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So I'm guessing the answer is "Not Yet." This space will now become a workspace for stuff we may want to convert. List incoming.
Protoss (Maybe subraces for Khalai and the Void?)
Terran (Standard Humans seems the way to go here)
Zerg (Template? Individual creatures?)
All of this is going to probably take the longest, given the obscene amount of, and varying levels of, technology presented in the games.
Yet another thing that we may or may not want to do. Do we want to present things like Ghosts and Templars/Dark Templars as classes, or just write up stat blocks? A Soulknife conversion would do well for Templars/Dark Templars.
All in all I just want to use these for NPCs, but I could see many people wanting actual classes to play, and a Starcraft campaign would be a lot of fun to run.
Starcraft II has made me giddy for some Zerg action in the Pathfinder game I'm currently running. I remember there were a few semi-well done conversions back in the 3.0 days.
Has anybody already started on a Pathfinder conversion, or do we need to start our own project?
I had actually started thinking about this, having just completed the Campaign mode in SC2. One of the thoughts I had was, due to the emphasis placed on Kerrigan having the free will that the Overmind did not, that "PC" Zerg could be part of Kerrigan's "new brood". This is of course all conjecture on my part, but the events of Wings of Liberty makes me think that Kerrigan is now more human than Zerg, but she is still definitely part Zerg. As such, she may still be able to control a brood, and she may even be able to put some of her own free will into the members of said brood.
Could we possibly see Zerg Hero Units in the next expansion? Hydralisks, Zerglings, and Ultralisks with distinct personalities, goals, and mannerisms? Even the ability to speak?
This led me to my thought regarding Zerg as a PC race in a d20/PF type conversion. That a Zerg "personality" is actually stored in the hive cluster itself, or even in Kerrigan (Class Twelve Psionic Entity, I mean, she's got the power). If the unit itself dies on the field, the personality can quite literally respawn back at the hive cluster. Certain "races" would respawn faster, Zerglings being the quickest, Ultralisks being the longest.
The character would be the personality, inhabiting a body most suited for the task. Or to help enforce an appropriate power level, especially in a mixed PC group (Zerg and Protoss and Terran, oh my!) the more advanced "bodies" would require more resources. Effectively, the Terran may be buying himself a Firebat suit with the Wide Nozzle Upgrade, the Protoss may be increasing his psychic knife damage and shield regeneration, and the Zerg is evolving into a Hydralisk.
The Minerals/Gas resource aspect works just fine as a Dual Currency system.
I'm rambling, but short version: I think a SC2 D20/PF conversion is very feasible without sacrificing many of the conventions of SC2 for the sake of gameplay. I'll keep an eye on this thread and post if I happen to spend any more time on the idea.
I did a conversion of starcraft for d20 modern (with mecha crusade).
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Heart of the Swarm IS supposed to have a stronger RPG feel to it, so distinct personalities are a possibility.
I like the idea of starting off as a Zergling and, upon reaching a certain level, cocooning and reemerging as a Hydralisk or something to that effect. It takes some artistic liberties away from the units per canon, but makes it a much more workable system for PF. I'm thinking maybe templates are a good idea to facilitate the "Evolving Zerg" idea.
I did a conversion of starcraft for d20 modern (with mecha crusade).
Do you happen to have any of the material you developed that we could use as a launching point?
I dout it, but I could remake most of it pretty quickly.
I would look at the micro-templates of the PHB2 Druid Shapeshifting variant for the Evolving Zerg concept. Basic stat, attack, armor, and speed changes overlaid on a basic statblock. Now, an interesting idea would be to combine this with elements of the Beastmaster APG Ranger variant.
One big limitation to the Zerg is that they don't use weapons, which means they can't use the iteritive attacks from base attack. While they could still use multiple natural attacks, not many Zerg actually get a barrage of attacks. Even Ultralisks seems to be 2 attacks, or as per SC2, one attack that hits an area.
But what if a Zerg PC of sufficcient level wanted to instead "split" himself. Create a pair of Zerglings instead of a single Hydralisk. Although, technically, if we are keeping as close to Starcraft conceits as we can, the basic Zergling would still come in a pair.
This could bring a tactical element into the game from the Zerg side, especially if other mechanics (burrowing, creep, armor piercing, flying) are well represented. A Zerg/Terran PC party trying to recover an important artifact from a stubborn Protoss cult might choose to make several hydralisks to cover the Terran Marauders from attacks by air, rather than a single or pair of mutalisks.
The trick would be balancing "spliting" versus "soloing". It could run similar to 3.5s animal companion system, with level -3 determining when you could inhabit 2 forms. Or it could be like summoning spells, even going so far as to have "splitting" being a temporary state, stressful on the core personality.
