(Fantasy Craft) Spelljammer Conversion

[JELEINEN]

The reason I bought Fantasy Craft is because I thought it'd be a great system to convert TSR's old Spelljammer setting to.  Having read the book and gone through the stuff on this site for creating origins and classes, I'm ready to start doing my conversion work.  Any and all feedback you can provide me with would be most appreciated

The first bit will be the various species unique to the setting, starting with everyone's favorite: the Giff.

For those who don't know, the Giff are large, humanoid hippopotami.  They are loud, violent and very militaristic, having a society centered around mercenary cadres.  The racial abilities listed in the Complete Spacefarer's Handbook (which will be the primary source for the species in this conversion) are a +2 bonus to Strength (remember this comes from AD&D 2e, so +/- 1 to attributes was the norm), -1 to Intelligence, large size, limited to fighter and thief classes, slight magic resistance, the inability to use magic (and a chance of magic items malfunctioning), a head-butt attack and natural armor class.

What I came up with for Fantasy Craft looks like this:

GIFF
   Type: Large biped folk with reach 1.  Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution score x 1.5 (rounded down). (1)
   Attributes:  +4 to Strength, -2 to Intelligence. (3.5)
   Thick Hide 3:  You're considered to be wearing partial armor that provides damage reduction 3.  This DR does not stack with other armor (only the best protection applies).  If you gain thick hide from multiple sources, your hide offers the thickest single DR value +1 per additional hide benefit. (2)
   Natural Attack:  You gain the Slam II natural attack (a head butt). (1)
   Enlightened Skill:  Your maximum rank in the Tactics skill increases to your career level +5.  Only the highest bonus from a single enlightened ability may apply to each skill. (1)
   Sterner Stuff: The keen quality of each attack made against you decreases by 4. (0.5)
   Iconic Classes:  If your level in any base class is higher than your level in either Captain or Soldier, your starting action dice decreases by 2. (-1)
   Banned Actions:  You may not make Spellcasting or Tumble checks. (-1)

They're about on the same scale as ogres, so the large size but no reach should be right.  The attribute bonus/penalty fits with the source material (large bonus to Strength and average penalty to Intelligence).  The thick hide and natural attack are straight forward conversions as well. 

I decided on the enlightened skill to help play up that these guys are really good at military things and their species penalty to Intelligence shouldn't get in the way of that.

Sterner stuff was thrown in to fill in to help balance points and was thematically appropriate.

For iconic classes, Soldier with out a doubt was very appropriate.  I could have gone with either Scout or Captain for the second, but decided that Captain fits better with my image of them a bit more.  I might add a species feat opening Scout later.

The banned action with spellcasting really fits with the source material.  A Giff could still take levels as a Mage if he wanted, but it'd be a waste of abilities.  I put in tumbling because the mental image of a Giff doing gymnastics just hurts my brain.

I chose not to go with the magic resistance and magic item malfunction because it'd just too much of a headache to try including in the base species stats.  I do want to add a species feat for an elite group of Giff who do have better defenses against magic.

Again, feedback is very much wanted.  I do have a specific question to start off with: are there any guidelines/formulas for the upgrades to armor and weapons?  I would like to add new craftsmanship types with the new species.

Thanks!

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

Banned Actions, according to the wiki, are worth only -0.5.

Also since most classes don't use Spellcasting I fail to see how not being able to make those constitutes enough of a drawback that it plus Tumble is enough to qualify for -0.5 origin creation points.

[Mister Andersen]

According to Morgs recent Farthest Star post, Banned Action has been upped to -1

[SilvercatMoonpaw]

So long as someone remembers to change the wiki.

(And there go all my calculations again...........)

[Krensky]

Note that banned check Spellcasting still allows them to benefit from The Gift feat and divine magic.

Hmm... now... how to represent the Guyver *cough* I mean bioroid or giant undead insect based power armor in Fantasy Craft.

I loved Spelljammer.

[JELEINEN]

I assumed that it was -0.5 per banned check, which is why I went with the -1 total.  So is it now -1 for all banned actions or -1 for each one, now that they've changed the cost?

I forgot about being able to access spells via The Gift and divine magic.  I'm not completely married to the idea of the Giff never being able to use magic, but out of curiosity I wonder how much of a cost outright banning them from magic would be?  Any ideas?

[Mister Andersen]

It might be -.5 per ban: Morg's feat costs it at -1 for 2 banned actions.

