Lyonesse - 7: Adapting Lyonesse

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7: Adapting Lyonesse to the Gaming Table
What, if anything, do you identify in the setting or the novel of Lyonesse that should be considered when adapting the game to the table? Any thoughts on how to re-construct the dialogue or pacing of Vance? What about the bestiary? The magic? Is combat is a feature? What about social combat? What about Vance's propensity for pure invention?

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    If I tried adopting the tone of the novels to a game, I think I'd lose players very quickly. "Let me give you unusual and powerful magic items, then immediately take them away. Let me give you a quest, then immediately make it impossible for you to progress on it. Let me capture you and inflict all sorts of harm on your character without giving you the opportunity to do anything about it."

    The fairies would be something to introduce into a fantasy game, but they'd have to be a background source of capricious events, disrupting things. There's also the notion of having a fantasy in a populated area, without much happening in wildernesses.

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    I'm dropping this here to explore later, but my post on the conflicts of Lyonesse had me thinking about the Wizards, who seem driven to manipulate people to get their way. And this, perhaps, is a side effect of their exposure to the magic of the fairies, who seem to take glee in tricking and manipulating people. So I'm curious if, being a wizard in Lyonesse means that you gradually become more manipulative, building carefully constructed houses of cards, both mundane and magical, that can be brought tumbling down (much like in Politics, apparently). This is a theme I might consider exploring in a game adaptation.

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    @Apocryphal said:
    I'm dropping this here to explore later, but my post on the conflicts of Lyonesse had me thinking about the Wizards, who seem driven to manipulate people to get their way. And this, perhaps, is a side effect of their exposure to the magic of the fairies, who seem to take glee in tricking and manipulating people. So I'm curious if, being a wizard in Lyonesse means that you gradually become more manipulative, building carefully constructed houses of cards, both mundane and magical, that can be brought tumbling down (much like in Politics, apparently). This is a theme I might consider exploring in a game adaptation.

    Is that a side effect of magic, or is it because of Murgen's prohibition of direct interaction in the affairs of mortals? However, there's no reason given for why Murgen prohibits magicians from such interaction, beyond a possible hint that it would be too dangerous for the world.

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    @NeilNjae said:
    If I tried adopting the tone of the novels to a game, I think I'd lose players very quickly. "Let me give you unusual and powerful magic items, then immediately take them away. Let me give you a quest, then immediately make it impossible for you to progress on it. Let me capture you and inflict all sorts of harm on your character without giving you the opportunity to do anything about it."

    There's also the theme "I tell you to go to some specific place that's already some distance away, then displace you by magical means to a much more remote starting point that is also far more hazardous".

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    I actually thought (never having tried it) that Lyonesse ought to translate pretty well into a long-running game, and might even have started life that way. Hence the apparently rambling and disrupted journeys, and the sense of never being really likely to complete anything!

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    I'm not sure some of those are themes (didn't sending Aillas away happen only once? Once doesn't make a theme - though apparently Vance does this in more than one book of his.) But that said, sending the characters away so they have to explore the world and find their way somewhere is not a bad gaming device for a campaign.

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    @Loz Can you tell us anything about how you've adapted Mythras mechanically to Lyonesse?

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    There isn't space to detail everything we've done, but essentially, we're aiming to capture the culture and feel of the books, rather than try to make game play emulate the stories slavishly.

    Thus, there are lots of tweaks to character creation to help create the kinds of characters encountered in the Elder Isles, and we've had a lot of fun developing things like the Vancian Meal Generator, Random Village/Town Generator, and even random tables for Tantravelles encounters. Of course, these draw heavily on the whimsy of the stories, but what we're trying to avoid is forcing players to role-play in a certain way. We've avoided Vancian language, and we've avoided 'narrative' mechanics that force a certain play style (Chris, you know where I'm going here...). But we do, I think, develop the feel and themes of the setting.

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    That's interesting. What about the magic? Are you allowing PC magicians? And if so, what magic do they use?

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    @Apocryphal said:
    That's interesting. What about the magic? Are you allowing PC magicians? And if so, what magic do they use?

    There will be magic allowed by characters, but I'm afraid I can't share details. Not because I'm being coy, but because the Magic chapter's author, one P. Nash, hasn't shared it with me yet... (but knowing Pete, he'll have found the right way to do it so it's faithful to the books).

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    @Loz said:
    There will be magic allowed by characters,

    I should hope so! One of the main reasons to role-play in a Vance setting is the prospect of commanding a few Sandestins and miscasting some prismatic spells...
    :P

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