Designed and Written by
JONATHAN HICKS Released through
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Highlander was a surprise hit in the mid 1980s. The idea behind it seems somewhat strange – that immortals have lived throughout the ages and spent their time cutting off each other’s heads – but the movie was so well visualised, written and shot that it became a hit. The seminal Queen soundtrack helped somewhat, too. This Unofficial Roleplaying Game is assuming two things: 1. That you, the player, are fully aware of what the Highlander movie is all about. 2. That you have played roleplaying games before and are therefore fully capable of running a game with little to no advice or instruction. This game is going to take primarily focus on the original 1986 movie – the sequels and the television series have not been taken into account, but feel free to adapt or change as you see fit.
‘From the dawn of time we came; moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives, struggling to reach the time of the Gathering; when the few who remain will battle to the last. No one has ever known we were among you... until now.’ Ramirez Here we are Born to be Kings We’re the Princes of the Universe Queen
No one knows how or why the immortals came to be. They simply exist with a single purpose – to survive through time until the time of The Gathering, when those that are left will battle for ‘The Prize’. What The Prize is, none of them know. All they know is that they have an urge, a need, to gravitate to a certain place on the Earth and draw their swords to kill their immortal opponents the only way possible – by removing their head. Most immortals realise the danger and the threat from other immortals and they hide themselves away. Others blatantly seek each other out, sometimes to kill them and sometimes to aid them. It is a strange thing to hear of immortals teaming up, aiding each other, helping each other through the ages. But they are the only ones of their kind and sometimes the sheer joy at discovering another immortal, finding another who shares your fate and burden, overpowers the need to kill and they join as siblings accursed, or blessed, with th is long life.
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An immortal’s life is an arduous one. They appear from all periods of history, from the Egyptians to the Greeks to the Romans and beyond, and they all suffer the same hardship. Once their immortality is discovered they are treated as outcasts, possessed, infested with evil and demons. Whereas today we would most likely have been amazed at the existence of an immortal - perhaps even impressed and enamoured by it - the ancient world was less forgiving. Steeped in superstition, suffused with religious passion and terrified of what their gods may have put in their midst the ancients reviled the immortals, cast them out, even tried to execute them. The lucky ones were beheaded. The unlucky ones were beaten, hung and torn apart for days and still they would not die, increasing the fervour of the fearful and making them act even more irrationally. No wonder, then, that the immortals chose to hide themselves and live secret lives throughout the centuries. Immortals also have the curse of not being able to conceive. They can love but their loves die of old age whilst they remain forever young. They cannot make a home in one place, as it will be discovered that they never age, and they cannot attain positions of power or influence for fear of being discovered. An immortals life is a hard and dangerous one. Immortals are born as any other and they age as any other, but once they reach a certain age they are afflicted by The Quickening, when their body succumbs to the power of the immortal and they change forever. It is considered by many that nature itself is responsible for immortals as the very air becomes charged with power. Pain wracks the immortal’s body and lightning forces it’s way into the soul, powering the immortality even more. This lasts for several hours. After this, the immortal becomes attuned to nature, further reinforcing the theory that the very Earth itself forged them. They can feel the changes in the air, can feel the trees, the animals, and more importantly they can sense other immortals. They become so immersed in the power of the world that they become aware of singular immortals half a world away and sometimes they will search them out to help them through The Quickening and teach them the life of an immortal. How to hide from scrutiny, how to avoid being discovered, how to put their gift to use and how to become one with the world that created them. More importantly, they teach them how to wield a sword should they come across another immortal that wishes to take their head. These immortals help prepare each other for the trials ahead but these friendships, these relationships between teacher and pupil, can become strained the closer the time of The Gathering gets. Some teachers find the need to win The Prize overpowering and turn on their students later on down the centuries. The Prize is all. The need to win this unknown gift is what drives an immortal. The time of The Gathering stretches alliances, friendships and love itself. It is not just evil the immortals fight against - ally will fight ally, friend will fight friend, lover will fight lover. After all, there can be only one.