Of course, keeping the Zerg PCs turn from becoming a druid-style initiative bottleneck is also important. Ultimately, the idea might be just a scrap idea. Perhaps instead a higher level zerg PC could lead "drones", basic statblock creatures of the appropriate type. Perhaps it is easier to lead drones when you inhabit the same bodytype as them, granting a bonus to the number controlled, or conversely, removing a penalty for controlling different types.
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I honestly never noticed the "no iterative attacks for natural attacks" line. Maybe we could add an exception for our purposes?
As for the "Split Zerg" idea, we could use the (name forgotten) from the Dragon Compendium as an example. Essentially you copy the character sheet, but halve the HP for each split. It also got into some funky mechanics for spellcasting, but the Zerg really don't have to worry about that.
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I honestly never noticed the "no iterative attacks for natural attacks" line. Maybe we could add an exception for our purposes?
As for the "Split Zerg" idea, we could use the (name forgotten) from the Dragon Compendium as an example. Essentially you copy the character sheet, but halve the HP for each split. It also got into some funky mechanics for spellcasting, but the Zerg really don't have to worry about that.
Aha! My brain finally clicked into gear. The race was called the Dvati.
Also, boo for not being able to edit my previous post.
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So, I was looking at the Soulknife on d20srd.org, and I think it would be an easy matter to convert it over to a usable Pathfinder class that we could use for Templar/Dark Templar. Consolidate the skill list, bump it up to Full BAB, and give it a sexy capstone ability, and I think it would be fine.
A few of the other things that I'd like to see changed are the "Feats disguised as abilities" that so many 3rd edition classes got. In particular, Weapon Focus (Mind Blade), Free Draw, Speed of Thought, Bladewind, and Greater Weapon Focus (Mind Blade). I think it would be nice to take these, add a few of our own, and give them something akin to the Rogue Talents.
Also, I see no reason that you should have to wait until level 17 to get Multiple Throw. I'd like to just fold that into Throw Mindblade, with maybe the Free Draw talent as a prereq.
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What about the Ghosts, are you going to base them off the Lurkers or the Psionic Warriors then?
That may be a good idea, although I'm not crazy about all the powers they'd be getting. I mean, Kerrigan (as stated above) is a Class 12 Psionic Entity, and she barely does anything overtly psionic. I'm thinking the Psi feel is supposed to be more of an understated, behind-the-scenes thing.
It's often implied that the ghosts are trained (and artificially limited by neural rewiring) to use their psychic abilities to boost their speed, strength, senses and reflexes to make them super-assassins.
So, it seems entirely fair to make their 'spell list' all self-buffs and maybe the stock sensory things. Some can broaden their abilities to gain psychic blast, domination or assorted horrible things as seen in Starcraft 2. The spectres (alternate ghosts) are mind-blasty and brutal while ghosts are a lot more subtle (mind-affecting, sniping).
It's obvious that if you want to play Zerg, you play someone like Kerrigan - a special form of Zerg with free will and so, who can command/summon all kinds of critters.
BRING THE PAIN! - AND THE PIZZA WITHIN 30 MINUTES OR IT'S FREE!
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PsyWar DOES seem to be the way to go then. I haven't had time to progress too far through SC2's Campaign, so I'm not as familiar with the extra madness involved.
It's obvious that if you want to play Zerg, you play someone like Kerrigan - a special form of Zerg with free will and so, who can command/summon all kinds of critters.
BRING THE PAIN! - AND THE PIZZA WITHIN 30 MINUTES OR IT'S FREE!
I was thinking this as well, using the Summoner as a basis (I mean, evolution points? How perfect is that?). I wonder though, how to effectively balance having multiple Eidolons (to keep the canon 2 Zergling concept). Do you think a straight split of Evo Points on two base creatures of the appropriate level, or two base creatures of (-1? -2? -3?) level with full Evo points would be more feasible?
If Starcraft is to be belived at least some Ghosts had ability to read minds.
Captain Raynor, I've finished scouting out the area, and... you pig
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If Starcraft is to be belived at least some Ghosts had ability to read minds.
Captain Raynor, I've finished scouting out the area, and... you pig
Right, this was the main reason I wanted to shy away from PsyWar, initially, as this was the most psionic thing I recall Kerrigan doing throughout the first game. But mention of buffs and the Spectres has kind of made me do a 180.
We'd have to recreate the classes, or revise the background, or both, anyway.
A zerg broodmaster would probably get a modified Leadership ability for permanent stuff. Everything else could be conjuration in disguise really.
If Starcraft is to be belived at least some Ghosts had ability to read minds.
Captain Raynor, I've finished scouting out the area, and... you pig
The ghost chick from SC2 (Nova) seems to have similar powers. One of her lines when you pester her is "Take your mind out of the gutter!". She was right, too. ;-) (Thank god that doctor didn't have mind reading powers.)
