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Message no. 1
From: Reese Laundry <RL3286@******.ACS.BROCKPORT.EDU>
Subject: Earthdawn Magic
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 10:17:21 EDT
I am a relative newbie to SR, but a veteran AD&D player. (Yes, I know
how much you all hate it :) )I want to use the SR magic system for D&D.
I agree that it is theoretically much more sound. It has rules and background
rather than just being there. Anyway, in a fantasy setting the spells
would need to be quite different. Do ED spells more closely resemble
those of D&D or anothe strict fantasy setting? Would the rulebook be
useful in converting the system? Has anyone come up with an easy way
to switch AD&D spells to a SR?ED equivalent?

Thanx for the input (I hope)!

--
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** * **
* Reese Laundry * "Truth has no path, truth *
* State Unversity of * is living and, therefore *
* New York at Brockport * changing." *
* USA * -Bruce Lee *
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* E-mail: RL3286@******.acs.brockport.edu *
** **
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Message no. 2
From: P Ward <P.Ward@**.CF.AC.UK>
Subject: Re: Earthdawn Magic
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 15:23:10 BST
> I am a relative newbie to SR, but a veteran AD&D player. (Yes, I know
> how much you all hate it :) )I want to use the SR magic system for D&D.
> I agree that it is theoretically much more sound. It has rules and background
> rather than just being there. Anyway, in a fantasy setting the spells
> would need to be quite different. Do ED spells more closely resemble
> those of D&D or anothe strict fantasy setting? Would the rulebook be
> useful in converting the system? Has anyone come up with an easy way
> to switch AD&D spells to a SR?ED equivalent?

Hey chummer, not all of use hate **&*, all of us hate T$R, but a few
(me at least) still play **&* regularly, becuase it';s the system
we grew up on... some wierd form of brand loyatly?

Oooohh, converting spells from *&* to SR, a little tricky that one,
mostly don;t do it, a lot of *&* spells are way too powerful to be
put into a SR setting. ED I don;t know about, I don't play it as yet.

I would suggest that you ignore most spells above 3rd level, those're
the ones that'll totally frag up game balance if you ported them
across untouched, things like teleport, etc...

The rest... use the grimmy and a bit of common sense .....

Phil (Renegade)
Message no. 3
From: Sebastian Wiers <seb@***.RIPCO.COM>
Subject: Re: Earthdawn Magic
Date: Fri, 16 Jun 1995 13:32:33 -0500
Sorry to hog SR bandwidth- do not read, I should have forwarded, *&%$# editor
>
> I am a relative newbie to SR, but a veteran AD&D player. (Yes, I know
> how much you all hate it :) )I want to use the SR magic system for D&D.
> I agree that it is theoretically much more sound. It has rules and background
> rather than just being there. Anyway, in a fantasy setting the spells
> would need to be quite different. Do ED spells more closely resemble
> those of D&D or anothe strict fantasy setting? Would the rulebook be
> useful in converting the system? Has anyone come up with an easy way
> to switch AD&D spells to a SR?ED equivalent?

ED magic system is totaly different from SR or AD&D. None of them are
really compatable. The spells in ED more resemble AD&D in power, effect, and
casting, but of course the mechanics are different (and genereally less
arbitrary). SR spells are not as far reaching, although if you take in
metamagic, enchanting, conjouring, and all, I would hessitate to say they are
less powerful. If you want to use the SR magic system in you AD&D campaign,
the entire drain sytem will need to be reworked, althogh I guess you could do
a crude fix with skill tests (or whatever those d20, quasi atribute base
things the whole psionics system is based on are called). But then what will
drain affect? HP? Anyhow, youl need the basic rules books and the grimoire,
and youll do a lot of spell design (and remember, spells can't do every thing).
Youll propbably end up with a game that is niether here nor there, or
something like a new caracter class, allong the lines of the psionist.
Message no. 4
From: "Lindblom Fredrik, Training" <fredrik.lindblom@*******.TELIA.SE>
Subject: Re: Earthdawn Magic
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 10:43:00 PDT
I know this shouldn't be on this mailing list, but what the frag...

> Youll propbably end up with a game that is niether here nor there, or
> something like a new caracter class, allong the lines of the psionist.

Well. I've GM:ed **&* Dark Sun a bit and really like the gameworld. But I
think the **&* rules suck big time, so me and some friends have been trying
to customize them for more realism.

We failed.

All we came up with were very complex rules that were very realistic, but
oh-so-boring.

Then we turned to ED, which, in my opinion, has a neat set of rules as well
as an interesting gameworld. Converting **&* to use ED rules turned out to
be a LOT of work. Especially since we'd like to have ALL the rules, not only
the magic system. One of the things that makes this hard (if not impossible)
is the way the talents work. PCs use magic to fuel their skills. I've been
thinking about saying that, in Dark Sun, Psionics does this , but... Anyway,
then I checked my monstrous compendium, thought about the amount of monsters
I had to convert to the new rules, shook my head, and forgot all about it.

So we gave up, and played ED in Barsaive instead, and it was a lot of fun.

MxM

PS. once again I apologize to the powers-that-be for wasting SR space with
stuff related to other games. It will not happen again. I promise..DS
Message no. 5
From: Tim Serpas <wretch@**.COM>
Subject: Re: Earthdawn Magic
Date: Mon, 19 Jun 1995 13:17:46 -0500
On Mon, 19 Jun 1995, Lindblom Fredrik, Training wrote:
>
> Then we turned to ED, which, in my opinion, has a neat set of rules as well
> as an interesting gameworld. Converting **&* to use ED rules turned out to
> be a LOT of work. Especially since we'd like to have ALL the rules, not only
> the magic system. One of the things that makes this hard (if not impossible)

Maybe we can take this to private e-mail, but I'd like to see some of the
ED rules changes you've used. My own soft spot is for the Forgotten Realms.
Much thanks!

Tim Serpas :Geek Code v.2.1: GS d- H++>+++ s:- !g p1 auVW a- w+ v+ C+
BS Physics : U P? !L !3 E---- N++ K++ W M- !V -po+ Y+>++ t+ !5 j+>$
wretch@**.com: R+ G'' tv+>! b+>++ D+ B-- e++>-- u+ h- f+>* r++ n+ y+

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