Players Want A D20 Modern Mundane Campaign

[Raynor21]

I'm finishing up a Dark Sun 4e campaign, and now my group now wants to do a D20 modern game. However, they want to forgo any fantasy elements and have it placed in the real modern world. That's all well and good, but I'm so used to running fantasy games that I don't know where begin.

Their characters are:
A local small time hood
A disgraced cop turned private eye
A young techno geek
A bodybuilder

The first arc I have planned has them taking back a small neighborhood from a local drug dealer and his gang who are pushing a new highly dangerous and addictive drug. The local hood is going to come home to find his brother OD'd on the drug and he runs into the private eye who is already investigating the new drug for an unknown client (who I have no idea how they'll factor into the story. Maybe a future nemesis?)

I have no idea how to involve the bodybuilder or the hacker or even how to bring them together. I have the D20 Modern books, but most of their adventure hooks are for either UA games or other setting with fantasy or sci-fi elements. I also want to forgo the whole "this secret organization hires you, blah blah blah" for the time being.

Do you guys have any ideas? We're going to start in 3 weeks, so I have some time, but I kind of want to get a basic story ready so I can start making the maps and npc's, etc.

 

[Spatula]

Welcome!

One possible solution is to make the players do that sort of thing for you. Present the situation and ask them how their characters fit into the story.

Barring that, the mere presence of powerful drug dealers creates enough basic hooks to get you by. The PCs could be in it to clean up their neighborhood, they could be out for revenge, they could be recovering addicts themselves. Maybe some are just there for the "thrill" of getting to act out their action/vigilante movie fantasies. The geek could be called in for his expertise, for example to hack into the dealers' phones. Maybe he was a big fan of HBO's The Wire and wants to take down the local "Barksdale" or play at being Omar.

There are lots of possibilities. I think asking the players to figure that stuff out will increase their investment in their character and in the situation, though.

 

[qstor]

Welcome!

Talk to the players...maybe the hacker is the bodybuilder's cousin. Maybe the bodybuilder works part time as a bouncer at a bar that's being hit for protection money by the drug gang? Maybe the bodybuilder's significant other is a drug addict being supplied by the drug gang? Maybe the hacker and the bodybuilder are on the same bowling team?

Going forward check out novels or TV shows. Maybe the drug gang has links to Miami where the hacker's sister lives and is affected by drug violence. Maybe the small time hood learns about a mob connection in New York City that has links to the drug gang. Maybe the drug gang stole an iPad from a Chinese diplomat that has top secret documents on it. And the party recovers the iPad? Check out Mission Impossible, Miami Vice, Law & Order, the Godfather, Punisher comics and maybe Tom Clancy novels for other ideas?

For locations use Google Maps. Hope this helps
Mike

 

[Guest 85555]

Without knowing the who the player characters are and why they are together, it will be difficult to come up with a hook. Is there any kind of campaign set-up planned?

I actually make a bunch of mundane modern games and modules. If you want to PM me i can probably send you some resources.

 

[fireinthedust]

So they're normal folks? Like, not spies, nothing? And you can't throw monsters at them?


Wow.



Natural disasters. Everyone has to do something to survive, and they can be thrown together.

Maybe since you've finished with a Dark Sun game, though, you could do something lighter? Like, they have to get the parts for the best soap box car they can build, then they have to race as a group against the mean kids down the street.

Just saying. Obviously your crew doesn't work, but you could still do something like it. If it's utterly mundane, fine: go mundane. Raise the stakes.

If it's a combat game: drug dealers, corrupt cops, and they have to save their housing project!

Maybe watch some 70s/80s movies and take it from there.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I always insist the PCs knew each other ahead of time, although it's there choice how they know each other. (FATE does this very well.)

It takes more to hang a group together in Modern than in D&D, since adventuring as such doesn't exist in a modern setting. You can, of course, always start them off "isolated" (eg in a country where they don't speak the language, except maybe one, forcing them to depend on each other).

There are some decent non-FX adventure ideas on the website, mostly the later ones, but WotC seemed allergic to non-FX Modern, which was a real shame. I ended up stealing and converting a lot of adventures from Spycraft, Feng Shui, Alternity and other systems. I even stole a book.

Just to avoid the "I can't adventure, I'm bleeding!" problem, make sure they have someone with Treat Injury (ridiculously easy to acquire and boost) and the Surgery feat. Failing that, give them a doctor. I'm not kidding. In Modern, unlike in D&D, you probably can't go to a doctor and get treated for gunshot wounds, at least not if you want to avoid the police.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Problem getting them involved?

1. They live in the neighborhood
2. They were passing through at the time everything goes down
3. Thee hacker was doing his own research, and wanted to see with his own eyes that _________

 

[fanboy2000]

Bodybuilders work out in gyms. Gyms can be great sources of the word on the street. Upscale gyms may have the dealer's upscale clients or, baring that, maybe even the dealer himself if it's really exclusive and he's really successful. Basically, I'm thinking it can serve the modern function of D&D's typical inn.

Bullshido.net might have some info on what you can expect from gyms as they rate them and have a place about what you should look for in a gym, which you can use as a template for what a bodybuilder would use.

Hackers are great if you don't mind some hollywood hacking. Imagine hacking into court records, attorney files, or other government information. Wi-fi, tablet computers, and smart phones are common enough that I think he could be useful in a wide variety of situations. The magazine 2600 might be helpful.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Or hacking the drug dealer's computer only to find some kind of personal connection...

 

[Relique du Madde]

The easy way to get them all together... put them all in the same place at the same time ie a bank. For example..

The computer geek was called in on a tech call since the security system went completely down.
The body builder and ex cop went in to cash checks.
The hood wanted to rob the place when...

The local crime syndicate robs the place. The group then has to get together to clear their names or because they are the only people who can finger the real perps.

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