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All characters are represented by two things – their STRENGTH and their SKILLS. STRENGTH is a single score that decides how much physical damage, a person can take. This is decided by rolling 1D3 and adding 2 to the result, to get a number between 3 and 5. If this score ever reaches zero, the character is unconscious. If it ever goes below zero, the character is dead unless they are an Immortal, in which case they will regain their Strength at 1 point per minute (six rounds). STRENGTH = 1D3+2 SKILLS are divided into six groups. The Player is given the numbers 1 through to 6 to put in each skill group – this means that he can have a skill level of 1 in one group, 2 in another, 3 in another and so on up to 6. This number is what the player has to roll or less on 1D6 to succeed in an action. So remember: during character creation, the higher the number in the skill group the better the PC is at those skills!
For example, Player A is cr eating an Immortal from 15th Century France, so h e puts a 6 in Swordmanship, 2 in Techni cal, 3 in Combat, 5 in Agility, 1 in Vehic les and 4 in Charisma.
The Skills Golden Rule is: Rolls of natural 6 are always a failure, rolls of natural 1 are always a success.
Each skill group, from Agility through to Vehicles, covers abilities that are unique to that group. This means that if the character has an Agility score of 4, then any action that required a physical action would have a skill level of 4. Agility would cover all actions such as climbing a rock face to leaping a gorge. So, instead of reading down a long list of individual skills, the player would simply choose the skill group the action they wish to perform is most likely covered by and they roll against that group’s skill level. For example, Player A has a skill level of 4 in Agili ty and wants to jum p the gap between two bui ldings. This means the player mus t rol l a 1,2,3 or 4 on a singl e six-sid ed die to su cceed. Any oth er number rol led is a failure.
So, for jumping onto a moving vehicle, the player rolls against their Agility skill level. For shooting at someone with a pistol, they roll against their Combat skill level. To con an NPC out of their money they roll against their Charisma skill level.
All skill rolls are made this way, with the exception of Opposed Rolls and certain types of combat. See the skill group descriptions below to get a better idea of where skills should be placed. Agility - This skill allows the character to do all kinds of non-combat physical actions, such as climbing, swimming, jumping or lifting.
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Combat – The ability to use fists, blades and firearms. For hand-to-hand or hand-held weapon combat, use the ‘Opposing Rolls’ system, by players rolling a D6 and adding their Combat skill level to the roll. Whoever rolls the highest number wins the round and the loser takes damage. For missile weapons and pistols, such as thrown items and laser pistols, roll against the Combat skill level as you would for a normal skill roll. Use this skill for combat when it is mortal vs mortal, and for Immortal vs mortal. For sword combat between Immortals, see the Swordmanship skill description below. Charisma – Use this skill when you need to command, charm, bargain, persuade or even seduce another character (note that this skill cannot be used on PCs). This skill works in a slightly different way to normal skills. If you’re trying to do something honest, like convince someone that they must do the right thing or be honestly pleasant to someone then you must roll less than your Charisma skill level. If you intend to do something dishonest, such as lie about something, cheat someone or con them out of their money, then you have to roll more than your Charisma skill level. This reflects the fact the lower your Charisma, the more willing and able you are to do immoral things. Swordmanship – This is a specialist combat skill unique to Immortals when involved in swordfights. In normal nonmissile weapon combat, each side would make an opposed roll. However, when two Immortals lock in sword combat there are different rules. First of all, initiative must be decided – each character rolls 1D6 and adds their Agility skill. Whoever rolls the highest goes first. If the rolls are tied, roll again until someone wins. This initiative result remains the same for the rest of the combat. The attacking character has to roll 1D6 and add the result to their Swordmanship skill to beat a difficulty number. Their difficulty number is the Swordmanship skill of their opponent, who also rolls 1D6 and adds their Swordmanship skill. If the attacking player rolls equal to or higher than the defender’s roll, then they have struck a blow. If they roll lower, then they have been parried. Each character rolls against their opponent every round. Each successful hit lowers the STRENGTH score by 3 points, but once the STRENGTH reaches zero this does not mean death. Once the score reaches zero then the attacker can try for a decapitation. After they have made a successful attack that reduces their opponent to STRENGTH zero or less, then they must roll against their Swordmanship skill as a normal skill roll – if they succeed, then they have decapitated the head of their opponent. Once decapitated, the victor then absorbs the lifeforce of the Immortal they have defeated. After a major light show and some burst bulbs, the victor’s STRENGTH is increased by 1 point permanently.
