Conversion to Sword of Cepheus

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#1

Thought I’d share a little conversion project I’ve been working on. It’s not yet complete, but I’ve been posting it bit by bit on my blog.

I’ve been converting the Dark Sun setting to the Sword of Cepheus RPG. Sword of Cepheus is a fantasy RPG based on the open-source rule set The Cepheus Engine, which is basically an OSR version of the old Sci-fi RPG Traveller. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a skill-based 2D6 system. There are no levels.

It’s a somewhat harsher, and bloodier system than D&D. I think it’s an excellent fit to the grim, harsh world of Athas. Cepheus/Traveller already has psionics rules, and there are over 30 years of various Traveller house rules and variants than can be repurposed for Athas.

My latest bit is a list of spells for elemental clerics of Earth. I decided to limit the spells for clerics entirely to spells related to their element.
https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2021/06/17/dark-sun-for-sword-of-cepheus-part-x-earth-spells-for-elemental-clerics/

Here’s all of the Dark Sun/Sword of Cepheus posts I’ve made so far.

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#2

Sorry to comment on such an old post. I just bought the Sword of Cepheus books and am trying to get this conversion to work as well. I was doing 5E until this OGL business. Did you ever complete this or was this your last post made on the subject?

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#3

That’s the last one I posted (for now). It’s one of my little projects I’ve put on the back burner. I’m planning on finishing it up at some point.

#4

OK, just figured I’d check as I’m either going to be doing this same conversion or going with Savage Worlds but I really like the Traveller style character creation. Thank you for this great work you’ve already provided.

#5

I hear good things about Savage World DS.

#6

I’m thinking I might combine the 2 rule sets together and see what I come up with. I like portions of both but definitely the character creation style of Sword of Cepheus.