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Sunday, May 20, 2012

I wish there was an rpg for the Belgariad

I read Pawn of Prophecy and I'm starting Queen of Sorcery. I really love the world Eddings created. It's too bad a good setting book was never published. A well-done rpg aimed specifically at the Belgariad would be amazing, as well.

Things I like:

Belgarath and Polgara. Just well-done NPC's, without being overbearing.
The Grolim. Kind of like Nazgul, but not really. I think they are cool.
Silk. He's just cool. In fact, the whole fantasy spy subtext to the series is really fun.
The Secret Language. I confess, I've had some kind of variant on this in every game I've run ever since I read the Belgariad back in the 80's.
The Bear Cult. Also really cool. I wonder if it influenced how Malar's religion was portrayed in the Forgotten Realms sets.

6 comments:

David said...

I always loved the Murgo gold with the dark enchantments woven into it.

Steve Miller said...

I hope I'm not confusing books here, but I recall thinking that if you swapped the cleric spells for wizard ones for the paladin class, you'd have a near-perfect modeling of the Church Knights.

Anonymous said...

There's a venerable Risus adaptation here.

Everyone wants an excuse to play Risus, right? Maybe this is yours.

David said...

@Steve Miller - You're thinking of a trilogy, The Elenium. I think I like that series more than any of his other work.

As for The Belgariad, I was thinking that if you strip away the setting and just use the base system, Ars Magica could serve well. I don't have a firm memory of the rules, but from what I do remember, the only mechanical mods would be all that House affiliation stuff, the covenant stuff, and the stuff about vis, meaning you'd have to come up with another mechanic for what powers the spells.
Actually, you probably wouldn't even need to do that, just alter the games concept of pawns.

Anyway, the game already supports the kind of "ensemble focused on the spell caster" kind of vibe the books give off and it has that great noun+verb magic system, so I think it'd make a good starting point.

The rules on on their 5th edition (I think). A pdf of the 4th edition is available for free (and legal) download here:
http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=AG0204

Good luck.

Kilsern said...

Inspiration + Fudge Mechanic = Belgariad

Add some of the favorite aspects of other games you think would work well, Ars Magica I agree could be a good choice. I can't help but notice you are a fan of my favorite clone BFRPG, there's gotta be something there.

I haven't read the Belgariad since the 80's, but I remember reading straight through, purposely loosing sleep at night just to read one more chapter. It is a shame that later Eddings didn't hold up, at least not for me.

Dan said...

Murgo gold is also pretty neat. Nothing like money that is cursed to make you want more and more, no matter what.