- Calidar, In Stranger Skies
- Calidar, Beyond the Skies
- Calidar Dreams of Aerie
- Calidar On Wings of Darkness
- Conversion Guides to Caldwen
- Calidar Guides for Players
- Calidar How to Train Your Wizard
Given the various conversion guides and the rules presented in the books, mathematical style conversions are less of an issue, the big factor is more how do I replicate the same feel of Calidar in a different game while still preserving what I liked about the original game.
Calidar and "New" D&D
These are the easiest of course. The level limits for both D&D 5 and Pathfinder are a set 20. So follow along with the rules for 20 levels. D&D 5 and Pathfinder characters tend to be more powerful than their same-level counterparts in older editions. Cantrips really boost what a Wizard can do every round even at the lowest levels. Plus the addition of cantrips can become an interesting element to the wizard school. 1st level wizards/magic-users have a lot more they can do.
Retro-Clones
These conversions are handled by various current products and upcoming products from Calidar. Plus these mimic the games played by most of the people involved with the Calidar lines.
Calidar and Glantri
Let's address the obvious mix here. Bruce Heard is fairly well known for his work on the Mystara lines and Glantri in particular. You can use details from one mage school for the other, they are roughly compatible in style, and it makes either product a little more robust. You do lose a little of the unique feel of Calidar this way if you set it all in Glantri. Though what I have been doing is considering setting the caldera on the north pole. The whole area is hidden away from the rest of the world. Still playing with this idea.
I am using the "Mystoerth" map for this. I made a globe, and see there is some room up on top. Enough for Calidar? I have not done the math yet, but it looks right. I still to play around with it.
That is if my next idea doesn't take over.
Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade
This idea has grabbed my imagination. Calidar has a great early Renaissance feel to it. So somewhere between Dark Ages Mage and Mage the Sorcerer's Crusade is a perfect time. In this case I would use Calidar as is, but the game system would be White Wolf's Mage.
What I have not decided yet is if the various schools represent Spheres (which means Mages would need to attend to multiple schools) or Traditions (which would make the rivalries more intense).
So everyone in "How to Train Your Wizard" would be part of the Euthatoi. I think just to have some fun I would keep the Verbena out of it unless I work in the Glantri Wokani.
There is a lot I would love to do with that idea. D&D backdrop, Calidar setting, Mage/White Wolf rules. The possibilities are staggering, to be honest.
Conversion though is a bigger issue. The Calidar system is pretty flexible, but it is level-based to a large degree. Mage uses the White Wolf Storyteller system which is a dice pool system. So the conversion books won't be much help here save to figure out some guidelines. Still maybe if I can dig up a copy of Monte Cook's d20 World of Darkness it might give me some ideas.
WitchCraft
Nothing specific yet. But if I can convert Mage I can convert this a lot easier.
Most likely I would combine a lot of these ideas to make the schools in Calidar a little less D&D and little more Scholomance if possible.
Blue Rose AGE
Ah. Now here is something that would be a lot of fun.
I would need to make some changes to what kinds of magics could be taught at the schools, but AGE is level-based and so should convert well. Green Ronin already did some of the heavy lifting for me with their converting for Fantasy AGE.
The bottom line is that Calidar gives me a great magic school that I really want to drop anywhere.
Plus it gives a Fantasy-era Breakbills and an excuse to do this:
And any excuse to put more Brakebills into my games is a good one.
1 comment:
Very enlightening. Thanks!
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