Jenceslav |
Hello everyone, based on Brother Tyler's idea, I decided to try something I was thinking about for quite some time - converting the Skull & Shackles into the Core terminology so that you can use the S&S set similarly to the Curse of the Crimson Throne. That is, shuffle it into Core and play with that.
The first step is obviously translating the cards. I've already completed the locations, which can be found in here, as well as preliminarily ships and story banes.
This thread is supposed to be about potential discussions about "controversial" (= not obvious) cards or powers or translations to Core terminology.
The first major thing extremely prevalent in story banes is that the difficulty of checks changes based on traits of the check. Obviously, they did not have Vulnerable and Resistant at that time, so it would not be a good translation if it was simply exchanged for Resistant (the difficulty changes span between 1 and 10).
If the check to defeat has the Ranged or Attack trait, the difficulty is increased by 2.
It works like the Resistant to Attack and Ranged, so I thought that it could be represented as Resistant to trait:X (and classic Resistant to Fire would be Resistant to Fire:4):
Resistant to Attack and Ranged:2
Similarly, adding dice to checks with traits may be represented by Vulnerable:X
If the check to defeat has the Bludgeoning or Swashbuckling trait, add 1d4 to it.
would directly translate to:
On your check to defeat, if it has the Bludgeoning or Swashbuckling trait, add 1d4
while Vulnerable:X leads to:
Vulnerable to Bludgeoning and Swashbuckling:1d8
What do you think about this modification / extension of Resistant and Vulnerable? It seems to me quite easy to understand and does not change the balance of numbers at all.
Jenceslav |
Some other things I am unsure about / proposed changes:
* Jakaw Razorbeak does damage to the active character and some other local character. There is no good example of that wording in Core/Curse. "Damage from this monster is suffered by you and 1 other local character." sounds weird. A Core-like wording would be "If undefeated, another local character suffers X damage" (I temporarily used 1d4+1).
* Should Breath of Dagon and Eye of Dagon (Curses) change skills or dice? Originally, it is "Strength, ... dice are 1d4". If you have Skill feats into Strength, you may have 1d4+4 instead of 1d10+4, if it changes dice. If it changes skills, you would have strictly 1d4.
* Barnabas Harrigan and Knuckles Grype care about armor in hand, but nowadays armor can be also displayed. So, I temporarily changed it so that you can discard a displayed armor as well.
* Luccaria cared about Divine spells discarded / recharged during her check. Now, there is Recovery pile, so it lost its meaning and I changed it to "While acting, after any character plays a Divine spell and they are proficient, they bury the spell." to skip Recovery and do the same thing. Without allowing non-proficient people to "keep" the spell.
* Shaija and Ishtoreth had very similar powers, but worded slightly differently. Shaija cared for Attack, Melee or Ranged cards, Ishtoreth about Attack cards or weapons. So I changed it to Attack cards or weapons for both, as there are Ranged non-Attack items outside S&S.
*Paeta (a Blink Spider) did not even have All damage is Poison. So now she has it.
* Hyapatia and Commander Kyan Kain have issues with banishing of locations in Core, if played without S&S locations. Kyan Kain counts closed locations (there are none, ever, in Core) and Hyapatia is evaded if there are more local characters. If this is the last location and characters cannot move away, Hyapatia is undefeatable. So now Kyan cares about locations that have been closed this scenario and Hyapatia has an escape-clause to be defeatable if in the only location in play.
* Brinebones (blue dragon, electricity) deals Combat damage, but BYA damage is electricity. Now all dragons deal their own damage, so I added "All damage is Electricity"
Jenceslav |
Hello all, in case someone is interested, there should soon be an updated file available at BGG (link in the original post) that contains almost everything except items, weapons and loot + translation of the original adventure / scenario cards' powers. Story banes are not yet assembled into the overlay file :)
Most allies were made into "local check" instead of "your check" as in Core and the pre-Core cards that appear in it. Some were kept as "your check", e.g. all automatic succeeding at checks except Monkey. In that card, I allowed (just for the fun of it) to use it on another character's check so that the Monkey's owner "steals" it.
