[d20 Modern] Evil Dead: Swallow This!

[talien]

Evil Dead: Swallow This! Update

I just updated the file again. Here's the latest changes:
* Fixed lots of typos (thanks to Alzrius and Bran)..
* Changed "Candarian" to "Kandarian" after reading over the Evil Dead Companion.
* Changed the "Dirty Tricks" feat to "Slapstick" cause I just watched Army of Darkness again and it is SO slapstic.
* Added the Possessed Object monster after watching one of the false Necronomicons bite Ash ("I'll deal with you later!")
* Changed the Wisdom requirement of Housewares to 10, so it's just below average.
* Took out the Wisdom requirement for Groovy and Hail to the King.
* Played with the formatting of the monster chapter so it wasn't broken up by the page flow.
* Updated the OGL to reference Evil Dead (although I'm not sure I can put a copyright on it, I did just to be safe).

Still doing my research on Fistful of Boomstick. Sounds like there will be spells in the game, so I'm looking forward to incorporating that into this d20 version. The new stuff I've been able to find out about so far:

WEAPONS: gatling gun, flamethrower, missile launcher, Sanguinator (sucks blood out of Deadites), sword (possibly katana)
AMMO: regular, explosive
SPELLS (6 or 7 in total): superhuman strength, possess, reign of fire, stun, invisibility

Putting the spells in should be pretty easy. Superhuman strength = bull's strength, invisibility = well, duh, invisibility. Possess is more complicated and I'd want to see more info about the other spells. The weapons are easy enough too. Maybe in the next version.

I'm thinking I need to put a version tag on this game. Hmm.

P.S. Only reason I had time to do the update is I took today off to recover from my 12:01 viewing of Two Towers.

 

[talien]

Feat Question

Hi Alzrius,

I went back to the d20 Modern book to see what it had to say about your question. It's not really an ED:ST! question as it is a rules question. On page 77, this is what the book says:

Some feats have prerequisities. A character must have the indicated ability score, feat, ranks in a skill, and/or base attack bonus in order to select or use that feat...You can't use a feat if you've lost a prerequisite. For example, if your Strength temporarily drops below 13 because you are fatigued, you can't use the Power Attack feat until your Strength score returns to 13 or higher.

Hope that's helpful.

To be clear as to why I put a lower Wisdom requirement on the feat, it's simple: the feat is very powerful. Halving DCs and time for any skill is a huge bonus, something that's not normally done with most feats. It bends logic.

So I see it as idiot's luck. Ash gets by because he's Ash. Just by reading stuff out of a textbook he can: 1) create gunpowder, 2) modify his car into a Deathcoaster, 3) create a cybernetic replacement -- all of this with medieval materials.

It really stretches even a stylized system like d20 Modern. So to accomodate those possibilities, I made it feasible with the Housewares feat, but at a cost. If your character's Wisdom goes up, presumably he doesn't need that feat anymore.

 

[Alzrius]

Talien, thanks for the answer. I just saw it as being rather unfair to players who had taken the Housewares feat. Effectively, if they take that feat, they can never raise their Wisdom above 10, or they forever lose access to that feat, meaning they can never use it again. It just seemed off to me that a player would have to choose between not increasing his character how he wanted, or loosing access to a feat and not even being able to replace the lost feat slot.

I know its more of a rules question than anything else, but nowhere else in all of d20 have I ever seen a feat with a cap on an ability as a prerequisite other than ED:ST!, and there is a reason for that, which I outlined above. ::shrugs:: Just my take on it.

On a slightly related note, on page 7, second column, third full paragraph (under the "Background" section), it mentions that Ash uses the Craft (mechanical) skill to attach the chainsaw to his arm. Shouldn't the Housewares feat get a mention there for making this ridiculousness possible?

Also, in that section, you may want to mention that the original Necronomicon was burned by Ash (though the copy penned by Abdul-Azeez was taken with Ash back to our time, and made into a best-seller, so another original is out there somewhere. Further, the missing pages from the first original, which contain the time/space rift spell, are, last we heard, still in the cabin (hey, it was untouched for eight years, why not?)).

