d20 Modern experiences

[Quasqueton]

Can I request some d20 Modern anecdotes? Been in any good firefights? Do characters stand across the room from each other and trade shots, or does the game reward (encourage) moving, taking cover, getting the drop, etc.?

What interesting non-combat situations have you experienced in Modern?

Quasqueton

 

[Henry]

My first d20 Modern game I ran with my group was a marvelous hit, because it showcased all those things you can do with a modern-day game that you can't with a fantasy or sci-fi game. In fantasy or Sci-Fi, you really don't know what "present-day conveniences" you have, and even then what form they'll take. In Modern games, you don't have to tell your players that they can buy a cell-phone, or they can access the internet, or what kinds of computers there are, or what models of car there are - background is easiest to create.

In our first game, We played the Arkham Squad setting I dreamed up (in short, it's a combo of Modern and Cthulhu - there are nasty things in the night - go shoot them.) It's led to some engaging firefights (in churches, apartment complexes) as well as car chases. One thing about both combats were that they were very fluid - more so than D&D. In a fight in an abandoned church (involving summoned Byakhee) there was much dodging grenades, ducking between pews for cover, bombing summoning circles, shooting from cover of confessionals, and a one-in-a-million crit shot that ended the encounter.

In our "Zombies in the apartment complex" scenario (which I re-used in the very first gameday) there were people running in and out of apartments, life-and death struggles all the way up a balcony, and a running gun-battle involving two agents, a villain, and two sedans slamming into one another in 30 mph reverse for a quarter-mile, before it was ended by the villain fleeing on-foot, right into the path of another hero arriving on-scene by car - and running right over him at high speed. YEEE-OWCH!

We also had a rather involved investigative portion of the adventure, which D&D does not encourage by the rules as written. The players did enjoy piecing together the answers for their agents, and when the time came to act, they did so with the same uncertainty that a TV character would feel when he's right -- but not 100% certain of it.

Admittedly, a DM can encourage all these kinds of things in a D&D game - but for some reason my players just GOT it more in modern than in D&D, where they are tempted to slug it out more than anything.

 

[Kanegrundar]

My firefights usually go the same way as Henry's. There is a lot of ducking for cover and jockeying for position. Modern is a great game that really has a great "cinematic" feel.

Kane

 

[Rel]

I've used the d20 Modern system as the basis for my Space: 1889/Sky Galleons of Mars games that I've run at the NC Game Days. It has served well in that capacity but I've found the combats to not be much more "dynamic" than is typical for D&D.

I attribute this largely to the fact that, given the setting and era, there are virtually no fully automatic weapons and very little in the way of hand delivered explosives. Most guns are either revolver pistols or bolt-action rifles. There's not a lot of "spray n' pray" or "I'll flush him from behind those crates with this grenade!" The characters involved in gun battles tend to get the best cover they can and fire at one another until they weaken some portion of the opposition to the point where maneuver to a better position is possible. It also means that hand to hand melee is a very viable option. The Gurkha bodyguard with cutlass and kukri tends to do at least as much damage as the characters firing their Martini-Henry rifles.

One thing that adds a dynamic element to the mix is when vehicles are involved. If you add in aerial gunships firing 6-inch, explosive rounds or grapeshot at each other or put the PC's in howdah's on the backs of dinosaurs then you get some interesting and fun results.

 

[deltadave]

I think that my favorite firefight in a modern game happened in the back of a 2 1/2 ton truck. 5 people were flailing away with AK 47s, but due to the wild swerving of the truck, everyone ran out of ammo and was reduced to clubbing each other with the empty weapons. Was a wild flight with people flinching every time I rolled a die, they knew that if I hit at that range it was going to be messy. The players were definitely panicking, as they were trying to escape and couldn't manage to kill the NPC's. To the character in a chase vehicle it looked as if a hundred photo flashes were going off in the back of the truck, I sent him into the other room when it wasn't his turn so that he wouldn't know what was going on. He kept coming back in expecting to see players sitting dejected, but everyone was really stoked. The canvas cover caught fire and eventually the driver was killed and the truck crashed. Almost everyone walked away, but a couple of them had to be carried, most of them somewhat worse for wear.

The best part of the whole thing was the look on everyone's faces as I rolled attack rolls, they kind of squinched up their eyes and turned their heads away waiting for the hammer to fall.... he he he

 

[ragboy]

The best part of the whole thing was the look on everyone's faces as I rolled attack rolls, they kind of squinched up their eyes and turned their heads away waiting for the hammer to fall.... he he he

This sums up my experiences with Modern, as well: Realistic reactions to combat by the players (and by extension, the characters). Our D&D games tended to dissolve into 'you hit, 6 damage,' rather than the flashy descriptions and subsequent player reactions. Describing downed characters with sucking chest wounds (and hearing groans) or describing how a PC pops a guy in the face with the butt of his rifle (and hearing the 'woo hoo's) was much valued in my GM'ing experience.

