d20 Modern for Fantasy

[Malacoda]

How much tweaking would d20 M really require to be a working fantasy game? The exchange of some skills for others certainly, and feats as well.... hmmm.... yeah, I can see what you mean.

I'm no where near familiar enough with the SRD to know what you could and could not put into a published work, but what would it take to make a solid playable game based on the d20M ruleset & basic class system?

The basics would be fairly simple, I think. Characters in Modern tend to be more powerful in their inherent abilities, so you would have to be careful in combining them with the high magic of D&D, if you choose to go that route. Give a d20 Modern character the expected treasure for their level and they are likely to be a bit more powerful than their D&D counterpart, except for magic-using classes, who get spells at first level. Modern makes an excellent choice for lower magic fantasy, especially if you retain the massive damage rules.

You’d have to make up a bunch of advanced and prestige classes, but the base D&D classes, along with the Modern advanced classes, should work as guidelines.

Wealth would likely have to go, as it is based on a fairly constant income, along with concepts such as credit.

As long as we are plugging products, I am working on a supplement for Modern that dispense with classes and instead uses points (though it keeps levels), and will have a supplement for that that includes all of the D&D classes, prestige classes, racial and monster abilities with point costs, allowing people to play fantasy with Modern.

 

[MThibault]

Wealth would likely have to go, as it is based on a fairly constant income, along with concepts such as credit.

The d20 Modern wealth system would actually fit well in feudal fantasy games where the PCs were minor nobles or land-owners. It would account for coins, barter, labor provided by serfs, etc. without having to account for each copper or even necessarily having to translate the feudal economy into a hard-currency economy.

In more "traditional" D&D campaigns, where everything the PCs own can be stuffed into a Bag of Holding, the bookeeping isn't at all complicated so an abstract system isn't worth the trouble.

IMO

Cheers

 

[malladin]

Actually, my initial idea for this game, DarkLore as we are calling it, stems from a proposal I put together for a D20 version of Warhammer FRP. For those of you who are nor aware of that system, there are a small number of very basic classes (warrior, ranger, academic, etc) and then a host of careers, of which you will take multiple for yoru character. DarkLore uses this principal, with the base classes being reasonably task oriented, but with a host of little 3 level career classes that can be used to develop your charcter's training. It's a bit different to straight D20M, but we think that the system captures the dark fantasy genre, where characters are often moving around from job to job, but find it difficult to escape that at their core they are a warrior, or whatever. I think D&D largely works with the class system because this is an essential element of the fantasy genre, the problem is more that they often have a too restrictive view of the class and it becomes difficult to create some of the more outlandish chaarctr concepts. With DarkLore we are attempting to solve this problem by providing very flexible base classes like those found in D20M, but remainingtrue to the fantasy genre, which we believe suits the more task-based classes. That's probably why we wouldn't be able to stretch our system out to renaissance and victoriana, whereas a straight D20M adaptation would (Thats why we're using D20M for our victoriana cyberpunk setting, Etherscope).

Cheerio,

Ben

 

[netnomad]

Actually, my initial idea for this game, DarkLore as we are calling it, stems from a proposal I put together for a D20 version of Warhammer FRP. For those of you who are nor aware of that system, there are a small number of very basic classes (warrior, ranger, academic, etc) and then a host of careers, of which you will take multiple for yoru character. DarkLore uses this principal, with the base classes being reasonably task oriented, but with a host of little 3 level career classes that can be used to develop your charcter's training. It's a bit different to straight D20M, but we think that the system captures the dark fantasy genre, where characters are often moving around from job to job, but find it difficult to escape that at their core they are a warrior, or whatever.

Whoa! You just got my attention. A friend and I were just talking about a system like this. We were trying to figure how to do it in our spare time. We both really like the way WFRP did the career/classes. We were thinking 5 level classes but I think your idea of 3 levels make more sense. For example one path or career track could be fighter-> knight -> Caviler -> Crusader-> Paladin. You get the idea.

I would love to see the preview when you get it out. Consider one copy sold!


-NetNomad

 

[malladin]

I'm hoping to get a quick preview together over the next few days, although I also have a proposal to work on and a financial report to make to my partners, so it may spill over into next week. I'll keep you posted, though.

For the meanwhile, some information on DarkLore can be found on our website:
DarkLore Product Page

Cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate Press

 

[malladin]

the DarkLore preview is now available and can be downloaded from our website on this page.

cheerio,

Ben, Malladins Gate

 

[netnomad]

the DarkLore preview is now available and can be downloaded from our website on this page.

cheerio,

Ben, Malladins Gate

I just downloaded this and read it... I want more!

So when the full blown package due?

-NetNomad

 

[malladin]

The Campaign Primer shouldn't be too far down the line. This will be closely followed by The DarkLore Atlas, which will provide a lot more detail to the entire world and a large number of career classes (the little 3 level types mentioned in the preview), that string together into career paths, as well as a detailed description of the nature of magic in the world and some prestige classes.

After that we will produce supplements for the expanding world, detailing the individual regions and providing a bunch of new classes, feats, etc and a series of adventures that build up into a world changing story to draw your characters into the DarkLore world. Each of these books will be part setting supplement, part class book and part adventure.

cheerio,

Ben, Malladin's Gate