Not having played the video game, I've been looking back through the timeline and trying to work through some of the kinks in it.

I really am a glutton for punishment.

Anyway, here are the corrections/clarifications that need to be made to the timeline:

730 AD: This should probably read "Ash, his "Death Coaster," and Jenny appear in Damascus. Ash meets Abdul-Azeez, who claims that he has just written the Necronomicon. Together, he and Ash defeat a deadite cult who had kidnapped Jenny and stolen the newly-written book. Returning home through another portal, Ash takes the book with him but loses it in the portal. Somehow, another Necronomicon remains, ending up in England in the 14th century."

I'm still not sure if the 1300 AD and 1393 AD dates should be separate. In the beginning of "The Army of Darkness" Ash says that as near as he can figure, its the year 1300 AD. We know it probably was 1300 AD and not 1393 since the date is established in "Evil Dead II". The problem then is that in the original ending, he is only supposed to drink six drops (though he accidently drinks seven), the implication of which is that he's only trying to get to the year 1900 AD. That's probably one of the reasons they discarded that ending.

Also note that in the 1393 AD entry, it says "He quests for the Necronomicon, but in doing so accidently an army of the dead and his evil twin upon reading." The last two words of the sentence, "upon reading" should be eliminated. Ash never read the book, he misspoke the words to nullify that effect.

But about the anachronism, probably the best way to resolve it (besides eliminate the entire bit with the time drops) is to pretty much ignore it. However, it does require some tailoring of the timeline listed. 1300 AD should probably read "According to a mistaken notation later written into the Necronomicon, this is the year the book is lost to history after being recovered by the legendary hero." And at the end of the 1393 AD entry, adding in "The Necronomicon is lost to history after this point."

The entry for 1985 AD refers to the Book of the Dead. For clarity's sake (lord knows this needs more clarity), it should be called the Necronomicon.

The entry that begins 1985 AD, 1 day later: should have the third sentence altered, so it reads "He is joined by Anne Knowby, who has pages that were missing from the Necronomicon, Ed Getly, Bobby Joe, and Jake."

The "Background" section reads that Ash awakens from his slumber, meets Jenny after killing deadites at S-Mart, and then 8 years pass before he goes back to the cabin. According to the timeline you wrote, Ash awakens from his slumber, meets Jenny after killing deadites as S-Mart, and then goes back to the cabin next year (1994). Which is it? Not having played the game, I don't know if it actually says 8 years have passed or not, but I'm going to assume he awoke in 1993 and went back to the cabin in 1994, as it says in the timeline.

The "Background" section, after returning from 730 AD Damascus to his own time (presumably 1994), it says the book arrives "eight years earlier" which would be 1986, and found by "an unknown publisher" who publishes the thing and turns it into a best-seller. However, this is summarized in the timeline as having happened in 1993 (second entry that reads 1993 AD). Which is it? Presuming its 1994, the entry that says 1993 for that should be changed to 1994, and should probably be listed after the 1994 entry where Ash goes back to the cabin (again, just for clarity's sake). The text for the entry should not have "A possible future" since the movies seem to use the Unified Timestream theory. The rest of the text should read "Ash and Jenny return from 730 AD Damascus. The Necronomicon lands elsewhere, and is found by an unknown publisher, becoming a best-seller.

The 1995 AD entry should be eliminated altogether. The Necronomicon was published by an unknown publisher, not Prof. Knowby. While this entry might be to show off the Parallel Universe theory, that just makes it more confusing. Is the events of this entry suggested anywhere? If not, then just delete it.

The entry for 2103 AD should be changed to read 2093. If Ash slept for 7 centuries instead of 6 from 1393, he'd awaken in 2093, not 2103. The sentence "A possible future." should be eliminated for reasons already stated. The second sentence should have the last three words, "precipitated by deadites." removed, since we don't know from the original ending that deadites did that, and it doesn't seem to fit their MO.

