Just a write-up of a general-purpose draugr for the Basic Fantasy RPG. If you play any old school D&D, it should be easily convertible.
Draugr
Armor Class: 17
Hit Dice: 9**
No. of Attacks: 1 (weapon)
Damage: 1d10+3
Movement: 30'
No. Appearing: 1
Save As: Fighter 9
Morale: 12
Treasure Type: B, M
XP: 1,225
Draugr are the undead remains of ancient nord kings. They appear as a skeleton wearing ancient plate mail. They wield an ancient nord two-handed sword in combat. They are only encountered in ancient crypts.
Draugr can see invisible opponents.
Once per turn, they can use a dragon shout. Anyone in front of the draugr when he shouts must make a Save vs. Spells or drop anything they are holding in their hands. Items dropped will scatter 10 feet behind the character.
Draugr may be turned as vampires. Draugr are immune to Sleep, Charm, and Hold spells.
I think the number of appearing is off. Several ruins they appear "many" show up at once. I would change that to 1-10. (I only think of one specific instance where there MIGHT have been more than 10, but I didn't count, I was too busy unleashing torrents of lightning and fire.)
Also only the overlords/leaders have dragon shouts.
I made this based off the bosses. Regular draugr are really just skeletons or zombies with more HD and a better AC.
A few of them have the first cold spell (Frostbite?) I'd have to check. Though it may be there are four tiers. Normal Guardian, Better Guardian, Overlord, Named Overlord
They can also summon Frost Atronachs once you get high enough in level.
there are several types-brokendown by weapon and/or magic capability listed on the Elder Scrolls wiki. Good info;
http://elderscrolls.wikia.com/wiki/Draugr
Aren't Draugr just stronger versions of skeletons flavored viking? Not really too complex.
Now a really egregious example of skyrim is giants. Giants are suppose to GIANT! I was completely disappointed by the size of the giants in the game. It really broke my verisimilitude. Come on Bethe$ta, if you can have DRAGONS you can at least have decently sized giants.
Quote from: Stoutfish;500740Aren't Draugr just stronger versions of skeletons flavored viking? Not really too complex.
Now a really egregious example of skyrim is giants. Giants are suppose to GIANT! I was completely disappointed by the size of the giants in the game. It really broke my verisimilitude. Come on Bethe$ta, if you can have DRAGONS you can at least have decently sized giants.
Yeah but in AD&D hill giants are only like 12ft tall. That's barely "average guy on Manute Boll's shoulders" high :)
Wait, I thought Skyrim's giants were really, really bigass?
:(
They're probably 11 or 12 feet tall. If they hit you, you'll either fly 100 feet up into the air or suddenly be 1 foot tall. :)
I found their giants notable. People don't really get scale sometimes though (re: Hill giants) until you see it.
As for Draugr, there closer to being mummified. (Not Egyptian style, but buried in a moor/swamp style mummies.)
Quote from: danbuter;500745They're probably 11 or 12 feet tall. If they hit you, you'll either fly 100 feet up into the air or suddenly be 1 foot tall. :)
Yeah. One of the things that really puzzled me about Skyrim is that I could take a dragon (or two, one time) without much trouble, but a giant could pancake me or knock me across the map in a heartbeat. Shouldn't dragons > giants?
Quote from: oktoberguard;500913Yeah. One of the things that really puzzled me about Skyrim is that I could take a dragon (or two, one time) without much trouble, but a giant could pancake me or knock me across the map in a heartbeat. Shouldn't dragons > giants?
In Nordic mythology Giants were second to gods. Well, Frost Giants aka Jotuns if I remember correctly, but sssh.
Quote from: Rincewind1;500914In Nordic mythology Giants were second to gods. Well, Frost Giants aka Jotuns if I remember correctly, but sssh.
Fair enough.
Not to mention, when you fight a giant, all he wants to do is flatten you for bothering him. Dragons spend half the fight attacking rabbits, farmers, saber tooth tigers, and whatever else happens to be around while you nova on them.
