Savage World of Athas: Monsters and Powers

Just puttering around with my Dark Sun conversion and decided to convert and post some of the more iconic monsters of the Dark Sun setting in Savage Worlds form. While I worked on that I noticed a lot of psionic powers/spells which are interesting and should certainly be converted but they don't have an easy Savage Worlds equivalent. So in addition to the monsters there are some new Savage Worlds powers inspired by the process. The powers on the monser entries marked with a * are new and are detailed at the end of the post.

Savage World of Athas finale

Phew, this is taking longer than I thought but I'm nearly done now. 

Magic

Here we're going to be going over the different versions of Arcane Backgrounds for Athas: Elementalism, Magic and Psionics. Templars would qualify as well but seeing as they're meant to be NPCs and their power depends on the favor of the sorcerer kings I'm not going to provide PC stats for them. If you feel the need it's easy enough to give them the Miracles AB from the core SW book. But here's all the rest: 

The Savage World of Athas part 3: Wild Talents

Now, the final step to complete the conversion: Dark Sun's rather unique take on standard magic systems. Before we get to that though let's talk about wild talents. The original setting allowed you to get just about any psionic ability if you were lucky but later versions, due to very valid balance concerns, limit wild talents to minor 0-level effects. Trying to find a happy balance between the original, game-breaking insanity and the bland, minor talents that replaced it I've come up with the following ideas. 

The first thing you've got to do is decide how you want to distribute wild talents among players. Essentially there are three ways to do it.

First, in the spirit of the old school, there's good old random chance. Each character rolls a d20 to determine exactly what their wild talent is. Characters with AB (Psionics) should not roll, instead they receive an additional Power known when they take the AB Edge. Likewise if a character with a Wild Talent takes the Edge then they lose their Talent but start with an additional Power.

1: No Talent: You have no psionic ability. However you do receive the Psionic Resistance Edge for free.

2-3: Psychokinetic Talent

4-5: Pyrokinetic Talent

6-7: Biofeedback Talent

8-9: Healing Talent

10-11: Mindscream Talent

12-13: Psychocognition Talent

14-15: Telepathic Talent

16-17: Psychoportive Talent

18: Exceptional Talent: Roll again, you have a +2 bonus to Spirit rolls to activate your talent. 

19: Broad Talent: Roll twice, you have two talents but suffer a -2 penalty to Spirit rolls to activate the talent.

20: Mad With Power!: Roll three times, you have three talents but every time you activate a talent roll on the Fear table.

The second option is to give everyone a single Wild Talent of their choice (only for results from 2-17).

Finally, the more sane option is to make a Background Edge: Wild Talent (no prerequisites) which grants either a Talent of the player's choice or a roll on the table.

So, how do wild talents work? Essentially when you want to activate a Wild Talent you spend a Benny and make a Spirit roll. A normal failure results in no effect. the results of snake eyes, a success or a raise are detailed below. You can always choose to take the results of a lesser success if it is preferred. If the roll is failed then you can keep the Benny (this doesn't count if you spend another benny to reroll and suceed, and if you reroll and fail then you don't get back the extra benny spent).


Psychokinetic Talent:

• Snake Eyes: Small objects are ripped up and hurled about wildly and randomly. You and everyone within 2" takes 1d6 damage. 
• Success: You may hurl an object or opponent. Treat this as the Telekinesis power except that you may only make a single attack or move your opponent only once and you add twice the number of dice to your Spirit as normal for damage (Spirit +2d6 to slam someone into a wall for instance).
• Raise: You may choose a single unattended object of 20 pounds or less within 10" and cause it to detonate explosively. This inflicts 2d10 damage in a Small Burst Template around the object. Objects made of particularly soft material (fruit for instance) are harmless when detonated and anything harder than stone cannot be detonated.  Each additional raise lets you detonate an additional object.

Pyrokinetic Talent:

• Snake Eyes: You catch on fire. 
• Success: A character of your choice within 10" catches on fire. If you choose spend an action to concentrate then the opponent must beat your opposed Spirit roll to attempt to douse the flame. 
• Raise: You may enlarge and animate any single existing fire source within 10" as a Fire Elemental. The elemental exists only as long as you spend an action to concentrate each round. This is not an actual elemental (it's merely psionically animated fire) so magic specifically designed to affect elemental or extraplanar creatures will fail. Each additional raise increases the elemental's Size by +1 and Strength by a die type. 

 Biofeedback Talent

• Snake Eyes: Your skin and body deforms horribly. You suffer a point of Fatigue and -2 Charisma. These effects recover in 1d6 hours. 
• Success: Your armor increases by +1 and you ignore all wound penalties for 6 rounds.
• Raise: Your Strength, Vigor, and Agility increases by one die type and you gain the Hardy ability. This effect lasts for 3 rounds. Each additional raise increases the duration by 3 rounds. 

