[d20 Modern] Let the gnashing of teeth begin!

[Psion]

In today's d20 weekly there was an interview with one of the d20 modern designers, Charles Ryan. I'd post the link, but you have to login to get there, so just go the www.d20weekly.com and log in... sign up for the free trial if you don't have a username yet.

Anyway, it the interview it is confirmed... d20 modern will be using a variant of the CoC HP system, using the character's constitution as the point at which you have to make a fortitude save. I consider that EXTREMELY ill considered.

I could go into details about why I think that really will not work well, but I'll let you all gnash your teeth without me for a while.

 

[Aaron2]

I won't be gnashing my teeth. I have Spycraft, why do I need d20 Modern?


Aaron

 

[Psion]

Good point!

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

I'll just use the WP/VP for D20 Modern. No Big deal.

 

[Lizard]

In today's d20 weekly there was an interview with one of the d20 modern designers, Charles Ryan. I'd post the link, but you have to login to get there, so just go the www.d20weekly.com and log in... sign up for the free trial if you don't have a username yet.

Anyway, it the interview it is confirmed... d20 modern will be using a variant of the CoC HP system, using the character's constitution as the point at which you have to make a fortitude save. I consider that EXTREMELY ill considered.

I could go into details about why I think that really will not work well, but I'll let you all gnash your teeth without me for a while.

Hm. Call me stupid, ignorant, and foolish (please! please! I'm a worm! I'm a naughty boy who deserves to be...cough. ahem. Never mind) but I don't see the problem, if I'm reading you correctly.

Characters gain HP ala CoC.
If character takes more than Con damage from a single attack, they make a FORT save or die.

I see nothing intuitively wrong with this. It makes guns lethal, especially on a crit, but allows Ahr-nuld to take a few good shots but keep soldiering on, while low->average Con folks risk a fort save with every bullet.

What obvious flaw am I missing?

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

My problem with it is if I want to run a high action campaign... I'll have characters dropping like flies. While thats fine for the bad guys... The hero's shouldn't drop like flies...

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I don't like the VP/WP rules, so I think this is a good thing.

 

[Ranger REG]

I still like to have VP/WP as an option. Either that or the intern supposedly hired by Anthony Valterra make the VP/WP system mechanics OGC before GenCon.

You can stick with HP, but I prefer VP/WP for the modern genre.

I don't like it when only two products available are using VP/WP, and only one of them is not of Wizards.

 

[JPL]

This is the easiest house rule of them all. Here's how I'd do it:

Const + character level = massive damage check threshold.

It's hard to have it both ways. We want our heroes heroic, but there are always a few morons on rpg.net eager to point out that high-level d20 characters with three-digit hit points can shoot themselves in the head six or seven times and still be good to go.

CoC has a few easy places to tweak --- defense ratings are optional, and you can always scale the massive damage number up or down to taste.

Life not tough enough for your heroes? Eliminate hit point progression altogether, or make it one point per level.

I'd wager they've already accounted for the lack of magical healing, too.

It is my hope that d20 Modern will include some notes on realism levels, and suggest how to go from gritty to pulp. Change just a few factors, and you can go from Saving Private Ryan to Indiana Jones. These should boil down to a pretty short list.

Anyway...glad to hear folks talking d20, but take a look at the creators and have a little faith.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

I just signed up for D20 Weekly and read the interview. If you fail the fort check it's not instant death. You are disabled. So that is not as bad as it sounded. I would personally probably end up going with double con for the massive damage thresh hold.