[d20 Modern] Trying to make up my mind about this one-shot

[JPL]

My new once-a-month rotating-GM game group just got together for the first session...a 20th-level D&D adventure. It picked up near the end [after the gnome druid turned into a Huge earth elemental and started wreaking havoc], but it looks to me like everyone is ready for a break from D&D and is ready to shoot something d20 Modern style.

So I have spent several months batting around hundreds of ideas...mostly variations on a few themes...

1. Spec Ops. Maybe a split A-team [plus a CIA observer or a sniper, if we end up with seven PCs], or maybe a Delta Force team. Blood and Guts and the Weapons Locker are both getting plenty of wear at my house lately...this would have the advantage of being fairly linear, since the PCs would have very clear objectives.

2. Modern pulp. This goes through a lot of different variations...I'm trying for Destroyer / Clive Cussler [just started getting into him] / Alias, with a scoop of Buckaroo Banzai. The most likely idea here is to run the adventure [or a portion of it] from Alternity's "Tangents," and have a team of scientist-adventurer-troubleshooters deal with the discovery of parallel universes and ultradimensional travel. This will certainly overlap with the Spec Ops team...one thought is that all of these guys were Green Berets together in Desert Storm...

3. The Hanmei. A martial arts tournament game straight out of Blood and Fists. It might be interesting to cap it off with a free-for-all where it's player v. player.

4. One player is very enthused about my idea of an homage to Mexican B-movies...Desperado meets From Dusk til Dawn meets masked wrestling. And there will probably be a great many wereleopards...

Anyway...I hope I can pick one and run the damn thing, because I'm using too much brainpower riffing on ideas....

 

[Vigilance]

I tend to use a backdrop for my adventures that can encompass widely divergent play styles while using the same characters. Because I always have too much strangeness going on

Chuck

 

[JPL]

I tend to use a backdrop for my adventures that can encompass widely divergent play styles while using the same characters. Because I always have too much strangeness going on

Chuck

Yeah...if I had my druthers and knew I would be running a long-term campaign, I'd go for option #2, assemble a team of scientist-adventurers, and give them a very open-ended mission to challenge the unknown. And we would travel the world fighting neo-Nazis and bioterrorists and escaped genetic experiments, and it would be glorious.*

But after the game this weekend, I realize that I'm probably never going to have the time and the right players to get any sort of ongoing campaign together. [Damn you, adult responsiblities.]

Since the current group's setup calls for the GM to pregen all the PCs, the closest thing I could hope for is that one of the other GMs likes the characters enough to do his own adventure with them...

* [And it would secretly take place in the Wold Newton Universe, and at the end of the campaign they'd finally meet James Wildman, M.D., their mysterious benefactor, and realize that he's Doc Savage. Yep, that would be fun...]

 

[Vigilance]

If I was going to pregen PCs I would definitely do special ops... gives you an opportunity to tailor some interesting adventure ideas.

When is this going to happen anyway? (The game)

I might have something for you.

Chuck

 

[JPL]

If I was going to pregen PCs I would definitely do special ops... gives you an opportunity to tailor some interesting adventure ideas.

When is this going to happen anyway? (The game)

I might have something for you.

Chuck

Theoretically, four weeks from now. But if you have coolness in the pipeline, I could always let someone else go next.

I'd already been thinking that I might wait to do the Hanmei until your sequel to Blood and Fists is done.

 

[Vigilance]

The pipeline delivery will be done long before then- probably BNF 2.

I have a small product in the works that would be perfect for a one shot.

Chuck

 

[JPL]

The pipeline delivery will be done long before then- probably BNF 2.

I have a small product in the works that would be perfect for a one shot.

Chuck

BNF2 is that close to being done? That's great news. Also damn impressive...only seems like a few weeks since you started working on it.

As always...keep us posted.

 

[Pierce]

1 (Special Ops): We've done a one-shot like this - kinda Stargate-SG1-esque. The players are all spec forces guys - we get wormholed to wherever and are tasked with recon/recovery/whathaveyou. Pros: great range of scenarios/environments/bad guys; easy to come up with short adventures; easy to make up pregen chars. Cons: can get old - each adventure starts looking too much like the last; not enough char differentiation (everyone's a soldier).

2 (Modern Pulp): I suppose you could classify our Medallions campaign as modern pulp (light on the pulp, please). Our crew really enjoys this style. Pros: Real character development; great RPing potential; good for long-term campaign. Cons: may require more set-up, prep than you'd like for a one-shot; pregen, while an option, is not great for getting deep player buy-in.

We haven't done anything comparable to 3 and 4 - though 4 sounds like a lot of fun: Mad Max meets Buffy, almost. We've lately started a side campaign (for those times when everyone can't make it) using WWII rules combined with the Blood and Vigilance supers rules. That's been great pulpy fun - you can read about it here.

It would be a great disservice were I to neglect mentioning Modern Backdrops - it's got everything you're asking for with the exception of pregen characters. There are 5 fully fleshed scenarios perfect for a one-shot. Definitely worth the < $10.00 price tag.

 

[Vigilance]

BNF2 is that close to being done? That's great news. Also damn impressive...only seems like a few weeks since you started working on it.

As always...keep us posted.

There's a small chance BNF 2 will be done by then. But the small product I am doing should definitely be done by then.

Maximum...
Security...
Prison.
There, I said it, and Im not taking it back.

Chuck

 

[JPL]

There's a small chance BNF 2 will be done by then. But the small product I am doing should definitely be done by then.

Maximum...
Security...
Prison.
There, I said it, and Im not taking it back.

Chuck

Hmmm...

Are we talking inmates fighting in secret illegal cage matches?

Because that would indeed be cool. Very Def Jam Vendetta.

[Sidebar: Have you run across a martial arts style called Jailhouse Rock? It's supposedly an African-American system of martial arts that sees a lot of use in prison fights. Probably a School of Hard Knocks varient, in BnF terms. Some of the sources I've seen dispute its existence, but I always thought that it would make a darn fine movie...sort of a hip-hop "Karate Kid" meets "Oz"...]