Use the normal Combat skill when it is mortal vs mortal, or for Immortal vs mortal. IMPORTANT! Ignore the ‘ones are always a success, sixes are always a failure’ rule for this form of combat.
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EXAMPLE: Manuel, an 11th century Spanish Immortal, has come across Kim, a 17 th
century Korean Immortal, on the abandoned docks of a Russian fishing town at midnight, under a full moon. Manuel has a Swordmanship skill of 5, Kim has a skill of 4. They both have STRENGTH scores of 5. Each character rolls 1D6 and adds their AGILITY skill. Manuel rolls a total of 8, Kim rolls a total of 7. Manuel strikes first. To successfully hit Kim, Manuel must roll higher than Kim’s Swordmanship difficulty level. Kim rolls a 4 on his 1D6. Adding this to his Swordmanship skill level of 4 gives him a total of 8. This means that Manuel has to roll 8 or more on his Swordmanship skill roll. Manuel rolls a 2 on his 1D6. He adds this to his Swordmanship skill of 5 and gets a 7. As he has not beaten Kim’s roll of 8, this means that Kim has parried. Their swords clash in a shower of sparks. Now Kim can attack. Manuel rolls a 3, making Kim’s difficulty level 8. Kim rolls a 5, making his total score 9. He strikes Manuel for 3 points, taking his Strength down to 2. Enraged, and smarting from the wound he has taken, Manuel attacks again. To defend, Kim rolls a 1 – adding this to his Swordmanship skill level gives Manuel a target of 5. He rolls a 4, resulting in a 9, and strikes Kim back, reducing his STRENGTH to 2. Kim attacks again. Manuel rolls a 3 to get a result of 8, but Kim rolls a 6, giving him a result of 10. This takes Manuel’s STRENGTH down to below 0. This gives Kim the chance of a decapitation, so he makes a standard skill roll against his Swordmanship skill level and gets a 1 – an automatic success. (If Kim had failed this roll, Manuel could have continued fighting). With a cry of ‘There can be only one! ’, Kim takes Manuel’s head. During bursts of lightning, exploding bulbs and rattling old boat engines, Kim absorbs Manuel’s lifeforce, and he gets a +1 to his STRENGTH, permanently making it 6.
Technical - This enables the character to repair and modify vehicle engines, computers, automatons and all kinds of machines. Anything that has wires, moving parts or microchips can be used or repaired with this skill. Vehicles – This skill allows the character to do all the things that are necessary to get by in a vehicle, be it a motorbike, a car or a boat.
So, to succeed in a roll a player must roll 1 six-sided die. If the number rolled equals the skill number or lower then the roll is a success. If they roll higher than the number, then it is a failure. The GM can change the character’s skill level if they feel that the action they wish to perform is more difficult, or even easier, than normal. They can lower the skill level to simulate a harder action, or raise it for easier ones.
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Difficulty
Change Skill Level By:
Very easy Easy Normal Hard Very Hard Extremely Hard
+3 +2 0 -1 -2 -3
The time it takes to perform a skill is up the GM, but in general each action takes one round to perform. A single action round lasts for five seconds.
If for any reason two characters ‘face off’, pitting either wits or physical skills against one another, then do the following; each player rolls the D6 and adds their applicable skill level to the result. Whoever rolls the highest wins the face-off. If the rolls are tied then roll again until someone wins. For hand to hand or weapon combat ( not missile or thrown weapons), use the Opposing Rolls system, with each player rolling a D6 and adding his or her Combat skill level to the roll. Whoever rolls the highest number wins the round and the loser takes damage. If the rolls are tied, they have parried each other in that round, no damage has been taken on either side and they must roll again. For Immortal swordfights there are special rules – see the Swordmanship skill description for more details. IMPORTANT! Ignore the ‘ones are always a success, sixes are always a failure’ rule for opposed rolls.
