DarkMatter d20?

[Caliber]

Well, CoC stands for Call of Cthulhu (in case you didn't know.) Basicly it uses a series of stories by writer H. P. Lovecraft (who I defintely recommend) for background.

That background being that extradimensional beings exist beyond mankinds ability to perceive. To glimpse them is madness. To see them is death.

For the most part, CoC emphasizes that combat is deadly and WILL get you killed (which does in fact fit in with the Dark Matter that I remember.) Hell, you could probably use some Cthulhu stuff and it would still fit in. Dark Matter was just that cool.

That being said, I never really liked Alternity. While I thought the settings were really cool (never bought much of Star Drive, but it looked interesting, LOVED Dark Matter) I thought the system itself was somewhat ... clunky. I guess with the proper amount of experience in the system, perhaps it would have smoothed out. But mostly I just thought it was much too complicated.

My target's dex adjusts the situation die +2, but I have this skill specially selected so that is -1, but I am firing a burst so that is +3, but hes only 5 feet away so its -2, but ...

And that all amount to a -d0 to my d20 roll. No offense intended. Just wasn't my cup of tea.

The group I recently started playing with actually was playing Alternity when I joined. But they pretty much ignored most of the rules, because like me, they felt to do otherwise would lead to over complication. (Since then we have switched to d20, check sig if you want to know.)

Anyway, I believe there is a Story Hour set in the Dark Matter universe. I forget the author, but it is pretty popular.

I think the title is something like "Drunken girls with shotguns and redneck zombies (Dark Matter d20)"

Perhaps you should look for it.

Cheers.

 

[vturlough]

more ideas

Okay, if this is going to be done, the person would need to define the "sacred" cows of Alternity to make sure they are in the d20 version and that they work as best they can.

Here is my partial list:

Skill based (classes don't get special abilities)
Complex Skill checks (not sure how to do that with the numbers going higher in d20)
Secondary Damage
Complex results - (M)OGA
Quality of items
Damage types
Wound Points
Armor
Fatigue
(okay, whole system, but never mind that.)

We have talked about some of these. Let's look at some more.

Complex skill checks - best way, maybe only way, is to not roll high for this. Might go against d20, I don't know. Also, off the top of myhead, not sure how to create the OGA ranges. In other words, with an average of 12 and 4 ranks at 1st level, if you add them together, you get some type of success 80% of the time! That is obviously too much. Hmm. Might require some thought.

Secondary Damage - As above.

Quality - What if you also had OGA quality? Could affect damage type. (Again, this gets complicated, how I do it, so if there is a better way, let me know.) First of all, armor can work. Most is Ordinary. Masterwork could be Good and Magical could be Amazing. Weapons could be the same and damage could downgrade. (Again, as a direct translation, this only work with fewer wound points.)

Weapons/Armor - both are rated by Quality. Armor resists so much. (I liked the randomness of the amount of protection, and it worked with secondary damage. It depends how much is being converted.) Again, higher quality armor reduces damage from lower quality weapons.

Spells - Again, to do a direct translation would take lots of time. What I liked about SAGA was the ability to do a spell as needed within a spell casters realm. Perhaps that could be done here. (I have started this but haven't finished it.) Stoneskin, for example, as a direct translation, would be A/1d8.

Notes - The problem is that Alternity doesn't emphasize the items as DND does. So, you can't have as much magic or spells like Stoneskin don't work as they are intended. (Or, I guess we could default that equal type goes to defender. That does mean that there is marginal weapons and armor for unarmed people.) I can't think of a good way to have Stoneskin work in the face of all magic weapons being Amazing quality.

Well, here are some more thoughts on how to do it. Again, a lot of "flavor" will be gone but we knew that.

turlough

 

[Uncle Joe]

MOGA for d20

The best way that I can think of to preserve the feel of the success quality component in Alternity is to expand the threat range rules of d20. All skills would start at a threat value of 20. Every 4 or 5 skill ranks the skill's threat value would decrease by 1; to 19, 18, 17... ect. A success below the threat range would be an Ordinary success. If the die roll was in the threat range of the skill, the player rolls again. If the second roll succeeds, but is below the threat value, it is a Good success. If the second roll is within threat range it is an Amazing success.

That's just of the top of my head, so it would need some good play testing. Looking back over it, i'm tempted to require a third die roll for an Amazing success.

 

[Blacksad]

the rule for skills p61 in the PHB, say that if you beat the DC by 20 you have an extraordinary succes.

You just have to extend that to +40 DC for amazing success, and use the open roll method in the ELH to get the success range in D&D.

N.B. the open roll: when you roll a 20, roll again and add your roll. When you roll a 1 roll again and substract the roll.

if you want more randomness and more chances to have amazing success: re-roll on 1,2,3,18,19, and 20

also if you want to keep d20, you have to keep the higher=better axiom IMO (I think it is even in the d20 license).

 

[EarthsShadow]

I haven't read the Epic Level Handbook so I didn't know that option, but it is a good idea.

The idea of this system is to keep everything skill based, and only at first level is there a maximum level cap on a skill, which is at rank 3. After that, when you gain levels and your character points (achievement points), you can then spend them to increase skills, get new broad skills, and purchase achievements (feats, ability score increases, and action check benefits).

