Game Book & RPG Rules

[Winter Wolf]

The current thinking seems to be that the new RPG will be very close in structure to the new game books. This raises a number of interesting lines of thought.

Will we able to use any of the following straight out of the gamebooks in the RPG?

Enemy stats?
Herbs and potions?
Equipment rules?

If this is the case it certainly removes some of the pressure for large numbers of RPG source books.

Will the new Gamebooks use exactly the same rules as the old ones or will they be more advanced to work along side the new RPG?

The new mini adventures that are being placed in book 2 to 28 and cover different characters from those books. Will they in effect provide rules for new classes that could be used in the RPG. So book 2 would give us Rhygar and the Sommelending Knight rules?

If that is the case what characters and classes would people like to see in books 2 to 28?

Just a few musings WW

[MongooseMatt]

Hi there,

I have been working on a draft of the RPG, but it is very early days yet, so take everything with a pinch of salt.

The rules system is _very_ close to the gamebooks, to the extent that you can indeed lift monsters and equipment straight from them. It is a very easy and rules-lite game that concentrates on the actual play rather than hot character builds.

Everything you need is included in the first book, though we have drawn up possible plans for another six or seven. That said, one of them would be an entire campaign, while another two would cover different parts of Magnamun (which could easily be replaced by a new Magnamund Companion, if we go ahead with that project). The 'hot' books will be the first (core rules), second ('advanced' rules and new character types), and third (the campaign).

[Mage]

SO the RPG game system will be completeyly different? If I remember correctly the old system was d20, right?

[Hellebore]

This sounds really good.

I know it's early but will the actual combat mechanics reflect the combat table in the gamebooks?

Or will you use the CS stat and figure out a different way? Say, You roll an attack and compare it to your CS and who ever gets a better roll?

IE A)CS 24 VS B)CS 20

A) rolls 12
B) rolls 11

A) score is 12 points lower than their CS
B) score is 9 points lower than their CS

Thus A) wins (by 3 points).

Sort of a degrees of success type of thing (A got 12 DoS and B got 9 DoS).

Otherwise, the combat table is really only good for solo adventure - the PC makes all the rolls and the GM just looks up the result on the table.

EDIT: Or, to be really complicated, you could just roll a d20/d10 and add the CS of characters, and whoever gets highest wins . The difference in the scores dictates the combat ratio you look up.


I'm really looking forward to the release of this - the simple system in LW shifted the focus onto the story rather than the rules, which was good.

Hellebore

[Winter Wolf]

SO the RPG game system will be completeyly different? If I remember correctly the old system was d20, right?

Yes the new system is going to be much simpler. The old system was OGL and a simplified d20. I liked it, it was a good implementation of d20 for Maganmund. I was disapointed to see it go.

My hope for the new system is that along with the new game books and novels it can serve as a pathway into RPGs for some new blood. It will also provide a great interval game something that can be picked up and played through with little preperation. The simplicity of the rules would lend themselves to more narative play such as play by email.

As you may have guessed I'm really looking forward to this..

[MongooseMatt]

My hope for the new system is that along with the new game books and novels it can serve as a pathway into RPGs for some new blood. It will also provide a great interval game something that can be picked up and played through with little preperation. The simplicity of the rules would lend themselves to more narative play such as play by email.

That is pretty much exactly what we are aiming for. . .

[Winter Wolf]

I have been working on a draft of the RPG, but it is very early days yet, so take everything with a pinch of salt.

Hi Matt thanks for the update I wont hold you to anything.

The rules system is _very_ close to the gamebooks, to the extent that you can indeed lift monsters and equipment straight from them. It is a very easy and rules-lite game that concentrates on the actual play rather than hot character builds.

This sounds very good anything that allows GMs and player to use material from the books has got to be good. I'm happy with this.

Everything you need is included in the first book, though we have drawn up possible plans for another six or seven. That said, one of them would be an entire campaign, while another two would cover different parts of Magnamun (which could easily be replaced by a new Magnamund Companion, if we go ahead with that project). The 'hot' books will be the first (core rules), second ('advanced' rules and new character types), and third (the campaign).

I like the idea of the hot books to make sure we get a complete system. If the two books would have covered Northern and Southern Magnamund I think to be honest I would go for that rather than a new companion. That said if the two region books are basically a reprint of the gazateer from the d20 Lone Wolf RPG without changes I would rather see the companion.

Something else that I would like to see to make games even easier to run, and if this is an introductory system that should be a consideration, is a good collection of random encounter table for creatures, events and places in different locals. Black Industries produced a superb set of these in their GM toolkit. As well as making a GMs job much more straight forward it would provide a good test bed for fans to test their own creations against. It also fits in very well with the game books.

Thanks again for the update.

WW

[Mage]

Well, wizards are meant ot be withdrawing the d20 license anyway right? Seems a new system is vital for the company to survive.

