D20 Modern Learning Adventure

[synecdoche]

My D20 Modern book finally arrived, and I am hoping to run a game soon. Before I do though I'd like to have some practice running some adventures. I have one player who is interested in playing some quick throwaways to learn the rules with me. I guess my question is: does anybody have any ideas for (preferably three) adventures designed to familiarize players with mechanics?

See, I haven't ran a game in probably six years, and I want to make sure I know what I am doing before I get some players to the table for some real gaming.

As it is, I might just go through the book, get the player to roll up a character, and then go through the various mechanics that will likely show up in my game (ie combat, some skill checks, vehicle chases, et cetera) but it'd be nice to have a quick adventure ready for this.

 

[C. Baize]

I would suggest getting several of the free adventures available here, and run your friend through a few of them.

 

[The Shaman]

When I taught my gaming group d20 Modern, I gave them pre-gen characters and put them through four scenarios: the first was a simple firefight, the second was a brawl at a soccer match, the third was a skill-intensive obstacle course (Climb, Swim, Jump, Balance, and so on), and the fourth was finding a rare book in a university library (required social and research skills to locate). I had each player use a different character in each scenario so they could get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the different base classes.

They seemed well-prepared when we started our regular campaign.

 

[Wraith Form]

When I taught my gaming group d20 Modern, I gave them pre-gen characters and put them through four scenarios: the first was a simple firefight, the second was a brawl at a soccer match, the third was a skill-intensive obstacle course (Climb, Swim, Jump, Balance, and so on), and the fourth was finding a rare book in a university library (required social and research skills to locate). I had each player use a different character in each scenario so they could get a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the different base classes.

They seemed well-prepared when we started our regular campaign.

Darn tootin' good idea, if a bit elaborate! (*yoink*)

 

[C. Baize]

Obstacle course! Friggin' beautiful!
I don't suppse you have that in electronic format that you'd be willing to share, do you?

 

[The Shaman]

Darn tootin' good idea, if a bit elaborate! (*yoink*)

It really wasn't too difficult - IIRC we did two scenarios a night, so in two evenings of gaming they were exposed to the basics of game play.

The only one that was a little challenging to run was the brawl, mostly because I was trying to introduce them to special attacks like grapple, bull rush, trip, hockeyshirting an opponent, and so on. Everything else was pretty simple both to plan and to run.

I don't suppse you have that in electronic format that you'd be willing to share, do you?

I had everything scratched out on a couple of sheets of graph paper, I'm afraid.

The firefight scenario was in a garage or warehouse - I don't recall which - and I had things like barrels, crates, and curtains to show the difference between cover and concealment. I think everyone had a pistol and a submachine gun, so they could mess around with autofire.

The soccer match was just a a bunch of hooligans on the pitch - strange that that was the toughest one to run!

The obstacle course had a rope ladder and a wall for Climb checks with different modifiers, a couple of obstacles to Jump (including jumping down from one of the walls), a stream to Swim, a log bridge on which the characters had to Balance, a rope swing (uses Climb), and a culvert to crawl through, so they could see how dropping down and standing up affected their moves. There was also a section that was long enough that they could run as insead of hustle, so they could see how much further they could move at a dead sprint as opposed to negotiating obstacles.

The library had librarians and computer terminals with which the players could interact, as well as a study room full of grad students for Gather Information checks.

The pre-gen characters were all third-level: I think I had something like a Str2/Tou1, Fas3, Sma2/Ded1, and Cha3. There were three players, so I ran the fourth character, and they each got to try out different characters in each scenario.

I hope this helps!