Barriers from Core (Ambush, Brawl) have lower check to defeat by 1, as the adventure deck number was 0 to 6, now it's # (1 to x). So all the Veteran banes were adjusted so that their actual check at the time of appearance is the same. All Veteran monsters were changed into double # as well (with some new Veterans to keep the Veteran percentage identical to Core).
Blessings were proposed to change into Veterans (updated checks to acquire now have #) and some changes to the recharge-when-identical-to-hour were made. They should be very close to the original. Why they are Veterans? Because all might be made to disappear through the Core-style removal from the vault.
Armors required quite a lot of changes, to comply with display & no Light Armor proficiency. Some changes are debatable (e.g. Wooden armor protecting against Electricity, as it is non-conducting).
Many spells needed much more significant tweaks, as the Core features significantly more powerful effects (Arcane Armor vs. Deflect; Magic Weapon vs. Enchant Weapon; Speed/Strength vs. Enhance). These are marked red. Also, some original spells have inconsistent Recharge checks (e.g. Inflict check-to-acquire 6, check-to-recharge 6 instead of 8).
As should be obvious, there may be some errors (transcription and/or incorrect new wording), so if you find any error, please let me know.
Items should be relatively OK, but weapons are going to be insane in order to keep the powers consistent with Core.
Jenceslav |
The last (and final) update has been uploaded to BGG - see above. Unless there are some mistakes that someone finds out and tells me about, it should be a final version.
Weapons were updated based on Core and CotCT changes of the standard powers (if applicable), so all Rapiers and Long/Shortswords and derivatives (Humanbane Gladius) were changed to "if proficient, reload to add 1d4". Similarly, if the original weapon cared for weapon proficiency (and +4 difficulty if you are not), I moved it to the additional action with the weapon. For example, the proposed Cutlass is now:
For your combat check, reveal to use Strength, Acrobatics, or Melee + 1d6; if proficient, you may additionally discard to add another 1d8.
Heavy Crossbows except for the magic "repeating crossbow" (Loot Crossbow of Retribution) are "reload to add 1d10" and so on.
With items, there were just a few issues. Adding dice was changed to flatly adding 1d8, as is the case for Core:Crossbar and others. Low-level cards that allow to automatically succeed in a check were modified so as to provide only 2d8 bonus. Masterwork Thieves' Tools were adjusted based on the Core:Thieves' Tools, though.Pearl of Magic (power-wise an upgraded Token of Remembrance) was changed to reflect the Core version as well. The various gems such as Ruby of Charisma are power-wise strictly less powerful than the Core:Gem of Physical Prowess, so I added a "freely" to the power.
The most significant change was needed for the various alchemical bombs such as Noxious Bomb and Alkali Flask and so on. The original "discard another card to add Craft, then attempt to recharge it" would be quite problematic to handle with the recovery pile and quite lengthy as well. The Core/CotCT versions (Noxious Bomb, Bottle of Lightning, Fuse Grenade) have a different power in line with the greater focus on helping local characters, so I devised such powers instead of the clunky discarding and recharging cards. An example:
For your combat check, banish to use Craft, Dexterity, or Ranged + 2d6.
On a local check against a ship or an Animal bane, banish to add 1d6 and the Fire trait.
(many powers were based on the typical power of high-level spells of the same type: lightning prevents after acting, ice reduces damage)
Last but not least, I tried to translate the Adventure Path and adventures (incl. the Plunder and Peril adventure (B) that is outside the Adventure Path) so that it should work with Core rules. Included are suggestions of Dangers for various scenarios - not many Core story banes are thematically compatible with S&S, though.
If you find any error or want to offer some suggestions, I would be happy to hear from you! Thanks.