Tag: cortex rpg (Page 1 of 2)

Today I’m continuing discussion about guidelines for converting the epic 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd to Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game, a game powered by the Cortex Prime system. If you don’t know why, check out Part 1, and if you want to talk mods (AKA rules hacks), check out Part 2 and Part 3. It’ll help if you have thorough knowledge of Curse of Strahd and probably a good sense of how Catalysts in Tales of Xadia work for this article to make sense.

After a long wait, here are the Catalyst character sheets for a few of the major Game Moderator Characters (GMCs, the Tales of Xadia term for NPCs). I’m gonna hit you with the “big ones” first, Ireena and Strahd, since they form the basis of the whole campaign. After that, I’m going to show of Volenta (one of Strahd’s brides) since I plan to use her very early on. Finally, we’ll close out with GMC stat blocks for the village of Barovia, with a focus on Ismark the Lesser, just to juxtapose what an “important” GMC that isn’t a Catalyst might look like, and why I chose going in that direction with him as opposed to making him a Catalyst.

I’ll probably tackle the big artifacts in the next article, but as of this writing I haven’t started outlining anything yet. Feel free to hit the comments and tell me what (else?) you want to see!

So grab your Tarokka deck and figure out who your Fated Ally card reveals, because we’re headed into Barovia!

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Today I’m continuing discussion about guidelines for converting the epic 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd to Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game, a game powered by the Cortex Prime system. If you don’t know why, check out Part 1, and if you want to see how I handle the Doom Pool mod, PC species, and adventuring gear, check out Part 2. It’ll help if you have thorough knowledge of Curse of Strahd, but you only need passing familiarity with Tales of Xadia (AKA TOX), so here’s the Rules Primer to help you catch up.

I’ll be focusing this article on two additional elements of conversion: magic and corruption. Magic includes playing spellcasters, spells and scrolls, and a little more discussion of magical abilities. After that, I’ll talk about how I’m using Corrupted stress to model supernatural afflictions like lycanthropy, vampire bites, stuff the PCs might interact with in the Amber Temple, and more. I’ll save the big name artifacts of the campaign — things like the Sunsword — for a future article.

So grab your wolfsbane and the sunburst holy symbol of the Morninglord, because we’re headed into Barovia!

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Today I’m covering the specifics of converting the epic 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign Curse of Strahd to Tales of Xadia: The Dragon Prince Roleplaying Game, a game powered by the Cortex Prime system. If you don’t know why, check out Part 1, as well as my rant on why this conversion is such a match made between the campaign’s tone and the game’s mechanics. It’ll help if you have thorough knowledge of Curse of Strahd, but you only need passing familiarity with Tales of Xadia (AKA TOX), so here’s the Rules Primer to help you catch up.

I’ll focus on the major elements of conversion today. One big wrinkle is that I’ll be using Cortex Prime’s Doom Pool, which is a mod not normally used in Tales of Xadia, but one I find perfect for capturing the atmosphere of dread that hangs palpably over Barovia. So, I’ll spotlight that first. Then I’ll dive into kin AKA species, and finally equipment. While I’ll capture a few elements of magic items in the equipment section, I’ll save the big set-piece magical artifacts of the campaign for a future article.

All aboard the black carriage! We’re headed into Barovia.

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