D20 Modern is out!

[I'm A Banana]

Welp, Steampunk is definately going to be the first thing I do with this thing, in my own campaign setting. I mean, being inspired by Final Fantasy, how could I not?

 

[Heap Thaumaturgist]

Hrmmmm ... I'm wanting to run a particular type of game, and I"m wondering if the one (or two) of you that have D20 modern will know if it can handle this well or not.

I'm going to basically ambush my friends and say: "Here's some dice, and here is you."

and then run them in a sort of strange, developing alternate reality. Urban Arcana sounds about what I'm going to be working with ... I've got my own major institution already mapped out, and such ... (Weygandt-Ellis University. You too can get a Masters in Paranormal Research or Occult Investigations ... take a class in Noneuclydian Geometry!).

The big thing is ... how low-level are the low-level characters. Can I make your average Dork Off The Street with a lvl 1 Intellectual Hero or are all my dweeby compu-dork room-mates going to come out as blackbelts in Jujitsu and able to hack into the NSA mainframe from a 286 linux laptop?

 

[JPL]

Hrmmmm ... I'm wanting to run a particular type of game, and I"m wondering if the one (or two) of you that have D20 modern will know if it can handle this well or not.

I'm going to basically ambush my friends and say: "Here's some dice, and here is you."

and then run them in a sort of strange, developing alternate reality. Urban Arcana sounds about what I'm going to be working with ... I've got my own major institution already mapped out, and such ... (Weygandt-Ellis University. You too can get a Masters in Paranormal Research or Occult Investigations ... take a class in Noneuclydian Geometry!).

The big thing is ... how low-level are the low-level characters. Can I make your average Dork Off The Street with a lvl 1 Intellectual Hero or are all my dweeby compu-dork room-mates going to come out as blackbelts in Jujitsu and able to hack into the NSA mainframe from a 286 linux laptop?

From the previews I've seen, a 1st level intellectual fights like a girl. Put two of them in a room together and they will slap at each other blindly. Real men (Strong Hero 1/Tough Hero 1) will turn their heads in disgust.

 

[SSquirrel]

d20 not so modern

I keep having huge mish mash ideas for a game to run, mostly because I can't settle on just one idea that I want to do first. I bought Four Color to Fantasy and I think blending that with D&D would be great....but running d20 Mecha Crusade in a fantasy setting would also rock...transfer some stuff from Battletech as far as mechs and gear and yr all set.

Then I realize that I really think Omega World would be fun and maybe that could be cool in a blasted fantasy setting...not as bad as Dark Sun, but you get a little bit of the idea here...or maybe even just radiation is getting worse on the planet as it slowly gets closer to the sun and more people are having radiation induced mutations. This setting would also allow easy blending of Dragonstar since the mechs would probably be able to get into space easily, why not everything else.

So yeah...a fantasy setting with space trravel and big mechs, while heros and villains with mutations and super powers *and maybe their own mechs too!* run rampant. Would be a blast, but then I fall back to that snag where I'm best as an idea man, maybe co-DM than actually being in charge of everything. End up not feeling like I'm holding everything together from one adventure to the next in a very cohesive way and then my great ideas would all get wasted. So instead, I try to come up with bizarre ideas that intrigue friends of mine who DO DM well, then I help them dedsign it and even help run a bit, so long as I get to play something too heh.

On another note, my housemate is buying me SAS d20 as an early Xmas gift so I'll be reading thru that this evening I'm sure

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

I've been trying to come up with a homebrew setting.

I want it to be near future. 2025 maybe?

3/4 world's population is dead.

Most all major cities are destroyed. (New York, LA, London etc.)

Magic is on the rise.

(...)

Any of you guys got any ideas?

If you are a Pyramid Subscriber, I strongly recommend taking a look at Reign of Fire - a near-future Earth where humanity has nearly been wiped out by 18 Great Dragons and their minions. The setting is just plain cool, and would work perfectly well with d20 Modern - or even D&D!

I also suggest taking a look at GURPS Y2K, which is basically a compilation of essays on Ending Civilization As We Know It, and what happens afterwards. Rules stuff is minimal, so you won't have any problems using it for d20...

 

[Morgenstern]

Strange...

Surgery (DC 20 but -4 on your roll unless you have Surgery feat) with a surgery kit heals 1d6/ character level but requires 1d4 + 1/per hp below 0 hours to do.

Weird formatting. Wouldn't you normally expect to see:
Surgery (DC 24) BLAH

...And then in the Surgery feat add the comment "Adds a +4 bonus to surgery checks (See page XX)."

Having a skill check penalized for not having a feat is... peculiar. Does this happen elsewhere in the book?

 

[Bagpuss]

Just a quick question for those that own it already...

Does it still use Alignments?

Only I noticed some example magic items in Polyhedron gave negative levels to non-Evil characters that used them.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Just a quick question for those that own it already...

Does it still use Alignments?

Only I noticed some example magic items in Polyhedron gave negative levels to non-Evil characters that used them.

From what I have read on the WotC site, it seems that characters can hold "allegiances" to, among other things, alignment components such as "law" and "good" - and presumably, "evil" as well.

I don't think you are required to hold an allegiance to an alignment, however...

 

[Rich34]

I've been trying to come up with a homebrew setting.

I want it to be near future. 2025 maybe?

3/4 world's population is dead.

Most all major cities are destroyed. (New York, LA, London etc.)

Magic is on the rise.

Psionics and mutations are beginning to emerge.

I'm thinking that in 2010 or so, we had WWIII. The survivors had to spend the next 10 years in fallout shelters only to emerge into a world very similar to the one they left, yet very different as well.

But where did magic come from? How about monsters?

I was thinking along the line of Rifts. So many people croaking at once released an enormous amount of psychic energy that supercharged the earth's laylines and made magic possible again. Maybe it was the increase in the world's population that made magic fade to begin with.

Maybe there is a limited amount of mystical energy about. Magic was always possible, but it was very weak. All the mystic energy was tied up in all the people walking around. When everyone died, that energy became available for use again. hmmm...

But monsters? Mutations from the bombs sure, but what about the undead and other magical creatures? Magical mutation brought about by the sudden emergence of magic? Awoke from centuries or dormacy?

With this timeline, that means most people have only been out and about for the last 5 years or so. Plenty of time to estabolish makeshift communities and begin understanding how the world has changed.

Any of you guys got any ideas?

You might want to check out Pinnacle's Hell on Earth d20 system for ideas. It's tied to their Deadlands timeline, so it has its quirks, but it's got the Psykers, and the muties, and the scavenger types, and the whole post-apocalyptic thing.

Richard

 

[Felon]

Re: Strange...

Weird formatting. Wouldn't you normally expect to see:
Surgery (DC 24) BLAH...And then in the Surgery feat add the comment "Adds a +4 bonus to surgery checks (See page XX)."

Having a skill check penalized for not having a feat is... peculiar. Does this happen elsewhere in the book?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who finds this peculiar. It's like allowing character to use Wilderness Lore for tracking, and then just having the feat reduce the DC a little. Seems ungainly.