D20 Future Campaign inspired by Halo

[Chaldfont]

On the release of Halo 2, I decided to see what it was all about and started playing the first game. The setting, as has been mentioned many times before, is ripe for a campaign and D20 Future makes it easy.

Here are some stats I whipped up for an upcomming three session campaign. It is heavily influenced by Halo, but with some differences. I've changed the backstory somewhat and plan on changing the name of the aliens from The Covenant. The humans are members of the Confederated Human Systems (CHS). The PCs will be Confed Marines.

This first post will be weapons. I'm still working on the energy shields and may add a weapon gadget that overloads energy shields, making them useless for several rounds. I haven't included Purchase DCs for the weapons, since they will either be issued or looted. Purchase DC Modifiers for the gadgets are just SWAGs (Silly, Wild-Ass Guesses).

New Weapon Gadgets

Non-removable Magazine
A weapon with this gadget has an integrated magazine which may not be removed, replaced or recharged without repairing the weapon.
Restrictions: Ranged energy weapons only.
Purchase DC Modifier: -1.

Overcharger
This gadget allows a user to charge up an energy weapon in order to fire a more powerful shot. When this weapon’s trigger is pulled and held, the weapon begins to charge. When the trigger is released, it fires the overcharged shot. The overcharge can be held as long as the trigger is held, but when the trigger is released, the shot is fired. An overcharged shot requires an attack action and deals +3 dice of damage on a successful hit. The overcharge drains 10 shots from the weapon’s magazine. The overcharge causes the weapon to overheat and it may not be fired or overcharged for one round while it cools off.
Restrictions: Ranged energy weapons only.
Purchase DC Modifier: +6.

Poor Heat Sink
When a weapon with this gadget is used to fire one shot (if only capable of one shot per round), more than two shots in one round (if semiautomatic) or make two or more autofire or burst fire attacks (if autofire capable) in a row it overheats and cannot be fired for one round while it cools off.
Restrictions: Ranged energy weapons only.
Purchase DC Modifier: -1.

Seeking Overcharger
The seeking overcharger gadget works just as the overcharger gadget but provides a +1 bonus to attack when firing an overcharged shot.
Restrictions: Ranged energy weapons only.
Purchase DC Modifier: +7.

Selective Adhesion
This gadget causes a grenade to stick to its target on a successful ranged touch attack. A target hit with this weapon is denied the usual Reflex save and takes full damage. Integrated sensors and targeting computers ensure that the weapon sticks only to valid targets such as creatures, robots or vehicles (but does not distinguish friend from foe). The weapon may still be thrown at a 5 foot square as usual and, if it misses, scatters only half the usual distance.
Restrictions: Grenades only.
Purchase DC Modifier: +X.

Covenant Weapons

New Damage Type: Plasma
Plasma weapons deal damage by striking the target with a magnetically stabilized packet of superheated ionized gas causing both burning and concussive damage. Plasma has a tendency to overload ablative energy shields and plasma weapons deal +1 point of damage per die to shields. Unlike other energy types, plasma deals full damage to objects.

Plasma Grenade
Covenant plasma grenades have the Selective Adhesion gadget.
Damage: 4d6; Damage Type: Plasma; Burst Radius: 20 ft.; Reflex DC: 15; Range Increment: 10 ft.; Weight: 1 lb.;

Plasma Pistol
Covenant plasma pistols have the expanded magazine, non-removable magazine, poor heat sink and seeking overcharger gadgets.
Damage: 2d10; Damage Type: Plasma; Range: 40 ft.; Rate: S; Magazine: 100; Size: Medium; Weight: 3 lb.

Plasma Rifle
Covenant plasma rifles are mastercraft weapons (+1 attack bonus) and have the expanded magazine, non-removable magazine, and poor heat sink gadgets.
Damage: 2d10; Damage Type: Plasma; Range: 80 ft.; Rate: S, A; Magazine: 100; Size: Large; Weight: 8 lb.

CHS Weapons

Combat Knife
The Confed Marine combat knife is a mastercraft weapon (+1 attack penalty).
Damage: 1d4; Critical: 19-20; Damage Type: Piercing or Slashing; Range: 10 ft.; Size: Small; Weight: 1 lb.

Shrapnel Grenade
Damage: 5d6; Damage Type: Slashing; Burst Radius: 20 ft.; Reflex DC: 15; Range Increment: 10 ft.; Weight: 1 lb.; Purchase DC: 18; Restriction: Mil (+3).

