Converting RQ to T&T

[ElvenScribe]

Has anyone converted any edition of Runquest to any edition of T&T?   Not that doing so would be difficult, but I am wanting to translate over some old characters and RQ doesn't use levels. I'm not sure how to account for levels and the increased attributes in DT&T particularly.  Any ideas?

[jeffepp]

From 7th edition on, T&T uses levels as a measure of the character, not a definition. That is to say, level is the consequence of advancement, rather than what is advanced. The real difference between T&T and BRP, is that BRP is skill based, where T&T is a attribute based. So, I would look at those RQ skills, as they are now, and try to reverse compute them, as if the character was brand new, and find what the "new" attributes would be.

For those not familiar with the Basic RolePlay (BRP) system, the characters starting skills are derived from their rolled attributes, to form a percentile chance of success. If a skill is used in an adveture, it MAY be attempted to increase it at the end of the session. So, over time, the skills advance, while the attributes tend to stay the same.

This would be a bit subjective, but reversing the process would be one way to do it. I hope I wasn't too arcane in my explanation.

[mahrundl]

These two threads may be of some interest:

Tunnels & Trollkin... Gloranthan T&T?
Runequest board ?

There may be others, but these are two that I found.

[ElvenScribe]

Great comments and links! Thanks, guys! I have very fond memories of my days playing RQ. Glorantha is such a unique and colorful setting. Gloranthan elements continue to seep into my T&T adventures.

[jeffepp]

I thought I would take a look at my digital copy of RQ2, aka RuneQuest Classic, that I got from Kickstarting the reprint. I had only really gotten in for the solo-gaming extras (still forthcoming), so I hadn't looked that close at character creation. Crap, it it arcane, compaired to newer versions of BRP stuff. And, by newer, I mean from mid to late 80's and on. My first introduction to BRP was the ElfQuest RPG, which I purchased for it's association with the comic. I liked the system, and found it easy to figure out, but by then, they had the thing worked out.

Anyhoo, the big problem in converting between the systems is that they took diverging solutions to problems of the D&D system(s). I really can't think of a clean way to equate RQ skills into T&T abilities, which is really what you want. The method I mentioned above is messy, and very subjective, and would only result in low level characters, most likely. And, if you want to convert them, they must be characters that you played with for some time, therefor not low level at all.

Now, if you had a log of how they advanced over their play time, you might be able to use that. But, you probably don't, because no one ever does. I've thought about doing it with characters, but never have.

[ElvenScribe]

Yes, I'm realizing that approximation (aka eye balling it) is probably the best means of conversion. Thanks again for the comments!

[mgtremaine]

Did you check an other systems? Off the top of my head I wonder if the AD&D DMG did not have something and if Thieves Guild 1 didn't also have a conversion or equivalency chart. (I'll try to peek today since I remember basically where those were)

ADDED: So the DMG only had Gamma World and Boot Hill (unless I mis-remember the section). But Thieves Guild 1 page A-2 (appendix) has the conversion for RQ -> TS and TNT -> TS so you can kind of spot check your conversions against something form the 1980's that tried to do it also.

[jeffepp]

Thieves Guild? Did you mean Judges Guild? And, what is TS? Remember, we can't know all stuff, or have all stuff. But, now I'm going to look at the Judges Guild conversion charts. I hadn't thought of those...


Edit/Update:
OK, first, Judges Guild was a bust for conversion.

Second, I did a web search for Thieves Guild. Had never heard of it before.

A little more web-fu found this. I wouldn't shell out 30 bucks for it, myself.

[mormonyoyoman]

That 1980 book wasn't that useful then, Jeff; it is way out of date now.

Thieves' Guild was, originally, separate packs of loose-leaf 3-hole drilled pages. TG1 introduced the system (and the acronym THAC0, as I recall) and each supplement's pages were to be inserted as updates or supplements (adding pages 3-7a between pages 7 and 8, for example). By TG4, they switched to the standard saddle-stapled magazine sized supplement format.

[mgtremaine]

Well it's really only 2 pages that are related to the this question. My OCR of TG1 is not great.. Below are attachments of the pages A-1 & A-2 cut into pieces.

Thieves Guild 1
@1980 Gamelords LTD.
Written by Richard Meyer and Kerry Lord








Gamelords is long out of business I posting this as fair use and to give a little shout out to the efforts of Meyer and Lord back in the day. If anyone has any interest you can still pick up Thieves Guild 2 and above here www.diffworlds.com/gamelords_thieves_guild.htm

[ElvenScribe]

Thanks MG (can I call you MG?)! I appreciate you posting that. I'll look at this in greater detail soon. Intriguing using equivalent levels.

[Bud]

Nov 1, 2016 19:12:20 GMT -5 mgtremaine said:

"Gamelords is long out of business I posting this as fair use and to give a little shout out to the efforts of Meyer and Lord back in the day. If anyone has any interest you can still pick up Thieves Guild 2 and above here www.diffworlds.com/gamelords_thieves_guild.htm  "

Thanks for the link to diffworlds.com 
It was one of my favorite magazines, I hadn't seen this website before though.

[hernesson]

Just to muddy the waters, you might want to try and track down a copy of Chaosium's "Thieves' World" campaign pack. It was a guide to the world of the Thieves' World books, and included stats for many of the major and minor characters from them. What makes it interesting, is that the booklet has stats for these guys for AD&D, Adventures in Fantasy, Chivalry & Sorcery, DragonQuest, D&D, The Fantasy Trip, RuneQuest, Traveller, and Tunnels & Trolls.

Comparing the T&T stats to the RQ stats might help you to build a baseline for conversion.