Gurps Midnight

[Ogbendog]

Is anyone here familiar with the Midnight setting? It's d20, from Fantasy flight games; basically LorR, but Sauron WON.

So Evil (mostly) rules the world. Magic is rare, illegal, hard to come by, magical healing even more so. I've not read it, but it looked like it could be fun to do in GURPs.

I was thinking making most of the world Necromantically aspected, so a bonus to necromantic spells, and a penalty to healing

[whswhs]

Originally Posted by Ogbendog

Is anyone here familiar with the Midnight setting? It's d20, from Fantasy flight games; basically LorR, but Sauron WON.

I independently came up with this premise four years back, and ran a campaign based on it in 2003-2004. I used Big Eyes Small Mouth for it, though. It worked very well; the opening credits episodes where the player characters came together from all over Middle-Earth in ruins were genuinely horrifying to run.

[Erebus]

I'm pretty sure Against the Shadow had a gurps conversion at some point.

http://www.againsttheshadow.org/

The GURPS conversion is in downloads under general.

At least it used to be...

Originally Posted by Erebus

I'm pretty sure Against the Shadow had a gurps conversion at some point.

http://www.againsttheshadow.org/

The GURPS conversion is in downloads under general.

At least it used to be...

Here are the first bits of a GURPS4 conversion of that document (originally by Werner H. Hartmann ):

Originally Posted by GURPS_Midnight 4

Elf, snow: 60pts.

Advantages: DX+2 [40], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +2 [4], Perception +2 [10], Will +1 [5], plus Knacks worth a total of up to 10 points;

Disadvantages: HT-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6 or less) [-20]

Lenses:
Snow Elf Culture: 7 pts.
Bow at DX+0 [2], Main-Gauche at DX+0 [2], Naturalist at IQ-2 [1], Survival (Arctic) at Per+0 [2]


Elf, forest: 62 pts.

Advantages: DX+2 [40], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +3 [6], Will +1 [5], plus Knacks worth a total of up to 20 points.

Disadvantages: HT-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6-) [-20]

Lenses:
Forest Elf Culture: 8pts.
Bow at DX+0 [2], Broadsword at DX+0 [2], Naturalist at IQ-1 [2], Survival (Woodlands) at Per+0 [2]

The original version relied on GURPS 3 style knacks to represent their D&D innate spell-like abilities. I am still trying to figure out how to represent this.
Edit: Extra Spell Energy is part of the custom magic system that I am probably going to mostly keep intact (unless Thaumatology changes my mind).

[Eltharon]

Why are the elves racial enemies different costs, despite being identical?

Originally Posted by Eltharon

Why are the elves racial enemies different costs, despite being identical?

Whoops that is a typo. They should both be -20. Corrected.

Here are new versions using Spell Perks (modeled on the Leprechaun Charms in DF3):

Originally Posted by GURPS Midnight 4e

Elf, snow: 55pts.
Advantages: DX+2 [40], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +2 [4], Perception +1 [5], Will +1 [5], Magery 0 [5], Spell Perk x2 [2], Temperature Tolerance 3 (cold) [3].

Disadvantages: ST-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6 or less) [-20]

Lenses:
Snow Elf Culture: 7 pts.
Bow at DX+0 [2], Main-Gauche at DX+0 [2], Naturalist at IQ-2 [1], Survival (Arctic) at Per+0 [2]


Elf, forest: 45 pts.
Advantages: DX+2 [40], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +3 [6], Perception +1 [5], Will +1 [5], Magery 0 [5], Spell Perk x3 [3].

Disadvantages: ST-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6 or less) [-20].

Lenses:
Forest Elf Culture: 8pts.
Bow at DX+0 [2], Broadsword at DX+0 [2], Naturalist at IQ-1 [2], Survival (Woodlands) at Per+0 [2].

Elf, sea: 54pts.
Advantages: DX+2 [40], Breath Holding 1 [2], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +2 [4], Perception +1 [5], Will +1 [5], Magery 0 [5], Spell Perk x2 [2].

Disadvantages: ST-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6 or less) [-20].

Lenses:
Sea Elf Culture: 9pts.
Spear at DX+0 [2], Spear Throwing at DX+1 [2], Naturalist at IQ-2 [1], Survival (Island/Coastal) at Per+0 [2], Swimming at HT+1 [2]

Elf, jungle: 57 pts.
Advantages: DX+2 [40], Combat Reflexes [15], Extended Lifespan x3 [6], Extra Spell Energy +2 [4], Perception+2 [10], Will +1 [5], Magery 0 [5], Spell Perk x2 [2].