Healing Talent:

• Snake Eyes: Blood spurts from any existing wounds. You take 1d6 damage per Wound level you're suffering from. 
• Success: You may make a natural Healing roll immediately. 
• Raise: You gain Fast Regeneration for 2 rounds. Each additional raise increases the duration by 1 round. 

 Mindscream Talent

• Snake Eyes: You are Shaken for 1d4 rounds. 
• Success: A single target within 10" must make a Spirit roll at -2 or be Shaken for 1d4 rounds. Mindless or unliving targets are immune. 
• Raise: Place a large burst template centered on yourself. Everyone within the template (other than you) suffers 2d6 damage from your mental scream. This damage ignores armor, cover, and any other physical barriers. Each additional raise increases the damage by 1d6.

Hypercognition Talent

• Snake Eyes: You suffer a -4 penalty to any Smarts rolls or skills linked to Smarts for 10 minutes. 
• Success: Your Smarts increases by one die type and the world seems to slow down, you may draw an additional card for initiative. This lasts for 6 rounds
• Raise: Your Smarts and Spirit increases by one die type and you may take an additional action without suffering a multi-action penalty. This lasts 3 rounds but each raise increases the duration by 3 rounds.

Telepathic Talent

•  Snake Eyes: You are overwhelmed by the unintelligible thoughts and feelings of others. You suffer a -1 penalty to all trait rolls for each intelligent creature within 10" of you.
• Success: You may scan an intelligent beings surface thoughts, allowing you to determine if it's lying and you may make an opposed Spirit roll to learn specific facts close to the surface. This lasts so long as you can concentrate and the victim remains within 2".
• Raise: You can delve deeply into a victim's thoughts. The target must be within 2" and may make an opposed Spirit roll to resist your probing. You may ask up to 3 questions (each requiring an opposed roll) which the GM must answer based on the target's knowledge. Each additional raise grants an additional 2 questions.

Psychoportive Talent

• Snake Eyes: Your body flickers in and out of reality briefly and you become Shaken.
• Success: You may teleport yourself up to 10" 
• Raise: You may teleport an object or creature within 20" up to 10" from their original location. Living targets receive an opposed Spirit roll to resist the effect. Each additional Raise allows you to teleport an additional target.

The Savage World of Athas part 2

Traits

Like I said, those familiar with Savage Worlds already may be a little confused by some of those ability scores you saw. That's because I'm using what I refer to as the "Heroic Array". It's what I use for Savage Worlds when I'm playing D&D style "Big Awesome Heroes" games and it seems especially appropriate for Dark Sun. So, here's how that works. 

Each character begins with a d6 in each attribute and receives 3 points they can spend to raise an attribute (each point raises an attribute by one die type). It is possible to begin play with lower attributes by taking Hindrances.

Normally a character can raise attributes up to d12+1, but this is adjusted based on the character's base attributes due to race and Hindrances. For example, Half Giants begin with a Smarts of d4 so they cannot raise their Smarts above d12 but they have a Strength of d10 so they may raise their Strength to a maximum of d12+3. Likewise a human who takes the Inferior Attribute Hindrance (Vigor) begins with a d4 Vigor and may not raise it higher than d12. 

Skills and Derived Statistics are unchanged from the normal Savage Worlds rules. 

Edges

These are edges that I've brewed up for the Dark Sun setting, or modifications to standard SW edges to function in the setting. 

Background Edges 

Arcane Background: With proper training and initiation all Arcane Background edges (except Wild Talent) may be learned after character creation, neither elemental or arcane magic is inborn, and all sentient beings possess enough psionic talent to be trained as mindbenders with time and effort. Information on the different forms of Arcane Backgrounds will be detailed further down.

Arcane Resistance: There are two forms of Arcane Resistance (and Improved Arcane Resistance) and characters must select which one when taking the Edge. Magic Resistance provides a bonus against the Powers of Templars, Elementalists and Wizards and other Powers based on magic. Psionic Resistance provides its bonus against Wild Talents and Psionicists as well as any Powers based on psionic ability.

Heat Adaption: (Vigor 1d8+)
Your hero is very adapted to the heat of the desert and is even conditioned to require less water than normal. Characters with this edge require only 2 quarts of water daily to avoid heat exhaustion and recieve a +2 on all rolls made to resist fatigue from heat exhaustion. 

