d20 Future preview is up!

reanjr said:

Actually, when Alternity came out we were considered to be in the cusp of moving into PL6, and I'd say in the past half-decade we probably HAVE moved into that era. We are just in the very early stages. For instance, we will probably have laser rifles within 20 years. Alternity (and d20 future) puts that as PL7. Fusion (PL6)? We can do that, too, if not to the efficiency presented in the book.

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I no longer have my Alternity core book, and my GMG is out of reach (grr...) so I'm just going by memory here. I thought the laser pistol and other laser weapons were PL 6 inventions.

That's why the PL system is broken. It should have a tech tree type system, where different technologies advance separately and are dependent upon one another. I created such a system for my d20 Future campaign I'm running now. It's got seperate advancement for things like nanotech, nuclear power, AI, computers in general, gravity manipulation, etc. Allows different cultures to be very distinct technologically, like the fraal and humans are presented. Humans had gravity technology, while fraal had advanced fusion. When they began to collaborate, they came up with the stardrive.

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Alternity Warships did this quite well... they split technology into different tracks, so you could have a different PL in each one.

Most of the races in StarDrive were PL7 in most areas, but often were PL 8 in one or two areas and PL 6 in another area.

(Speaking of which, I hated how they determined only humans and fraal would start off with interstellar spaceflight.)

Didn't they do a Dark*Matter d20 update in Dragon or Dungeon or something?

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Yes and I've heard rave reviews of it. I haven't seen it, however

There's net projects that do a real good job of this as well.

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Seen it. Waiting impatiently for NPCs.

And if anyone HASN'T read Dark*Matter (and is a GM, players are excluded), they should immediately go get it from RPGNow ($4.95 download). It is the finest, most well polished and useful book Wizards/TSR has ever conceived. I am not joking and I am not fanboying. I don't think there's a single page of that book that gives less than 10 adventure hooks. As a GM, it's hard to contain one's excitement at the adventure ideas and possibilities swimming in the book.

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It was a very good book (I've got it). I don't think it's all that mind you; I was bigger Star Drive fan.

Production value blows Eberron away in terms of art quality and design. It is absolutely chock-full of info. This was before prestige classes and feats took 50% of every book Wizards published. This is all useful material to EVERY campaign set in the setting. This book is astounding.

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Memo to WotC... maybe I should buy Eberron just to reward WotC for writing a light crunch book.

Other specs include the range and recoil. Range should be a bit shorter than that of an M16A2 (current standard issue),

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I would expect a laser to have a longer range. It should be more accurate and lasers keep their energy and coherence for quite a long range. [Must download that PDF, but I'm downloading Hyperconscious right now...]

reanjr said:

Everything they've presented so far indicates that D20 Future should be called D20 Alternity. It's a rules update only, there's no real difference in ideas, focus, or content.

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Well, except that Alternity didn't have mecha, or Star Frontiers content, or support for campaign models outside of Star*Drive / Dark*Matter / GW. The core material was strongly defaulted towards S*D, so I expect the focus and flavour of d20F will be quite different.

I also expect that a lot of the ideas will be elaborated beyond the content of the Alternity core books, touching on elements that were only covered in supplements and even then focusing on different things. It will be very useful to have it all in one hardback.

KoOS

King of Old School said:

Well, except that Alternity didn't have mecha, or Star Frontiers content, or support for campaign models outside of Star*Drive / Dark*Matter / GW.

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...and that Alternity used a completely different system. Of course, Alternity was just TSR's version of FGU's Space Opera; nothing new there...

King of Old School said:

I thought the Genetech article in Poly was pretty much the campaign model cut from d20M, word for word. It didn't seem any longer or more complete than the models in the corebook.

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I seem to remember it being longer and a lot more detailed than the campaign models in d20M. It took up most of the Poly, iirc. The models in d20M are usually just a couple of pages.

(Psi)SeveredHead said:

I no longer have my Alternity core book, and my GMG is out of reach (grr...) so I'm just going by memory here. I thought the laser pistol and other laser weapons were PL 6 inventions.

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You may be right. I don't have my books available either. Either way, we could be considered to be early PL6.

(Psi)SeveredHead said:

Alternity Warships did this quite well... they split technology into different tracks, so you could have a different PL in each one.