Disadvantages: HT-1 [-10], Racial Enemy (Shadow forces, 6 or less) [-20]
Lenses:
Jungle Elf Culture: 8pts.: Bow at DX-1 [1], Main-Gauche at DX+1 [4], Naturalist at IQ-2 [1], Survival (Jungle) at Per+0 [2].

Spell Perks: Some races have spell perks. Spell perks are similar to Fixed Magic from GURPS Fantasy but they work a little differently. Each spell perk costs one CP and allows the character to learn one spell that has no spell prerequisites (all other prerequisites are ignored -- e.g. Magery levels). Normal skill cost is still paid for the spell. Magery levels affect it normally if applicable. The GM has final say as to which spells can be taken as Spell Perks and may also make other spells available as perks.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Ogbendog

basically LorR, but Sauron WON.

So Evil (mostly) rules the world. Magic is rare, illegal, hard to come by, magical healing even more so. I've not read it, but it looked like it could be fun to do in GURPs.

I was thinking making most of the world Necromantically aspected, so a bonus to necromantic spells, and a penalty to healing

I get that the whole "Necromancy is easy / Healing is hard" thing is a "dark fantasy" standard, but honestly I'm not really seeing how it fits in here if we're talking about a literal victory by the character Sauron over the actual setting Middle Earth and not using those terms as shorthand for "a typical-looking fantasy setting that has been subjugated by its in-house BBEG."

I see no reason to believe that Sauron Victorious would be capable of altering the worldwide aspect of the mana at all, or that he'd want to make it easier for people to contact and control the dead if he could. Ghosts are a fact of the setting, not something particularly associated with Mordor outside of its epic battlefields littered with enough violent death to Necromantically aspect a nursery.

I think we'd see it go in the direction of "wizards still do whatever they think they're supposed to do unless directly mind-controlled on an individual basis, but it's harder for them to accomplish anything without acting directly because the population fears what Sauron will do to them if they play along."

Under this model, Healers are still hard to come by because a) They always were, it's a major plot point when somebody gets brought back from death's door in this setting and because b) They mostly work for Sauron, providing one of the things that his free-willed minion majority would logically desire. Disloyal healers suffer no environmental penalties to spellcasting, they're just hard to find because they're put to the sword by the regime whenever possible.

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

I get that the whole "Necromancy is easy / Healing is hard" thing is a "dark fantasy" standard, but honestly I'm not really seeing how it fits in here if we're talking about a literal victory by the character Sauron over the actual setting Middle Earth and not using those terms as shorthand for "a typical-looking fantasy setting that has been subjugated by its in-house BBEG."
...

I will not dispute your points about an alternate Middle Earth. But Midnight is not set in Middle Earth (FFG's website). Midnight's BBEG, Izrador, is actually an evil chaos god that took control of the world (as an unintended side effect of being cast down by the other gods). All other gods are locked out of the world and the only clerics left are Izrador's. So the "Shadow" that is changing the metaphysics of the world of Midnight is directly linked to the evil god. The setting is pretty grim with most "fey" races being actively hunted by Izrador's priests and orc and humanoid armies, undead roaming the land, and everyone else subjugated under corrupt human governments and evil clergy.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by synistar

But Midnight is not set in Middle Earth

Gotcha.

Originally Posted by synistar

Midnight's BBEG, Izrador, is actually an evil chaos god that took control of the world (as an unintended side effect of being cast down by the other gods). All other gods are locked out of the world and the only clerics left are Izrador's. So the "Shadow" that is changing the metaphysics of the world of Midnight is directly linked to the evil god. The setting is pretty grim with most "fey" races being actively hunted by Izrador's priests and orc and humanoid armies, undead roaming the land, and everyone else subjugated under corrupt human governments and evil clergy.

That does sound pretty grim, but I'm still not seeing the necromancy connection honestly. Why not do global aspecting of Chaos vs Order or Good vs Evil if a single evil chaos god has given the other deities the boot? You could give out a big bonus to spells that violate the "natural" state of things (including but not limited to the zombies) and penalize those that restore it, for example, or give a bonus to spells cast in hatred and a penalty to those cast in love or whatever. Either way sets up a magical continuum with Healers at the short end and something that logically progresses from having an "evil chaos god" at the long end. (Edit: That's how I'd do it anyway) :)