From: millerl@wharton.upenn.edu
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc,rec.games.design
Subject: Re: Supplements for Multiple Systems
Date: 16 Sep 92 02:41:27 GMT
Followup-To: rec.games.frp.misc
Organization: Newt World Order

Yet another change of the newsgroups later...

In article <MAVRA.92Sep15095012@bailey.cpac.washington.edu>, mavra@cpac.washington.edu (Peter D. Adkison) writes:
> In article <1992Sep11.215349.23527@afterlife.ncsc.mil> acadams@afterlife.ncsc.mil (Arthur C. Adams) writes:
> 
>>   Wouldn't it be great if, some day, role-playing supplements
>>   were released with stats for _all_ of the appropriate systems?

> You are not alone.  I know of several cases where this type of stuff
> is starting to crop up.  For example:
> 
> * The product by The Armory, that someone else mentioned, which allows
> someone to convert back and forth between various game systems (if
> there's someone out there who has this, mind posting a review?).

I saw it at Atlanticon but forgot to go back and buy it when I went
around to purchase stuff. Instead I bought Millenium's End, which was a
mistake. If I wanted that style of game I would use one of Greg Porter's
designs, like TimeLords or CORPS, because they're simpler. The
transparent scatter diagrams are a neat idea, though.

In addition to the ones you mention, GURPS implictly supports this kind
of universal supplement style thang. RolePlayer magazine has printed a
lot of conversions. It was also in Fantasy Hero for the Hero system.
Just about every game company does this, at least between D&D and their
game. In fact one of the oldest supplement series ever did this, _all
the world's monsters_. Each issue converted a few different games to
their D&D variant style and vice versa. I memorized the RuneQuest method
and still use it to convert from D&D to RQ.

> * I asked Steve Jackson if he'd be interested in a joint venture to
> publish a product on how to play Talislanta using the GURPS rules.
> There are a lot of GURPS players who complain about not having a
> well-developed and supported world to play in, and a lot of Talislanta
> players who want a more detailed rules system.  Steve was enthusiastic
> about the idea, and I'm working on a formal proposal to send to him
> (if you're reading this Loyd, expect e-mail Real Soon Now!).

I like this. Have you mentioned this to Ken Rolston for RuneQuest?

> * In-house we call this project Envoy.  The name fits pretty well,
> once you see what we're talking about here.
> 
> * We'd like to see published a description of how one can write stats
> for various creatures, NPCs, and items in a system-independent format.
> This would *not* have rules for actually resolving things like melee,
> or spell combat, but would simply provide a way of publishing "stats."
> 
> * This publication would be considered "public domain."  Anyone and
> everyone could freely use the rules, terms, etc, photocopy to their
> hearts content, and refer to the publication itself without fear of
> copyright or trademark infringement.

I like this a lot, but it will turn into a more complete rule system. I
don't think there's any way of avoiding that. After all, if you define a
stat that can be used in combat, you have decided something about how
combat works. Same with every other part of the rules.

> * To catch on, we'd want to work together with as many game companies
> as possible to get "Official" conversion notes for how to convert
> stats from Envoy to their game system.

Right, and the first question is that old chestnut, linear or
exponential? Gack. Please Lord, not again...

I'm interested in this line of discussion and I'm on that mailing list,
but this is the first I ever heard of Envoy. You learn something every
day.

-- 
whoah,
+++++++++++++++++++++++23
Loren Miller                           internet: MILLERL@wharton.upenn.edu
The more corrupt the government, the greater the number of laws -- Tacitus
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp.misc