D20 Modern: Highlander help?

[Thain]

Okay, so while working the post-turkey retail rush, my mind began to wander to gaming, as it always does, and I started to think of possible ideas/campaigns/worlds for D20 Modern.

When the store PA started to play Queen's "Keep Yourself Alive," the idea hit me: Highlander - The Gathering. A damn fine bit of television, even if the films were lackluster, with way cool heros, many pre-existing archetypes, immersive character background and a very good excuse to have the heros wack at baddies with katana's in the subways of modern cities.

Now, although any number of things from D20 Modern will work great to represent the world of the show, my real question is, how to represent the Immortals?

I'm thinking a template that adds Fast Healing/Regen, Extended Lifespan, Disease Immunity, an Immortal Sense, and a buckload of specialized Action Dice ("The Quickening"). I'm going to write it up more this weekend, I just want to know if any one has any other ideas, or any clue how to balance an Immortal PC agianst a human PC...

 

[dpmcalister]

...the idea hit me: Highlander - The Gathering. A damn fine bit of television, even if the films were lackluster...

Argh! Unbeliever! The films were excellent (well, the odd numbered ones anyway - I try to forget about II and IV). But you're right, it's an excellent idea for a campaign.

Now, although any number of things from D20 Modern will work great to represent the world of the show, my real question is, how to represent the Immortals?

I think your ideas for a template sound more than reasonable.

...any clue how to balance an Immortal PC agianst a human PC...

I would say you can't. In fact, I'd probably run the campaign whereby the PCs are humans who have "caught wind" of the immortals existence and are trying to prove it.

The only time I'd allow an immortal PC is in a one-to-one session (otherwise, regardless of allegience, they will always be tempted to kill another immortal PC - after all, "there can be only one").

Keep us informed of your progress though. I, for one, am very interested.

 

[Abulia]

Wow. Someone liked "The Final Dimension?" Egads!

I think you're on the right track as far as your ideas. I'd drop any pretense of balancing against mere mortals, however. The real balancer is mortals with automatic weapons shooting at Immortals. As such, I wouldn't mess much with the massive damage DC, just impart a different result for Immortal characters.

Oh, and for further ideas on how to run a "Highlander-esque" game I will refer you to the RPG by Black Gate Publishing called "Legacy: War of Ages." It's essentially "Highlander" with the serial numbers filed off with a modified version of the Storyteller system. They also have two sourcebooks that would provide some useful inspirational material, one of which was penned by me. You can get these products through Gold Rush Games, their authorized distributor. (http://www.goldrushgames.com)

Regards,
Don Mappin
Freelancer for Hire

 

[Crothian]

The first movie was great, and the fourth movie had some good chaeracters, other then that they were not that good. However, the series is excellent. As an owner of all 119 episodes, I know.

I think the Immortal template would be best. Balancing aganst mortals is possible, it's just the Template would have an ecl. The only powers of the template would be fast healing, only die with head seperated fully from the body, stop aging after first death, and ability to detect other Immortals that are near.

The series showed very well how mortals and Immortals are actually balanced really well. One has to realize that characters like Duncan and Conner would be very high level, thus their power.

 

[garyh]

I agree with Crothian's ECL idea. To build that template, I'd

[PIMP MODE]

use Four Colors to Fantasy from Natural 20 Press. However many levels of the hero class it takes to get the requisite abilites, that's your ECL.

[/PIMP MODE]

Just a thought.

 

[Crothian]

use Four Colors to Fantasy from Natural 20 Press. However many levels of the hero class it takes to get the requisite abilites, that's your ECL.

Ok, since you're encouraging us to use this book, I assume you have it. I do not. So what would be the ecl using FCtF with the following abilities:

Fast Healing 5
Only truely die if head is seperated from body (Vorpal weapon, or CDG I guess)
Stop aging after first death
Detect other immortals at 50 feet

Now all these abilites can be changed, these numbers just seem good to me.

 

[garyh]

Ok, since you're encouraging us to use this book, I assume you have it. I do not. So what would be the ecl using FCtF with the following abilities:

Fast Healing 5
Only truely die if head is seperated from body (Vorpal weapon, or CDG I guess)
Stop aging after first death
Detect other immortals at 50 feet

Now all these abilites can be changed, these numbers just seem good to me.

4CtF is currently on sale for just $5 bucks. Okay, I'll stop pimping now.

The tough part is that there's a level-based cap on Hero Points that can be spent on a given power, much like skill points and skills. Fast healing 5 would costs 13 HrP, which would require a 10th level PC (same character level +3 limit as skills).

If that requirement was waived, or the template was applied to a higher level PC (as happens when an immortal dies the first time), it would take about 3 levels of hero to buy those abilites.

Dang. Well, it seemed like a good idea, and for most template ideas it works pretty well, but immortals have such an odd collection of abilites it stumps me, now that I think of it. The book is still worth checking out, though, I assure you.

RangerWickett wrote 4CtF, and often searches the boards to see if people ask him questions. So, RW, any idea how to use 4CtF to make this work?

 

[Ghostwind]

For additional ideas, you can always check out a fan-created Highlander d20 site that was put up right after the d20 rules came out.

http://hometown.aol.com/frodie69/myhomepage/Highlander.html

It has some interesting stuff...

 

[Crothian]

They really need to redo their page and make it readible

 

[Ghostwind]

I don't dispute that observation one bit....