Note that both the 1393 entry and the first 1985 entry mention the English castle as being Castle Kandar. Not having read any books or anything, this seems like an error. Several of the ancient rites in the book use the word "Kandar" as part of their ritual. It seems odd to presume that a book written three thousand years ago in Sumeria (or thirteen-and-a-half centuries ago in Damascus) were referencing a 14th century English castle! We also know they didn't name the castle as Kandar since it existed before the Necronomicon was discovered (and its doubtful they'd name their place after something found in the Necronomicon). The references to the name of the castle in those two entries should thusly be eliminated, instead just calling it "the castle" or "and old castle" etc.

These are all the changes I can think of at the moment. There are probably more that need to be made, but these should make the timeline a lot more solid. Remember to tailor the "Background" section so it fits also.

 

[Magius del Cotto]

Monster section:
All deadite entries seem to say "Daylight Powerlessness: Deadite twins are utterly powerless in natural sunlight (not merely a Daylight spell) and flee from it." Shouldn't this be tailored for each individual entry?
Also, some of the "Average HP" entries seem a tad bit odd. For example, the Skullbat has 1d12 HP, with an average HP of 20? Or the Deadite harpy having an average of 35 HP with 7d12 rolled (actual average is 45, so...)
That about covers what I saw with this draft of the setting. Looking good, overall, though I'd make the madness effects a bit wackier and more Ash-esque (he has to have gained a lot of MR because of everything he's been through, and he only has one chance to get it back, at the end of Army of Darkness). Of course, that's more of a feel thing than an actual rules note, so...

 

[talien]

Okay, another round of updates. I'm about to disappear for a bit for the holidays so don't expect me to keep the pace of these updates up for the next week.

* Added gatling gun, flamethrower, missile launcher to the weapons list (weapons and spells are from the upcoming Fistful of Boomstick (FOB) game).
* Added superhuman strength, possess, reign of fire, stun, and invisibility to the spell list.
* Added a reference to the Housewares feat in the Background section.
* Updated the S-Mart Employee profession.
* Lots of updates to the timeline based on Alzrius' comments.
* Alzrius now gets credit in the front, he's helped out a lot.
* Castle Kandar stays in. The movie flips back and forth between calling it Castle Kandar and the Kandarian ruins. But it really is Castle Kandar. Probably based on a civilization created before it was built on that same location.
* The timeline now correctly references the 8 year span between the events of Army of Darkness and Hail to the King, which makes a few other dates fall neatly into place.
* Updated the monsters to remove the deadite twins reference (thank you Magius del Cotto!).
* Cleaned up the average hit points.
* Added two more insanity conditions that are straight from the movie (hysteria and hemophobia) to give more of an Evil Dead theme to Madness.

The latest version is available at http://www.retromud.org/talien under Freebies.

Thanks for the help guys, I can't wait until the new game comes out! I was looking at the screenshots and there's plenty of new deadites to have fun with.

Other thing that will need to be considered is how to handle spellcasting. There probably needs to be two new classes, a Deadite hunter (which is what Ash does) and the Arcanist, who specializes in researching old and ancient stuff.

To be honest, I'm REALLY not keen on the fact that Ash gets access to spells for FOB. Ash just doesn't seem the type. We'll see how the game does it.

 

[NarlethDrider]

Got your Evil Dead & your Terminator----now waiting for the aliens & predator D20

 

[Alzrius]

Got your Evil Dead & your Terminator----now waiting for the aliens & predator D20

I hear that! Since all four can be added to any campaign, I've been thinking of what it would be like to mix them all together. I imagine it would be something like this:

"In the early twenty-first century, Judgement Day has come and gone, and humanity was not judged favorably.

When Skynet unleashed the nuclear holocaust, followed by the plague of Terminators and Hunter-Killers, humanity found itself in a desperate battle for survival. The machines hunt humans mercilessly, never slowing, never tiring, never giving up. The surviving humans are forced to live worse than animals, and as time goes on Skynet invents new and deadlier machines to wipe out the pockets of resistance, such as the T-1000. John Connor and his Tech-Com forces lead the resistance, and though they put up a good fight, humanity is slowly edging towards extinction.

