MRQ2 Conversion of Midnight D20 Setting

[ryhopewood]

Hi all

I'm going to post my conversion notes for the D20 setting Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games in this thread. All comments gratefully received.

I'm going to start with the races. D20 races are a combination of racial abilities (characteristics and traits) and cultural backgrounds.

Thanks, Ian

 

[ryhopewood]

Dorns
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
STR+2, SIZ 2D6+7, INT 2D6+4
Traits: none
Starting age: 15 + 1D6

Sarcosans
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
SIZ 2D6+4, INT 2D6+8, POW-2, CHA+2
Traits: none
Starting age: 15 + 1D6

Erenlanders
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook.
Traits: none
Starting age: 15 + 1D6

 

[ryhopewood]

Dwarves
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
CON+2, CHA-2
Traits: Dark Sight, Hide*, Magic Resistance*, Movement 6m
Starting age: 40 + 6D6

New Traits
Hide: Dwarves have a thick hide-like skin, which gives them natural armour worth one AP over all hit locations. This does not give rise to an armour penalty.
Magic Resistance: Dwarves are innately resistant to the power of magic. They gain +20% to any Evade, Persistence, or Resilience test to resist spell effects that do not take effect automatically. However, they also incur a casting penalty of -10% when they themselves attempt to cast a spell.

 

[ryhopewood]

Caransil (wood elves)
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
CON-2, SIZ 2D4+3, POW+2, DEX+2
Traits: Night Sight
Starting age: 110 + 6D6

Danisil (jungle elves)
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
CON-2, SIZ 2D4+2, POW+2, DEX+2
Traits: Night Sight
Starting age: 110 + 6D6

Erunsil (snow elves)
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
CON-2, SIZ 2D4+4, POW+2, DEX+2
Traits: Cold Resistance*, Night Sight
Starting age: 110 + 6D6

New Trait
Cold Resistance: The erunsil are immune to exposure arising from natural cold because of their adaptation to the harsh conditions in the northern forests. However, they suffer damage from magical cold effects as normal.

Miransil (sea elves)
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
CON-2, SIZ 2D4+2, POW+2, DEX+2
Traits: Natural Swimmer*, Night Sight
Starting age: 110 + 6D6

New Trait
Natural Swimmer: The miransil are excellent swimmers and have adapted to a semi-aquatic life. They gain the benefits of the Excellent Swimmer trait. They are never unprepared to hold their breath to avoid drowning and are able to hold it for a number of seconds equal to CON x20.

 

[ryhopewood]

Gnomes
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
STR-2, SIZ 2D2+1, CHA 4D6
Traits: Magic Resistance, Movement 6m, Night Sight
Starting age: 40 + 5D6

New Trait
Magic Resistance: Gnomes are innately resistant to the power of magic. They gain +20% to any Evade, Persistence, or Resilience test to resist spell effects that do not take effect automatically. However, they also incur a casting penalty of -10% when they themselves attempt to cast a spell.

Halflings
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
STR-2, SIZ 2D2, DEX+2
Traits: Fearless*, Movement 6m, Night Sight
Starting age: 40 + 5D6

New Trait
Fearless: Halflings demonstrate great fortitude in the face of danger, partly due to their inherent self-confidence and curiosity. They gain +20% to any Persistence test to resist fear, intimidation, and terror.

Orcs
Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers:
STR 4D6, SIZ 2D6+13, INT-2, CHA-2
Traits: Cold Resistance*, Dark Sight, Magic Resistance*
Starting age: 14 + 1D6

New Traits
Cold Resistance: Orcs are immune to exposure arising from natural cold because of their adaptation to the harsh conditions in the northern marches. However, they suffer damage from magical cold effects as normal.
Magic Resistance: Orcs are innately resistant to the power of magic. They gain +20% to any Evade, Persistence, or Resilience test to resist spell effects that do not take effect automatically. However, they also incur a casting penalty of -10% when they themselves attempt to cast a spell.

 

[ryhopewood]

Cultural backgrounds for each race to follow ...

 

[Deleriad]

I don't know the setting but I'm always interested in conversions and so on. The stats are a bit confusing. For example for gnomes you say Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers: STR-2, SIZ 2D2+1, CHA 4D6

Does that mean human characteristics?

Traditionally in RQ it is simpler to just give characteristic rolls so gnomes would be:
STR 3D6-2, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D2+1, INT 2D6+6, POW 3D6, DEX 3D6, CHA 4D6 (if I am understanding you correctly).

Just from looking at that there is a huge imbalance between STR & SIZ. Size wise you are talking about something the same size as a common dog. Pound for pound that looks to make gnomes stronger than pretty much everything. The high CHA also looks out of place. why is a gnome so much more charismatic than a human for example? (There may be good answers as I don't know the setting). On a purely mechanical level I might be tempted to change the characteristics to:
STR 1D6+3, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D2+1, INT 2D6+6, POW 3D6, DEX 3D6, CHA 3D6 (unless there's a reason for high CHA).

Obviously this is simply inferior to a human but RQ, unlike d20, makes no pretence at balance. You simply assign the numbers to fit the concept.

 

[ryhopewood]

I don't know the setting but I'm always interested in conversions and so on. The stats are a bit confusing. For example for gnomes you say Characteristics: Use the guidelines from Chapter 1 of the RuneQuest 2 core rulebook with the following modifiers: STR-2, SIZ 2D2+1, CHA 4D6

Does that mean human characteristics?

Traditionally in RQ it is simpler to just give characteristic rolls so gnomes would be:
STR 3D6-2, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D2+1, INT 2D6+6, POW 3D6, DEX 3D6, CHA 4D6 (if I am understanding you correctly).

Just from looking at that there is a huge imbalance between STR & SIZ. Size wise you are talking about something the same size as a common dog. Pound for pound that looks to make gnomes stronger than pretty much everything. The high CHA also looks out of place. why is a gnome so much more charismatic than a human for example? (There may be good answers as I don't know the setting). On a purely mechanical level I might be tempted to change the characteristics to:
STR 1D6+3, CON 3D6, SIZ 2D2+1, INT 2D6+6, POW 3D6, DEX 3D6, CHA 3D6 (unless there's a reason for high CHA).

Obviously this is simply inferior to a human but RQ, unlike d20, makes no pretence at balance. You simply assign the numbers to fit the concept.

Thanks for the feedback and sorry if the stat block was confusing. I was copying the style for races in the Elric setting book. Luckily you've worked out what I was doing in any case.

As far as the modifiers go, most are simply mapped across from the corresponding bonuses / penalties in D20. So I interpreted a -2 to STR score in D20 to correspond to a -2 to STR in MRQ2 (since both use 3D6 for most human stats). In a couple of places the D20 bonus was +4, which for MRQ2 I've interpreted as an extra D6 (since the average is 3.5). The exception to this is SIZ, which is based on the average weight of a creature as stated in the Midnight core book and the revised BRP SIZ table from BRP Central. In all cases, I tried to keep a bell-shaped curve (or at least a central tendency value).

As far as your general comment about why does race X have such and such better than race Y, on the face of it I agree wholeheartedly with you. However, it is a convention in most fantasy RPGs and D20 especially, so I'm just going with the vanilla setting conversion rather than re-engineer it to be a more realistic biological interpretation. :wink: