Many years ago, in an OSR far, far away, Chgowiz planned an early D&D adaptation of the early Ultima titles. What a great series of games! What a great idea!
It's almost like Forward to Adventure! and its claims to being roguelike, except it might have been good.*
Then everything went to hell and Chgowiz died huffing Raid and walking on sunshine, and the shit never happened.
What system would you use to run a campaign similar to early Ultima titles? I leave it to you to decide what titles you consider early, though my cut-off point is VI (and I don't even like VI much). How much would you have to modify your chosen system to approximate the feel you got from those games?
Personally, I'd love to adopt character creation from one of the later titles--- that series of attribute- and class-determing questions put to you by some old gypsy whore. There's a lot of flavor in that sort of thing, but I just don't see it as re-useable (because game-able) and I favor a game with some PC death.
* Maybe FtA is good, but nobody plays it; it's deader than Alternate Reality: The City; it doesn't even have a forum here.
Quote from: FASERIP;656338Then everything went to hell and Chgowiz died huffing Raid and walking on sunshine, and the shit never happened.
But it did happen -- or almost everything but "magic item (potions, items, spells) creation rules" and setting info was finished at least to playtest level.
Quote"Siege Perilous" is an RPG based on the Ultima Age of Darkness CRPG games - #1 through #3. It is developed from an adaptation of the Swords & Wizardry White Box (1st printing) and uses several other sources - Skathros's S&W Companion Rules, a magic system developed by Arminath, the Minimal Space Combat system by Timoth Swenson and a lot of glue, rewriting, adaptation and content by myself. This game uses names, monsters, spells, settings and features from all 3 of the games.
You can download it here:
http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2009/09/siege-perilous-ultima-rpg-playtest.html
Quote from: FASERIP;656338Then everything went to hell and Chgowiz died huffing Raid and walking on sunshine, and the shit never happened.
Flippant fucketry aside, did Chgowiz really die? It occurs to me I haven't seen his name on any forum for a while...
Ehh, no judgment, but if there were an RPG equivalent of Encyclopedia Dramatica, Chgowiz would have one of the longest pages.
IOW, he's (probably) not dead. And again, no judgment here.
Thanks for the link, Randall.
Any answers to the questions in the OP?
I'll have to have another look at C'Wiz's document to remember my opinion of it. That said, old D&D is always DIY, so I'm looking for opinions outside mine or CWiz.
Quote from: Premier;656364Flippant fucketry aside, did Chgowiz really die?
The Nope Pope says Nope.
Quote from: FASERIP;656338Many years ago, in an OSR far, far away, Chgowiz planned an early D&D adaptation of the early Ultima titles. What a great series of games! What a great idea!
It's almost like Forward to Adventure! and its claims to being roguelike, except it might have been good.*
* Maybe FtA is good, but nobody plays it; it's deader than Alternate Reality: The City; it doesn't even have a forum here.
I'm still getting royalties for FtA!.. meanwhile, you're talking about a game that literally does not exist.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RandallS;656361You can download it here:
http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2009/09/siege-perilous-ultima-rpg-playtest.html
Curiously, Siege Perilous overlooked an opportunity to dump alignment wholesale and adopt the 8 Virtues into a loose personality system.
Otherwise, Pendragon is a great system to emulate Ultima with but only a few minor changes.
Quote from: Premier;656364Flippant fucketry aside, did Chgowiz really die? It occurs to me I haven't seen his name on any forum for a while...
He was alive last time I talked to him (which was admittedly some months ago). He just got fed up with RPG blog angst interfering with real life.
I have run Akalabeth campaigns, Ultima I campaigns and an Ultima II campaign using Tunnels & Trolls.
Now we're cookin' with gas.
Quote from: Spinachcat;656849I have run Akalabeth campaigns, Ultima I campaigns and an Ultima II campaign using Tunnels & Trolls.
Do you use collective combat in T&T or part it out player vs. monster? Do you make any special spell/magic adjustments?
Do you keep the time travel elements from UII?
Lastly, and this also applies to Pundit's vanity press thingy--- has anyone used food as a numerical stat in their games? I mean more than just the usual (A)D&D iron rations handwavey shit.
