The little world-destruction magic thread got me thinking of TROS as Tom Clancy (more on the John Clark side of things), more in feel and intensity than setting. Nonetheless I'm curious what you all think are:

1) Appropriate non-weyrth, non-fantasy settings for TROS
2) What sort of non-fantasy books/movies/etc. jive well with the whole "TROS" feel. I see it in Clancy, for example (which some of you think is wierd, but I think the whole kewl powerz thing is wierder than hell... so anyway...)

The idea is that TROS is a feeling more than a setting (I think most of us would agree), and that the mechanics--slightly tweaked--could provide some real intensity in other settings, though the core ideas remain the same. Not swords, but tactics, desparation, and SA's...

Bring it on.

Jake

I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but I'd love to see the old Twilight 2000 game redone. If Twilight 2k wasn't gritty, I don't know what is....

Brandon

Jake Norwood wrote: The little world-destruction magic thread got me thinking of TROS as Tom Clancy (more on the John Clark side of things), more in feel and intensity than setting. Nonetheless I'm curious what you all think are:

1) Appropriate non-weyrth, non-fantasy settings for TROS
2) What sort of non-fantasy books/movies/etc. jive well with the whole "TROS" feel. I see it in Clancy, for example (which some of you think is wierd, but I think the whole kewl powerz thing is wierder than hell... so anyway...)

The idea is that TROS is a feeling more than a setting (I think most of us would agree), and that the mechanics--slightly tweaked--could provide some real intensity in other settings, though the core ideas remain the same. Not swords, but tactics, desparation, and SA's...

Bring it on.

Jake

Rattlehead wrote: I'm not sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but I'd love to see the old Twilight 2000 game redone. If Twilight 2k wasn't gritty, I don't know what is....

Brandon

Do we get to argue the thrust damage of an M-16 now? If I suggest that a 105mm APFSDSDU shell has a larger damage bonus then any weapon in the game, will the Defenders of the Rapier come forth to smite me? :-)

Sorry, thinking back to Twighlight 2000 got me giddy.

To get on topic, I'd be quite willing to use the skeleton of TROS for a comic book game. You'd need to toss in a substantial fatigue mechanic to make combat less deadly (and so power usage didn't kill, it just knocked you out), but it would work, I think. The SAs are perfect for comics, in any event. Also:

a) The fading suns setting, I think.

b) The wild west. Need gun rules, but that's not terribly hard.

-Jeff

The Riddle of the Gun... Sounds cool...

Jake

Jake Norwood wrote: The Riddle of the Gun... Sounds cool...

Jake Norwood wrote: The Riddle of the Gun... Sounds cool...

Jake

I really think that TROS is extremely well suited to real-world historical periods. The "Age of Sail" comes to mind, for example. In fact, if there was an add-on book for TROS to set the game in Renisance-period Earth (but perhaps with more swashbuckling than reality permitted) I'd buy it!

And no, I don't know how to spell Reniasance properly!

Brandon

PS: This is not to suggest that I don't like the magic system, but I think that a TROS setting would be great without magic. The game system wouldn't be "broken" without magic, in other words.

The Riddle of the Gun
I've actually been tinkering with this. haven't gotten past the research phase though. Love the old west.

and it definetly begs for some swashbuckling.

and I'd love to the old Roman/Greek golden era; very heavy on the mythology, done Riddle style. be very cool.
anyway...

Age of Sail? Yep.

Even better, though, 17th century Pirates of the Carribean. Even fewer firearms, and more melee! Terrain effects for rough seas! Cheap cutlasses! Cannonfire (a particular favorite of mine) as a hazard! Sword wielding Jesuits! Natives with obsidian war clubs (stats anyone?)! War, and other fun politics! Letters of Marque! Infamous ports like Tortuga and Port Royale! The Spanish Main! Grenadiers in breastplates and helmets! Castillos to storm, and forts to take!

And enough booty for everyone! Who's with me!

Mike

Rrrahh! Hoist the jibsail, matey!

Best,

Blake

Hmmm....Take Run out the Guns...rip out all of that ugly Roll Master crap
;-)

Insert RoS...throw in sailing concepts from Privateers and Gentlemen minus those really ugly FGU rules...hmmm indeed....

Riddle of Sail?

No, the Riddle of the Sea, ARRR

One things for sure...it would kick the snot out of 7th Sea.

Mike Holmes wrote: Age of Sail? Yep.

Even better, though, 17th century Pirates of the Carribean. Even fewer firearms, and more melee! Terrain effects for rough seas! Cheap cutlasses! Cannonfire (a particular favorite of mine) as a hazard! Sword wielding Jesuits! Natives with obsidian war clubs (stats anyone?)! War, and other fun politics! Letters of Marque! Infamous ports like Tortuga and Port Royale! The Spanish Main! Grenadiers in breastplates and helmets! Castillos to storm, and forts to take!

And enough booty for everyone! Who's with me!