Combat Edges

Armor Optimization: (Seasoned, Fighting d8+, Agility d8+)

When an opponent strikes you they automatically hit your most heavily armored location unless they get a Raise or are making a Called Shots. Called Shots to locations with less armor suffer an additional -1 penalty. If your character has several equally well-armored location then the opponent's attack is directed to the area with the lowest Called Shot penalty. 

Improved Armor Optimization (Veteran, Armor Optimization, Fighting d10+)

The armor rating of any armor you're wearing improves by 1. 

Weird Edges

Mental Armor: (Seasoned, Smarts d6+, Spirit d6+)

You have received training in resisting mental control and invasion. Against any Power (psionic or magical) that uses mind control, mind-reading or similar trappings your character receives a +3 bonus to any rolls made to resist. 

Psionic Detection (Novice, Smarts d6+, Notice d6+)

Your character can detect active psionic powers with a Notice roll at a -3 penalty. Powers that cost more than 1 power point add a bonus of +1 for each Power Point beyond the first (so detecting a Psionic Bolt that uses 6 power points would involve a Notice roll at +2). This edge works on powers used within 20 yards. It can detect powers further away at an additional -3 penalty up to a limit of 60 yards. A success alerts the character that there was a psionic power used nearby. A raise gives you a rough idea of the distance and direction. 

Professional Edges

Bardic Assassin (Novice, Smarts d8+, Knowledge (poison) d8+, Persuasion d8+, Stealth d6+)

Although many bards are simply skilled entertainers, storytellers and musicians it is a commonly accepted fact that many who adopt the title are also skilled poisoners, spys, and theives. Bardic assassin's are typically masters of poison, blackmail and stealth: they add +2 to all Stealth related skills in an urban environment, +2 to all Knowledge (poisons) rolls, and +2 to Persuasion rolls.

Gladiator (Novice,  Fighting d10+, Vigor d8+, Taunt or Intimidate at d6+)

Years of fighting in the pits have given experienced gladiators an exceptional talent for dirty fighting and psychological strategy. Gladiators recieve a +2 bonus to perform and resist combat tricks.

Veiled Wizard (Novice, AB (wizard), Preserver, Spellcasting d8+, Knowledge (Arcane) d6+, Stealth d6+)

Mages trained by the Veiled Alliance have an advantage over others even if they do not stay with the group. They are given some knowledge of the Veiled Alliance and may make Common Knowledge rolls to recall information about the group (including code words, safehouses and the like). In addition they recieve a +2 bonus on Knowledge (Arcane) and Stealth rolls made to conceal their spellcasting.

Defender of the Land (Novice, AB (elementalist), Spellcasting d8+, Survival d8+)

An elemental priest can forge a bond with the spirits of the land, claiming guardianship over a chosen stretch of land. While in their guarded lands the priest receives a +2 bonus to all Notice, Stealth, Survival and Tracking rolls and they regain Power Points twice as fast. In addition you may now learn the following Powers in addition to those from the Elementalist AB: Beast Friend, Entangle (plant-based trappings) and Shape Change (creatures found on guarded lands). You also are intuitively aware of the condition of your guarded land and sense instantly if defiling magic or similar harm comes to it. 

Hindrances

There's only one new Hindrance:

Inferior Attribute (Major/Minor): Your character is below average in some way but fortunately has still managed to survive. One of your Attributes is at a d4 and may not be raised above a d12. This edge may be taken once as a Major Hindrance. If it is taken again (for a different attribute) then it is considered a Minor Hindrance. 

Gear

Characters in Athas begin with 500$ (ceramics). The following rules cover how gear in Dark Sun is different from the standard Savage Worlds rules. 

Metal Equipment

Metal is exceedingly rare in Dark Sun and iron gear costs 10 times the normal price (so a metal longsword costs 3,000$). Iron weapons inflict normal damage but have AP 1 against non-iron armor. Bronze weapons cost 6 times the normal price but do not provide any AP. 

Inferior Gear

Without metal most weapons are made from bone, obsidian and flint (Dasyl is in this category as well). These weapons inflict normal damage but have a chance of breaking in combat. If a primitive weapons have a Damage Threshold and if the attacker rolls higher than their Damage Threshold with the weapon then it breaks, inflicting a -1 penalty to any Fighting rolls and dropping it's damage bonus by one die type (weapons that add a d4 damage are worthless).

   A weapon's Damage Threshold is twice the bonus to damage it provides (so a dagger has a Threshold of 8, while a Longsword has a Threshold of 16). If you are attacking an opponent wielding a metal weapon or wearing metal armor the Threshold is halved. Monsters with exceptionally tough natural armor (+4 or higher) may have a similar effect. 

