GURPS Earthdawn

[Jürgen Hubert]

I know there have been a bunch of GURPS conversions for Earthdawn over the years, and since I've used the current Christmas in July sale at DriveThruRPG I have also become interested in this issue.

Here are my initial thoughts:

- Each adept path has its own GURPS "Adept Talent", which covers the core skills of that path. It also counts as "Power Talent" for the power-ups of that path, and should likely cost 10 CP/level.

- Most of the Earthdawn talents for that path can be described as "Power-Ups" in the style of GURPS Dungeon fantasy, with prerequisites based on skill level, talent level, or other advantages. They should generally have the Magic power modifier (-10%).

What I am unsure of is how to model spellcasting and spell matrixes. Any ideas?

[Ptaloth]

It has been a long time since i last played earthdawn. But i would use corrupting magic from GURPS Horror, for Spellcasting without a matrix.
And i would add an element of randomness to the fixed corruption pointcosts.
The player should not know how much attention from horrors he has.
Perhaps you could have taintlevels as a replacement for manalevels, that modify the corruption mechanic further.

A Spellmatrix would be an EnergyReserve with "preperation required", that bypasses the corruption mechanic.

If you do the spells as powers, you could have modular abilities, with little advantages, that buy off corruption limitations for a specific spell.

[Kalzazz]

Spell Matrices are Modular Ability slots would be my take.

I would make it 'Spell slot, spells I have in my grimoire, X%' and try to figure out how to do 'takes 10 minutes normally, or 1 second if I make a XYZ roll and burn 1 HP'

Then you would need to either convert the spells, or arrange GURPS spells into appropriate discipline/circle charts etc

I wouldn't make people buy individual spells with CP, that is one of the features I loved about Earthdawn 1e (you find a spell, you put it in your grimoire, life is good) and hate hate hated about Earthdawn 2e (You spend your LP to get more spells?! WRONG!)

Durability is just buying extra HP
Taunt corresponds nicely to Rapier Wit

Of course, there are like 5 (1e, 2e, Classic, 3e, 4e . . . is that all?) different takes on Earthdawn, which all have different takes on the Magic system, so you need to figure out which if any you are trying to emulate

Also you need to determine the relationship if any between Talents/Skills. For instance, if you look at 1e Melee Weapons Talent / Melee Weapons Skill they are pretty much both 'Melee Weapons!', any melee weapon you can pick up you can use with it (but none of the other cool stuff Wildcards give you if I recall)

2e the Skill needs to be specialized, so its say 'Broadsword' vs 'Melee Weapons!'

When I do Earthdawn its an unholy mish mash of (mostly) 1e and 2e with sundry house rules and tweaks tossed in for the sheer fun of it . . . . . so it makes it hard for me to remember exactly how RAW Earthdawn is supposed to work, made even harder since so many versions of RAW Earthdawn!

[Jürgen Hubert]

Originally Posted by Kalzazz

Spell Matrices are Modular Ability slots would be my take.

What about casting spells via raw magic, though?

[Kalzazz]

I'd put some kind of reflexive, reduced time with loads of penalties on the modular ability as an option, to reflect 'you can, if you are suitably desperate or dumb, save a second or so by casting raw'

I wouldn't worry to much about it though . . . casting raw magic is in my experience used somewhere between never and very rarely

Among other things, the times when you are in dire straits enough to contemplate it are usually in corrupt areas where its suicide. In the more safe areas, you usually aren't desperate enough to try it