Help! I want to run a d20 Current day sci-fi campaign?

Christoph the Magus · Mar 27, 2005

Hi,

I'm currently running my second 3.0/3.5 campaign and I'm starting to get a little tired of fantasy. I haven't looked into any other d20 games/systems, so I thought that this would be the place to go to find out what's available.

A little bit more about what I'd like to run:

I'm looking for something that would allow my players to roll up government agents-mostly using current day technology as far as weapons/equipment, with the ability to introduce some items with more of a science fiction flair.

The PCs would be Fox Mulder/Dana Scully types, only with more official government standing. Basically, our government is aware of paranormal/alien type phenomena and works both to gain a better understanding of it and to keep it out of the nations headlines.
So my players might be assigned to head out to the woods one week to explore Bigfoot sightings, and off to Area 51 to deal with some civilian intruders the next.

Here's the real questions: What does d20 have to offer along these lines? Are there monster books out there for "real-life" monster/mysteries? What book do I want if I need stats for a .357 or a bulletproof vest? Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Christoph

arwink · Mar 27, 2005

In order

d20 Modern. This'll give you the baseline rules for running a modern game, and includes a couple of sample campaign backgrounds. An alternate option would be Call of Cthulhy d20, which includes probably the best advice I've ever seen for writing modern horror/conspiracy scenarios.

Dark*Matter Sourcebook for Alternity. While it's for a non-d20 system game, Alternity was close enough too d20 that the conversion is actually pretty easy. The bulk of the book is still useful, and it's probably the most complete world-book I've ever read. A quick search of this form, or the storyhour forum, for threads about Dark*Matter should give you more detail. If nothing else, do yourself a favor and go to the Storyhour forum to read JonRog's Darkmatter Storyhour: Drunk Southern Girls with Guns, Zombie Toddlers,..., which offers the same kind of inspiration for modern games that Piratecat's does for DnD.

The various d20 Modern occult PDF's from Ronin Arts over on RPGnow.com. Cheap and effective resources for modern games that usually deliver the right kind of feel for the game you're describing.

D20 Modern Menace Manual, which includes a host of details about organisations, yeti, aliens and other menaces. Covers a wide range of creatures from Dark*Matter as well.

If you want a bunch of gun details, look into the weapons locker. THe stats between weapons aren't that different in d20 terms, but the descriptions and illustrations are nice if you want to include minor details as clues in a game (like knowing that the bad guy uses a distinctive gun with rare ammunition, or offering some information about the origins of an enemy spy for players who can recognise the style of his sidearm).

scourger · Mar 27, 2005

Check your DMG for modern weapons. If you want more variety, modern armor and other equipment, grab them for free from the d20 Modern SRD. Modify the core classes to make them more modern. The NPC classes in the DMG are great for more mundane characters. Let your secret agents be Warrior/Experts; but let them choose if and how they multiclass. Add Drive and/or Pilot as class skills along with Craft (making secret agent items), Knowledge (secret agent stuff) & Profession (being a secret agent). Then, send them to rural Georgia to investigate a series of bizarre killings where they eventually encounter the son of Hogzilla, a giant dire boar--a story ripped from last week's headlines!

My point is that you don't need a bunch of new d20 material to run this kind of game if you want to do so. You can use your core 3.5 books.

Angel Tarragon · Mar 27, 2005

Sounds to me like you might want to look into Dark Matter. After you do some research on the setting and you decide that you like it , you might wnat to think aboutt snapping up the back issue of Dungeon magazine #108. The setting gets the D20 Modern treatment in there.

C. Baize · Mar 27, 2005

Converting all that stuff...

scourger said:
Check your DMG for modern weapons. If you want more variety, modern armor and other equipment, grab them for free from the d20 Modern SRD. Modify the core classes to make them more modern. The NPC classes in the DMG are great for more mundane characters. Let your secret agents be Warrior/Experts; but let them choose if and how they multiclass. Add Drive and/or Pilot as class skills along with Craft (making secret agent items), Knowledge (secret agent stuff) & Profession (being a secret agent). Then, send them to rural Georgia to investigate a series of bizarre killings where they eventually encounter the son of Hogzilla, a giant dire boar--a story ripped from last week's headlines!

My point is that you don't need a bunch of new d20 material to run this kind of game if you want to do so. You can use your core 3.5 books.

Or just plunk down a couple bucks for D20 Modern, and do it up right.

Christoph the Magus · Mar 27, 2005

arwink said:
In order QUOTE]

Thank you for that very detailed list. I'll check those things out and see if they'll meet my needs.

Christoph the Magus · Mar 27, 2005

scourger said:
My point is that you don't need a bunch of new d20 material to run this kind of game if you want to do so. You can use your core 3.5 books.

While your probably right that I don't need to buy anything new, real life often rears its ugly head to remind me that I really don't have time to create all of this from scratch. Which is the point of all of the d20 "spin-off" games I suppose-the convenience of having it all right there for you and ready to go.

Christoph the Magus · Mar 27, 2005

Frukathka said:
you might wnat to think aboutt snapping up the back issue of Dungeon magazine #108. The setting gets the D20 Modern treatment in there.

Thanks for the tip!

trancejeremy · Mar 27, 2005

They'd be more expensive in the long run than d20 Modern, but you might check out some of Hogsheads d20 products. There's one on the Supernatural with regards to crime (I think) and a series called "Fright Night". They use plain old d20, not d20 Modern.

Khorod · Mar 27, 2005

D20 Modern sounds very much like what you're going for. The book includes 'Department-7' and the Agents of PSI minicampaign that might have some kernels of inspiration.

While its a good basic ruleset to capture the modern world and modern folk, it needs some help if you want rules and setting material to put a genuine para-investigator spin on things.

You can easily wing it with this book if you've got the flavor down.

I wouldn't want to try modern with normal D&D, even heavily modded it won't express the modern world or modern people as well as D20 Modern (or the D20 Modern SRD).