Converting NPCs from AD&D to GURPS

[Witchking]

Originally Posted by Valadrim

Here is my first NPC. I decided to mostly build him from concept, but I took a few of NineDaysDead's ideas for tweaking scores to my liking.

Interesting...as the previous poster mentioned he will have...difficulty with mages.

I would not worry so much about instakill spells (HT resists) as mindmucking spells (IQ/Will Resisted).

The 150 pt/50 dis mage that I built for the most recent run I was in (low fantasy) would not have a ton of difficulty working around this gentleman...and he only had 3 Mental spells but Foolishness and Daze can get a lot of yardage handled properly. Invisibility and some of the others would also be...useful.

A true "Psi Cop" with Mental Control spells up to Enslave would be a potential grave difficulty for the prince.

If I were building him I would do it a little different (for that type of "hard charger" I do not think I would buy down Will for one instance.); if handed it to play as a pregen the first things I would do (in a High Fantasy setting) would be A- buy some enchanted items based around Magic Resistance spell etc. B- hiring at least one (better a number of unaquainted) mages to work in my employ long term to have coverage in those areas.

As to the PCs deciding to kill the prince..my first thought is how?

If it is a social event...they will not be armed and armoured...at best they will be in their best doublet and hose...with a rapier or similiar "social" weapon.

They will not be alone with the prince...most of the court will be there in similar social gear. Many "may" be useless social butterflies, many may be otherwise.

Some will be loyal and will fight to defend, some may not be loyal, but will see advantage in being publically seen as being so and thus may fight also.

Then there would be the princes guards...this isnt a social occasion to them...this is another day on the job...sure they just stand around vaguely like statues almost blending into the furniture...until something like this happens. And they will be fully caprisioned in the best tactical gear that money can buy!!

Killing the Prince would be nigh impossible (IMHO), surviving the attempt doubly so...

These are a couple of my early thoughts...

Good Luck and enjoy!!!

[JCurwen3]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

Strength Conversion
Based on comparing AD&D 2nd Ed Max Press to GURPS 4th Ed Heavy Encumbrance

I like your conversions. But are you sure that Max Press is conceptually the same as Heavy Enc?

I would have thought it'd be 8xBL, as per p. B15, "Quadrupling the time, and using two hands, you can lift 8xBL overhead". Max Press as presented in AD&D doesn't seem like it's meant to represent a weight you're going to be expected to lug around with you, but rather how much you can lift at maximum strain. It's the statistic that corresponds to the real-life max amount of weight that professional weightlifters can lift (I recall there even being a statistic cited comparing the then record holder's max lift with an 18/00 guy's Max Press), but that value by no means would correspond to what they could realistically sustain lifting like that.

As a total aside, is anyone aware of any good conversion between original D&D (pre-1st ed) ability scores and either GURPS attributes or even AD&D 2nd ed ability scores? Because I wanted to convert some really old things out of the D&D Immortals set and my gut is that those ability scores are not 1:1 with either GURPS or less obviously with AD&D 2nd ed.

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by JCurwen3

I like your conversions. But are you sure that Max Press is conceptually the same as Heavy Enc?

I would have thought it'd be 8xBL, as per p. B15, "Quadrupling the time, and using two hands, you can lift 8xBL overhead".

My conversion gives Strength 10-11 as equalling ST 10, and Strength 18/00 as equalling ST 20. Your method would give something like:

AD&D 2nd Ed___GURPS 4th Ed
Strength________ST
10-11___________9 [-10]
12-13___________10 [0]
14-15___________10 [0]
16______________11 [10]
17______________12 [20]
18______________12 [20]
18/01-50________13 [30]
18/51-75________14 [40]
18/76-90________15 [50]
18/91-99________16 [60]
18/00___________18 [80]
19______________20 [100]

[NineDaysDead]

Originally Posted by Valadrim

Darien Avan

What are the components of the bloodline power modifier?

[Valadrim]

Originally Posted by Witchking

Interesting...as the previous poster mentioned he will have...difficulty with mages.

I would not worry so much about instakill spells (HT resists) as mindmucking spells (IQ/Will Resisted).

As is often my failure, I didn't contemplate the way that magic would uniquely intersect with this issue. I am thinking that I should give him (and all people with great bloodlines) Magic Resistance 3 (Switchable +10%). I don't know how I should handle blooded mages at the moment. But it seems out of genre for these great scions to be simply commanded by a mage. I will have to think on the subject.

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

What are the components of the bloodline power modifier?

I don't have a copy of Powers so I had to guess, perhaps you can help me establish it.

When the gods of this world fought and died their energies were sent out, those closest to them (literally and figuratively) were raised up to be new gods, those slightly further off gained True bloodlines such as Roele the soon to be emperor (and brother of new god Haelyn) and the Gorgon. Further down the ladder are those with Great, then Major, then Minor, then last were the people barely at the battle, or with only minor spiritual/moral connections to the gods; these people have Tainted bloodlines.

The principal benefit of having a bloodline is that it allows you to have a mystical connection to the land (or its institutions), effectively limiting the ruling class to people with a bloodline. It also acts as an unusual background allowing people to have blood abilities

Furthermore, blooded scions gain regency from wise or affective rule. This they can spend (in small amounts) to improve the chances of success for most large scale actions to run their domain. Or they can spend very large amounts of it to fractionally strengthen their bloodline.

Regents (scions who rule) effectively have a pact limitation forcing them to protect their domain and to maintain their alignment. Ignoring either will reduce both their regency and diminish their bloodline.

Everyone knows that anyone who strikes down a scion by stabbing him/her in the heart gains a measure of their power. Anyone from some random peasant to your own brother may attempt to kill you in this fashion. The principal antagonist NPC has hunted for and claimed the flower of Anuriean nobility once every generation for the last several centuries. There exists a dozen or so weapons which are remarkably efficient at this bloodtheft.

Lastly a scion may pass on the full strength of their bloodline to an heir, possibly at sword point, but not under magical compulsion. Once passed on the scion loses all benefits of their bloodline.

[Rasputin]

Originally Posted by NineDaysDead

My conversion gives Strength 10-11 as equalling ST 10, and Strength 18/00 as equalling ST 20.

It's easiest to give a straight Str = ST for D&D 3e/4e, and more or less correct too. For earlier editions, you might go with Str/2+5 = ST, with a bonus for exceptional strength. Lifting ability is not important to D&D, so don't fret about it too much.