Pistol
The CHS standard sidearm is a mastercraft weapon (+1 attack bonus) and has a standard scope.
Damage: 2d8; Damage Type: Ballistic; Range: 40 ft.; Rate: S; Magazine: 12; Size: Medium; Weight 4 lb.

Assault Rifle
The CHS assault rifle has the expanded magazine gadget. It also has an integrated flashlight, GPS receiver and ammo readout.
Damage: 2d8; Damage Type: Ballistic; Range: 80 ft.; Rate: S, A; Magazine: 60; Size: Large; Weight: 10 lb.

Shotgun
I'm going to use the alternate shotgun rules from Ultramodern Firearms (-2 points of damage per range increment instead of the D20 MSRD -1).
Damage: 2d12; Damage Type: Ballistic; Range: 30 ft.; Rate: S; Magazine: 10; Size: Large; Weight: 12 lb.

Sniper Rifle
The CHS sniper rifle is a mastercraft weapon (+1 attack bonus) and has an electro-optical scope. The high velocity, high density rounds punch through ablative energy shields and deal damage directly to the target.
Damage: 2d12; Damage Type: Ballistic; Range: 120 ft.; Rate: S; Magazine: 5; Size: Large; Weight: 14 lb.

Rocket Launcher
The CHS rocket launcher has an expanded magazine and a standard scope. It takes a move action to load one rocket. It requires the Exotic Firearms Proficiency to avoid the –4 non-proficient attack penalty. It explodes in a 20 ft. radius on impact (Reflex DC 18 for half damage). The warhead contains a shaped charge which ignores the first 10 points of hardness of objects.
Damage: 10d6; Range: 150 ft.; Rate: 1; Magazine: 2; Size: Large; Weight: 14 lb.

 

[Turanil]

What is Halo2 ?

 

[Chaldfont]

What is Halo2 ?

You can read all about Halo and it's sequel here: http://www.bungie.net

 

[Zethnar]

Did he just ask what halo 2 was?

Dude, im in shock

 

[Chaldfont]

Soon to come: PCs for first session.

I'm still working on energy shields for the aliens. I'm leaning toward having the shields grant bonus hp much like mecha do. The hp could recharge over time, but at a scale where you don't have to keep track of it in combat. Some weapons (like the plasma pistol on overcharge) could knock-out shields in one shot. Other weapons (like the sniper rifle) could punch through shields and ignore the bonus hp.

I'm also thinking about what creatures to use for the aliens. I definitely want to use sathar (I'm a Star Frontiers fan from waaay back) and weren sound like they may be good for the Hunters in Halo. Any suggestions?

 

[Dagger75]

Cool.

I would give the plasma rifle a special thing. It Dazes the person hit for 1 round (-1 to Attack DC 12 Fort Save to resist). I mean in the game if you are hit by that bad boy you can't even move.

Also those darn Sniper rifles only have 4 bullet clips, oohh I would kill for a 5 shot clip with the way I miss with that gun.

 

[Chaldfont]

Groundpounders -- PCs for 1st Session

I'm calling this campaign Groundpounders. I'm going for a Band of Brothers/Aliens/Halo feel. There will be three sessions. In the first, the PCs will be 6th level. They'll jump to 9th and then 12th for the second and third sessions.

The PCs are unnamed so that the players can personalize them a bit. Each player will get two PCs: one enlisted marine and one of the specialists. I still need one more specialist, but I haven't thought one up yet. Sniper? Military Intelligence? Heavy Weapons or Mech Jockey?

Equipment may change somewhat. For instance: What's in a Confed marine standard kit? (Besides glowsticks anyway, they have to have lots of glowsticks).

Enlisted Confed Marine (Strong 2/Fast 2/Tough 2): CR 6; Medium-size human; HD 2d8+6 plus 2d8+6 plus 2d10+6; hp 50; Mas 16; Init +2; Spd 25 ft.; Defense 24, touch 20, flat-footed 22 (+2 Dex, +8 class, +4 combat armor); BAB +4; Grap +6; Atk +6 melee (1d4+3, unarmed strike) or +7 melee (1d4+3/19-20, combat knife); Full Atk +6 melee (1d4+3, unarmed strike) or +7 melee (1d4+3/19-20, combat knife) or +7 ranged (2d8, pistol) or +6 ranged (2d8, assault rifle) or +6 ranged (5d6, shrapnel grenade); SV Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +1; AP TBD; Rep +0; Str 14, Dex 15, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 13, Cha 8.
Occupation: Confed Marine (bonus class skills: Demolitions, Survival).
Skills: TBD
Feats: Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Burst Fire, Combat Martial Arts, Endurance, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Quick Reload, Simple Weapons Proficiency, Stealthy.
Talents: Increased speed, melee smash, second wind.
Possessions: Combat knife, Confed marine pistol w/ 3 magazines, Confed marine assault rifle w/ 5 magazines, Confed marine combat armor, 3 shrapnel grenades, Confed marine standard kit, demolitions charge.

