D20 cyberpunk/fuuristic settings!

[Psion]

I don't have them to comment on, but you might check out Dark Quest Games Cyber Style line:

http://www.darkquest.com/products2.html

 

[Saeviomagy]

Ok, OK, I came off a bit harsh. I don't want to argue either, but I don't understand what about d20 makes it ill suited to future. There's nothing in the rules that is inherently "fantasy medieval": assuming you come up with all new classes. d20 Modern shows a truly fairly generic system, IMO, as long as you assume that the game is going to be relatively action-packed and somewhat cinematic (although I think CoC shows that that can very severaly be toned down adequately.) What system would you rather use for futuristic settings and how are they more suited to those settings than d20?

The big one that d20 does is rapid advancement. It's well suited to epic stories where nobodies become great heroes in a couple of years, but it can't do gradual progression due to the granularity of the system. Either your characters advance so slowly that they never manage to learn skills to make up for glaring weaknesses, or they rocket up the levels and rapidly get to the point where they're unstoppable by mere mortals. Gradual character development is more or less a staple of futuristic and gritty games, and d20 doesn't really support it.

 

[Desdichado]

The big one that d20 does is rapid advancement. It's well suited to epic stories where nobodies become great heroes in a couple of years, but it can't do gradual progression due to the granularity of the system. Either your characters advance so slowly that they never manage to learn skills to make up for glaring weaknesses, or they rocket up the levels and rapidly get to the point where they're unstoppable by mere mortals. Gradual character development is more or less a staple of futuristic and gritty games, and d20 doesn't really support it.

I don't buy that for a minute. Gradual character advancement is certainly a staple of gritty games, but that doesn't mean it's a staple of futuristic games. Those two things are completely unrelated. I know of plenty of over-the-top heroic futuristic stories that could be well matched by game systems that are even more over the top than d20 (the Matrix comes to mind, and not just because there's less than two weeks until it comes out! Star Wars works well too, as does Star Trek.) Conversely, I much prefer gritty fantasy (and despite your assertion, I find d20 very well suited to it.) And advancement is only as rapid as the GM allows it to be. In theory, you could easily play d20 without any advancement at all, or incorporate a Mutants and Masterminds style advancement that is much more granular.

 

[Arnwyn]

Ok, OK, I came off a bit harsh. I don't want to argue either, but I don't understand what about d20 makes it ill suited to future. There's nothing in the rules that is inherently "fantasy medieval": assuming you come up with all new classes. d20 Modern shows a truly fairly generic system, IMO, as long as you assume that the game is going to be relatively action-packed and somewhat cinematic (although I think CoC shows that that can very severaly be toned down adequately.) What system would you rather use for futuristic settings and how are they more suited to those settings than d20?

Stupid freaking boards. I had a nice coherent post ready to go, and surprise - it's gone.

In any case, it's just as well, since like I said above, it's my opinion only and don't feel like debating it.

 

[Desdichado]

In any case, it's just as well, since like I said above, it's my opinion only and don't feel like debating it.

Alright, no problem. I've seen you bring it up several times before, though. If you don't want to debate (or even discuss) it I don't know why you'd keep bringing it up. If you don't even want to explain it, it isn't very useful to the question at hand.

And to keep my only participation in this thread from being completely tangential, to tecnodemon, I think you're making a mistake to write off games like Traveller T20 just because they feature space travel. They also feature everything else you're looking for, and also happen to have rules for space travel that can very easily be ignored.

But I guess I'm not sure what you're looking for. Are you looking for a canned scenario that you can play "out of the box?" Or are you just looking for rules.

 

[tecnodemon]

And to keep my only participation in this thread from being completely tangential, to tecnodemon, I think you're making a mistake to write off games like Traveller T20 just because they feature space travel. They also feature everything else you're looking for, and also happen to have rules for space travel that can very easily be ignored.

But I guess I'm not sure what you're looking for. Are you looking for a canned scenario that you can play "out of the box?" Or are you just looking for rules.

I am looking a good campaign setting/world or as you put it a canned senerio. Even though Traveller space travel can be be ingore, it presents the eagerness for it, which I do not wnat top deal with it. Its still to tempting.

Anyways the elements I am looking for is futuristic, cybernetics, psionics and good storyline/history. No space travel/ or space combat, ground and air combet (within the planet/world) would be ok.

 

[Desdichado]

In that case, I would suggest Judge Dredd d20. I can't recall how much cybernetics they have, though -- you may have to steal those rules from Fading Suns, Dragonstar or some other setting. Other than that, I can't think of any that really come very close to matching your requirements.

 

[tecnodemon]

I did but one player does not like Judge Dredd. I like to to have all players agree on a game.

 

[Orias]

I'd just prefer to play Shadowrun. I feel Shadowrun has the best gun combat system. I mean, I don't want to start a fight here, but hit points & guns don't make too much sense.

 

[Arnwyn]

Alright, no problem. I've seen you bring it up several times before, though. If you don't want to debate (or even discuss) it I don't know why you'd keep bringing it up. If you don't even want to explain it, it isn't very useful to the question at hand.

I have before (and attempted to this time around, if the boards wouldn't eat my posts...) I just try to avoid the whole "d20 vs. everything else" debate (especially futile considering this particular messageboard).

I noticed above that I didn't include the example: a far better system for the futuristic genre in my mind is FUZION. I think the whole class-based system, as opposed to a skill-based one, makes d20 ill-suited to the futuristic genre (for many reasons).

There, I think that was quick enough to get this posted...