Wanting to make a new Discworld system

[YoungSam42]

Hi all,

I'm planning on making a free Discworld campaign setting, based as loyally on the Terry Pratchett series as possible. I am trying to base things on D&D 5e for now, since most of the people I play with are on that. There was a thread about this a long time ago but it's now a closed thread :-( I'm hoping to make a PHB and maybe a DM guide presenting the setting as a sillier Eberron, where good and evil aren't so clearly-cut, and where roleplaying can take a bigger

I would love to get some help on this, as it's turning into a rather big effort. I don't have time to do it all on my own, and I don't have the stomach to do anything but proper justice to Pratchett's amazing world. Here's a pretty big list of things I want to have be a part of it. If any Discworld fans have ideas about what else definitely needs to be in there, or wants to volunteer to help with this, I'm hoping to make a big set of PDFs that I could share among my friends for the sake of doing some long-term campaigning, and maybe put a campaign setting out there for all the players who just want to play the not-that-combat-effective silly flavor characters, like me. Anyways, here's what I'm still trying to figure out/would love help with:


Witch class- a balanced class that keeps to the flavor of the witches of Lancre, i.e. lots of utility spells. Alternate path as a fairy godmother?
Wizard - would this need adjusting?
Given that some races, if loyal to canon, would be simply broken, what races other than human and dwarf could work?
Some decent maps, of each continent, and some of the major cities
NPC compendium, organized by city?
a few one-shot and long-term campaign ideas: I am thinking about adapting actual discworld novels to somehow have my players do things like accompany Rincewind and Twoflower. Which books would work for this? Any original ideas instead?


Would love it if there are some more Pratchett fans out there that wanted to get involved. Hoping to see some replies! I've got a job in front of me, and I want to do it.

[Cirrylius]

Gurps Discworld and Gurps Discworld Also for crunch-mining. If this is cripplingly, offensively obvious I cry your pardon.:smallredface:

Also, I tend to agree with the man himself when he said that Vetinari is used only as a light touch, as he dominates every encounter in some way.

Further also, include a bullykiller boogeyman who protects an orphanage from the basement since having a sobbing, clutching, welted child hurled shockingly into his arms down a pitch-black stair from above by a man who met with...a series of elipses.

Sergeant Angua was... unusually tactful.

[Anonymouswizard]

Fate would be my suggestion. Reflavour Fate Points as narrative causality, make extras for wizard magic and witch magic, make race an aspect, and go nuts.

[Eisenheim]

I'd go even a step farther and say FAE, don't bother to build extras, just let the aspects for witch, wizard, etc. justify special actions. you don't want a game where magic users are more effective, or one where the only thing they're good at is magic. Neither one fits the fiction.
FAE, possibly with custom approaches, could give you a game where a witch, a guardsman, a werewolf and and assassin all contribute equally without too much mechanical tinkering to balance out options.

[veti]

Making witches "balanced" is a challenge. Remember that "magic" is the least of their powers, and their prime stat is Charisma.

Wizards - would need to be very heavily nerfed from D&D standards. There are a lot of "laws" of magic that are alluded to, but not spelled out in playable detail - such as the idea that conservation of momentum, action and reaction, still applies even with magic. Think about what happens when Rincewind gets teleported to the Counterweight Continent.

Races: Trolls should be playable, they're only "broken" if your game is all about combat, and presumably it wouldn't be, since that wouldn't be very disc-flavoured. Also gnomes, and maybe gnolls and goblins. (Oh, and think about zombies and vampires.) But probably not golems.

We never see much in the way of "clerics" - I don't think the class would exist in the Discworld. There are priests, certainly, but no mention of them casting spells. The real power of priesthood is in organisation - it's amazing what you can do, if you can accurately predict how thousands of other people will act and react.