Seems like an interesting era, and any tips for setting a game in this era?
Arandur
I think that a game is more dependent upon the DM than it is on rules system. If you got a good DM and good players, any game can be successful.
I've played Star Wars in a homebrewed White Wolf system, the WEG d6 system, and the d20 system (original and revised versions). One character has stayed with me throughout all of this, and he turned out fine in each system (although I prefer the d20 system best).
Since the story is the same no matter the sytem, I guess the question comes in areas where the rules are different.
For example, can Fifth Age magic be represented with d20 rules? It won't be a true translation, but it can be done. The Citadel Mystic and Academy Sorcerer prestige classes are good classes to take to represent that 5a magic feel. Metamagic feats can help in regards to spellshaping.
My advice would be to look at the Age of Mortals book. I think it does quite well representing the 5th age through d20 rules. Maybe run a game with SAGA and another with d20, see how they compare.
Is there any sites out there devoted to the SAGA rules system anymore?
Arandur
It will never be perfect D&D in any of it's current "official" forms can even accurately portray sorcery or mysticism as they have been portrayed in the past (both by games and books). And SAGA could never accurately portray godly magic.
You can try...the 15th Anniversary Dragonlance Classics was a SAGA based War of the Lance campaign. Very interesting...but you had to always loose flavor when it came to the magic. As is now happening with D&D3.5.
Which, of course, is why (if I can ever run a DL game in 3.5) I will be using a completely different Sorcerer and Mystic that is more of a hybrid SAGA/D&D rule than the PHB sorcerer could be. The same was true for DLC I had some tweaking of the SAGA system to more accurately depict 4th Age magic. Unfortuantely, we never got to play it.
Ah well.
IMO, the greatest problem with the early Fifth Age setting was that NPCs did everything. I mean, Goldmoon dicovered mysticism and Palin discovered the "new" sorcery. They were already great heroes and legends in their own time, do they *have* to be the forerunners of new powers and ages as well?
In my game, I made it so the PCs discovered Mysticism and sorcery (and, yes, in the beginning of the game there were no such powers, and the players suffered a lot). Some villains (the Overlords and other villains that I made up) had Mysticism and sorcery, but they weren't sharing it with the rest of the world. So, once you put the players in the center stage, problem solved.
I know that these powers can never be 100% accurately translated to d20, but, frankly, I think this is a minor problem if you like the d20 system. I love Saga (it's my favorite system, actually), but I'm the first to admit that it needs a lot of tweaking to be playable. Some rules make the NPCs so weak that it's practically impossible to have a major villain who's a human (or other "normal" playable race), while others make it impossible for the players to defeat a dragon or other such creature, no matter how powerful the PCs are. If you like a system that's more loose and don't mind tweaking rules, than Saga is for you. If you prefer a strict and mathematically perfect rules system, than use d20. The 'feel' of the magic will be a small loss for all the work that has been already done for you (in terms of rules perfection).
That said, I don't really think that Saga is the perfect system for 4th age, because so much from the actual DL setting is dependent on the feel of the normal D&D magic. I mean, how is Palin going to say "I have only one spell. But it's a good one" if he has actually a given amount of SP that can be turned into whatever spell he wants? Of course, you can convert *every spell* in the player's handbook to Saga, but is it worth the effort? Only if you're a true Saga fanatic, I think.
In my campaign, there were two time travels to the 4th age. In both cases, we converted the game to AD&D (there wasn't D&D 3rd Edition back then) and D&D 3rd Ed (in the second time travel, 3rd Ed was already out). The game was much smoother with the true 4th age "feel" right there in the character sheets.
Originally posted by Apocalyp$e
but really, what can you do?
There's not much you can do, really, but suck it up and accept the system that you're using. Which, I have a hard time doing. LOL! But in the end, is probably what I will end up doing.
I don't know...I've got an idea for a slightly modified sorcerer/mystic from the DLCS that's a little closer to SAGA...but it will never accurately portray the free form of the system without the spell points...which, without the right players, wouldn't go over to well, I'd think.
I just want modify it somewhat...do something...that makes it at least seem a little bit like the old system. Like seperating all the spells into the SAGA spheres and schools/realms and allowing access to only a certain number of spheres and realms depending on intelligence score. And maybe creating an "anti-meta magic feat" that can allow you to do the opposite of the Empower, Enlarge, and the other similar feats. Hell...I thought about even a feat that lets you cast spells of other realms/spheres using your specific realm/sphere. An example would be a Cryomancer casting Fireball...but instead of it causing fire damage...it actually causes Ice damage.
I don't know...maybe it over powers things a bit...but I didn't think it would if you still held the casters to very few spheres/realms (as opposed to spells known kinda thing). But keep the spells per day of the PHB sorcerer. Maybe spheres/realms known are equal to WIS/INT modifier respectivley? That seems fair, yes?
Or no? Does that over power them, or under power them...or am I still being way to vague to be able to tell?