I also second the ease of getting characters 'into' the setting. You can leave most things unspoken. When a character jumps on a crotch-rocket motorcycle, they understand its basic capabilities without seeing the stats.

Overall, I've had better experiences with Modern (and Star Wars) than with D&D of late. Maybe there's just too much 'history' brought to the table with D&D...

 

[DragonSword]

I just ran an all-nighter last Friday that turned out quite good. We started a Genetech campaign, using some of the stuff from an old Dungeon magazine (don't remember which issue off the top of my head), and the campaign started with the PCs having to break out of a government installation where they were being held.

The PCs were being kept in individual cells, guarded heavily, and in an enclosed compound about five sq. miles. A few cool moments came up, including a Matrix-style lobby scene and a car chase in Hummers.

One of the PCs tried to get out of their cell by feigning illness, but failed to convince the on-cal doctor that was called to look at him, so the players had iterally seconds to devise a different plan. They al deciding to simultaneously start screaming their heads off, and - after I'd emphasised hoe little time they had - three grown men acrss the table from me starting shouting out obscenities and curses. It was a hilarious moment.

Following a lot of lock picking and unarmed fighting with nearby guards, the PCs got clear of their cells (leaving a single conscious guard behind locked in one of their cells). They found a security room and managed to find some weapons and a belt of flash-bang grenades, just in time to see a group of guards, armed with P90s, emerging from the lift across the hall from them. Getting mowed down by autofire, one PC (reduced to 1 HP) managed to throw a flash-bang, and stun some of the guards, right before passing out, iving the other PCs just enough time to take the guards out.

Following this, they decided to take the stairs up out of the basement area they were in, deciding that the body-strewn lift might not be such a good idea. They got to the top of the stairs, and peering around a corner into the main lobby area of the building, saw another patrol of guards heading for the lift, in order to help out the first patrol (now dead). The lift doors opened, betraying the PCs actions, and sending the patrol running towards the stairs. Large amounts of autofire, and subsequent reloading, and of course some martial arts later, and the most awesome lobby scene since the Matrix reloaded was over.

Finally the PCs made in out of the building and over the first perimeter fence in the compound, and out into the wood that covered an entire half of the compound. After some scuffles with patrols of guards, the PCs, who'd decided to follow the main road out of the compound, reached a car pool area / garage. One eager PC decides to make a rushed listen check at the garage door, before opening it, revealing several guards waiting to ambush the party. After dispatching the guards, the PCs discovered a military Hummer, complete with roof-mounted machine gun, and got it started just in time to see another Hummer (identical to theirs), come into view and block the road. The driver made an awesome drive check, and their vehicle managed to make it up onto the verge on the side of the road, narrowly missing a tree on one side, and the other Hummer on the other.

Breaking through a final security barrier at high speed, the two vehicles engaged in a high speed chase along a main road, dodging other vehicles, and both with gunners trying to take out each other's vehicles. After a lucky machine gun shot took out the opposing driver, his vehicle span off the road, and was left upturned in a ditch, leaving our heroes to get away towards the nearest city.

Possibly the best opening scene I've ever run. Awesome to run, and I guess the players enjoyed it, by the whoops of joy when they finally got away.

 

[takyris]

I was trying to create a more realistic campaign, and succeeded brilliantly with the campaign's first fight -- two of the PCs (a pair of federal agents) and a trio of belligerant and stupid college kids who, incensed at the PCs behavior started throwing punches.

They were fighting in a 5x5 hallway, two abreast, so they were using the "cramped conditions" rules. One PC had Combat Martial Arts -- nobody else did. It ended up turning into an awkward mess of grappling, tripping, and nonlethal damage, with exactly one punch for lethal damage -- the PC, after getting tripped cracked one of the guys across the jaw. Eventually the college kids ran off. The PCs had that awkward, ticked off feeling that an inconclusive real-world fight brings out.

Later, the party got run down by an Acura, which then plowed into another vehicle head-on. The PCs spent several frantic rounds rescuing their own and dragging folks from the burning cars before they exploded. It was a fantastic bit of non-combat excitement that had people on the edge of their seats -- when you can see flames licking around the car's engine, a jammed seat belt and an unconscious car passenger can be pretty terrifying.

