Okay. my group and I are planning on a quite a few one shots this semester, but weve all agreed to strict guidelines for the 'ease' of 3 of the players, who are quite new to gaming. 1.) all games will be in White Wolf's Storyteller D10 system, or the D20 system. and 2. we cant play Demon the fallen, In Nomine, Engel, or any other game that deals with things that 2 of the players, being devoutly religious, would have to risk calling 'FICTION' in order to play... *sigh* while this upsets me somewhat, I have moved on. im currently running, or playing in an Exalted game, 2 D&D games, Spycraft, and 7th Sea. over the last 2 years I have played a ton of L5R, and Star Wars. so, these games were the first removed from the list of potentials. looking at my bookshelf for stuff I have never actually used, or havent used for years, I found a few books that instantly spoke to me as perfect for 'one shots' they were the following: Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, Gamma World (Alternity edition), For Faerie Queen and Country, The Riddle of Steel, and Fallout. The last of which, incidently, is a great conversion of the computer RPG, which I actually liked enough to get printed at the local kinkos. looking over these I saw potential for conversion in all of them save The Riddle of Steel. while I could convert the Riddle of Steel to D20, doing so would be a sin, as the system's entire selling point is that it is realistic, and, although I have yet to run the game, I will wait until the players come around to its system, instead of trying conversion, for the one player who really wants to play it if nothing else. The first book up for digestion is GDW Games Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. this game, published in 1990 uses the 'critically acclaimed' Twilight: 2000 system, which, for all its acclaim is just far to complicated for most people. After having seen the horrible atrocity that was commited upon the stunning world of Engel I decided that I would only convert to D20 if I had a vision of how it could be perfectly done without any loss of theme. while this may seem extreme, I simply point out the fact that in its current state Engel is borderline unplayable, but has one of the greatest backstories I have ever read. so, Cadillacs is going with d10s!
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it is my suggestion that storytellers use the Mortals character sheet from vampire the masquarade. the sheet can be obtained for free at the white wolf website.
Attributes: 6/4/3 Twilight: 2000 has 6 attributes divided into two catagories. the physical attributes are Strength Agility and Constitution, while the mental attributes are Charisma Intelligence and Education. the game was more interested in combat, with social situations being roleplayed out, but conversion is pretty straight forward. on the physical side Strength stays the same, Agility becomes Dexterity, and Constitution becomes Stamina. Looking over at the mental and social side, Charisma stays the same, Intelligence becomes wits, and Education becomes Intelligence. Perception, Manipulation, and Appearance are all added.
Abilities: 11/7/4 Abilities replace the Skills section of Cadillacs. Talents, Skills, and Knowledges can include any found in the WoD games (except for the obvious ones like Primal Urge)if a skill, talent or knowledge doesnt exist within the whitewolf system, be creative, if it makes sense that it would, then just add it.
Advantages: 5 Backgrounds, 7 Virtues 21 freebie points (5, 2, 1) advantages also are pretty straight forward. the characters are humans, normal everyday humans, so they dont get any crazy abilities. an enterprising storyteller looking for a more heroic game might consider incorporating some of the rules from Adventure, or, as I am doing, could award action dice (ala 7th sea, and spycraft) to daring, or heroic acts.
Things to consider: the conversion seems pretty straight forward, this is because most of what makes Cadillacs and Dinosaurs a unique game is in the story, not in the rules. potentially it could be converted to any system, from rolemaster, to Toon, and would still maintain the same basic premise. it is strongly recommended that anyone looking to run this game, regardless of system, be familiar with the comic line. you can pick the collection up in bound edition for $40 bucks or so if you look around. the original book isnt required to run the game in whitewolf if you simply have a good grounding in the story. if you dont, and your group doesnt either, take it off the cuff. here is the basic idea:
the world had an apocalypse of sorts in the late 2020s, as global warming, thinning ozone, and other disasters combined to driveman underground into giant vaults where, as time progressed the original social order was replaced by one in which people were valued for skill rather than prestige, and the mechanics, those men and women who kept the oxygen pumps running were valued above all others. as the machines began to break down so much that even the mechanics couldnt keep them in check, man had to come back to the surface from one such vault, stationed off the coast of New York. after only 450 years underground mankind emerges and makes a shocking discovery.the world that had existed is no more. creatures from every age of mankind, from the cretacious to the paleozoic exist simultaniously. T-Rexes hunt Mammoth. Saber Tooth Tigers work in teams to bring down tricerotops (quaintly called Macks by the surviving humans)Buffalo roam the plains, stampeding in terror as a pack of veloceraptor fall upon them, and coexisting with them are a group of primative humans, the survivors of one vault that failed fairly early. understanding little of this world, and being very close minded, and fearful of change from their time within the vault, but having a cache of pre catastrophe weapons, the city by the sea as it is called sets up a fortress city, and slowly begins spanning outward. 100 years later, the city by the sea views the other human survivors in the wastes as backwards, and, sadly is beginning to forget the philosophy its founders had created as to an all important Machinataeo Vitae - the machine of life, in which each thing has its place, and the belief that mankind, having forgotten its place, was responsible for the catastrophe. in the last 100 years, the mechanics, the former rulers of the city have been displaced, and a new order is emerging, one in which the poacher is king. out of this strife comes Jack Tenric, a mechanic who understands the balance and vows to put a stop to the poachers. he is looking for allies, and that is what the characters, it is assumed, will be.
