Another d20 Modern campaign idea

[JPL]

A. Five players seems to be a good number for me.

B. Just did a one-shot where the players were all the sons of a famous adventurer. Siblings = great roleplaying, especially for one-shots, because anyone with brothers and sisters can understand those relationships.

C. Still wanting to do a Blood and Fists thing.

Therefore...do a riff on "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues." Former Shaolin monk moves to San Francisco and raises a family. Adventure ensues.

Five kids = five traditional styles of animal Shaolin [crane, snake, tiger, leopard, dragon] = five Japanese hero-team archetypes [Leader, Rebel, Princess, Big Hosslike Guy or Quiet Mysterious Guy, Kid]. Match up style + archetypes and you get a good start on the characterization.

As to the actual adventures...could be anything from a reasonably realistic "Rumble in the Bronx" / "Showdown in Little Tokyo" thing, all the way up to something hoo-hah --- Mortal Kombat, or Jackie Chan Adventures, or Blade II [vs. Chinese demons rather than vampires].

Yep...that would be fun, too...

 

[ledded]

Love it, it sounds like fun.


Our group is getting ready to do a one-off Blood and Fists adventure and it should be fun. Sumo's rule!

 

[JPL]

Love it, it sounds like fun.


Our group is getting ready to do a one-off Blood and Fists adventure and it should be fun. Sumo's rule!

Tell me more.

 

[ledded]

Tell me more.

Well, we're doing a playtest for BnF 2 as you probably know, so here is our idea.

Here's the fluff:

"The Blood Run"

This is THE legendary secret martial tournament of all time. The Blood Run. This is the one that the masters talk about in hushed tones, and half of them don't even believe it exists, and the other half are too scared to compete in it if it does. Depending on who you ask, this thing is organized by the Chinese
government, the yakuza, or the ancient gods of war themselves. Whoever organizes it, the reward for a championship is supposed to set you for life, and maybe even beyond.

The tournament happens only once every hundred years, and is, of course, by invitation only, and you don't even have to have heard of this thing before you get invited. Whoever sends out the invitations seems to have connections and eyes everywhere.

The Crunch:

We each make up 3 characters, 2 with BnF 1 and 2 stuff to the hilt, and the third without any BnF or Martial Arts Mayhem if you want to (so we can judge how a non-MA supplement guy can stack up balance-wise with martial/weapons arts against a BnF stacked guy). That's 5 guys in our group, so 15 fighters (with one mystery creature thrown in to make an even 16).

We have a seeded tournament (NCAA style ) so that each player fights a different player with one of his characters.

For each fight, the 2 contestants are mystically transported to a location randomly determined from our list, but could be anything from a boxing ring, to an urban city block, to a a set of sewers, etc. This way we can check out abilties and stuff not normally useful in a regular arena fight.

The three players not involved in any given fight are known as "The Judges", which is what the fighters call whatever shadowy figures are running the tournament. One player is the overall rules judge (main GM), the second player is the note-taker (for issues arising from the playtest and any other stuff we come across), the third player is the terrain judge (he decides the effects of terrain, random traps/effects, and has control of the terrain setup and setting environmental effects). Each new fight means new judges, so there isnt one GM stuck with trying to do all the work all night, everyone gets to fight, everyone gets to judge. This way we should be able to get through some fun fighting and scenarios without one or two guys getting always bogged down in the details. Plus, with our group, this will let everyone always be doing something which makes our games run faster most of the time.

If time allows, we may do some team deathmatch-ish scenarios or other fun stuff.

We still havent hammered all this out, but we are playing Medallions d20 Modern tonight so we'll get a chance to set the details for next week.

 

[JPL]

Sounds great. I might have to swipe some of that...

 

[ledded]

Were making the 3 characters a 13th, 14th, and 15th level guy so we can put the BnF 2 through it's paces.

Some potential scenarios are catwalks over an active volcano, 3 blocks of the Las Vegas strip, and a sinking cruise ship. We've gotten pretty crazy with it, but we wanted to introduce the opportunities for characters to use all kinds of skills, feats, and powers that an ordinary ring deathmatch just wouldnt provide. So a Ninja character could start the match and run off into the shadows to hide, only to emerge 6 rounds later to ambush their opponent from behind some dumpsters (trying to use the Silent Death ability); the possibilities are endless and the guys are getting really pumped for it after we discussed it for an hour or so last night before our regular d20 Modern Medallions game.

The judges can end the match at any time for any reason and declare a winner, and matches last no more than 20 rounds (so you can run away and hide from an opponent if he is winning, but you will probably still lose). Judges make a decision if the match ends in anything less than a knockout/death.

 

[JPL]

I've been experimenting with statting the same guy at 5th, 10th, and 15th, with the intent of actually running the PCs at 10th and using the other stats for cannon fodder and bosses.

Another recent thought I've had is that the tournament could be broken into teams based on national styles --- the PCs are the American team, representing the styles of boxing, professional wrestling, lua, Marine martial arts, 42 Hand Blocks, etc. It might still get down to American v. American in the end, but until then, patriotism [and the language barrier] still keep the group a sort of "party."

When I'll get a chance to run this [or anything] is anybody's guess...