[tenebrae]

In http://www.crafty-games.com/forum/index.php?topic=812.0, Mister Andersen put "Additionally, you may never gain levels in a psionic class or purchase any other character option that grants psionic abilities." at -0.5 (in combination with the Near-Human type).

I'd suggest about -0.5 as a maximum for banning magic, if I gave it any cost at all. Really, it doesn't make them any worse than any other character, it simply restricts their options slightly. It doesn't even penalise characters who make a less-than-optimal build (e.g. iconic class/speciality), it just flat-out removes the option for them. Banning them from making a check that most characters don't have the character options to even make hardly seems worth extra build points.

If you wanted to bend the rules slightly (and remember, 2E was notoriously limiting in what characters could or couldn't be), perhaps a -0.5 quality that makes Spellcasting always a non-class skill for you. Even then, it's a penalty that's not going to affect 99% of Giff characters, so it's pretty much giving them something for nothing.

[Krensky]

I forgot about being able to access spells via The Gift and divine magic.  I'm not completely married to the idea of the Giff never being able to use magic, but out of curiosity I wonder how much of a cost outright banning them from magic would be?  Any ideas?

I'd have no problems leaving it as is, I was just pointing out a loophole.

[Mister Andersen]

Banning magic is a bigger thing in some settings than others.

[JELEINEN]

So for the Giff, it looks like at best I might be half a point off, depending on if banning Spellcasting checks is really worth it or not.  I can live with that and will leave it as is. Worse comes to worst, I can remove the sterner stuff ability.  I don't think I'll outright ban all magic, at least for now.

Next up are the Dracon.  Again a bit of background: Dracon are centauroids with the lower half like a miniature brontosaur and the upper half being very dragon-like.  They're native to the plains and they have a very herd mentality.  They are large (oddly enough, being large was considered a disadvantage back in 2e because it meant a lot of weapons did more damage against you), have a +1 to Strength, -1 to Dexterity, claws on their thumbs that did a small amount of damage, had a significant increase in movement (18” as opposed to a human's 12”) and were limited to fighter and cleric classes.  Pretty straight forward stuff.

Dracon
   Type: Large quadruped folk with reach 1.  Your maximum wounds equal your Constitution x 1.5 (rounded down). (1)
   Attributes: +2    Strength, -2 Dexterity (1)
   Natural Attack: You gain the Claw I natural attack. (0.5)
   Base Speed 50 ft. (2)
   Improved Stability: You're considered 1 size category larger for carrying capacity, trample attacks, and resisting bull rush and trip attempts so long as you are standing firmly on the ground and not climbing, flying or riding. (1)
   Wrestling Basics: You gain the Wrestling Basics feat. (3)
   Banned Actions: You may not make Climb checks.  (-0.5)
   Iconic Specialties: You gain your specialties bonus feat only if you're an Adept, Adventurer, Artisan, Cleric, Fighter, Fist, Ranger, Shaman, Vanguard, or Warden. (-1)

Everything pretty much translates right across.  The wrestling feat was added because there really wasn't enough else to fill them out and there was a bit of fluff description on how they use wrestling matches to resolve conflicts among themselves, so I thought it would fit.  I think the iconic specialties fits them better than limiting their classes as well (they have a limited background, but really could do a lot of things, given the opportunity).  Banning climbing checks fits; one look at a picture of these guys and it's obvious they weren't built for anything other than gentle slopes.

Next are the Hadozee, which will present a bit more of a challenge.  The Hadozee are basically the Yazarians from TSR's old Star Frontiers game ported over with a new personality/culture.  They look like apes with a flap of skin extending from their ankles to their wrists, much like a flying squirrel.  They are primitive and don't get along with others very well.  They can glide from a height, are ambidextrous (and can use their feet to manipulate items), are good at climbing, gain +1 Dexterity, -1 Charisma, cannot use shields other than bucklers and are limited to being fighters, clerics and thieves.