Quote from: Rincewind1;500914In Nordic mythology Giants were second to gods. Well, Frost Giants aka Jotuns if I remember correctly, but sssh.
Skyrim aren't Norse though, they resemble them but exist in a wider fantasy world with more strange things.
Quote from: Silverlion;500992Skyrim aren't Norse though, they resemble them but exist in a wider fantasy world with more strange things.
Oh, I know (that much) about Skyrim's setting ;). I just reckoned that it's a reason why giants are powerful in it - an inspiration from Scandinavian myths.
Giants are tough but I've usually found them somewhere near some kind of rough terrain, so I've gotten in the habit of finding rock or something to climb up on so they can't get to me in Melee. Dragons have that whole Dragon's Breath thing. Like I said before, I go out of my way to avoid Melee in Skyrim, you can get hurt like that. High Sneak+High Archery+ the right mix of Enchanted weapons is working for me. I just found a Dragon up in the mountains on the way to Riften last night and I got close enough to get in two arrow shots before he could even take off, the first one was while he was asleep.
Ok, someone needs to explain to me the basic gist of this "skyrim" thing. Is it basically the new WoW?
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;501153Ok, someone needs to explain to me the basic gist of this "skyrim" thing. Is it basically the new WoW?
RPGPundit
Skyrim is the 5th (8th if you count expansion games) game in the Elder Scrolls series which goes back to the mid '90s. They're RPG/First-person-shooters. With the exception of the first one, they span whole nations and continents and give you unlimited development and adventure potential.
They are - with one 4-player option in one of the early games - single player games, so they're definitely not WoW. In fact, in
Morrowind (the 3rd game, the one I started the series with), they took a poke at Everquest (and I guess all MMOs) when you could find a bit of inconsequential treasure on a sunken ship off the northwest coast of Vvardenfell (the main island the game is based on). A fat lute.
The game is a series as mentioned that began in The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and continued with Daggerfall, Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim. There were one offs using the world that were not First person CRPG's (or as of Morrowind, your choice of 3rd or First Person CRPGs.)
The other two games were BattleSpire (built as a shooter, yet with hack and slash weaponry instead of firearms) and Redguard which was a side scroller. Neither of which were as well received as the CRPG line.
The basics tend to be you are a prisoner for some deed, you are released due to ongoing circumstances and then can adventure in a fairly large sandbox area, doing quests, fighting monsters, exploring dungeons. Several of the line have won awards for their quality. (Daggerfall is the only one I recall you didn't necessarily start as a prisoner. Arena, Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim, you do.)
Early games were class based, but with a spell creation system. Over the different iterations of the world they added class and magic item creation. However the last few games have reduced the options a bit. Making magic creation harder and disappearing completely as of Skyrim. As well as removing "classes" and leaving a skill system behind with "feat like" advantages.
One of the hallmarks of the series is that when they implemented skills you got better at them by using them. Not just "leveling up."
Since Arena (which focused on the whole world.) The other games have had you in a smaller region playing hero. You can buy houses, goods, horses and such. In some games you could buy boats. Some people in Daggerfall amused themselves by buying wagons and playing "traveling merchant" to make money. Though that option isn't in Skyrim.
Each game thrusts your hero into a great world saving adventure, that is not time sensitive, so the hero can spend his days doing whatever sandbox quests he wants.
The races are Wood Elves, High Elves, Dark Elves (from a volcanic land who have glowing red eyes--since its natural camoflauge.) Argonians (Swamp Dwelling Reptile men), Khaijit (Cat people) and humans from the Empire, Breton, Skyrim, and Red Guard. Dwarves are noticeably absent having been wiped out by their own actions--but ghosts and bits remain.
Its an awesome game for my type of gaming when I can't tabletop. Siimply play how you want to play and do whatever be hero, be a bastard, explore places, fight monsters, get magic items. Whatever.
The skills are kind of like Runequest. They are percentile, and improve with use. There is also a perk system that you can select perks for each skill, with limits based upon how good you are at the skill.
