[d20 Modern] Terminator: Future Fate is Here!

[talien]

In the year 2028, the surface of the Earth is shrouded in the thick, gray veil of ruin. Once great cities have been laid to waste and rubble, becoming vast impromptu tombs and graveyards to the millions who died on Judgment Day all those long years ago. The Machines rule the surface of the planet, while the humans who have survived now hide in underground shelters, venturing forth to scavenge and do battle when they are able. And always, the Machines are waiting...

This D20 Modern campaign setting includes 2 new Terminator races, 8 new advanced classes, piles of new weapons and equipment, a chapter on time travel, and over 20 different kinds of Terminators and Hunter-Killers.

Visit http://www.retromud.org/talien and click Freebies for more info.

Special thanks to Christopher T. Shields and Mark Billen for all their hard work on the Terminator and for making this project a thousand times better. Visit their web sites for more information about gaming in the Terminator universe:

Terminator: 2029 (by Christopher T. Shields): http://www.goingfaster.com/term2029/index.html

Resistance HQ (by Mark Billen): http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/s.billen/resistance_hq.htm

 

[digitaldark]

all I can say is..... DAY-UM!!! That is really nice!

 

[Alzrius]

all I can say is..... DAY-UM!!! That is really nice!

Nice nothing, this freaking rocks @$$!!! The quality here is equal to that put out by the best d20 company. You guys could easily sell this if you had the rights from the companies needed to do so. Reading this made me want to run out and immediately play a Terminator campaign. The level of detail provided and the incredibly wide variety of sources drawn on in staggering. You guys did an incredible job. Pat yourselves on the back.

Now that I've said that, here are some areas that I think could be improved:

The two new "races," the T-800 and I-950, neither have ECL listings, despite having incredibe bonuses. I don't have d20 Modern, so it may cover this already, but otherwise I would list ECLs for these, since they are leagues above and beyond 1st level characters.

You may want to consider applying ECLs to some of the other Terminators there also, particularly the T-800 through T-825 series, since most of these come relatively close to human in terms of appearance (cybernetic skin coating) and having AI units.

In the listing of references, under comics, I didn't see a listing for the Robocop vs. Terminator comic (It might have had another name that you listed it under, but as far as I know, it was just Robocop vs. Terminator). While I'm mostly pointing that out to be fastidious, it does include some interesting points, such as stating that Robocop was the impetus that taught Skynet how to make the jump to full awareness. It also includes notes on Skynet's ambitions in space and for other planets. Lastly, it includes an instance of time travel going incredibly far back (you mention that time travel only works a few decades, but then later say it could go possibly much further back, and give a list of d20 sources for other time periods).

Hope this helps you make a great work even greater!

 

[Darke]

I noticed that there are Links for DarkCity and The Thing: Redux too - but the links are broken - ?

das Darke

 

[talien]

Dark City & The Thing

Working on it. Paying contracts coming again so it may be a bit.

I've redirected the links to free stuff I've already written -- but I'm converting it all to d20. Additions include:

* Alien (World of Darkness)
* Dark City (Call of Cthulhu BRP)
* The Mummy (Call of Cthulhu BRP)
* Mystery Men (Heroes Unlimited)
* Predator (Heroes Unlimited)

I deactivated the links to Evil Dead and The Thing because nothing presently exists (but it will!).

The Thing will be written after I beat the Thing PS2 game. Taking some time.

 

[talien]

Robocop vs. Terminator

Thanks for the compliments Alzrius. Good points all.

ECLs are a good point. I'll put those in. The T-800 series is more or less similar in function. I'm hesitant to make all of them playable, if only because the differences between them are essentially their classes (which any player can choose).

I did use Robocop vs. Terminator as a source. I just didn't find a link for it where you could buy/investigate further. I'll be sure to add it. The HK Scout is taken from those comics (I have them all). The evil killer doggy HK Scouts were too cool to pass up.

The time travel issue is just an oversight on my part. Mark Billens wrote his Time Travel stuff and I forgot to make sure my theories matched his. Since I've read the Robocop vs. Terminator comics, I thought the same thing: that time travel can go back as far as Skynet wants.

I imagine part of the reason the restriction exists is because, technically, Skynet could just keep going back through time, attacking grandparents and great grandparents. So by giving it a limitation means that there's fighting a Terminator in the past isn't totally futile.

The comic deals with this by saying that in the "main" timestream, Skynet only has a small window before "reality changes." This is part of the unified timeline theory and of course doesn't allow for other movies.

But in any case, I'll update the text in Future Fate to be internally consistent -- it's up to the GM to determine just how far back you can go.

 

[Darke]

Good to know @ Alien, Dark City & Predator - I'm looking forward to them.



das Darke

 

[kreynolds]

Talien. I noticed that the T-800 gets the Ambidexterity feat for free (page 10 and 11). It's worth mentioning that Ambidexterity is no longer a feat in D20 Modern. Everyone is already ambidextrous, so you might want to just give it Two-Weapon Fighting.

 

[talien]

Gah!

Another good point.

Maybe this weekend if I have time, I will update T:FF to version 1.1 with all the corrections/clarifications mentioned here.

 

[Alzrius]

Some other things I wanted to point out:

When calculating the ECLs for the T-800 and I-950, you might want to clarify if they have the class levels their "monster entry" does. If they do, then they quickly become very high-level characters (if not epic level), but saying they don't have those class levels requires some explanation about why they're different from "normal models." Perhaps the reprogrammed T-800 hadn't yet had its combat programming entered, or was lost (hence why it has no class levels) or the I-950 went "rogue" before it had its combat training, and hence it has no class levels. Just suggestions.

You probably should include ECLs for some of the other models. Some players might want to play a T-1000 for example (above statement applies here too).

None of the special qualities for the "monster" listings, either at the beginning of the "new monsters" section or in their individual combat sections, have type descriptors. Are they Extraordinary, Supernatural, Spell-like, or what? Also, the section with inherent qualities says they apply to all Terminators. Does this go for Hunter-Killers also, or are they different from the Terminators (for example, no HK's have Endoskeletons)? What about the I-950?

I'm not clear on what Alternate Power Source does...I thought it was the function that lets the terminator function to -20, but the text seems to suggest otherwise. Does it only kick in when the Terminator gets to -20 hp (then doing I dont know what)? Or is it that when the terminator gets to 0 hp or lower, it shuts down, and then 1d6 minutes later the APS kicks in and it gets up and keeps going until it hits -20 hp?

The Energy Form ability that the T-100000 and T-Meg have is confusing. How long does it take to use/drop that form? A standard action? Does it give immunity to spells (hey, some of us might want to use spells with that)? What about immunity to energy-form attacks, such as fire, cold, electricity, etc.? Can it make physical attacks even in energy form? What does it look like (I imagine just a glowing sphere of energy)? Is it incorporeal since its just energy and not solid? Can it fly when in energy form (itd be odd if pure energy had to walk)?

Hope these help with the 1.1 revision!