Dark Sun using DCC

[Lightning Lord]

I'm not sure what subforum this thread should go in, but it says "conversions to other systems" in the description of this one, so I guess this is the place!

Anyway I just got the corebook last Friday and it got me thinking that DCC is pretty much the perfect system for Dark Sun, one of my favorite roleplaying settings ever. The mechanics of the game are easily usable for the setting's flavor. The character funnel is can be done as a slave rebellion. Athas is filled with patrons. Sorcerer-Kings, various Elemental Lords and demonic entities. The magic system is perfect for depicting the destruction that Defiling magic has on the natural world.

The major stuff that would have to be done is adding a psionic subsystem, distinguishing between Defiling magic and active attempts to Preserve, modifying Elves, Dwarves and Halflings to fit the Dark Sun mold, and creating Gladiator, Mul, Half-Giant and Thri-Kreen classes. Does anyone have any resources for this sort of thing already?

Dark Sun was always very Appendix N in feel. What's more old school than a Dying Earth world in the tradition of Jack Vance or Clark Ashton Smith?

[beermotor]

I used these in my Secret of Bone Hill pbp which seems to be on hiatus right now... but I'm also using them in my tabletop game.

K’kriich are large, insect-like creatures with a highly developed, aggressive culture. They have hard, chitinous carapace armor, and six legs, all attached to their thorax, which end in clawed "hands" with four roughly opposable "fingers" (they tend to form a "V" shape). They are divided into castes, and each hive is ruled by a Queen. Around the Queen are several male Consorts, or Princes, who serve no other function but to perpetuate the species. Beneath the Queen and her Consorts are Workers and Soldiers. Workers are generally cowardly, but quite good at ambushing the unwary, and because of their extra limbs they can climb vertical surfaces with ease, or wield multiple weapons—they’re fond of a slingshot with one pair, and javelins or spears with the other. Soldiers are larger, heavily armored, and much more fearsome than Workers. They’re also smarter, and many can speak intelligently, whereas Workers can only mimic a few phrases without any understanding. The Queen directs her subjects through a mystical telepathy, and while Workers are mostly mindless, they do have some autonomy as to how they accomplish tasks set before them, and Soldiers enjoy more freedom to decide how to do something, though they still rely on the Queen to tell them what to do. Killing a Queen sends a hive into a panicked frenzy of self slaughter, as the Soldiers vie with each other to survive and become the next Queen.

K’kriich war with each other as much as they do with other races, as each hive competes for resources with everyone and everything around it. K’kriich are omnivorous, and grow their own fungus food underground, but also harvest above ground plants, meat, and anything else they can scavenge.

K’kriich Workers: Init +0; Atk claw/claw +1 melee (1d4+2), weapons (varies); AC 14; HD 2d6; No. Appearing 1d3; Mv 30’ (standard), 20’ (vertical/walls); Act 2d20 (claw or weapon/claw or weapon); SP speech mimicry: workers can, and will, imitate PC languages and battle cries, prayers, attempts at dialogue, etc, although they understand none of it and don’t care one whit for conversation, surprise: on 1-3; Fort +1, Ref +8, Will +3; AL N.

K’kriich Soldiers: Init +4 (d20s or d16s as appropriate); Atk claws +4 melee (1d5+2), weapons +4 (varies); AC 16; HD 10d3; No. Appearing 1d3; Mv 30’ (standard), 20’ (vertical/walls); Act 4d20 (4 claws, or 4 weapons, or combination) or 2d20 (two-handed weapons); SP speech: can communicate in rudimentary fashion, although their viewpoints are decidedly alien, surprise: on 1-3; Fort +5, Ref +10, Will +7; AL N.

[finarvyn]

Nice stuff. I like the DARK SUN world because it's creepy and harsh at the same time. I hadn't really thought about it in terms of DCC, but it seems to fit.

[Lightning Lord]

Well, I've decided to work up some house rules for playing Dark Sun in DCC. I've started a blog, but don't have anything done yet, so this is just a heads-up. If any of you guys have any ideas, feel free to fire them my way.

I do have a question for the forum though: Should I do Gladiator as a completely separate and new class, or something like a kit for Warriors?

I need to make my own theme (I'm not very good at that sort of thing, I'll probably just put some Brom art up as the background) the balloons are just a placeholder!

http://dccdarksun.wordpress.com/

[GnomeBoy]

Should I do Gladiator as a completely separate and new class, or something like a kit for Warriors?

Not being critical, but trying to help you get at it: Why does it need to be anything other than an Occupation and the Warrior class? What doesn't work about the Warrior, as is?

[themightyeroc]

Should I do Gladiator as a completely separate and new class, or something like a kit for Warriors?

Not being critical, but trying to help you get at it: Why does it need to be anything other than an Occupation and the Warrior class? What doesn't work about the Warrior, as is?

I concur, keep things simple. Make Gladiator an occupation. That way anybody could have been sentenced to the Blood Pits, but now that they survived the funnel if you choose to become a Warrior Class your effectively a bad-ass Gladiator. While others who survived can choose other classes as they see fit.

I would also just make Half-Giant & Thri-kreen a Race as Class similar to Elves and Dwarves.

Keep Halflings as is, after all it is really just window dressing that makes them different in Dark Sun.

Even the Preservation and Defiling effects of magic are window dressing as well. Maybe make a cool D24 or D30 chart to roll on for different manifestations when using magic.

As for the Mul, weren't they a Dwarf/human mutt??? I would just use the DCC Dwarf as is and call it the Mul. This way they get the cool shield attack but with those wicked horny toad spiked turtle shields!!!

[Tortog]

Neat idea! I confess that my game groups over the years haven't had much interest in that setting; mostly because of the psionics. Here's a few ideas that occurred to me after reading the thread... relying entirely on GM instinct...

I suspect psionics will be your biggest challenge (and the lion's share of your work) for conversion to DCC. I'd handle the 'preserver' / 'defiler' aspect with a new set of specific Mercurial Magic results... and possibly adding a few 'benign' patrons that are geared towards the 'preserver' mind-set, but the Elf King and the World Tree in the core rules would also work. I agree with the others, gladiator as occupation seems best. I've been doing a lot of research into gladiators lately for another project I'm working on and something to consider is that it was quite common for Roman citizens to actually enter into the various gladiator schools/societies voluntarily as an occupation and they fought as free men, not as slaves. Like WWF in the modern age, becoming a gladiator was a 'fast-track' to fame and wealth for those who could survive and give a good show. Even Roman Emperors were known to have competed in these games. Though it might be fun to create a few generic MDoA charts that are geared/styled for gladiators and their special equipment.

PS> I would go to the trouble of making new races and classes. As I recall, in Dark Sun those spiky shields are available to anyone who can use a shield. So if there's no other difference between a dwarf and a mul, then what's the point of playing a mul? I should think that at the very least, a mul would have a better move rate than dwarves or humans because they have a human's size, and a dwarf's muscles.

[Karaptis]

Why not make the sorcerer kings patrons? Some wizards can be defilers and templars which are minions of their respective sorcerer king patron. The other wizards can be preservers. Just get rid of psionics altogether. Make a Mul and let the overpowered Half Giant and Thri kreen NPCs. No gods and clerics worship elemental powers as usual.

[Karaptis]

I would make the elves part of that last forest and the King of Elfland the opposing force to the sorcerer kings.