Quote from: FASERIP;656883Now we're cookin' with gas.
Do you use collective combat in T&T or part it out player vs. monster? Do you make any special spell/magic adjustments?
Do you keep the time travel elements from UII?
Lastly, and this also applies to Pundit's vanity press thingy--- has anyone used food as a numerical stat in their games? I mean more than just the usual (A)D&D iron rations handwavey shit.
Yep!
In
ZWEIHÄNDER, unless you're getting three square meals a day, you cumulatively suffer 1 Peril. The more Peril you suffer, the more difficult Skill Tests become.
Peril Threshold is a measure of fatigue and stress, wrapped into one simplified mechanic.
No, not dead. Just had an amazingly long and engrossing project that my wife and I undertook for 4 years. It needed all my energy, and to be honest, I had said everything that I needed to say on my blog. Like many other bloggers, I just ran out of steam, I moved on. I didn't feel like repeating myself or posting the same shit over and over. So, easier to call it a day and go do the things I needed to do.
The project is over and I'm back to some gaming.
The Siege Perilous was never meant to be published or licensed, more of a "love letter" and a way for me to run Ultima I-III based adventures.
I don't do the alignments from IV on ... because that wasn't the focus of my game. I wanted to do a world on I-III only. Personal choice, and it's cool to know that there are other options for Ultima if needs be.
I'm going to be running TSP at GaryCon this year. If you're attending, drop on by and roll some bones with us!
(and my drama page is way smaller than some of the more fun characters in the "OSR" ;) )
Quote from: Chgowiz;817652The project is over and I'm back to some gaming.
It's great to see you again!
Quote from: RPGPundit;656745I'm still getting royalties for FtA!..
You should promote it more!!
Quote from: FASERIP;656883Do you use collective combat in T&T or part it out player vs. monster?
Both!
I like to break up melees and PCs get to use tactics to combine fights, manuever into groups, etc.
Quote from: FASERIP;656883Do you make any special spell/magic adjustments?
Absolutely! I have run it using T&T spells, Ultima only spells or a mix of the two.
Quote from: FASERIP;656883Do you keep the time travel elements from UII?
Hell yeah, but depends on the campaign.
Quote from: FASERIP;656883has anyone used food as a numerical stat in their games?
Its an integral part of Ultima, but I haven't found a way YET to make it work easily on the game table.
"Originally Posted by FASERIP View Post
has anyone used food as a numerical stat in their games?
Its an integral part of Ultima, but I haven't found a way YET to make it work easily on the game table."
I missed that part, sorry. I didn't make food as a stat, rather I use the normal D&D rations as resources approach... and if the PCs run out of rations, I start deducting HP, making it harder for them to do things, etc. It's similar to how I handle players and rations in my OD&D and AD&D games.
I also have the gremlins able to steal rations from players.
Gremlin
Armor Class: 6 [13]
Hit Dice: ½ HD (1-3hp)
Attacks: None
Special: See Below
Move: 18
Occurrence: Uncommon
HDE/XP: 1/10
Gremlins are stealthy, mischievous and voracious pests, found mainly in packs in the dark underground. Gremlins are nearly invisible and can surprise on a 5 in 6. Gremlins do not pose a threat physically, but their stealth and speed allow them gang up on a hapless victim to steal and eat their food in no time. A Gremlin that scores a successful hit on an adventurer (no DEX modifiers can apply to a victim’s AC) will steal and consume 1 days worth of food. When a gremlin is killed, it dissolves into a paste that can be eaten – two gremlins can provide a day’s worth of food for one being.
As a follow-up, I ran my Ultima rules at GaryCon, had a nice shakeout of both the first level "starting out" and third level "advanced classes" rules, the magic system and combat. Plus, nostalgia with a Man-O-War attacking the ship that the players were on, Dag Mentar blasting some PCs into oblivion, a Mark of Force, Lord British and... gremlins. Yep. All the food. Gone. Good thing they were literally underneath the Castle of the Lost King to replenish.
So... so far, so good. I'm going to run Ultima again next year at GaryCon and am considering just starting where these players left off. I've been asked to run as long of a game as I can. I'm thinking about making it my "home" campaign for now.