Roleplaying Mistborn?

[Lost_Kyte]

Wow... I'm just totally blown away. What a neat experience! i can definitely see where they come from now. haha, I think I've numbed my brain by trying to imagine what that'd be like xD

[GorgonlaVacaTremendo]

This is funny--as a side-project for the last few months (I haven't been very diligent), I've been working on the mechanics for a Mistborn P&P game that I could play with Archon and Onion, among a few other friends, next summer...I guess there's more people wanting to role-play the game than I thought.

That's why I was asking all the pressing questions about the magic systems in the Mistborn world, so I could make the mechanics well.

As for you being sued for using material off the site, just have the home page of the site have a disclaimer that says in the instance that any and all material on the site is similar or an exact replica of the writing of Brandon Sanderson or associated persons, any and all intellectual material belongs to Brandon Sanderson.  By posting on the RPG you recognize that you may not sue Brandon Sanderson for using similar material, and that the events in the game become subject to be changed or used in the writings of Brandon Sanderson.  Then you can visit all you want, and they have no ability to sue you if you're writing something similar.

[Lost_Kyte]

I'll post that on the site.

[spence]

I looked a bit through this thread, and it appears to be so far focussed on role-laying from the perspective of writing fan-fiction in the world (anyone else having a flashaback to alt.pub.dragons-inn about 15 years ago   ) .  Anyhow, I was wondering if anyone has a paper and pen style RPG system that they think fits well.  

I'm in a group of about 10 folks who have been playing regularly for the last 13 years... and I think I may try to sway them over to playing in the Mistborn world for a bit (I have already gotten at least one of them completely hooked on the books, and intend to infect more ).  

I think the system we play has a magic easily adapted to alomancy (but I am likely not objective on the subject).  If anyone else is interested in seeing the system, or is looking for a good solid RPG group in Utah, or has a system they think reflects or is able to reflect Sanderson's world well, please let me know.

[Glacialis]

Roleplaying as I mean it is of the pen and paper variety. As in, roleplaying games. You generally don't play a setting's main characters, so I'm not worried about copyrights and such. Fanfic does however regularly involve primary personalities so that's something I really stay away from. I dislike lawyers.

I'm familiar with a good number of systems but, while I'm interested in this topic, I'm playing in two games and running another. Full time job + hour commute + RPG commitments =  not much time for total conversions. I'll try to come up with a list of possible systems this weekend though.

Requirements:

• Gritty combat is essential, but...
  
• It also needs to be capable of handling the more outrageous effects.
  
• Non-physical combat, such as a mechanical system of persuasion, is almost a necessity due to the existence of emotional Allomancy.
  
• No matter what system is used, Steelpushing and Ironpulling are going to be an utter pain. Unless a system already handles telekinetic combat, that is.

More as I think of it. I really think that we're going to need all three books in order to properly design or choose a system. Allomancy will break most any system, and without knowing about the higher order metals I don't know if we currently have enough information.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

you should try Feng Shui

[Glacialis]

It's alright, but I don't think it has enough system depth to handle Allomancy.

[spence]

So forgive me for pushing my own system forward here are a possibility... but have a look at http://www.grimworld.org
Very gritty combat. Handles outrageous stuff, while still allowing those folks to be very "mortal".  Extremely flexible magic system.

But, as I said before, I know I am not objective on the subject  so if anyone likes to read RPG system, please give it a free download and give me a second opinion.

Also, I had forgotten feng shui... good call.  However, I don't think that treating normal folks as "mooks" really captures the level of fear that any Mistbord still needs to have for "mundanes".

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

That's a GM call. IF the GM handles it right, you'll get fear.

And Glacialis, i think you're going the completely wrong route. The more complex you make the rules, the less fun it will be. Feng Shui can handle somethign like Allomancy much better than D20, d6, GURPS, Tri-Stat, or Fuzion could. Frankly, The only other existing system I'd even consider would be Unknown Armies, but it doesn't really fit well either. The simpler and more story-telling oriented you make the players' roles, the better off you'll be.

