shadow
First Post
We've seen the d20 setting move beyond the standard quasi-medieval fantasy setting. It's taken us to the reaches of space with Star Wars, Dragonstar, and Fading Suns. It's taken us into the world of espionage with Spycraft. Now the d20 will take us into the most savage and brutal setting yet: The college campus! In the safe confines of their frathouse fratboys initiate their pledges with unspeakable rituals, in the bowels of the engineering lab nerds work on their latest projesct, and sadistic professors constantly try to put freshmen in their place. It is a world of constrasts. The colleges recieve huge monetary grants while students go around broke; there is more freedom than ever, yet there is also an unbelievable amount of responsibility....
Colleges&Campuses is a new d20 parody game that I've been toying with for the past few days. After seeing the WOtC April fools d20 Modern article, I thought about taking it one step further into a full fledged role playing system. Much like our ENWorlds popular Malls and Morons game, I would like to develop a d20 setting that is obviously done with humor, but still playable. Basically C&C is a satire of college life. (Does anyone remember the GURPS Illuminaty University Supplement?) Being a college student myself and seeing the number of college students around that play D&D, I would think that this setting would be a real riot to read let alone play. Right now I've only thought of the basic ideas. Without further ado....
Races: All characters are human, so this really isn't taken into account.
Classes:
Frat Boy/SororityGirl-They have amazing bonuses to fortitude save bonuses against alcohol (Because of the nights spent drinking themselves silly at frat parties) and gain the ability of allies and the ability to call a favor (From fellow frat members) like the noble class in Star Wars
Nerd-Although the weakest class in terms of BAB and hit points, they gain an amazing number of skill points and have a large number of class skill like the ability to gageteer and invent new devices
Stoner-The quintessential druggie. Possible bonuses to craft(art) checks(Being stoned gives them inspiration) and the class based skill knowledge(drugs)
Activist-You've seen them on college campuses. They're the ones fighting for some cause no one really cares about. Whether it the message be "save the whales" or "Overthrow this repressive police state!" all activists share basic abilities like inspire confidence, influence opinion, etc. (Much like bardic abilities)
Skills: Not wanting to change the skill system to much most skills will be left intact with a few variations on the knowledge skills such as knowledge(college life), knowledge(drugs), knowledge(campus lore), ect. In addition each character must take a "major" a knowledge skill in which they gain bonus ranks each level.
Feats- Feats like Binge Drinker (+4 Bonus on Fort Saves vs. Intoxication) and Dual-Major(Pick a second knowledge skill to act as your major.) will be available
Other crunchy bits:
Corruption points: Inspired by Star Wars Dark Side Point system. College life is demanding, people must maintian a certain academic performance and standard of behavior or face the risk of being kicked out. As characters indulge in rowdy behaviors such as binge drinking and all night partying they accumulate corruption points. After a certain number of points the player must role a will save (DC modified by the number of points accumulated) each time they aquire another corruption point. Failure means that their wild behavior has detracted so much from their studying that they are unable to maintain an acceptable grade point average and risk expulsion.
Stress and Sanity Rules: College is stressful. Between studying, dealing with obnoxious roommates and finals many students get really stressed; some of them eventually snap! Certain situations will require PCs to roll a Will save to avoid gaining a stress point. As the stress points accumulate PCs must roll a save to avoid coming down with temporary insanity. A full table of insanities will be given.
This is just a preview of what I've been thinking up. I'd like to post a Word or PDF version of the actual system on the web for a free download. If anyone is interested, please feel free to submit ideas or email suggestion. If enough people are interested I might set up a Yahoo e-group to work with. It will probably be a while before I actually put out anything (I am a college student after all!). In the mean time tell me what you all think!
Colleges&Campuses is a new d20 parody game that I've been toying with for the past few days. After seeing the WOtC April fools d20 Modern article, I thought about taking it one step further into a full fledged role playing system. Much like our ENWorlds popular Malls and Morons game, I would like to develop a d20 setting that is obviously done with humor, but still playable. Basically C&C is a satire of college life. (Does anyone remember the GURPS Illuminaty University Supplement?) Being a college student myself and seeing the number of college students around that play D&D, I would think that this setting would be a real riot to read let alone play. Right now I've only thought of the basic ideas. Without further ado....
Races: All characters are human, so this really isn't taken into account.
Classes:
Frat Boy/SororityGirl-They have amazing bonuses to fortitude save bonuses against alcohol (Because of the nights spent drinking themselves silly at frat parties) and gain the ability of allies and the ability to call a favor (From fellow frat members) like the noble class in Star Wars
Nerd-Although the weakest class in terms of BAB and hit points, they gain an amazing number of skill points and have a large number of class skill like the ability to gageteer and invent new devices
Stoner-The quintessential druggie. Possible bonuses to craft(art) checks(Being stoned gives them inspiration) and the class based skill knowledge(drugs)
Activist-You've seen them on college campuses. They're the ones fighting for some cause no one really cares about. Whether it the message be "save the whales" or "Overthrow this repressive police state!" all activists share basic abilities like inspire confidence, influence opinion, etc. (Much like bardic abilities)
Skills: Not wanting to change the skill system to much most skills will be left intact with a few variations on the knowledge skills such as knowledge(college life), knowledge(drugs), knowledge(campus lore), ect. In addition each character must take a "major" a knowledge skill in which they gain bonus ranks each level.
Feats- Feats like Binge Drinker (+4 Bonus on Fort Saves vs. Intoxication) and Dual-Major(Pick a second knowledge skill to act as your major.) will be available
Other crunchy bits:
Corruption points: Inspired by Star Wars Dark Side Point system. College life is demanding, people must maintian a certain academic performance and standard of behavior or face the risk of being kicked out. As characters indulge in rowdy behaviors such as binge drinking and all night partying they accumulate corruption points. After a certain number of points the player must role a will save (DC modified by the number of points accumulated) each time they aquire another corruption point. Failure means that their wild behavior has detracted so much from their studying that they are unable to maintain an acceptable grade point average and risk expulsion.
Stress and Sanity Rules: College is stressful. Between studying, dealing with obnoxious roommates and finals many students get really stressed; some of them eventually snap! Certain situations will require PCs to roll a Will save to avoid gaining a stress point. As the stress points accumulate PCs must roll a save to avoid coming down with temporary insanity. A full table of insanities will be given.
This is just a preview of what I've been thinking up. I'd like to post a Word or PDF version of the actual system on the web for a free download. If anyone is interested, please feel free to submit ideas or email suggestion. If enough people are interested I might set up a Yahoo e-group to work with. It will probably be a while before I actually put out anything (I am a college student after all!). In the mean time tell me what you all think!