Mike

Hello all, I've been reading as much as I can possibly find about The Riddle of Steel, saw the thread and my mind went wandering. I think that TROS would be perfect for a few fantasy settings I've read and enjoyed immensely. While I've lurked this is my first post so please be as gentle as possible with me. :)

George R. R. Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series immediately came to mind. This is a world that is begging for a RPG treatment but not in a, how shall I say it, watered down, level-ish, "Oh no it's Jaime Lannister with his bag of HP and longsword +22 coming to get me!" sort of way. I think that was subtle enough not to get me burnt at the stake by some west coastish sort of game companies. The setting, IMHO, is realistic with just the right mix of gritty realism (the duel at the Eyre comes to mind for those who have read it, any battle scene honestly) and truly mysterious and powerful magic (any magic shown really) to seem to fit with the feel of the TROS system. Plus the setting in the books is simply interesting enough to make me personally think of how *I'd* do it if I were narrating/GM-ing the events that are taking place, that's my highest criteria of whether or not I'd pay to buy a setting book/sytem based on an established set of novels/books/what have you. Some do it, most do not, this one does. Any novel in which a major charcter can be killed by one stroke of the sword in a seemingly unimportant skirmish or (even better) a "trusted retainer" while getting dressed, earns points from me for gritty realism in fantasy, something I adore.

The other that sprung to mind off the top of my head is John Marco's Tyrants and Kings trilogy. Truely vicious combat scenes permeate the books and the magic of the Triin is almost incomprehensable to anyone else, even they do not understand it and only a few "Touched by God" can cast it at all. This seems to fit the TROS mix of swords and scorcery quite well. Also as it seems that for the numbers here expressing interest (myself included) in naval combat in a TROS manner there would be many opportunities for this as well, Imperial Dreadnaughts fighting the speedy ram Clippers of the 1000 Isles, etc. Some of the Naren war lab technology would be difficult (but very interesting!) to see played out in a RPG, technology that is on a Rennaisance like scale but with things that could have sprung from Leonardo da Vinci's sketchbooks made integral parts of the Empire's military machine.

Whew that was much longer than I intended but I think anyone that's read either of those series would be able to see where I'm coming from.

All the talk of the Carribean makes me think of the old (I had it for my C-64 which was...well a while ago) MicroProse game Pirates! and how I'd always thought that would be a perfect setting for a RPG. Seventh Seas just doesn't do it for me for some reason, but a realistic game with a logical setting (it doesn't get more logical than a real world one) for the golden age of piracy would be very interesting to play in.

As it's been said any real world setting could be used from antiquity to the advent of gunpowder with the TROS system. Some of the ones that would interest me the most, in no real order, would be Rome (either Imperial or the usually ignored but just as interesting Republican eras), Byzantine Empire, Classical Greek, Medieval India (has anyone ever done a system/setting for this?), and Rennaisance Italy.

Sorry for the length of the post, I just keep having more and more ideas on the possibilities but I'll end this now.

What I'd kinda like to see is a sci-fi setting. You know it could be done. Another cool setting is a mix of technology and magic... has anyone played Arcanum?

If you mean the Arcanum computer game and not the mid-80s (I believe it was, never purchased that one) RPG then yes I did, and enjoyed it quite a bit. The idea of technology and magic sort of cancelling each other out was very interesting. The ending seemed a little abrupt to me but that's a matter of taste.

As far as Sci-Fi goes I think that Fading Suns would be workable with TROS, and even Dune. I was extremely disappointed in the demise of LUG and their version of Dune.

Ooh... Rome would be neat.. I think I'd end up dumping my PCs into the Colliseum though, just so I could make them duel stuff... ::shakes it off:: Bad Lance, Bad.

Honestly, as someone else pointed out, the overall system would work for nearly any sort of fantasy setting, and quite a few non-fantasy. Only thing is that, for each setting, the magic system would have to either be discarded (for those without magic) or reworked, either entirely or with serious tweaks.

If you were to use TRoS for, say, The Wheel of Time, the Vagaries would have to be replaced by the elements, and the system for the cost of using the One Power would have to be reworked into some sort of fatigue system (with a taint of madness thing for male users in settings prior to book 9).

If you used TRoS for anything other than a setting designed to be used with the system, you'd end up having to redo the magic system every time. It would end up being a different game in the same way that a lot of the D20 supplements are different games from D&D3E... Which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.

Anyone up for an unofficial work-up on the Riddle of Wheel? (j/k)

I haven't gotten the rules yet, and my suggestion isn't non-fantasy, but it sounds to me like tRoS could be an excellant rules system for a middle-earth campaign. It's low magic, like Weyrth, and the majority of possible opponents are human or at least humanoid.

I've been heavily involved with HarnMaster for the past couple of years, but if this system is as good as it sounds, I'll be switching over this August. Of course, the world of Harn would also be a great setting for this game.

Just my 2 cents. I'm totally new to this game and forum.

Good call Durgil - I'm running a home-brew, 4th age Middle Earth campaign.

I've thought many times about running an early Third Age Middle-earth Campaign. Like a decade or 2 before the coming of Smaug to Erebor, and concentrate the majority of the campaign in Wilderland. I still have a lot of MERP stuff before ICE went out of business.

Durgil wrote: I've been heavily involved with HarnMaster for the past couple of years, but if this system is as good as it sounds, I'll be switching over this August. Of course, the world of Harn would also be a great setting for this game.

I was just thinking that Hermetic Magic might be a little more fun for a mage type player to play than the Shek-pvar. Someone playing this type of player would like to be just as useful than a mundane, which a member of the Shek-pvar spends too much of his/her playing time second fiddle to a knight or mercanary IMO. I don't have tRoS rule book YET, but from what I've read I don't think it should be hard to use the idea of Hermetic and Hedge Magic with the game mechanics of tRoS. I've tried to do the same thing with the HarnMaster Mechanics, but that has proven rather difficult. TRoS should at least be easier to convert into. I guess I'll see soon enough.