I mention Feng Shui because of the scenery descriptions. "I nail him with a coin." instead of checking rules, you just make a difficulty (does he have a shield, is he or someone defending him also a coinpusher/puller, etc) and roll. It leaves a randomly determined result but leaves combat going fast. ANd for characters that can Pewter Drag, rapid combat will be essential for capturing the feel of something like Mistborn.

Creating allomancers is easy. You just have them choose the metal they burn as a Schtick. For a full Mistborn, you can start them off with more schticks to make up for it.

Actually, now that I think about it, the concept behind Nine Worlds would probably be ideal for it, if you have players who fancy themselves authors, anyway. If you have more passive players, Feng Shui would be better.

[Glacialis]

Why do you assume I'm going complicated? Just because an aspect could be handled by charts, dice or a cool description doesn't mean I've assumed which one works best.

I have access to a writer/system designer who has done work for Spirit of the Century, The Dresden Files RPG, and FATE in general. FATE would work marvelously, but the generic rules for the latest edition aren't completely public yet. Well, not unless you purchase Spirit of the Century and edit out a few tidbits.

Public version of FATE is due out soonish.

[Lost_Kyte]

It all sounds a little complicated to me, to be honest xD

[Entsuropi]

I think you could make it quite interesting with more detailed rules, but I'm not sure how you'd go about the task. Possibly start with the D&D SRD, and start layering allomancy rules on the top - D&D already has notes on different composition materials and a incredibly in-depth magic system. Remove the magic system, add a 'material' column to the weapon, armour and equipment charts.

The actual allomancy itself... I'm tempted to go for a Psionics route. Your Allomancer class * level and some other stuff (CHA for zinc, CON for pewter, DEX for steel and iron, for example) help determine your maximum possible expenditures of power points (both total and per attack); vials create your power point reserves.

Of course, it only gets more confusing past this point. The mental stuff could be waved away with simple effects but that would undermine their effect possibly. The various stuff you can do with the external physicals practically calls for a whole new set of combat rules. Pewter is easy enough - self buffs are hardly new things in D&D. You could make it fairly complicated, allowing players to assign individual stat buffs (or BAB / AC / save bonuses) on a per-turn basis, if you wanted.

* Seperate base classes for each of the metals and for Mistborn. Mistborn as Prestige Classes doesn't entirely work, unless you want to do it that way to show peoples speciality (Kell's mastery of steel/iron).

So yeah, I think that a complicated rules set for Mistborn would be fairly rewarding. The D&D stuff above is just for an example, but I don't think it would be an unbearably difficult task for any system.

[Glacialis]

d20 is actually a fairly simplistic system, and a little too numbers-oriented to be my first choice. Nevertheless, the sheer number of minds who are familiar with it make it an attractive choice simply because we could get some really great input with that many people to bounce ideas off of.

Still working on other ideas. Still working, so not much time. :-/

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

The problems with Pewter is that it would be a buff to both STR *and* CON *and* DEX (it says when you Pewter Drag that you can run faster longer and have the balance to keep yourself upright). In a system like D&D, that's the single most useful buff at all. There's no reason why the mental abilities would have to be simple. Just have them work like the physical ones and be based of CHA or WIS.

So I guess I'm seeing 2 problems with adapting it to d20.
1) It will be inherently unbalanced.
2) It will not be able to duplicate the real system. (ie, Tin is an "internal physical" metal because it affects your body's senses, but that's simulated in D&D by a MENTAL attribute: WIS).

So if I were forced to do a d20 adaptation, I'd give up a lot of simulation. I'd make Soothers and Ragers have more powers like spells from the Enchantment school, for example. While Pewter burns quickly in the books, I'd step it up even more.

Again, I'd fall back to something like Feng Shui. You could probably do a better job simulating it with something like Tri-Stat or GURPS tho, rather than d20.

[Entsuropi]

That's why I think Pewter should be broken down into multiple buffs. So that a thug could choose to spend points on raising his BAB, or one of his saves, or on various physical skills. Seperate buffs that cost individual amounts each turn. An all-physical buff is not only overpowered but really boring.

And I still think you overstate how difficult it would be in D20. I'm half tempted to start whipping it up myself now.