At the end, the party got some more satisfying combat. The gun-specialist got to plug some hired killers full of holes, and he did so with no trouble whatsoever -- one attack on one guy (a Double-Tap with a Desert Eagle, and a failed Massive Damage save), and some hand-to-hand against the other hit-man. The party ended that one feeling pretty good.

In another adventure with these guys, things didn't go so smoothly. I had a town terrorized by bikers who were in turn being led by evil skeletal bikers who were the undead ghosts of war criminals killed in Vietnam. The skeletal bikers had Regeneration, and only holy or blessed weapons would hurt them.

I was expecting the party to go all Seven Samurai on me, whittling down the bikers bit by bit, but they got greedy instead, and tried to trap all the bikers at once. A lot of townsfolk got killed in the mayhem, mostly by the skeletal bikers -- the ordinary bikers were taken out without a whole lot of trouble, but the skeletal bikers turned out to be too combat-specialized as I'd made them, and the party was seriously overmatched. This was my fault -- I'd planned the first encounter to be a "look how scary they are" encounter, with the thought that the big end fight wouldn't happen until the PCs knew how to hurt these guys. When the PCs skipped right to the big end fight, they were in over their heads, and stuff got ugly real fast. One PC died, but that wasn't my fault -- when a Tough/Bodyguard at -9 hit points elects to use his Harm's Way ability to put himself in the line of fire against a skeletal biker that has demonstrated himself to be a cold killer with the sawed-off shotgun, that's not murder, that's suicide. I believe it was 32 points of damage (Double-Tap and a crit, on top of Soldier specialization).

 

[takyris]

Oh, and to answer your questions:

1) The new players usually stand and trade shots, but it only takes a few lost characters before they realize how relatively fragile they are -- a regular guy (non-combat-specialist) can trade shots with a regular guy for awhile, but if you're up against someone with a big gun or a lot of feats, you're toast real fast.

After that, people usually go for cover, firing around corners or from behind car doors -- and the more real-world stuff you can put into the game, the more than encourages them. Being in a parking lot is good, but being in a parking lot next to a big green minivan and a blue SUV with oversized tires, with everything looking weirdly orange because of the buzzing parking lot light is even better. It gives people a real picture of the world that they can use, and they tend to come up with more of their own ideas. My players started saying things like, "Oh, yeah, parking lot -- is there an abandoned shopping cart nearby?" and then using the cart (which I made up on the spot, since they were being creative) to ram the bad guys or create a distraction. Or they'd come up with good ideas for cover -- most hotel hallways have indentations and extruded columns to break up the monotony, so they ducked behind those after asking me if they existed.

2) Non-combat stuff has been nice. I've come up with some good mysteries, and the PCs have put things together rather handily. To make something interesting, I try to come up with a crime scene that has some easy-to-find stuff, some hard-to-find stuff, and some stuff that only becomes findable if you have the right ranks in some other skill. Then I allow Investigate checks with increasing bonuses for finding more evidence, and better results give more information.

The only tough thing has been computers. I've got geeks for players, and so they were initially trying to do things that didn't seem entirely covered by the rules with their Computer Use checks. Since one guy has max'd his ranks, though, I'm inclined not to be a jerk about it. I pretty much ask "How do you think that should be covered under the rules?", and trust his judgment, and then we roll. The nice thing is that this scales with player ability. Someone who doesn't know computers can just "hack in and get the password", while someone like my player says "I'm going to see if he's got Spyware that's been recording keystrokes and tie that in timewise with the cached images of the local bank website to see if I can determine what his password is. (rolls absurdly well) Orrrr I'll just go to the bank website right now and see if he was one of those dummies who had "always remember my password for this website" selected on his computer. Yep. We're in."

 

[Prest0]

This past weekend I was in a game in which one of the other heroes got separated from the rest of the group. The hero, alone in the woods more than a mile from his party, was attacked by the villian and his dog. The hero scrambled onto the hood of the pickup truck to escape the dog and a very lucky Tumble check allowed him to flip through the open driver's window into the truck cab. As he started the truck engine, the villain climbed into the bed of the pickup. The hero stomped on the gas and the truck lurched forward. Somehow the villain managed to retain his footing. The hero then stomped on the brake, and the villain went flying throw the rear window and right into the cab! A few confused rounds of combat later, and the hero emerged bloodly but victorious. By the time the rest of us got on the scene, there was nothing left to do but explain the body to the police.

[Needless to say the villain turned out to be way underpowered, but it was still quite a fun, cinematic ending to the adventure.]