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lmao Yeah, you could just use the basic Psion then, maybe give them a better hit die and BAB, and limit some of their other powers, I'm sure they did experiments on them to try giving them powers like pyrokinesis and other such things. I guess that depends on how wicked you want to make your campaign.
I would reccommend droping the PF system as it is currently built and merely using its design principles (standardized BaB to HD, etc, etc).
I'd start things off with just using the base archetype classes from Unearthed Arcana, the Expert, Warrior, Spellcaster set. From there I would assign specific "base builds" such as Warrior for Marines, Spellcaster for Medics, Expert/Spellcaster for Ghosts, etc.
Most of the classes should arguably be built like the Ranger class, that is, a preset progression of standard abilities, with a "style" choice for customization. Multiclassing should be impossible or at least extremely hard/rare. The point is to replicate the atmosphere and setting specific conciets of Starcraft and its universe. Marines who multiclass to get ghost cloaks, then multiclass to Seige Tank pilot, and roll around in cloaked seige tanks, while cool, is starting to break the atmosphere.
That being said, certain higher rated units could be progressions from base units like Terran Marine. Firebats and Marauders are an excellent example. Also, rather than prestige classes, something like "prerequisite classes" for things like vehicle pilot and such could make sense. Something like "Vehicle Pilot: Requires 3 ranks of Driving, 1 rank of Tactics, Rank Leiutenant or higher. Upon taking the first level of this class, pick a vehicle type: you receive bonuses when piloting said vehicle." Again, could model this off of ranger favored enemy, in addition to getting others later on.
Anyhow, just throwing some ideas out. Mine them for gold if you think there's any there. Back in a bit.
I agree with the conjuration Zerg stuff. Make up a series of spells: Summon Zerg I-IX.
SZ1: Broodling
SZ2: Zergling
SZ3: Baneling, Scourge
SZ4: Hydralisk, Roach
SZ5: Lurker, Mutalisk
SZ6: Defiler, Corruptor, Infestor
SZ7: Brood Lord, Ultralisk, Queen
SZ8: Brutalisk
SZ9: Omegalisk
Hmm, something along those lines might work.
Used to have the boxed set somewhere, and a pdf of it as well, but there was a D20 set released for Starcraft a while back.
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Used to have the boxed set somewhere, and a pdf of it as well, but there was a D20 set released for Starcraft a while back.
Do you happen to recall the exact name, as I've spent (what is probably by now) days searching through all the homebrews that come up when searching "starcraft d20" on google, and have yet to come across an official source. Which I would love to have as a basis.
This was back around early 2000, and I think it was a WotC release. I don't recall too much, I just remember a friend having it.
Sorry to bump this old thread but I just found it doing a search for Starcraft on the whole messageboards.
Basically I done most of the conversion by using Star wars Saga rules (I found them best suited of all the rules I knew off). Well no Zerg as playable race.
This is the link where you can download the latest version:
Download Starcraft Setting
(before you could see it on that link (I am using google docs) but now only download works)
It is in a very playable state. The biggest thing it misses are many opponents with done stats (I done some for all 3 races but not enough) and prestige classes as well as info on the starcraft universe for those that are not that familiar with it but that can easily be learned from starcraft wiki.
Of course you need to be familiar with Star Wars Saga rules or have access to its books.
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One big limitation to the Zerg is that they don't use weapons, which means they can't use the iteritive attacks from base attack. While they could still use multiple natural attacks, not many Zerg actually get a barrage of attacks. Even Ultralisks seems to be 2 attacks, or as per SC2, one attack that hits an area.
You have to consider that in SC2 most units get one or two attacks but as you can see in the Videos of SC2 and read in Starcraft Novels most Zergs have several attacks, for example
A Hydralisk should have two claws in the forearms, a bite attack and the spike spitting ability that is used as a basic weapon ingame.
The Ultralisk has four bladed forearms, probably trample since it is four-legged behemoth and definitely a bite along with a Spiky Caparace.
But what if a Zerg PC of sufficcient level wanted to instead "split" himself. Create a pair of Zerglings instead of a single Hydralisk. Although, technically, if we are keeping as close to Starcraft conceits as we can, the basic Zergling would still come in a pair.This could bring a tactical element into the game from the Zerg side, especially if other mechanics (burrowing, creep, armor piercing, flying) are well represented.
Splitting sounds nice but exploitation awaits in the corner, supposing that we use the Eidolon based Zergs, I propose that the split Zergs should definitely be weaker by half (evolution points/2) if permanent and maybe add them a capstone "Cloning" ability at level 20 that remains for a short duration.