Les Ombres d'Esteren - Forum officiel

Hello, first want to start this by saying my group and I have fallen in love with the setting of Shadows of Esteren and finished an over a year long campaign about five months ago. Currently we are running another game, Eclipse Phase, but everyone would like to return back to shadows next. With one exception....my players weren't big fans of the rule system and wish to change it to something else.

I've been racking my brain for several months now trying to decide on another rules system that still fits the "feel" of Shadows. Some like fate core seem almost too over the top or "pulpy" to fit the mood of shadows. 5E D&D i think would take a lot of work to convert to classes that weren't so flashy or magical. I've thought about Fantasy Flights new Genesys generic system, but the flashy colored dice and symbols seem to..."bright" for lack of a better term to fit the mood.

Any suggestions on other game systems that may fit the feel of the setting?

There have been some thinking, both internally and here in the french forums, to port the Esteren system to D&D5, based on the SRD, but as you say it's a really hard task.

Some folks talked about the system from Symbaroum, but I don't know it, and can't give any advice on it

When I read the rules for SoE they reminded me - a lot - of Chaosium's Pendragon system - which is a variant of the BRP engine that powers Call of Cthulhu. And Runequest.
Passions, madness, skills, and a D20 combat system - take a look at 1st edition King Arthur Pendragon, and if you need more rules, check out the later editions.

Symbaroum was another system I did look into a little, and it did have some elements I thought matched. I will look into it again.

Pendragon is one I forgot about. I will definitely give it a look too.

I know 5e was a rule system my group thought about, but it really needs a lot of the flashyness striped out and probably to trade the HP system out for something like the vitality/wound system.

If you already have some experience with it, I believe the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay system could be suitable as well, since the atmosphere (and brutality) is similar in several respects.

I have a little experience with 1st edition warhammer many many years ago. I also own the 3rd edition box set, though we've never set down to actually play it. I will give them some consideration as well. Thank you.

Hello,

for me a perfect alternative system to play SoE would be Brigandyne, but it's a french system which has'nt been translated yet. :/

It's a lightened version of warhammer V2 rules setting, with some specifics that gives it its own identity.

On the BRP area, I would suggest OpenQuest II for a rules light system or Mythras (aka RuneQuest 6) as a more complex version of BRP. Both are really good systems and I assume both would perfectly transport the gritty feel of Esteren.
However, if you prefer the warhammer road, there is Zweihander a new released and rebranded version of WFRP (1st Edition), I saw the huge PDF and it also looks very nice.
I think everything would be available on rpgnow for a low number of coins... Mythras Essential is even free as far as I remember.

Symbaroum is boring from a gm point of view. No dice rolling at the table, felt like no interaction.

It adapts to Savage Worlds surprisingly well mechanic-wise. I even did some minor swapping to pull content the other direction and it snaps right in. But you will still have to do alot of conversion to play Esteren in another system, specifically character creation. With a little tweaking, it can be done. I did a ruleset for Fallout in it, and it only took a month.

As for feel, depends on what you want out of the game. Call of Cthulhu might work for investigative horror, whereas Vampire the Masquerade for storytelling, or just plain d10 system for direct rule-swapping and more focus on roleplay and not mechanics.

I still feel Savage Worlds fits the brutality aspect and dice rolling system best.