Most of the races in StarDrive were PL7 in most areas, but often were PL 8 in one or two areas and PL 6 in another area.

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That's actually where I got my inspiration from. I expanded upon their system, which was based kind of on breakthroughs that allowed a new tech, and made each tech more progressive.

(Psi)SeveredHead said:

I would expect a laser to have a longer range. It should be more accurate and lasers keep their energy and coherence for quite a long range. [Must download that PDF, but I'm downloading Hyperconscious right now...]

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I think it has something to do with the fact that when you focus a laser for weapons-grade use, the air it travels through causes significant ditortion over long distance. I think the range was still like a kilometer though, which is pretty good (and could be used for sniping if desired, with no delay or wind problems!!!). I find it hard to believe that an M16 can EFFECTIVELY be used at that range, anyway, due to aiming issues, but I'm not too familiar with the topic.

King of Old School said:

Well, except that Alternity didn't have mecha, or Star Frontiers content, or support for campaign models outside of Star*Drive / Dark*Matter / GW. The core material was strongly defaulted towards S*D, so I expect the focus and flavour of d20F will be quite different.

I also expect that a lot of the ideas will be elaborated beyond the content of the Alternity core books, touching on elements that were only covered in supplements and even then focusing on different things. It will be very useful to have it all in one hardback.

KoOS

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I don't know, I think Alternity supported other game models as much as any game. I guess that's just personal opinion... Though I do agree with the strong Star*Drive slant.

I agree it will be nice to have it all in one place, but I'm not so sure about the elaborating part. They're compressing the Player's Handbook, Gamemaster Guide, Dataware, Tangents, and probably Starships into one book. I think if anything, we'll lose a bit of info (like we lost alot of weapons from 2e to 3e D&D, even though the 3e books had weapons from all sorts of 2e sources).

So far, it looks like the only Alternity/StarDrive influences will be five races, a couple of monsters (klicks!) and one of the eight campaign settings.

(No proof for the latter, but I wouldn't be surprised at all.)

Ranjr said:

I think the range was still like a kilometer though, which is pretty good (and could be used for sniping if desired, with no delay or wind problems!!!). I find it hard to believe that an M16 can EFFECTIVELY be used at that range, anyway, due to aiming issues, but I'm not too familiar with the topic.

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In game terms, that would give the laser a longer range increment than an M16 rifle. If 1 km is the max effective range then it should still have a range increment of ~160 feet vs the 70-90 feet of M16s and other such assault rifles or the max 90-120 feet (that I've seen) for sniper rifles. (In practice, it might have a longer range increment, with a maximum "cap" of 0.6 miles...)

Calculation: 1 km = 0.6 miles, converted to 3168 feet. Divide the range into twenty to find range increment (you can reach the max range with the Far Shot feat and a scope to see the laser pointer).

Speaking of which, a range increment of 160 feet probably isn't so long that it's broken, which is good news.

reanjr said:

They're compressing the Player's Handbook, Gamemaster Guide, Dataware, Tangents, and probably Starships into one book.

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Don't forget Mindwalking, too!

FWIW, 224pp should be enough room for a SFRPG, given that d20M handles the "RPG" part. All d20F needs to cover is the "SF" part. I'd wager that Tangents won't figure in too much, either.

I'm optimistic.

(Psi)SeveredHead said:

So far, it looks like the only Alternity/StarDrive influences will be five races, a couple of monsters (klicks!) and one of the eight campaign settings.

(No proof for the latter, but I wouldn't be surprised at all.)



In game terms, that would give the laser a longer range increment than an M16 rifle. If 1 km is the max effective range then it should still have a range increment of ~160 feet vs the 70-90 feet of M16s and other such assault rifles or the max 90-120 feet (that I've seen) for sniper rifles. (In practice, it might have a longer range increment, with a maximum "cap" of 0.6 miles...)

Calculation: 1 km = 0.6 miles, converted to 3168 feet. Divide the range into twenty to find range increment (you can reach the max range with the Far Shot feat and a scope to see the laser pointer).

Speaking of which, a range increment of 160 feet probably isn't so long that it's broken, which is good news.

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Yeah, I have a sneaking suspicion that when I see 1200 or 1400 meters range for an M16 that just means that's where the bullet lands if it doesn't hit anything.

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