Hadozee
   Type: Medium biped folk with reach 1. (0)
   Attributes: + 2 Dexterity, -2 Charisma. (1)
   Gliding: Move 5' forward for every 5' down; max 50' per round. (1.5)
      Enlightened Skill:  Your maximum rank in the Athletics skill increases to your career level +5.  Only the highest bonus from a single enlightened ability may apply to each skill. (1)
   Limited Many-Armed: You have a limited version of the Many-armed feat.  You cannot wield more weapons than normal, but once per round you may handle an item as a free action.  You also gain a +1 with skill checks made as part of a grapple action per two of your hands that are free (maximum +2).  You may wield items in either your hands or your feet. (2)
   Low Light Vision: You ignore the effects of dim or faint light. (1)
   Banned Actions: You may not wield a shield other than a buckler. (-0)

I figured the gliding is worth more than Cat Fall, but nowhere near as good as winged flight (it's not even true gliding since they have no ability to gain altitude by using thermals or the like), so that's how I came up with 1.5 for the cost.  Likewise the limited Many-Armed is definitely worth less than a feat, so that's how I decided to cost it.  I didn't think the limitation on shields was really worth anything, so I didn't give them anything for it.  I brought over low light vision from the original Yazarians to pad them out a bit, though they're still a little short. 

Again, feedback is most appreciated.

[Mister Andersen]

Ætherjammer (Expert Class)

[Morgenstern]

I would encourage banning 3 (or possibly 4) activities/checks, with spellcasting being only 1 of the 3 (4).

[Morgenstern]

So long as someone remembers to change the wiki.
(And there go all my calculations again...........)

Shouldn't be too big of a cascade. I recently re-checked Dwarves and Orcs and am comming up with a total of 7.0 with 2-3 banned actions valued at -1.0. Ogres are off (9 points of benefits, 3 points of drawbacks), but I had suspected that had happened during a last minute change.

[JELEINEN]

So for the Giff, I'll add Decipher and Identify checks as banned actions and they should fall right in line.  Groovy.

Now for the Rastipedes.  Rastipedes were another Star Frontiers species imported to the Spelljammer universe (originally Vrusk).  They were centauroid insectoids that were medium sized.  They had natural armor.  Were limited to the fighter, thief and magic user classes.  Had a natural claw attack.  Moved faster than humans (15" movement compared to 12").  Had natural underground detection abilities similar to those possessed by D&D dwarves.  Had antennae that gave them a keen sense of smell and prevented them from being surprised.  They were considered to be triple their level in magic user for the purposes of determining Spelljamming Rating when using a helm.  They received a +1 to Constitution and -1 to Dexterity.  Their personality and society was centered around trading and commerce.  That's a lot of abilities, so here goes the FC version:

Rastipede
   Type: Medium quadreped folk with reach 1.
   Attributes: +2 Constitution, -2 Dexterity (1)
   Improved Stability: You're considered 1 size category larger for carrying capacity, trample attacks, and resisting bull rush and trip attempts so long as you are standing firmly on the ground and not climbing, flying or riding. (1)
   Base Speed 40 ft. (1)
   Natural Attack: You gain the Claw I natural attack. (0.5)
   Thick Hide 3:  You're considered to be wearing partial armor that provides damage reduction 3.  This DR does not stack with other armor (only the best protection applies).  If you gain thick hide from multiple sources, your hide offers the thickest single DR value +1 per additional hide benefit. (2)
   Enlightened Skill:  Your maximum rank in the Haggling skill increases to your career level +5.  Only the highest bonus from a single enlightened ability may apply to each skill. (1)
   Sharp Sense of Smell: Your scenting range increments are equal to your Wisdom score x10 ft.  You may always act during a surprise round unless the opponent's scent is masked. (2)
   Banned Actions: You may not make jumping, tumbling or swimming checks. (-1)
        Limited Proficiencies: You receive 2 fewer proficiencies (min. 0). (-0.5)

There was really too much to try and fit in.  I decided right off to drop the Spelljamming thing as there's just no way to really figure how to cost it and it only worked in D&D because Rastipedes were limited to level 4 as magic users.  Likewise, I wasn't really sure how to model the underground detection stuff since Fantasy Craft dwarves don't have them either.  Not a big loss, though IMO.  The Sharp Sense of Smell is just the Sharp Hearing ability with the sense changed to fit.  The banned actions were all based on their body shape, except swimming, which was an import from the Vrusk version of the species (they breath through pores in their legs, so being in water is difficult for them).  The limited proficiencies was merely for balancing purposes, but isn't out of line. 

Overall, I think the Rastipedes came out well.  Next up will be the Hurwaeti, which will be a real challenge as they have a lot of abilities not listed in the origins document.   Are there any good guidelines for what NPC abilities would cost as part of a PC origin?