d20 Indiana Jones and Other Thrilling Tales!

[JPL]

1. d20 Modern is out soon.
2. New campaign books make big money.
3. Therefore, WotC will produce d20 Modern campaign books.

1. Short list of popular genres suitable for d20 Modern: pulp, hard sci-fi, espionage
2. WotC wants to sell many books
3. Therefore, WotC will eventually produce a product for each of these.

1. Star Wars RPG apparently sells pretty well.
2. Lucasfilm is happy.
3. Therefore, continued relationship between WotC and Lucas.

1. Lucasfilm and WotC are buddies.
2. Indiana Jones is the most popular pulp/cliffhanger character of modern times.
3. Therefore...why not produce a d20 Modern sourcebook for Indiana Jones (but encompasing the entire genre from whence he sprung)?

 

[Ranger REG]

Wizards have already decided on three campaign settings to be included with d20 Modern:

1. Agents of PSI (a psychic James Bond adventure)
2. Urban Arcana (modern + magic = Greyhawk 2000?)
3. Shadow Chasers (the full version of the mini-game appeared in Poly)

There will be a few material for a fourth setting, which I hope will be featured in a separate sourcebook: Genetech (think Dark Angel).

Also, there are at least 30 third-party publishers that will be pushing out their products for use with the d20 Modern rulebook. Wizards is making an effort to get d20 Modern rules added to the System Reference Document as OGC.

As for Indiana Jones, only time will tell, or is it "timing"? We have yet to see if the next Indiana Jones movie will start production. Why? What better time to sell a movie-related merchandise than when a such a new movie is opening in theaters?

In the meantime, you can use the Forbidden Kingdom or PULP HEROES (a d20 mini-game from Dungeon/Polyhedron magazine) to emulate such a game.

 

[JPL]

I have Pulp Heroes and Adventure! and GURPS Cliffhangers...and the Top Secret S.I. Agent 13 Sourcebook (man, I'm old). I was looking forward to Forbidden Kingdoms...but there is no way that little poorly-edited black-and-white book is worth $40.

I'd like to see WotC take a serious stab at making The Definitive Pulp RPG (or at least The Definitive Pulp d20 RPG). I figure anything with Indy on it would sell better than the typical pulp product (which usually has a pseudo-Indy on the cover, anyway).

It's apples and oranges, but imagine a d20 pulp book with the same level of quality and production as the Revised Star Wars book. That's what I'd like to see. And it might even work as a sort of "Powered by d20 Modern" book --- a stand-alone product fully compatable with all of the other d20 Modern stuff.

In a perfect world, someone would consolidate the licenses for Doc Savage, the Shadow, the Spider, and the rest, and put out a game...but I still figure Indy would be more popular that all the rest put together.

 

[Ranger REG]

Is Forbidden Kingdom by OWC that bad?

 

[Horacio]

Not, indeed it's a very very good game with some editing problems.

 

[JPL]

I thought the art was pretty weak, too.

On the other hand, I like the way that the game traces all the way back to Victorian-era "steampulp." And I like the alt-history angle with Tesla.

I guess I've been spoiled by the big glossy WotC products...

 

[Horacio]

Yes, you've been spoiled. I found the art rather pretty, not WotC levell but good enough.

 

[JPL]

Well, then here's to being spoiled.

Actually, I'd be even more happy with a steady stream of WotC d20 Modern supplements ---- rules expansions/campaign settings (50/50 crunch/fluff ratio) covering some of the major genres. Steampunk, pulp, military, maybe Hong Kong action. Soft-cover. Plenty of advice on gaming within the conventions of that particular genre.

Sort of like GURPs, I suppose...but d20. Expanded versions of some of the Polyhedron mini-games, perhaps. Hell, Gamma World will inevitably rise again in d20 form...

 

[Ranger REG]

Hell, Gamma World will inevitably rise again in d20 form...

You mean apart from its most current incarnation, Omega World: Gamma World Redux written by Jonathan Tweet?

You can find the d20 mini-game in Dungeon/Polyhedron nos. 92/153.

 

[JPL]

Yeah...at some point, WotC or some other publisher will take Gamma World and run with it.

And then it will get cancelled again. But this game comes back more than Michael Myers...