Dark Matter Campaign

[ronin]

I should be running a Dark Matter campaign sometime this summer so I am starting to plan now. How would other D20 games, such as World of Darkness or even Cthulu, work in a D20 modern setting? I am still working on the basic theme for the game so I'm open to just about anything. I have picked up some of the other D20 books such as Future Tech and Cybernetics(?) to pull material from. I wanted to have the players create characters from D20 Modern but I'd pull material to challenge them with from multiple sources.

Is this a bad idea?

 

[Khairn]

Its not a bad idea at all, although I think you do have to watch out for the power creep that many future or cybernetic guns, augmentations etc can bring to the game. If you can find it, I recommend picking up the d20 version of CoC. Its a great book with lots of elements that can be included in a Dark Matter game. I also like its Insanity rules, which I think would fit perfectly with DM.

 

[rgard]

There is also Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Nocturnum D20 Modern. I don't own it, but it sounds applicable to what you are doing.

 

[wolfen fenrison]

Call of Cthulhu d20 is the forerunner of d20 Modern and it's tone is a natural match with Dark*Matter.
Monte Cook's World of Darkness on the other hand has conspiracy elements to it but with all the going on in both settings it seem too busy, to make it work you'll have to narrow the focus of your campaign.

 

[ronin]

I am just beginning to look at what sort of material I'd like to include in the game so nothing is set. My plan is to have the players create their characters using the d20 Modern core rulebook and not much else. I am thinking about giving them something extra to make them special but I haven't decided on that one yet.

Once the game gets going they will encounter all sorts of things such as vampires, demon summoning cults, werewolves, ghosts, etc along with some missions involving surveillance, investigation, or perhaps even acting as couriers of important information or people.

Once they get to about mid levels I plan to introduce the theme I hope will become the focus of the game as the plot unfolds. Most of the things I plan to add in (new/future tech, robotics, etc) will be encountered as the opposition first and once they overcome it then they may have access to the technology. Almost all of this new technology will need to be turned in to the organization that pays them.

One thing I want to include is a group that experiments on people to turn them into "super soldiers" by giving them drugs/robotics etc. Of course the group would have to figure out whats happening first and then figure out what to do with the information they find.

I want the focus of the game to be about information, allegiances, and such instead of just combat after combat. This is my first attempt at running a modern game and also the first time I won't be using a pre made adventure so I hope I can pull it off.

If anyone has any other thoughts I'd be glad to hear them!

 

[wolfen fenrison]

Well for starters play up the abilities from the Mental classes, give the same XP rewards for social interaction (esp. encounters that involve intimidate, diplomacy, research, and the like). Make sure the players know from the jump that combat is not the only focus of the campaign, strong heroes that put ranks in Knowledge (Streetwise or Tactics) should be given opportunity to use that skill outside of combat.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

You might also want to check out the Dragonstar Galactic Races sourcebook if you want some more exotic critters.

Illithids also make for great aliens...perhaps a little toned down, but excellent nonetheless.

 

[Achan hiArusa]

Call of Cthulhu d20 is the forerunner of d20 Modern and it's tone is a natural match with Dark*Matter.
Monte Cook's World of Darkness on the other hand has conspiracy elements to it but with all the going on in both settings it seem too busy, to make it work you'll have to narrow the focus of your campaign.

I don't see that. In Dark Matter you are investigating the unknown, but it doesn't have that horror and madness "man was not meant to know" feel to it that CoC has. Now granted, the Hoffman Institute is an Ahotti experiment to see how well humans deal with the unknown and that can be quite sanity blasting, but...

And I would look outside d20 at games like Kult, Unknown Armies, Over the Edge, Delta Green, GURPS: Cabal and Illuminati, and Conspiracy X for ideas. The base nWoD game is also a good place to look for material, and because I have d20 fatigue I'm using it as the basis for my next game.

 

[wolfen fenrison]

Call of Cthulhu d20 had horror staples like zombies, vampires, werewolves, mummies, and ghosts in case investigators and keepers got tired of mythos horrors (or said keeper likes to keep his players on their toes). Dark*Matter to me always had this "the deck stacked against us" mentality for the heroes which CoC can acomidate nicely. As far as sanity there are three ways of handleing this (this is from CoC and Unearthed Arcana);
1. Don't use it, simple yes? (Thats how I roll)
2. Player San Resistance equal to 3 + 1 per level. (CoC)
3. Player get San Resistance equal to either their Wis Mod or Level. (UA)

I use McWoD in my d20 Modern games I disragard the Intrusion/Inconnu backround completely and use the NWoD fluff for Vamps, Weres, Mages, and Awakened (based on Hunter), Demons I use the OWoD fluff. I've begun to use the Eidilon Class and Ghost template from Ghostwalk for Wraiths in my game.

 

[arscott]

Pick up this PDF. It's a never-released-in-print supplement for the Alternity Version of Dark•Matter that focuses on the Final Church and the Demons they worship. The adventure is pretty nice, and is pretty easy to convert to d20M, and the general information on cults and demons is also pretty fluff-heavy. Plus, it's less that $5!