I'm sure you can still pick up the old game books.


Diferent question, at matt:
If the d20 thing gets withdrawn, as I am sure it will, does that mean you are no longer allowed to print anything you have done in the past with d20, or am i totally wrong? I hope I am.

[Etepete]

I didn't buy old Lone Wolf RPG, since I'm not a huge d20 fan (even though o I _do_ play and immensly enjoy Conan , since this'll be so close to the old gamebooks I'm most certainly gonna pick it up

I really look forward to this

[Balgin Stondraeg]

I'm not sure I like the sound of this. It looks like they're aiming too simple. Now I don't want some overcomplicated system with a rule for everything (think rolemaster people) but when something's so simple as to have great holes in the system (think Advanced Fighting Fantasy) then it needs a little more refinement.

Gamebooks can get by on slimmed down rulesets because they only need to cope with one player character. As soon as you introduce more players then things become complicated to the degree that more complex rules are required due to players interracting with each other.

[Flarn]

what about stats for the d20 version?

[Mage]

If it is new and the goose did it, it will rock, so don't worry!

[Xex]

I'm really, really happy to hear that monsters and stuff can be ported over STRAIGHT without any conversion; or at least thats what mongoose seems to be aiming for.

I totally am with this.

Seriously guys, when in doubt go straight with simplicity. The d20 version was great, and I had (and may have again) tons of fun with it, playing and running games. But I think something that is compatible to the system in the books is definately the way to go, with only certain tweaks here and there.

I would also like if 'classes' were powered down as a whole; LW was not all that strong in the kai and magnakai books, and even in the grandmaster books it was still possible for him to die with a single hit by an arrow!

Also, the core book really shoudl cover everything we need and some cool stuff beyond; basically I would like 'classes' that cover mundane people, both to use as npc's and perhaps even as pc's. Kind of like wfrp v1 and v2; you can have guardsmen, watchmen, etc etc. Then you can have a separate section for the 'heroic' classes with your kai, bcs, vakeros, shianti, dessi, pathfinders, border rangers, archers, mercenaries etc.

The heroic would be similar stat wise to the mundane classes, the only thing setting them apart would be their abilities (kai disciplines, spells, etc) and specialized training.

btw, who is going to be the writer on this?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

I would also like if 'classes' were powered down as a whole; LW was not all that strong in the kai and magnakai books, and even in the grandmaster books it was still possible for him to die with a single hit by an arrow!

Yep, the LWd20 stuff was seriously overpowered (a bit). :p

One of the best things about the original gamebooks was how Lone Wolf was still human and that his mortality was something I was very mucha ware of. It made the dangers seem greater and my achievements all the more speciail once I knew how difficult they'd been .

[phantomdoodler]

I am beginning to get rather excited about the new system. I do like the sound of it. I sssume its a single d10 only, with possibly an expanded combat results table (such as critical hits etc). That could work very well. In the books there are basically two mechanics: For combat, compare your CS to your opponents, roll d10 and looking up the results in the appropriate column. This would work well for any contested skill test. Compare your skill to your targets, then roll on the appropriate column, with an appropriate success/ failure level.
The other mechanic used seems to be roll d10 plus mods, to get a target number.
I would think it best to just have one system in place , so either reduce combat to d10 plus CS, needing to beat your targets roll (or a static number), or use the combat results table (or rather Skill Results Table) to solve all actions. you look up your skill level, comparing it to either a set number for difficulties, or your targets skill for opposed rolls.

I wonder how stats figure into this. May Combat skill is say Dex (rated 1-10) plus skill rating (again rated 1-10)? Just have to wait like everyone else I suppose

[Sabbak]

The brand new system is perhaps adaptated from the work of the "Grimoire" french translation team.
For your information, you should know that the french association "Le Grimoire" has translated Lone Wolf in french AND has added many pages of a new simplified system that seems to be exactly what Matt's aiming for.

Lucky french RpG players!

See http://www.legrimoire.net/ if you want more info.

[Mac]

Hi there,

I have been working on a draft of the RPG, but it is very early days yet, so take everything with a pinch of salt.

The rules system is _very_ close to the gamebooks, to the extent that you can indeed lift monsters and equipment straight from them. It is a very easy and rules-lite game that concentrates on the actual play rather than hot character builds.

Everything you need is included in the first book, though we have drawn up possible plans for another six or seven. That said, one of them would be an entire campaign, while another two would cover different parts of Magnamun (which could easily be replaced by a new Magnamund Companion, if we go ahead with that project). The 'hot' books will be the first (core rules), second ('advanced' rules and new character types), and third (the campaign).

A complete, stand alone non-D20 RPG.

(sniffle)

Joy!


Mac

[The Wolf]

Back to the basics, always good

[RuneDancer]

Sound akin to the better 'storytelling' games to me

[claes]

Roughly speaking, when is the first book of the rpg planned to be released?