D20 Rules Light

[Sir Elton]

I thinking about stripping away some of the clunkiness in D20 to make it rules light for my Spycraft/D20 Modern game. For the defining mechanic is: set a Difficulty Class, Roll a D20 to beat it.

Current Heretic ideas

A. Getting rid of the Experience Point System. When I do a T.V. Show series Campaign that is a long runner like the A-Team (five seasons typically mean 100 episodes or more) it's quite possible that the Heroes will totally Max-Out around Episode 20 using the current system. Getting rid of the current Experience Point System and awarding Action Points (ala' Feng Shui) after every show seems like a viable solution. This means that the heroes gain a level after every 5 episodes, but they can use action points not just to modify rolls or get themselves out of a jam, they can also use them to improve their characters (again, Ala' Feng Shui).

B. Reduce Rules needing Miniatures. If you don't have miniatures, why use rules that require them?

C. Abolish Wound and Vitality Points and use Hit Points instead.

D. Level less D20?
This is possible. But it's far-easier to make something like Rolemaster level less than D20 level less. Rolemaster has a skill called body development that allows a character to develop hit points. With d20, you have to create at least four more skills: Combat (Improves BAB), Body Development (improves hit points and fortitude saves), Willpower Development (improves Will Saves), Reflex Development (improves Reflex saves).
That idea is really Heretical!

 

[Nine Hands]

I like idea A. I have been thinking of this very same thing for my D&D game since I use Action Dice (pretty similar to Spycraft/Stargate's implementation of them, but geared towards Fantasy role play).Each time you get an action die in game, you gain 25 x your current level in experience. You could up this to 50 X your current level and this could completely replace giving experience every game session.

You may want to look at the Anime d20 SRD (which is by the guys who make BESM, Big Eye's Small Mouth), it looks like they have taken the D&D classes and reduced them to a point value. This is pretty close to classless and since the SRD is available for free you can download it and tweak it to your hearts content.

I personally like Vitality/Wounds instead of Hit Points, it makes the game slightly more deadly yet still somewhat heroic.

 

[Plane Sailing]

Someone else has thought about rules eliminating the need for miniatures and produced some OGC called "SNAP" (Simple Narrative Action Plugin). I've previously uploaded the best example of their rules which I've found to date in this thread

http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?threadid=59508

Cheers

 

[Malacoda]

D. Level less D20?
This is possible. But it's far-easier to make something like Rolemaster level less than D20 level less. Rolemaster has a skill called body development that allows a character to develop hit points. With d20, you have to create at least four more skills: Combat (Improves BAB), Body Development (improves hit points and fortitude saves), Willpower Development (improves Will Saves), Reflex Development (improves Reflex saves).

It's not that hard, really. I created a system for classless d20 Modern., and it works quite well. I have options for getting rid of XP as well, allowing for more smoother advancement.

 

[jaerdaph]

My new d20 Rules Lite:

Roll 1d20

On an even result, Yes or Success

On an odd result, No or Failure

Oh yeah, Add OGL, season with Section 15 to taste, yadda yadda yadda, copyright ME sucka!

 

[0-hr]

My new d20 Rules Lite:

Roll 1d20

On an even result, Yes or Success

On an odd result, No or Failure

Oh yeah, Add OGL, season with Section 15 to taste, yadda yadda yadda, copyright ME sucka!

I'm sorry, but you cannot reference OGL (and thus by implication, d20) material unless you append a complete copy of the Open Game License to your above material. You also need to clearly state what of your new material constitutes additional open game content, and which is reserved as product identity. Your claim to copyright is in violation of these statutes and there by opens you to litigation by the Open Gaming Foundation or their legal council. Please turn yourself in to your local consumer fraud department at your earliest convenience.

 

[jaerdaph]

Actually, they gave me a 30-day cure period and a prescription for antibiotics. d20 Rules Lite is now know as OGL Rules Lite, and that nasty case of mummy rot is now under control.

The US Supreme Court will be soon be hearing the case as to whether or not I can actually refer to rolling "1d20" since they never seem to have anything better to do. Since next year is an election year, I predict that politicians will jump on the bandwagon to pass much needed legislation to fix this. I also predict that Supreme Court will revisit the issue after a heated "it fell on the floor you must reroll" vs. "read the result where it fell" debate in Florida. Then somehow they will choose a beholder to be president, opening up a question of legitimacy because beholders are not in the SRD.

 

[malladin]

Mutants and masterminds has a good classless and XPless character system. Although it is super heroes, I'm sure you could modifiy the concepts used to lower power games.