[This is the leader of the two squads. He's a grizzled old veteran and a natural born leader. He's loosely based on Dick Winters from Band of Brothers]

Confed Marine Lieutenant (Tough 3/Charismatic 1/Field Officer 1): CR 6: Medium-size human; HD 3d10+9 plus 1d6+3 plus 2d8+6; hp 51; Mas 19; Init +2; Spd 20 ft.; Defense 19, touch 15, flat-footed 17 (+2 Dex, +3 class, +4 combat armor); BAB +4; Grap +4; Atk +5 melee (1d4, combat knife); Full Atk +5 melee (1d4, combat knife) or +7 ranged (2d8, pistol) or +6 ranged (2d8, assault rifle) or +6 ranged (5d6, shrapnel grenade); SV Fort +6, Ref +6, Will +4; AP TBD; Rep +7; Str 10, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 12, Wis 10, Cha 14.
Occupation: Confed Marine (bonus class skills: Demolitions, Survival).
Skills: TBD
Feats: Alertness, Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Endurance, Improved Damage Threshold, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Renown, Simple Weapons Proficiency.
Talents: Remain conscious, damage reduction 1/-, coordinate, leadership, uncanny survival.
Possessions: Combat knife, Confed marine pistol w/ 3 magazines, Confed marine assault rifle w/ 5 magazines, Confed marine combat armor, 3 shrapnel grenades, Confed marine standard kit, demolitions charge, binoculars with electro-optics and range finder.

[I just wanted to give some guy a katana and tempt the player to go crazy with melee combat]

Confed Marine Sergeant (Strong 3/Soldier 3): CR 6; Medium-size human; HD 3d8+9 plus 3d10+9; hp 51; Mas 16; Init +2; Spd 20 ft.; Defense 20, touch 16, flat-footed 18 (+2 Dex, +4 class, +4 combat armor); BAB +5; Grap +8; Atk +9 melee (1d4+5/19-20, combat knife) or +10 melee (2d6+8/19-20, katana); Full Atk +9 melee (1d4+5/19-20, combat knife) or +10 melee (2d6+8/19-20, katana) or +8 ranged (2d8, pistol) or +7 ranged (2d8, assault rifle) or +7 ranged (5d6, shrapnel grenade); SV Fort +7, Ref +5, Will +3; AP TBD; Rep +0; Str 16, Dex 14, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 12, Cha 8.
Occupation: Confed Marine (bonus class skills: Demolitions, Survival).
Skills: TBD
Feats: Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Burst Fire, Cleave, Exotic Weapons Proficiency (katana), Personal Firearms Proficiency, Power Attack, Weapon Focus (katana), Weapon Specialization (katana).
Talents: Improved melee smash.
Possessions: Combat knife, Confed marine pistol w/ 3 magazines, Confed marine assault rifle w/ 5 magazines, Confed marine combat armor, 3 shrapnel grenades, Confed marine standard kit, demolitions charge, mastercraft katana.

Confed Marine Medic (Dedicated 3/Field Medic 3): CR 6; Medium-size human; HD 3d6+6 plus 3d8+6; hp 42; Mas 14; Init +2, Spd 20 ft.; Defense 20, touch 16, flat-footed 18 (+2 Dex, +4 class, +4 combat armor); BAB +3; Grap +3; Atk +4 melee (1d4/19-20, combat knife); Full Atk +4 melee (1d4/19-20, combat knife) or +6 ranged (2d8, pistol) or +5 ranged (2d8, assault rifle) or +5 ranged (5d6, ranged); SV Fort +7, Ref +4, Will +7; AP TBD; Rep +2; Str 11, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 12, Wis 16, Cha 8.
Occupation: Confed Marine (bonus class skills: Demolitions, Survival).
Skills: Treat Injury +15, TBD
Feats: Advanced Firearms Proficiency, Armor Proficiency (light), Armor Proficiency (medium), Dodge, Heroic Surge, Personal Firearms Proficiency, Run, Simple Weapons Proficiency, Surgery.
Talents: Healing knack, healing touch 1, medical specialist +1, expert healer.
Possessions: Combat knife, Confed marine pistol w/ 3 magazines, Confed marine assault rifle w/ 5 magazines, Confed marine combat armor, 3 shrapnel grenades, Confed marine standard kit, demolitions charge, medical stuff.