If a character ‘takes damage’, then this means they are reducing their STRENGTH score by the amount of damage they have taken. For every 1 point of damage taken, the character reduces their STRENGTH by 1 point. If the STRENGTH score ever reaches zero, the character is unconscious. If it ever goes below zero, any mortal PC/NPC character is dead. Immortals, however, cannot die. They cannot be shot, drowned, electrocuted, burned, hung or squashed. If their STRENGTH score ever reaches zero or below then they’re not dead, just unconscious. They will get 1 STRENGTH point back per minute – once the STRENGTH gets to a positive number, 1 or above, they regain consciousness and can only fully function once their STRENGTH gets back to it’s full original score. They can die if someone cuts their head off. It doesn’t have to be another immortal; it could be an accident or an intentional attack by a mortal. Either way, if your head comes away from your shoulders, it’s over. If a mortal PC/NPC wants to heal naturally, they’ll get 1 STRENGTH point back per 24 hours of rest. If they use a basic medical unit, such as a portable medical kit or a medical station found on board most starships, they get back 1 point every six hours. If they use a fully equipped surgery or hospital, they get back 1 point per hour. To benefit from medical facilities, the attending character has to make a successful Agility roll.
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The next table lists the common causes of damage. The ‘damage’ number is the amount of points that have to be taken from the STRENGTH score.
The stats for vehicles are exactly the same. A vehicle is represented by Body Strength and Speed. Body Strength acts the same way as a character’s Strength – once it has been reduced to zero the vehicle stops dead, and below zero it explodes or catches fire, possibly injuring the occupants. Damage done to a vehicle is calculated as per the damage table on page 6 as normal but all damage levels are reduced by 2 points. Motorbikes have a Body Strength of 3 and a top speed of 150 kph. Cars have a Body Strength of 6 and a top speed of 120 kph. Small boats have a Body Strength of 5 and a top speed of 30 kph. Theres no time for us Theres no place for us What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away from us? Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever....? Theres no chance for us Its all decided for us This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever? Who dares to love forever? When love must die But touch my tears with your lips Touch my world with your fingertips And we can have forever And we can love forever Forever is our today Who wants to live forever Who wants to live forever? Forever is our today Who waits forever anyway?
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Ah, the life of the immortal. Able to watch the rise and fall of empires, actually able to say what is right and wrong with the scholar’s interpretation of history, able to walk the centuries witnessing the story of the world as it happens. Mixing with the grand, the influential and the creators of the future and able to amass knowledge and wealth beyond that of mere mortals. If there weren’t people trying to cut your head off all the time it would be quite romantic. The nature of the Highlander movie indicates that immortals are loners and only come together by chance or by design. By design usually means a beheading. If this were the case, why would the PCs be together in a group? -
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They may not all be immortals. It is possible to create a mortal character, minus the Swordmanship skill, and have them accompany one player who is the immortal on their adventures. They may have come together for protection. Depending on when you set your games will determine why they are together as a group. Perhaps they had the same mentor; perhaps they are from the same place. They are simply friends. They have stayed together because they all get on very, very well and, while they realise that the time of The Gathering will stretch that friendship (cutting off someone’s head can be considered somewhat anti-social), they have decided to aid each other any way they can until it is time to fight.
Whatever the reason, the group have come together, to either fight for The Prize or to aid each other through the centuries to reach The Gathering.
There are four things to take into account when playing an immortal: 1. You cannot die. You cannot be shot, drowned, electrocuted, burned, hung or squashed. If your STRENGTH score ever reaches zero or below then you’re not dead, just unconscious. You will get 1 STRENGTH point back per minute – once the STRENGTH gets to a positive number, 1 or above, you regain consciousness and can only fully function once your STRENGTH gets back to it’s full original score. 2. You can die if someone cuts your head off. It doesn’t have to be another immortal; it could be an accident or an intentional attack by a mortal. Either way, if your head comes away from your shoulders, it’s over. 3. Your age will determine your skill group levels. Every standard human being has skill group levels of 2 – for every five hundred years you go back into history, take 1 point away from all your skill groups except Charisma to a minimum of 2. This means that of you have skill group 6, going back and playing your character a thousand years ago will reduce their score by 2, and will also reduce all other skill groups by 2, as well. Remember that no skill group can go below 2, that’s the minimum score no matter how old your character is. The reasoning is that the closer the character’s get to The Gathering the more powerful they become as the number of immortals dwindle. This way, you can also play your character at 9
any period in history and know how skilled they were in the time period you have chosen. 4. ‘Holy ground, Highlander. Remember what Ramirez taught you.’ Under no circumstances do immortals fight on holy ground, no matter what the religion. In churches, graveyards, Buddhist temples, Sikh halls, synagogues, mosques… it doesn’t matter. Immortals cannot lock blades or take a head when on holy ground. It is not known from where this rule stems from - perhaps it’s an indication that immortality is a gift from the divine - but even the most evil of immortals know not to break this rule.
