Post by Vile Traveller on Sept 7, 2012 9:18:30 GMT -6
First, Thanks to Finarvyn for giving the go-ahead to post this here.
I have begun on an OGL project which aims to make Holmes-style gaming available to players of Pathfinder. That is, it's aimed at people who already use the PF rules. The idea being to produce a book that can be put out under the PF Compatibility Licence, the book can't be stand-alone.
So, what I envisage the content being is a PF version of the Holmes character races, classes, spells, monsters and magic items (using the PRD). The rules will be straight PF, but they will be severely pared back to the kind of rules included in Holmes - no feats, for example. I'm still undecided about non-thief skills, they may stay or they may go, time will tell. Also, I think I will take levels up to level 10, or possibly 14 (not 20, though). That remains to be decided later as well.
The reason for this thread is that I'm very new to Holmes - about three or four weeks new. I was brought up on B/X. So, to aid me in straying out of Holmes territory by accident, I'm hoping to pick the brains of the fine members of this forum.
To start with, I've been looking at character races. I have given them only the Holmes racial traits, and there are no ability score modifiers for non-humans. As I haven't made up my mind about skills yet, I've left in the extra skill points for humans for now.
The classes are restricted as per Holmes, although elves are multi-class magic-users and fighting men. This leads me to my first couple of quandaries:
1) Should I keep the class names of Holmes of PF? I'm strongly leaning towards Holmes. The intended audience are PF players, who may be more comfortable with rogue, wizard and fighter - on the other hand, with the d20 class proliferation, they should have no trouble differentiating if I use the Holmes names. If anything, I sort of wish someone had changed cleric into something else so that there wouldn't be any potential for confusion there.
2) Should I open up the thief class to dwarves and halflings, and should I allow elves to be straight fighting men or straight magic-users? I'm ambivalent about thieves, but I think fighting man/magic-user is more of a definition of elvish nature in Holmes than a class choice, so I tend to think I want to keep it at that.
Any feedback, encouragement or "don't go theres" are welcome! ;D
I have begun on an OGL project which aims to make Holmes-style gaming available to players of Pathfinder. That is, it's aimed at people who already use the PF rules. The idea being to produce a book that can be put out under the PF Compatibility Licence, the book can't be stand-alone.
So, what I envisage the content being is a PF version of the Holmes character races, classes, spells, monsters and magic items (using the PRD). The rules will be straight PF, but they will be severely pared back to the kind of rules included in Holmes - no feats, for example. I'm still undecided about non-thief skills, they may stay or they may go, time will tell. Also, I think I will take levels up to level 10, or possibly 14 (not 20, though). That remains to be decided later as well.
The reason for this thread is that I'm very new to Holmes - about three or four weeks new. I was brought up on B/X. So, to aid me in straying out of Holmes territory by accident, I'm hoping to pick the brains of the fine members of this forum.
To start with, I've been looking at character races. I have given them only the Holmes racial traits, and there are no ability score modifiers for non-humans. As I haven't made up my mind about skills yet, I've left in the extra skill points for humans for now.
The classes are restricted as per Holmes, although elves are multi-class magic-users and fighting men. This leads me to my first couple of quandaries:
1) Should I keep the class names of Holmes of PF? I'm strongly leaning towards Holmes. The intended audience are PF players, who may be more comfortable with rogue, wizard and fighter - on the other hand, with the d20 class proliferation, they should have no trouble differentiating if I use the Holmes names. If anything, I sort of wish someone had changed cleric into something else so that there wouldn't be any potential for confusion there.
2) Should I open up the thief class to dwarves and halflings, and should I allow elves to be straight fighting men or straight magic-users? I'm ambivalent about thieves, but I think fighting man/magic-user is more of a definition of elvish nature in Holmes than a class choice, so I tend to think I want to keep it at that.
Any feedback, encouragement or "don't go theres" are welcome! ;D