1. Were/Are new immortals being born up to and including the Gathering?
2. Why didn't some immortals shoot dead other immortals before cutting
their heads off? Was "no guns" a tradition only, or was there something
integral to the magic of the situation preventing gun play?
3. Who was the first immortal?
I'm thinking of using the D&D 5e play-test rules and building a Highlander
world. And I want to seed the world consistent with the mythology.
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The TV show has a lot more of the Mythology
The problem with all the movies is that there was never a plan for any more then the first so they kept changing things.
I don't think DND is a good system for highlander I think a d10 system would be a lot better system
1. I think there were new immortals being born all of the time. Certainly of the older immortals they weren't all born at the same time. Richie and other young characters died their first death and became immortal in the TV show.
2. I think there was nothing against using guns to disable an immortal before cutting off their head. I believe there were some in the series who did just that. Why risk a dangerous fight?
3. If anything is canon in Highlander, I believe that Mythos is considered the oldest of the immortals.
When were you planning to set the campaign? In modern times, pre-Gathering? In the dark/middle ages? Would you employ the flashback technique to show the immortals today and how the current adventure/story is shaped by the older events (as the movies and show did)?
2. Goes against the rules of The Game.
You'll go crazy using d20 for Highlander. D10 will serve better.
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As others have posted before, it all depends on your inspiration :
- the first movie (and truly THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE !!!)
- the TV show
They do not show the same world, even though Connor McLeod appeared in the TV show. Thus your rules (and the answers to your questions) will be different.
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As far as guns are concerned, in the movie, the Kurgan was not really inconvenienced by a hail of bullets, even though he was struck at a moment of relative weakness/confusion (just after having killed Kastagir and receiving his lifeforce).
In a few seconds, he was able to hide and sneak on his would-be killer and strike him through the guts.
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In the TV show...there were several cases where people used guns or other tricks to incapacitate other immortals. The reliance on swords probably has more to do with most immortals dating back to a pre-gun time period or being mentored by an immortal from that time period. I.E. tradition.
1. New immortals kept entering into history all the time in the TV series. Their powers would awaken when the would get killed (and then revive a few minutes later). Up until that point, they aged just like anyone else.
2. It's been ages since I've seen it, but I recall at least one episode in which a highlander attempted to snipe Duncan from the rooftop of an adjacent building. Thankfully Duncan had been tipped off and had a dummy in his place. I believe the same villain had also attached a tazer to their sword, but that could be another episode.
3. I'm pretty sure Mythos is the oldest living immortal. Can't recall if there were any older ones who may have been killed off.
As for playing a game, sounds like a perfect use for the Mythic rules — each head counting at another achievement towards the next tier.
There was an episode I remember where a crippled immortal (played by the lead singer of the Fine Young Cannibals, for some reason) hired mercs to shoot up other immortals with automatic weapons so he could decapitate them while they were recovering. Filling most of their vital organs and limbs with lead keeps them down for a while, apparently.
Like I said, there's a difference between the TV show and the movies. In the movies, that action would have just pissed the Immortals in question off.
Honestly, I wasn't too keen on Xavier St. Cloud (the crippled Immortal you mentioned) permanently losing his hand, because you'd think there'd be a lot more Immortals with missing appendages around if they couldn't regenerate, considering the constant fights with melee weapons and the fact they couldn't actually die from the blood loss and infection.
In my head canon, crippled immortals make for holy ground or become practice for less skilled immortals. They aren't seen because they become ghosts of one type or another.
Just to piss off everyone in the thread:
I enjoyed Highlander II.
And disliked III.
And didn't understand IV.
Loved 1
Hated everything after it...
Only liked 3 because the girl was hot.
Only liked I liked about the show was Duncan Donuts MacLeod admitting that Conner always got the better looking girls.
There can be only one. One! Not one, three sequels and a couple of tv shows. One!!! *sigh*
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I loved the first.
Despised (a very weak reflection of my feelings really) the second. The only good thing to come of this was an offer by a geek magazine of the time to grant a lifelong subscription to any who could sum up the story in 10 short sentences :-)))
Was kind of 'meh ?' on the other movies.
Enjoyed the tv show, even if it was quite subpar compared to the One Movie. I really liked the episode when Duncan's girlfriend dies while Richie, after dying too, rises again as a bona fide Immortal. Really touching and sad.
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THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN ONLY ONE!!!
I love the first movie.
Agreed! (Though my wife hates it.)
Didn't like the second.
Agreed! To me, they took the least important elements of the first one, and put it in a pointless sci-fi thing shoved together with a weird non-meshing magic thing and a strangely convoluted back story. They also put in a very broken Environment aesop that seems to serve no purpose other than, "We can't let Conner have nice things!"
Connery as Ramirez was great, though, even if he was rather out-of-character (going for all the Scottish things instead of Egyptian, and so on). Looked like he had a blast, which was nice.
Thought the third was mostly a retread of 1 with better special effects.
... mostly agreed, though I thought it was an interesting idea that the third one had, what with magic that could fool the quickening. I found it interesting and compelling... and totally underdeveloped, sadly. I really wish they'd done more with it.
Thought the fourth movie was disappointing and never even tried watching the fifth.
The fourth movie was disappointing, but comprehensible in the methods it chose to be disappointing in. Conner gave way to Duncan as a way of passing on the torch, and, to me, they did this really well in-film. I loved the idea of Conner finding someone else in his own homelands and being a kind of Ramirez to him. I hated the muddled way of blending the conflicting chronologies by murdering important characters off, but, again, it was comprehensible for what they were going for. A shame, but ultimately it couldn't be helped if you were going to have Conner give way to Duncan, which is what they were going for, to have a "unified timeline".
If the fifth one means that weird nonsensical "immortal baby" one that was exclusively based on the show... well, yeah, that sucked.
I did really enjoy the TV show back in the day, though I don't think it's aged well. The Raven, however, was horrible. Which is sad, because I actually liked Amanda on the original series. Not sure why they felt the need to completely reinvent her character for the spinoff.
I remember thinking on the show fondly. I don't recall seeing The Raven, though I vaguely recall advertisements for it.
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You could also say the reason that in the movies they shrugged off the bullets and wounds better was because of the Quickening and being the "last" few immortals gave them more power
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I remember an episode of the TV series that dealt with newborn immortals. I believe immortals could tell who new immortals were but the new immortal wouldnt know until the first time they are killed. If that first time did not occur until after they reach some age, like 25, they live normal mortal lives instead.
Film number 2 says "aliens". I think.
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Film number 2 says "aliens". I think.
Yes, hence the cackling porcupine people.
Highlander is what you make of it. I remember playing Buffy the Vampireslayer RPG. People got to play Heroes like Buffy or Angel or Whitehats like Willow or Zander. I played a Hero and she was a Highlander.
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The only way to make the highlander movies/tv shows to make any sense in a bigger picture is start with the first movie and go foward. Everytime you come across something you can't explain in terms of what has gone before means you've cross into a new universe where the rules are slightly different and the past may not be what you thought it was.
If you are going to game in the highlander universe, you've got to define which highlander universe you're going to game in.
As for game systems to use, years ago I saw decent write ups for both Gurps 3rd edition and World of Darkness for Highlander. I never got to play either one but both looked like they would have worked well.
Oh! There was also the cartoon! Man, I'd forgotten about that, until just now, when I saw Kalshane mention the sci-fi thing!
I forgot about the cartoon. Intentionally.