There are plenty of ways you might want to run your game, but here’s a suggestion on how you might want to run it based on the original 1986 movie. Al you need to do is immerse yourself in the time period of the 1970s/early 1980s. It is known in the film that The Gathering takes place in New York, and that there are four immortals that finally converge on the city. But what happened to the immortals leading to that? What’s their story? These games can be played as flashbacks. As every other immortal the players come across during the run-up to The Gathering will no doubt be trying to kill them and they may have a history, or there may be some kind of history between them all as characters. It doesn’t have to be other immortals; it could be an incident that happens to the PCs, something they see in a museum or on the television that reminds them of that period in history. Then you can actually play out the flashback as an adventure. For an example, remember the flashbacks in the Highlander movie. When Connor is looking into a fish tank he remembers boating with Ramirez. When he meets with his old friend they reminisce about an incident at a duel in England. Little incidents might trigger a flashback. The best way to trigger a flashback is to have the PCs come across other immortals that they have a history with. Now, you could set up the encounter which is an adventure in itself, but when they face off, or meet up and talk before they fight, a flashback can be triggered which is a whole new adventure in itself. Using number 3 in the ‘Playing An Immortal’ section above can help decide how skilled the PCs and NPCs are back in the day. Once the flashback adventure is played out it reverts back to the present, and they finally lock swords after all this time or they go their separate ways, depending on how the flashback encounter went. For example: It’s 1977. The PCs have come across Sergei Korolev, a Russian immortal from the 13 th century, whilst they’re queuing outside the movie theatre waiting to get in to see Star Wars for the first time. They sense Sergei’s presence, and he has other immortal friends with him, travelling in a small protective group like the PCs do. They do not want to involve the innocent moviegoers, so they all retire to a scrap yard to fight. Swords drawn, Sergei says, “I remember you all… from 1805…” and the flashback begins… Spain. 1805. Napoleon is at war with Europe and the PCs, with Sergei, are on the same side. What happens to them? Do they all fight together and save each other’s lives? Does
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Sergei double cross the PCs and sell them out to the enemy? Or do the PCs sell out Sergei? Play out the adventure in the time period chosen, and then once it is over revert back to the present. A few different things might happen: -
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If Sergei was the bad guy in the flashback, the PCs might be here for revenge. If that’s the case the fight is on! If Sergei did something really bad, then the other immortals he has got together might see him in a different light. They might step away and decide not to fight the PCs, which means the history between the PCs and Sergei has actually done them a favour in the present. If it was the PCs in the wrong, then Sergei may have sought them out. They will have to fight to survive, or even try to convince Sergei and his followers of their innocence. If none of them were in the wrong and they were actually good friends, then they may re-sheath their swords and then it’s hugs, laughter and beers all round. Or maybe, just maybe, there is a secret between them all so dark, so bad , that the truth could destroy all kinds of things: people, families, even nations. Then maybe someone will have to die to protect the secret, no matter how much they don’t want to kill each other.
Of course, any flashbacks wouldn’t have the PCs die or they wouldn’t be around to face off in the future and trigger the flashback in the first place. They can’t die, anyway, because they’re immortal and any zero STRENGTH scores are a passing inconvenience, although it could mess up what they set out to do resulting in a failure of another kind. It’s here the GM plays their ‘Fate Of The Immortals’ card and intervenes in any possible death situations… The immortal PCs/NPCs about to get their head cut off? At the last possible moment a whole group of people swarm over the one about to do the beheading (remember at the beginning of the movie, during the Clan battle, when Connor McCloud’s kinsmen mobbed the Kurgen as he was about to take his head? Something like that), or the attacker slips and falls down a ravine, or the attacker is forced to flee because of mortal intervention. Either way, the characters present at the modern-day face-off have to survive the flashback encounter to be present at the modern-day face-off to have the flashback in the first place. And, yes, that last sentence does make sense.
