snagging too many D&D mechanics to model, and making it so that in a GURPS Dark Sun game with the same approximate power level as a beginning D&D Dark Sun game, people can't afford to play the same character options that they can in D&D.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Yes, they are. Have you read Thri-Kreen of Athas?

Thumbed through it back in the day.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

I've written the templates with the goal of verisimilitude. Some come out high when converted to GURPS.

Which is more important? That things in GURPS exactly match the description of things in D&D, or that people can play the same things in the conversion that they can in D&D?

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

I'm not suggesting a "generic" conversion, I'm making a Dark sun conversion.

Are you making a Dark Sun conversion for just your preferred power level? Or for anyone who wants to play a Dark Sun game at a variety of power levels? I think the second is more useful.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

I'm looking at the Banestorm Racial templates. They range from -60 points to 627!, yet people still mange to play in that setting some how.

People don't play Djinn. The standard Dark Sun races were playable by everyone. Look at Banestorm racial templates. All the ones that you might normally expect to see in a game are under about 150 points.