Other Weapons

Weapons that are not normally made from metal (staffs, clubs, slings etc) suffer no penalty and function just like normal. Bows with metal-tipped ammunition have AP 1 against non-metal armor but otherwise function identically.

Athasian Weapons

This is the description of weapons unique to Athas. To save space I won't provide descriptions (just google "athasian weapons") and I won't include weapons that are basically slight variations on existing weapons (singing sticks and quabones are just clubs for instance).

Cahaluks: (Str +d4) This pair of weapons ignores cover bonuses and shield bonuses. It can also be used to entangle an opponent and trip them making an Agility Trick using the wielder's Throwing or Fighting skill instead of Agility. On a raise the target falls prone as well as being Shaken. (ROF 1 4/8/16). 6 lbs. 200$

Chatkcha: (Str+d6) These are triple pointed blades usually made from thri-kreen Dasyl. They can be thrown (ROF 1, 3/6/12) and if a special technique is used (-2 to Throwing) they will return if they miss their target. 1 lb. 100$

Forearm Axe: (Str+d6) It takes an action to strap these axes to your arms but once equipped they cannot be disarmed. The same stats can be used for the Wrist Razors. 4 lbs. 225$

Gythka: This weapon is effectively identical to a spear. 

Tortoise Blades: (Str+d4) It takes an action to strap on a Tortoise Blade but once on they cannot be disarmed. The small shield grants +1 to Parry. 5 lbs. 150$

Armor

The armor is slightly different from the standard SW armor. The weights are for full suits (torso, arms, legs). Partial armor is common in Athas, Torso armor is about half the standard weight. Just legs or just arms are about 25% of the standard weight alone. Boots or gloves are about 10% the standard weight. Reduce cost by the same amount. Metal shields provide an additional point of armor against missiles.

Leather: Armor +1, 15 lbs. 50$

Giant Hair: Armor +1, 9 lbs. 100$

Heavy Hide/Light Chitin: Armor +2, 25 lbs. 300$

Heavy Chitin: Armor +3, 55 lbs. 850$

Chainmail: Armor +3, 25 lbs. 4,000$

Bronze Plate: Armor +4, 50 lbs. 10,000$

Steel Plate: Armor +5, 50 lbs. 20,0000$

All that's really left is the rules for Arcane Backgrounds and Wild Talents. I'll try and post that later tonight or tomorrow.

RPG Chopshop II: The Savage World of Athas

 UPDATE: I've recently created a "second edition" of my Savage Worlds conversion, which can be found here: Savage World of Athas. Leaving these posts intact for anyone who wants to see the "original" version or just listen to me ramble.

Dark Sun is possibly my favorite campaign setting from Dungeons and Dragons. My first exposure to it was the old PC games Shattered Lands and Wake of the Ravager. I played both well before I was exposed to table-top roleplaying and looking back I'm amazed I was able to figure things out considering I had no clue what the hell THACO was supposed to be or what all these 1dsomethings were. After getting into table-top gaming I collected just about all the setting books for dark sun, from the basic core books to the ridiculous books of insane artifacts and halfling bio-engineering. Sadly, although I was a big fan of the setting I never got much chance to play or run it myself and the books mostly collected dust. 

Once third edition D+D came along I switched over and Dark Sun was sadly a casualty. Looking over the various official and unofficial conversions for the setting they all lacked some of the spark that still excites me about the original. It's hard to say exactly what caused the dissatisfaction but I think part of it was that the more rigidly defined and balanced 3e rules didn't suit the gonzo-insanity that is Dark Sun. In 2e you could have an elf as strong as a giant, a giant who could explode your head with his mind and a walking mantis who could carve you into 4 pieces and paralyzing you with its spit and still explode your head with its mind. 3e focused on making things balanced and stable which was more or less anathema to the heavy-metal-post-apocalyptic insanity that soaked through Dark Sun. 

Now 4th edition has come around and brought Dark Sun back, which is cool. I love the setting and I'm glad to see it being officially revived and 4th edition's action-heavy philosophy might be able to recapture some of that old craziness. However I don't think I'll take part. Although I liked a lot of what I saw in 4e, there were also a variety of things that just rubbed me the wrong way and seeing some of the things that are being done with the setting are even more irritating. One of the things that I always found interesting about Dark Sun was how willing it was to do things different from "standard" D&D fantasy. 4th edition Dark Sun seems to be taking the opposite route, doing it's best to cram in everything from the core setting no matter how out of place it is (namely looking at the races, like dragonborn and eladrin). Anyway, 4e Dark Sun has proved not to be my cup of tea (please don't take this as a judgement of your game, there is no such thing as badwrongfun and my rejection of the new version has more to do with nostalgia than logic). 

