|
All of the stuff you mentioned is crunch. You don't need to use or convert any of it. Just use the new rules with the old fluff - it really is that simple.Well, for one crunch and fluff are not totally separated in D&D (whatever edition you refer to). You cannot compare D&D to a generic toolbox like HERO.
I am not talking about rules - I am talking about the setting. I can play Forgotten Realms with just about any system that can handle high fantasy.
Example 1: Vancian magic is as much a mechanic as a part of the setting, and the change of magic system had to be mirrored by change in the setting for 4E.
In all of the fluff for the Forgotten Realms that I have read I have never found anything that intimated that Vancian magic was a critical part of that setting.
Example 2: Alignment system matters (I must precise that I prefer by far games without alignment though). Lawful Evil and Chaotic Good had a real meaning in the campaign world itself, not just in the crunch part. Same thing if you want to adapt a 2E Planescape campaign.
So go ahead and use the old nine alignment system. There is no reason that 4e could not accommodate it.
If that is really "that simple", how would you adapt 4E to allow wizards to have a genuine spellbook where they can add spells, instead of powers and the "self-deleting" spellbook ?
Simple - give wizards a spell book. Let them keep whatever they write in it. At the start of every day let them fill their spell slots from any of the spells in their book.
I ask this question in particular (but I have a hundred or so more) because I really want to finish the current campaign before I jump to something else. And right now, I just don't have the impression that I can tweak the new system to the old era in a satisfactory way.
Why not? 3e and 4e are not so mechanically dissimilar that you cannot adapt one to the other.
My point is that a setting is not the mechanics of the game. Setting is people, places, history, gods, and the like. Forgotten Realms could be stripped of all mechanics and played with Hero or GURPS or Fudge or WFRP or ... you get my point. The setting and the rules are not mixed so tightly that they cannot be separated.
Simple - give wizards a spell book. Let them keep whatever they write in it. At the start of every day let them fill their spell slots from any of the spells in their book.
This is what I was thinking of doing initially, but 4E is soooo balanced, that I find this system much more difficult to tinker with in practice than the previous version or other non d20 systems.
How could I say ? Every part of this ensemble seem so tightly fitted, that I don't really see how to adapt it to my needs without resorting to heavy works.
Simple - give wizards a spell book. Let them keep whatever they write in it. At the start of every day let them fill their spell slots from any of the spells in their book.This is what I was thinking of doing initially, but 4E is soooo balanced, that I find this system much more difficult to tinker with in practice than the previous version or other non d20 systems.
How could I say ? Every part of this ensemble seem so tightly fitted, that I don't really see how to adapt it to my needs without resorting to heavy works.
I'm not really following you here. Sure 4E is very balanced, but if you don't care about play balance then there should be no issue with adding things that are unbalancing.
but if you don't care about play balance then there should be no issue with adding things that are unbalancing
I agree. The pb is that, while I want to tinker with the system, I also do care about play balance. After all it is one of the strong points of 4E.
It is simply my impression that 4E is not easy to deconstruct, as I thought initially.
but if you don't care about play balance then there should be no issue with adding things that are unbalancingI agree. The pb is that, while I want to tinker with the system, I also do care about play balance. After all it is one of the strong points of 4E.
It is simply my impression that 4E is not easy to deconstruct, as I thought initially.
I think you're right about that, and I think it's a strength of the game. It seems like 4e was designed to be a fun tabletop game and they tried to get everything else to fit into that motif. The consequence is that the crunch is a generation more sophisticated than ever before but some of the effects of that filter down to the fluff in surprising ways. Inserting old fluff may, at times, interfere with the finely tuned ruleset.
Previous versions of the game could not be considered "finely tuned," which meant that the rules were easier to modify. You didn't have to stress so much about game balance because it wasn't really balanced to begin with.
Well it is very modular. Physically you can change things very easily however I think your correct in your concerns that making changes can easily screw up play balance. In theory your in a great place after you have played enough to feel really confident that you know exactly what your doing when you start changing things but I doubt any of us will feel that confident for some time to come.