Another way to play a Highlander game is to create characters and then play them through the ages. This is how you do it: 1. First of all, create your immortal as normal, basically creating a character as they would be should they make it to 1986. 2. Then decide on a birth date. It can be anything, from the 15 th century to the 10 th, all the way back the 4 th century BC. 3. As with the number 3 rule in the section ‘Playing An Immortal’, for every five hundred years you go back into history, take 1 point away from all your skill groups except Charisma to a minimum of 2. This means that of you have skill group 6, going back and playing your character a thousand years ago will reduce their score by 2, and will also reduce all other skill groups by 2, as well. 11
Remember that no skill group can go below 2, that’s the minimum score no matter how old your character is. Then, every five hundred years the player can do this in reverse and put points back into their skill groups. It’s up to them which skill groups they increase up to their maximum level, i.e. the level the player decided on when creating the character circa 1986. 4. Every game the player is in is a different age in history. You can make the gap between games 10 years, fifty years, a hundred years at a time. It’s up to you. This way, if the PC is ever killed before they make it to The Gathering then so be it, and you don’t have to worry about contradicting flashbacks. 5. You could make it a kind of competition to see if the PC makes it to The Gathering. After every adventure roll 2D6 and multiply it by ten – this is the number of years that have passed between adventures, anything from twenty to one hundred and twenty. If the PC makes it to the 1980s then well done, but bear in mind that they’ll lose their head to McCloud, the Kurgen, or another character that made it to the movie. Who wants to live forever?
These templates are for mortals circa 1970s/early 1980s – you may want to change the levels depending on the historical period, and use Vehicles as a horse-riding skill if you’re pre-automobiles. If you want to use one as an immortal character then roll 1D6 for their Swordmanship skill, minimum roll 2. Soldier Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 4, Charisma 3, Technical 3, Vehicles 2 Officer Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 4, Charisma 4, Technical 3, Vehicles 2 Driver Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 3, Charisma 2, Technical 4, Vehicles 5 Trader Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 3, Charisma 4, Technical 3, Vehicles 4 Bounty Hunter Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 4, Charisma 2, Technical 3, Vehicles 2 Civilian Strength 4, Agility 2, Combat 2, Charisma 2, Technical 2, Vehicles 2 Medic Strength 4, Agility 2, Combat 1, Charisma 4, Technical 2, Vehicles 2 Small Creature (rat, cat, bird) Strength 2, Agility 3, Combat 2 Medium Creature (dog, wolf, goat) Strength 4, Agility 3, Combat 3 Large Creature (horse, cow, bear) Strength 6, Agility 2, Combat 3
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There can be only one… As in, one movie. I’m a great fan of the original Highlander movie. I love the feeling, the emotion, the story, the drive and the sense of (make believe) history it invokes. The immortals are an enigma and we don’t have any idea why they exist but we do know they have a goal – to win The Prize and have the power to know men’s minds. None of this is fully explained and that’s what gives Highlander its sense of wonder. Not even the immortals are sure why they exist. And then Highlander 2: The Quickening came along and pretty much destroyed all that. I’m not a fan of the movie sequels of Highlander. In fact, I plain dislike them. I never really watched the series and so never got into that. This game has been designed around the original 1986 film but feel free to modify it to suit your idea of what the Highlander franchise is about. You can take that entire alien planet guff from the second film and add that, if you want. Or you can chronicle the modern adventures of an immortal the same way that the TV series does. It’s up to you.
Personally, for me, Highlander isn’t science fiction. It isn’t long explanations about why the immortals are here, or how they got here, or where they come from. It’s not the kind of story that requires full-fledged histories and reasoning. It’s not that kind of thing. It’s a kind of magic. JONATHAN HICKS
The SKETCH system is owned by FARSIGHT GAMES WWW.FARSIGHTGAMES.COM DISCLAIMER
This is a fan-made creative exercise and has not been created for profit. Therefore the company that owns the Highlander license, trademark or copyright does not endorse it. The game is intended for entertainment purposes only. Highlander, the Highlander logo, all names and pictures of Highlander characters and any other Highlander related items are registered trademarks and/or copyrights of their respective trademark and copyright holders.
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