D20 Apocalypse Designers - Q&A Here

[spidertrag]

How well will it mesh with Urban Arcana (SRD) & Grim Tales? I'd like to do a gamma worldish game where the end came about after the mingling of magic (from the shadow forces) & full scale (more or less) nuclear war resulted in a twisted earth with a forever dark sky

 

[Darrin Drader]

How well will it mesh with Urban Arcana (SRD) & Grim Tales? I'd like to do a gamma worldish game where the end came about after the mingling of magic (from the shadow forces) & full scale (more or less) nuclear war resulted in a twisted earth with a forever dark sky

Well, first off, keep in mind that I've not looked at Grim Tales, so I have no way to take that into account.

Obviously the three settings are very distinct. You could easily use the rules modules included in the book with any setting really, as long as that setting has modern technology. I don't see any reasons the first 3 (of 6) chapters couldn't be used with a post-apocalyptic Urban Arcana.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

How well will it mesh with Urban Arcana (SRD) & Grim Tales?

I have Grim Tales, so I can try to take a stab at this.

In my opinion, shouldn't have hardly any difficulty, but there are issues. Grim Tales uses the Wealth mechanic out of D20 Modern, and D20 PA ditches the Wealth mechanic for a Barter/Parts sytem. Easy to swap this into Grim Tales.

Grim Tales takes the vehicle rules out of Spycraft instead of D20 Modern, and D20 PA builds upon the D20 Modern vehicle rules (obviously) with the new additional vehicle rules. I don't think it should be much of a challenge to make the two fit to your satisfaction.

Grim Tales introduces rules for Mutations in the Slavelords of Cydonia epic campaign adventure. As you might imagine because Grim Tales uses the work by Upper_Krust on an "improved" CR system, the mutations in D20 Future(Modern) (and by extension the new ones in D20 PA) will cause you some trouble to determine just what +CR adjustment each D20 Future mutation should have in the Grim Tales system. Probably the greatest difficulty right here is determing the mutation's +CR values. Maybe Upper_Krust's project could take up the cause of D20 Future mutations's +Cr values in his next version update? Then again if the mutation rules aren't in the MSRD, maybe he won't want to touch them... *shrug*

Because Grim Tales doesn't use Advanced or Prestige classes (you have advanced talents instead) the four new classes in D20 PA will need to be deconstructed so that whatever special abilities they have can be made into new feats or advanced talents for Grim Tales rules.

All said, it really doesn't look to me to be a steep curve at all.

 

[The Shaman]

Well, now that D20 Apocalypse has finally hit the shelves, I'm happy to answer any questions anyone might have about it. Keep in mind that there were others who worked on the book, so if your question concerns something someone else wrote, I'll refer you to them.

You rock for taking feedback like this - I'm sure I'll have questions once I get a look at the book.

In the meantime, thanks for being so accessible.

Spoiler

Yes, there's a veiled shot at James Wyatt and Gwendolyn Kestrel implied.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Is it good?

And, if so, may I have a copy? I'm poor.

I have to say that it is. It is a much more focused work than D20 Past and is chock full of not only good crunch dealing with bartering, scavenging, diseases, and such, but also excellent idea-spawning fluff. There were a few ideas that came to me from the first chapter alone that I hadn't considered before. The writing is great, the artwork is excellent (more awesome pieces from Kalman Androsofszky), the book overall is very well done. Some of the campaign models may not suit everyone, but there is something there for any fan of the various Post-Apocalyptic Genres. One of my favorite points is that it should mesh rather well with Darwin's World 2.

Good work, Darrin and the rest of the WotC guys.

Kane

 

[Darrin Drader]

One of my favorite points is that it should mech rather well with Darwin's World 2.

Good work, Darrin and the rest of the WotC guys.

Thank you folks so much! It's nice to be appreciated!

One of the things I tried to do was not rewrite too much of DW2. I have a definite appreciation for that game and I wanted this to complement, not compete. There is a little bit of overlap, but not much.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Would the barter/scavenge systems be usable for a more fantasy/past campaign, or are they mostly focused on the relics of the late industrial civilization?

 

[Darrin Drader]

Would the barter/scavenge systems be usable for a more fantasy/past campaign, or are they mostly focused on the relics of the late industrial civilization?

It would be a stretch. It is definitely keyed to present day buildings and items. I suppose that you could rework the system into a different era, but you would need to do a lot of redesigning to get it to fit.

 

[Kesh]

Can anyone take a look and see if any material is listed as Open Content? I'm very curious about that or, lacking that, if any of it will be added to the SRD.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Nothing in the book is listed as Open Content. I would assume that some of the material will be added to the SRD sometime in the future.

Kane