Quote from: danbuter;501281The skills are kind of like Runequest. They are percentile, and improve with use. There is also a perk system that you can select perks for each skill, with limits based upon how good you are at the skill.
As soon as I got into it I decided it was the video game version of Pseudo's runequest pbp.
Quote from: Silverlion;501270The other two games were BattleSpire (built as a shooter, yet with hack and slash weaponry instead of firearms) and Redguard which was a side scroller. Neither of which were as well received as the CRPG line.
Redguard isn't a side-scroller. It's a third-person action game with sandbox elements. It's a go-anywhere/do-anything
Tomb Raider set in the TES fantasy universe.
This topic needs more Fus Ro Dah. :rant:
Quote from: thedungeondelver;501372Redguard isn't a side-scroller. It's a third-person action game with sandbox elements. It's a go-anywhere/do-anything Tomb Raider set in the TES fantasy universe.
Ah.
My mistake. Its the one game of the line I never got because of its preview material looking side-scroller like, but this was before it was released. I wonder if they've released it like TES: Arena, and Daggerfall..
So is fucking everyone talking about Skyrim because its just what's hip for the next month, or is it somehow genre-changing or industry-changing?
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;501810So is fucking everyone talking about Skyrim because its just what's hip for the next month, or is it somehow genre-changing or industry-changing?
RPGPundit
It's well made and shiny, but it's no Dark Souls.
And the combat is
souless.
Quote from: RPGPundit;501810So is fucking everyone talking about Skyrim because its just what's hip for the next month, or is it somehow genre-changing or industry-changing?
RPGPundit
It's a great game. In any case, this is a just a monster that you can use in your D&D game. Why are you so upset about it?
Quote from: danbuter;501821It's a great game. In any case, this is a just a monster that you can use in your D&D game. Why are you so upset about it?
Foul Ole Ron didn't make any new gaming theory, so maybe energy build - up?
Quote from: RPGPundit;501810So is fucking everyone talking about Skyrim because its just what's hip for the next month, or is it somehow genre-changing or industry-changing?
RPGPundit
The Elder Scrolls as a whole have been a very influential series on video gaming and to a lesser extent on tabletop. In the former because of various technical details of the game (it sets the standard for first-person skill-based rpgs) and in the latter because of the depth of the world-building, which is miles ahead of most settings.
It's actually somewhat surprising that the setting has never been licensed for a RPG. A BRP-like system is a natural fit, and most of the details are already written out.
Quote from: Pseudoephedrine;501833It's actually somewhat surprising that the setting has never been licensed for a RPG. A BRP-like system is a natural fit, and most of the details are already written out.
Very much so.
The whole game series has been popular to some degree, not just what is new and shiny, bit a lineage of popularity, while containing to test the game play a bit to make it exciting. Plus the storylines grow more complex as well. Skyrim has political decisions in all the running around and dungeon delving, Saving the world is a part of the game, but so to is changing the landscape of the world a bit. (Not exactly ongoing though sadly.) Skyrim also posits a really solid AI system for foes, unlike some CRPGs.
I'm not upset at all. I just hear everyone and their cousin name-dropping skyrim, and wanted to know what the big deal was about. Now I get it, its a video game that came out recently, not WoW-style, heavy on setting.
RPGPundit
Quote from: RPGPundit;502218I'm not upset at all. I just hear everyone and their cousin name-dropping skyrim, and wanted to know what the big deal was about. Now I get it, its a video game that came out recently, not WoW-style, heavy on setting.
RPGPundit
You might as well read the wiki about it. It has made such an impact I think it will change how gamers naturally think about dragons and sandbox settings, forever.
I have three players in my current game who have never played sandbox before, but this is the second one I've run and they are very comfortable with it because of Skyrim.
Skyrim Spoiler:
Pundit, the basic story is that the ancients couldn't beat the worst dragon, so you have to deal with him now. They invented magic words to fight him, so your character plans to use a magic item to look back and time and learn them. If you can sit through it, I feel like this video is the linch pin from the main story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nZFeZWvkXIA
I see, well thanks guys for all the clarification.
RPGPundit