Then a new hero emerged. Calling himself only Ash, he strode seemingly out of nowhere. Curiously knowing nothing about Skynet or the Terminators, he took to the combat like a natural. Together with John Connor, the resistance begins to push back the machine forces. The victory is short-lived however. Ash had not come alone. Demonic forces from a realm beyond mortal knowledge had been awakened, and the "deadites" begin to attack the living. Humans spontaneously become zombies. Trees animate and begin attacking people. Hell has literally come to earth. Skynet, lacking understanding of why some humans suddenly become much harder to kill, or how their body parts remain active after being severed, desperately tries to reevaluate, capturing some of the "zombies" to experiment on, leading to the creation of the Kandarian I-950, the deadliest Terminator yet. The small ground that humanity had gained with Ash's arrival is quickly lost...

Then, it gets worse, as threats from beyond the stars manifest.

The race of extraterrestrials known only as the Predators have been periodically visiting Earth for centuries. Now, they've returned, and find that the planet that once offered only mild challenges has become, to them, a paradise. The humans are less numerous, but are much tougher now, a true joy to hunt. More numerous are the strange machines that seem designed to slaughter, their mechanical abilities countering enough of the Predators' technology that they quickly become prime hunting material. Just to add their own twist to things though, the Predators release captured specimens of their perrenial prey, the black-shelled creatures called only Aliens, onto the Earth. Soon though, the Predators realize that even they may have bitten off more than they can chew. Neither the humans nor the Terminators show any fear in being hunted, and strangely, things that should not move do...sometimes even captured trophies have come back to life to attack the hunters who took them. The Predators are proud though, and refuse to admit that they've taken on something they can't handle. They'll out-hunt the other creatures on this planet, or die trying.

The Aliens soon spread out across the blasted earth, finding the underground-dwelling humans perfect for carrying their brood. Soon massive underground nests are formed, sending out fearless drones to scour the surrounding area. Doing so proves more difficult than the hive queens expect though. Their ancient foes, the Predators, are out in force. Strange, metal creatures walk, ones that are heard to tear or bite through, and cannot have an egg implanted in them. Other beings simply keep going when the new Alien bursts forth, and sometimes the dead carcasses of captured carriers rise up to attack their hosts, curiously unaffected by being ripped apart.

As for the humans, they are more beleagured than ever. Battered on all sides from relentless Terminators, invisible Predators, fearless Aliens, and the taunting Evil Dead, extinction seems certain now. But some hold out hope. Neither Ash nor John Connor are willing to give up the fight, and look for men to stand with them in what will be the last and greatest battle for the planet. Do you have what it takes to join them? Will you risk life, limb, and even your immortal soul to take back the world that should belong to you? Are you worthy of being called...a hero?"

Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator vs. the Evil Dead (vs. humans) - coming soon to a campaign setting near you.

 

[LoneWolf23]

Evil Dead with D20 Modern? Nah, Call of Cthulhu D20 was practically MADE for Evil Dead. Heck, it's even got Insanity rules.

 

[talien]

Call of Cthulhu for Evil Dead

For a purely selfish perspective, I like to keep WOTC happy since they sometimes give me paychecks. Thus, I'm not about to go ripping off anything from Call of Cthulhu since it's not OGL.

d20 Modern is quite similar. Some people call it the next version of the d20 system (D&D > Call of Cthulhu > d20 Modern). But I agree, a lot of the rules are there, but from a publishing standpoint (even a free publishing standpoint), I felt it was best to respect that boundary.

Incidentally, since Call of Cthulhu and d20 Modern are so similar, the rules carry over quite easily with very little conversion.

P.S. Necronomicon is NOT the same as the Necronomicon ex Mortis.

 

[Alzrius]

Re: Call of Cthulhu for Evil Dead

P.S. Necronomicon is NOT the same as the Necronomicon ex Mortis.

I don't know about that...according to the Cthulhu mythos, Abdul-Azeez from 730 AD Damascus was the first one to write the Necronomicon (the name may have been slightly different, and it wasn't called the Necronomicon then, but still, close enough). Furthermore, Evil Dead II's reference to the Necronomicon existing in Sumeria in 1000 BC is listed in the revised edition of Encyclopedia Cthuliana.