d20 Modern 2nd Edition Campaign Wants

[dm4hire]

While thinking of what campaigns should be updated to 4e I thought about what campaigns should be introduced or updated for d20 Modern. One setting came to mind that I would love to see converted over to the d20 Modern setting would be Dune. I've recently been on a Dune kick, having watched the movie and both Mini Series from SciFi and starting reading the series. I remembered that there was a Dune RPG back a few years and did some searching. I forgot that Last Unicorn who made it had been bought out by WotC and only put the game out in limited form to satisfy their desire to at least finish the product. WotC unfortunately didn't continue the game for one reason or another. If they still have the rights for making an RPG I think Dune would be a great start for a setting for d20 Modern, if not a stand alone d20 Modern product. What settings or IP would you like to see turned into a d20 Modern setting for the pending 2nd edition?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I am not sure I'd necessarily want an "established" setting for D&D. It worked for Star Wars, but that is a very strong brand, and probably only matched by Star Trek. But Star Trek doesn't seem to fit all too well to d20 Modern (wether a 4E based 2E or the "real" deal). Personally, I also find it hard to come up with adventure ideas that fit my group - Moral Dilemnas or Technobabble problems are not really our forte.

I think Dark*Matter is a very good setting for a modern campaign. Iit seems to take the features of the D&D kitchen sink approach to medieval fantasy and applies it to modern mythology and urban myths - but it seems to give them a strong enough theme to make the setting still unique and "make sense" (as far as campaign settings make sense).

But then, it has been done very recently for d20 Modern, and I am not sure I really want to buy a new edition of it. But that might strongly depend on the quality of a new Modern game from WotC.

From the point of view of my group, I think Dark*Matter would work reasonably well, but a mere setting book probably doesn't suffice. We need adventures, modules, adventure paths that go with them. Unless there are some reasonably generic modern adventures of this scope that we could adapt to most settings, this is hard to do.

A Dark Angel setting might be neat for a near future setting.

But I find it hard to find any IPs that appeal to me as a setting as a whole. Not that many haven't been used for that, but that doesn't mean the settings seem to work for me.


Whatever the setting is, it shouldn't hesitate to introduce a certain theme or feeling that makes it stand out. While you lose gamers that don't like the theme or feel of the setting, you can't really provide a broad setting with good supplemental material, because you have no idea what the buyers actually like, and you just risk alienating them by mixing themes that don't fit.

 

[El Mahdi]

An idea I have bounced around before, but would be cool to see a "professional" touch to it, would be a campaign setting based on Independance Day (ID4). The premise would be, everything in the movie happened and is cannon. The game opens on July 5th. The world is in disarray but not completely post-apocalyptic (most governments are functioning to one extant or another). Now the world needs to get ready for whats next. Even though the ships have been brought down, there may be alien soldiers still alive in them (perhaps a lot of alien soldiers). Teams need to be sent it to finish them off, and salvage as much technology as they can. Wherever these aliens came from, I'm sure they have friends back home they will eventually come looking for them (probably with the intention and resources to finish the job). Finding alien technology and researching it for backwards compatibility would be very important. The setting could almost be D20 Modern transitioning into a d20 Future type setting. (Some less scrupulous governments could even ally with any surviving aliens and attempt to facilitate their future return - creating intriguing scenarios that don't require alien confrontations.)

 

[dm4hire]

I mentioned in the other thread a setting along the lines of Thundarr the Barbarian. Future post apocalyptic world where fantasy meets technology but more fantasy than scifi. Gamma World meets Ebberon light on the Gamma basically.

 

[Angellis_ater]

An ID4 campaign setting would be really interesting - in the movies the drone ships had destroyed almost all American metropolises which would mean a heavy reduction in manpower, technology, industry and the ability to defend oneself. If one mixes in a little Jericho in that, you can have an American-focused campaign setting that is about modern survival, democracy and a touch of horror. Even though a majority (or all?) of the megaships have been taken down, the aliens have proven to be resilient in their biosuits. The United States of America might have prevailed, but a new State arises in the West to challenge that of the Eastern "normal" presidency, rooted in a strong ability to bring back order to the ravaged US.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Hehe, people like to put a dark spin on ID4's end...
The movie basically ended with all humanity happily united and glad about US Americas victory over the aliens. Maybe we should start from there? (Of course, I think the "realistic" approach is to assume that all that happiness and coming-together will be over once the external threat is gone.)

My favorite idea in that regard goes in a different reaction. Yes, finally, humanity is united, because they know there is someone out there, and it's a danger to them. So they take these alien ships, dismantle them, figure out the tech, and create a space fleet and go out, hunting down the remains of the ID 4 aliens. Centuries later, it's humanity that is conquering every planet they find, destroying or subjugating every alien species they can find, so that Earth (and Earth colonies) are never threatened by aliens...

 

[Klaus]

Dark*Matter + Shadow Chasers + Agents of PSI + Dark Heart of Space

Dark Sun + a little sci-fi tech (aka Masters of the Universe)

(Hmm... a lot of "dark" in there...)

ID4 + Bughunters

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Dark*Matter + Shadow Chasers + Agents of PSI + Dark Heart of Space

Dark Sun + a little sci-fi tech (aka Masters of the Universe)

(Hmm... a lot of "dark" in there...)

ID4 + Bughunters

No love for Genetech? (IIRC, it was originally to be part of the campaign models for d20 Modern, but wasn't realized in the end.)
That, at least, could also be a very interesting setting.