Monday, April 23, 2012

Quick Post Apoc to Fantasy conversion

The critters of a science-fantasy post-apocalypse game tend to be very fantasy-creature-like, but with a twist that one just doesn't find in low-tech fantasy.

Here is a quick-and-dirty guide to conversion.

Post-Apoc <-> Fantasy
Shoots Electricity from its Eyes <-> Breathes Electicity
Breathes Radiation or Breathes Plasma <-> Breathes Fire or Breathes Cold (depending on climate)
Breathes Toxins <-> Breathes Toxins (no change)
Eye Lasers <-> Death Gaze
Paralyzing Beams <-> Petrifying Gaze
Sonic Beams <-> Death-causing Wail
Turns Metal to Rubber <-> Rusts Metal or Disenchants
Controls Robots <-> Charm power or necromantic spells
Death Touch <-> Death Touch or Level Drain
Immune to Radiation <-> Magic Resistant
Immune to Poison <-> Same
Radioactive Aura <-> Damage Aura
High Tech abilities <-> Well-armed and equipped

It's a bit tongue in cheek but it should work most of the time. A medusa would be a snake-headed woman with paralyzing rays in, say, Gamma World, while a hoop would have either a disenchanting or rusting touch in AD&D. A GURPS Eye of Death would shoot laser beams or super-science death rays in a Thundarr inspired setting. A dragon in fantasy is basically Godzilla in post-apoc. You can pretty much grab any monster book and convert quickly back and forth. You don't need a whole lot of rule work, either - a 5d burning attack from eye beams can be 5d electrical breath. Or keep the damage, etc. the same and just change the special effects.

Have fun with this!

8 comments:

  1. I was really interested in the Mutants and Magic article in the Dungeon Masters Guide on page 113. Have you ever considered mixing both high tech post apocalypse with fantasy? Maybe the nuclear war opened some portal to the fairy realm and released giants, dragons, elves and so on along with the standard mutant guys. Sort of of like Thundarr with both magic and psionics.

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    1. Well, in GURPS it's trivial to do - just add blasters and mutants to your fantasy game or spells to your post-apoc game. I happen to know at least one of my players wouldn't like me adding blasters to my DF game, so it's not going to happen. But I've obliquely pitched the idea that "we should do a DF guys in post-apoc land adventure" and that didn't get booed, so I might do that with different PCs.

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    2. DF in post-apoc land sounds cool. I'm a fan of that general genre, though. Dark Sun is probably one of my favorite dnd settings, for example.

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    3. I may have to bust out a DF in Gamma World game, or just put DF aside for a while and run Mutants & Mayhem, my action heroes in a post apocalypse world game.

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    4. I would miss Galoob, but I think it would still be awesome.

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    5. We could always do it as a one-shot or two-shot deal.

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