tonight’s random train of thought

[swan_tower]

Faffing around, putting off actually getting started again on work like I should, browsing the web, come across a mention of Wendy and Richard Pini, spend a moment imagining what I would say to them if I met them.

Remember that way back in the day, I bought the Elfquest RPG and made a bunch of characters, but never actually played the game; just sat around making up stories that more or less amounted to OC fanfic.

Probably a good thing we never actually played it. I think the game was Chaosium, and I don’t recall the system being really all that well-suited to the setting — not that I would have known the difference at the time.

Hmmm. What would be a good system for running an Elfquest game?

. . . no, I’m not actually planning on running such a thing. File this under “fun things to fiddle with,” like my hack of Cinematic Unisystem for Harry Potter or Mage: The Awakening for the Wheel of Time. (Or, um, Pathfinder for Dragon Age. Except I actually ran that one for a while.) But I open the floor to suggestions: what would you use for Elfquest? I personally have no idea, but I’m curious what other people might suggest.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[kathryn_scannell]

Assuming you didn't want to create a system tailored specifically to implement the magic of Elfquest, I'd be inclined to try a point-based system. My system of choice is Champions (4th or 5th edition - I haven't tried 6th and don't plan to), but GURPS would probably work well too. There's enough variation in Elfquest that I don't think it would lend itself at all to a class-based system. For an Elfquest game I'd probably create some house-rules with packages for the kind of magic/kind of elf so that the players could pick that, and then customize with extra skills and maybe a unique personal talent or two.

If you wanted something much lighter in rules mechanics, you could also try something like Fudge. You could probably even get it to work using a very light rules set like the one for Diana Warrior Princess (and if you haven't seen that rules set, you should go check it out - I literally laughed till I cried reaching the campaign background, and I think given your interest in history you'd find it just as funny as I did).

[swan_tower]

Yeah, I'm looking more for "hack" than "homebrew." Definitely would want a point-based system -- unless you make the tribes into classes, there's just no equivalent to fighter/rogue/etc.

Problem is, I detest GURPS. :-P Generic systems rarely interest me, even though I know they're supposed to be ideal for this kind of thing, where you need mechanics to use for a given story.

Diana Warrior Princess sounds fascinating all in its own right . . .

[kathryn_scannell]

I've never actually played GURPs. I mention it only because it's better known that Champions. :-) Champions was originally written for superhero settings, but people noticed it was expandable, and a couple of editions later it was repackaged as a generic system. I'm currently running a homebrew game based on the Liaden series by Lee and Miller (space opera, if you haven't read them) using Champions. We've also used it for a kind of mixed urban/high fantasy setting, 1920's pulp, and a setting much like the White Wolf RPG (because we kind of liked the concepts, but ended up tearing our hair over their game mechanics.)

[templarwolf.livejournal.com]

I've played in and run the ElfQuest game, and found that the system worked ok. It didn't feel weird to any of us. So, I don't know that I'd use anything else, but if I were, I think I might use Mage.

I once revamped the old WoD for use with the setting from Vampire Hunter D. That seemed to work pretty well. Likewise, Fading Suns makes for a much better Firefly game than the official system.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I feel like the existing system is one of those things that's more about the numbers than character or story, y'know? A system that really fits the world is awesome; the canonical one is just kind of . . . there.

[templarwolf.livejournal.com]

I think that's one of the reasons the original Deadlands works so well. The system of using playing cards and poker chips really adds to the old west setting of the game.

Maybe a good EQ game should be based on d8s somehow?

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

<lol> If I were inclined to homebrew, I would totally do that!