 

[argo]

Nice work, just a few observations from someone who has played a lot of Halo (1 and 2).

The frag grenade should have a larger blast radius than the plasma grenade in addition to its higher damage dice. I'd suggest a 15' radius for the plasma grenade and a 20' radius for the frag grenade.

One of the basic pardagrims of the game is the relationship between balistic and plasma weapons and sheilds and flesh targets. Plasma weapons chew up force shields like nobody's business but are less effective against armor and flesh than balistics. It's about the only advantage that the humans have when facing the covenant. I'd suggest that instead of having plasma weapons deal fire damage you introduce a new energy type: Plasma. Plasma energy does an additional +1 damage per dice of damage to energy shields but a -1 damage per die to all other targets. This becomes espically important if you want to use the flood in your game. Also, plasma weapons fired on burst should have no penalty to hit as they have no recoil. That is the other big advantage of plasma weapons, easy to use on autofire.

I'd suggest you up the damage on the shotgun to 2d12, the Halo shotgun is a true monster that can blow past shields and make the poor sap underneath paste with one shot. I think -2 damage per range increment is very appropriate.

I think you should lower the damage on the Plasma pistol and rifle to 2d8. The covenant weapons are not that much more powerful than the human weapons, in fact the humans often have the advantage in terms of raw destructive power, its just that the covenant have weapons that are specalized to take out shields. Similairly they have plenty of shields to protect their forces while the humans have some chump body armor and that's it!

Hope that helps.

 

[Dagger75]

All I know is those marines that "para jumped" through the atmosphere from space was pretty cool. Helljumpers I think they called them. Also the weapon droppods from the drop ships was a cool.


And those little uzi's had tons of recoil, I can see that assault rifle not having a penelty.

And the pistols, First Halo had like 50-100 Dmg Well at least my friend was able to shoot me from across the screen and hit me in the toe and kill me with one shot all the time.

Plus I don't think either pistol should match the damage for the rifles on the plasma or the human one.

 

[Chaldfont]

The frag grenade should have a larger blast radius than the plasma grenade in addition to its higher damage dice. I'd suggest a 15' radius for the plasma grenade and a 20' radius for the frag grenade.

This is a good idea. Many of the differences between my stats and a true Halo conversion come from my laziness--I just used the stats from D20 Future with a few minor tweaks

One of the basic pardagrims of the game is the relationship between balistic and plasma weapons and sheilds and flesh targets. Plasma weapons chew up force shields like nobody's business but are less effective against armor and flesh than balistics. It's about the only advantage that the humans have when facing the covenant. I'd suggest that instead of having plasma weapons deal fire damage you introduce a new energy type: Plasma. Plasma energy does an additional +1 damage per dice of damage to energy shields but a -1 damage per die to all other targets. This becomes espically important if you want to use the flood in your game. Also, plasma weapons fired on burst should have no penalty to hit as they have no recoil. That is the other big advantage of plasma weapons, easy to use on autofire.

This is something I've thought long about and not come to a decent conclusion. One thing I'm going to do in this campaign is not give PCs the Master Chief Mjollnir armor. They also won't have energy shields until the final session.

I want the plasma weapons to be scary to the marines until they figure out that the aliens have poor tactics due to their lack of experience in war. So I'm making them more powerful than human weapons, but with the interesting drawbacks from Halo.

But the rules you suggest for plasma weapons are very interesting and some or all of them may find it into my game.

I'd suggest you up the damage on the shotgun to 2d12, the Halo shotgun is a true monster that can blow past shields and make the poor sap underneath paste with one shot. I think -2 damage per range increment is very appropriate.

I heartily agree. I read somewhere that these are 8ga. shotguns! 2d12 would be right in line with D20 Modern's caliber-to-damage figures.

I go back and forth on the huge caliber's of the human Halo firearms. Master Chief is a 7 foot tall cybernetic power armor badass who can easily fire a 12mm pistol, an 8ga. shotgun and a 14mm sniper rife (IIRC). My PCs aren't going to have the benefit of what is essentially a Large mech. Though they might in the last session!

Hope that helps.

It does! Thanks!