This one is interesting because I already had a crack at converting the Meteor Stalker, a weird creature brilliantly visualized by Russ Nicholson. Patreon backers can read all about that, but in a nutshell (or a meteoritic geode) it's as follows. The characters see a piece break off Blue Moon, one of five celestial bodies in the night sky over Krarth. The object plummets to earth:
"Concealed in the undergrowth around the clearing, you watch the blue flare crash through the trees at the edge of the clearing and explode in a shower of blue sparks at its centre. The high-pitched whistling noise has stopped, but now you hear a hissing sound from where steam rises from the place where it struck. In the centre of the steam you can see a black stone which even as you watch cracks apart like an egg. An area of darkness spreads like a pool of shadow. Then a hunched shape rises up from the shadow as though taking shape out of the very ground. It is a skeleton dressed in black tattered robes. Its eyes are glowing blue crystals. It seems to sniff the air as it looks around."
And the stats I gave for it are:
Russ Nicholson's illustrations throughtout the series were amazing. That Meteor Stalker illustration is one of my most enduring memories of The Blood Sword books, along with the funeral in the Kingdom of Wyrd (not that I can remember the context of that) and Icon the Ungodly in Books 1 and 3. Though the encounter with the world serpent in Book 2 conjured great mental images - "teeth the size of trees" has stayed with me. I remember as a child looking up at trees and being able to imagine the size of mouth it would take to fit those in. Very evocative!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's good to see the convesion to Dragon Warriors. It would certainly make for an excellent Dragon Warriors campaign. I'm a little sad that Tembu haven't come up with the English translation, but TBH I feel that DW is a better fit than 5e for anything Legend based.
Never say never, Ray. I have it on reliable authority that the Tambu translation work is now complete and it will not be long before we see an English edition of Blood Sword 5e, at least in PDF form.
DeleteMe, 6 relatives of mine and 13 friends of mine decided to vote to see whose the best out of you, Jamie and Paul
ReplyDeleteThe result was a 5-way tie with 4 votes each for you, Jamie and Paul being the best, 4 votes for you each being both the best in your own way and being the worst in your own way and 4 votes for you all being of equal ability
Now I want to drill down into those four best-&-worst votes: what are our respective best and worst features? (And are we talking about Paul Mason or Paul Gresty? And doesn't Oliver get a look in?)
DeletePaul Gestry, as for Oliver no offence but we were for voting for whose the best out of the top 4 and Olivers 5th
ReplyDeleteSo there must have been another vote in which they unanimously agreed that another author (not mentioned here) is either in 1st or 4th place.
DeleteIf we were talking about comics writers, my list would be: Ed Brubaker, Daniel Clowes, Ian Edginton, Neil Gaiman, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Posy Simmonds, and Adrian Tomine. (I wouldn't even try to rank them in order, they're all so different.)
I would love to see a conversion of the characters (Sage, Enchanter, Trickster or Warrior) to Dragon Warrior. I think the Warrior is a knight. But the sage is not exactly a mystic. The trickster might be a knave. As for the enchanter his powers seem different from the powers of the Sorcerer.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first wrote the trickster character, of course, there were no knaves in DW, but that probably is the closest fit.
DeleteThe forthcoming Alkonost reboot of Les Terres de Légende will (I believe) make an attempt to marry up the rules for DW with Blood Sword. In my mind (though not in Oliver Johnson's) they are different versions of Legend, really; DW is low fantasy with characters who have realistically mixed morals, whereas Blood Sword is epic save-the-world adventure. But every player's view on that is as valid as mine.
I had a look. The website does not say when the books will be published. Do you know? And also, there are two new books beside the original six. Who is the author?
DeleteI'm not sure about the publication schedule, though I'll post about it as soon as I know. One of the principal authors is Patrick Delemotte, I believe. There's an interview with the Alkonost guys here.
DeleteBy the way, the orignal translation of Dragon Warriors had slightly different names for the professions.
ReplyDeleteThe mystic was a priest (prêtre). The warlock was a warlord (seigneur de guerre, which translate literally as Lord of War). The sorcerer was a magician (magicien).
It evokes different ideas. I thought the mystic was a religious person.
My original inspiration for the mystic came from sources such as Brian Bates's novel The Way of Wyrd, Herne in Robin of Sherwood, some Zen martial arts, and maybe a little bit of Jedi in the mix too.
DeleteThat's not to say mystics can't be followers of the True Faith. Consider Brother Cedric in the adventures of Cedric and Fulk, who ascribes his apparently miraculous powers to faith. (And who is to say he's wrong?) But most mystics are not priests, and actual priests or monks of the True Faith could be knights or barbarians or even sorcerers.