However, the revival of Dark Sun has renewed my interest in Athas and I've decided to give a shot at converting the setting to my favorite "action" system: Savage Worlds. I won't try to recapture the utter insanity of the original (some of that stuff was just ridiculous) but I think Savage Worlds is the right system to scratch the Athas itch for me. 

So, let's break it down. First and foremost I won't be providing rules for the "epic level" material like transformation into a dragon, sorcerer-kings, avangions, etc. That sort of material works best (in my opinion) out of the hands of PCs and so it doesn't need hard and fast rules. I'm also avoiding the bizarre halfling bio-tech. This conversion assumes you're familiar with the Savage Worlds system but if you're not the Test Drive rules should be all you need to play. To save space I won't be providing the "fluff" for Dark Sun. If you got this far without knowing anything about the setting then you can easily find that info elsewhere online. With that said, let's get started!

Character Creation

Races: The some of the Dark Sun races are pretty damn powerful (thri-kreen, I'm looking at you). To keep everything balanced I'm increasing the "default" racial bonuses to compensate and keep everyone on the same level. Some races (thri-kreen, I'm looking at you again) have been taken down a notch or two to keep things balanced.

Humans

• Talented: Humans receive one free Edge in addition to the starting Edge everyone gets.
• Skilled: Humans receive 2 free Skill Points that can be spent however they wish

Dwarves

• Slow: Dwarves have a Pace of 5".
• Tough: Dwarves start with a Vigor of 1d8 rather than 1d6.
• Magic Resistant: Dwarves receive the Arcane Resistance Edge for free.
• Intestinal Fortitude: Dwarves receive a +2 bonus to Vigor rolls to resist poison or disease. 

Elves

• Agile: Elves start with an Agility of 1d8 rather than 1d6
• Swift: Elves receive the Fleet Footed Edge for free.
• Low-Light Vision: Elves ignore penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.

Half-Elves

• Mixed Blood: Half-elves may start with either a free Edge or Agility of 1d8 instead of 1d6.
• Natural Talents: Half-elves may start with a d6 in one of the following skills: Guts, Survival, Streetwise or Taunt.
• Low Light Vision: Half-elves ignore penalties for Dim or Dark lighting.

Half-Giants

• Mighty: Half Giants begin with a d10 in Strength rather than d6.
• Huge: Half-Giants are Size +3.
• Dim: Half-Giants start with Smarts of d4 rather than d6. 
• Weak-Willed: Half-Giants start with Spirit of d4 rather than d6.
• Out of Place: Most objects and equipment are not sized properly for half-giants. They receive a -2 penalty to related trait rolls when using inappropriately sized equipment. Properly sized equipment usually costs twice as much as normal. Half-Giants must also consume four times the amount of food and water a human needs.

Halflings

• Agile: Halflings begin with a d8 in Agility rather than a d6.
• Focused: Halflings begin with a d8 in Spirit rather than a d6
• Slight: Halflings begin with a Strength of d4 rather than d6.
• Small: Halflings are Size -1
• Athletic: Halflings start with a d6 in Climbing and Stealth. 

Mul

• Strong: Muls begin with a d8 in Strength rather than a d6 .
• Large: Muls are Size +1.
• Dim: Muls start with a Smarts of d4 rather than d6. 
• Brawny: Muls receive the Brawny Edge for free. 

Thri-Kreen

• Large: Thri-Kreen are Size +1
• Chitin: Thri-Kreen have chitin granting them +1 armor.
• Poisonous: Thri-Kreen possess a poisonous bite. Victims that suffer a Shaken result from the bite must make a Vigor roll or suffer a -2 penalty to any Spirit rolls made to recover from being Shaken.
• Natural Weapons: Thri-Kreen possess powerful jaws and sharp claws inflicting Str +1d4 damage. 
• Fast: Thri-kreen have a Pace of 10" 
• Multi-Limbed: Thri-Kreen have 4 limbs and any multi-action penalties for attacking with a weapon held in their limbs or their natural weapons are halved (so a thri-kreen attacking with a bite and 4 claws rolls at -5 to each roll rather than -10) and there are no off hand penalties.
• Insect Mind: Thri-kreen begin with a Smarts of d4 rather than d6. 
• Alien Body: Thri-kreen cannot wear armor and most gear designed for humans.
• Weird: Thri-kreen suffer a -3 penalty to Charisma when dealing with non-kreen. 

Anyone familiar with Savage Worlds will notice that the ability scores don't seem to look normal. There's a reason for that which I shall address in the next post.

EDIT: The rest of the Savage Worlds of Athas
Attributes and Edges
Wild Talents
Magic/Psionics
Monsters and Powers