As for O/g/a...using that idea is a good idea. If it is a set DC for something, like a DC 15, then a natural 1 is a critical failure, 2 - 14 is a failure, 15 - 25 is Ordinary, 26-35 is Good, and 36+ is Amazing. Use this in conjunction when you roll a natural 19 - 20 roll a d20 and add it to what you already rolled and see how far it goes.

I would want to treat health in the same way as Alternity. You have a number of Stun and Wounds equal to CON x 1.5, and Mortal points equal to CON. With the scale above, we can keep the three different damage categories as the weapons in alternity if we want, and change all armor to damage reduction and not defense increases.

For combat, as an option and I would like an opinion on this...the attacker rolls and compares his roll to a DC of 10. He has his attack values and then subtracts all modifiers, which would include defense modifiers. So, if someone has a Dexterity of 18 (+4) and a class defense modifier of +3, then that is a total of -7 on the attack roll and the DC is always 10. If the attacker has a total number of attack modifiers = +9, and then we take the target's modifiers of -7, then his overall bonus to hit is +2.

So, DC 10-19 hits Ordniary, 20-29 is Good, and 30+ is Amazing. Using the scale of rolling another die if he rolls a natural 19-20, then its possible to simulate it.

What do you think?

 

[Caliber]

For combat, as an option and I would like an opinion on this...the attacker rolls and compares his roll to a DC of 10. He has his attack values and then subtracts all modifiers, which would include defense modifiers. So, if someone has a Dexterity of 18 (+4) and a class defense modifier of +3, then that is a total of -7 on the attack roll and the DC is always 10. If the attacker has a total number of attack modifiers = +9, and then we take the target's modifiers of -7, then his overall bonus to hit is +2.

So, DC 10-19 hits Ordniary, 20-29 is Good, and 30+ is Amazing. Using the scale of rolling another die if he rolls a natural 19-20, then its possible to simulate it.

What do you think?

Perhaps I am misunderstanding, but how is this different from just saying you have to meet a DC of 17 on your roll with a +9 bonus? Mathmatically it comes out to be exactly the same, as far as I can determine.

 

[EarthsShadow]

the reason for this is to simulate Alternity and to make it easier to calculate the effects of Ordinary, Good, and Amazing results, in which setting all combat to a specific Difficulty Number and then having the increments based on that target number make it MUCH easier to implement and figure damage.

Besides, once you get used to it, its easier...it is to me at least.

Ordinary result, need DC 10
Good result, need DC 20 (or 25 if 20 is to low)
Amazing result, need DC 30 (or 40 if 30 is to low)

Adding in the possibility of dice explosion if you do roll a Natural 19-20 on the die and still the likelhood of getting an Amazing result is pretty low...which means that we should use the DC 10-25-40 system as above.

This will also allow us to use the different types of damage and healths available in Alternity, and not just Hit Points as in d&d. And, by doing this, we can come up with a way that once your health is figured at level 1, it doesn't increase unless through the expenditure of character points when you gain levels. Just like in Alternity/Darkmatter.

This is why for combat, the easiest solution is to set the DC to base 10 for attacking and have all modifiers, situational and defender, modify the attack roll.

 

[Blacksad]

This is why for combat, the easiest solution is to set the DC to base 10 for attacking and have all modifiers, situational and defender, modify the attack roll.

err, is that hard to add 10 or 20 to a number?

Vs a target AC of 25:
-on a natural -10 critical failure (roll of 1 then roll of 11 or more)
-if you do 25: ordinary success
-if you do 35: good
-45: amazing

Vs a target AC of 37
-critical failure on -10
-37: ordinary
-47: good
-57: amazing

isn't it easier that way?

I think that some addition to d20 could be nice, but to try to put back all the modifier on the attacker, or to do a classless system seems too much work for little result:

-you'll loose the easy compatibility between product

-you'll need to re-work the advancement rules, because a rank in d20 doesn't equal a rank in Alternity

-you won't have a PHB

at this point you could as well keep the alternity system, it is good IMO, and if you have ever played D&D 2nd edition it is very quickly learned.

 

[EarthsShadow]

Who said this was going to be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons? Is Judge Dredd compatible with D&D or is it its own game just using the d20 system? Same for Everquest, which isn't even using the d20 gaming license and it not compatible with Dungeons and Dragons. If this really took off, I would not use the d20 gaming license also because frankly I think that its too limiting on what the potential really is.

This would be Darkmatter/Alternity d20, not just another world that can be easily compatible with Dungeons and Dragons, which is not the goal. Not everything has to be compatible with D&D. To think that they all do is to limit us.

As for having a AC of 37, sure, if your playing D&D. The likelihood if it happening in Alternity/Darkmatter which is more down to earth and realistic, then that would be no since the entire system would be based on the situational modifier and not AC. Therefore, no d20 licence and it would not require the PHB to be used. It would have its own book, its own world, its own rules, and it would be its own game, not just another copy.

That is the goal of this. Why does everyone assume that anything made for d20 has to be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons? To think that is to limit us and the true potential of what could be created.

 

[Blacksad]

That is the goal of this. Why does everyone assume that anything made for d20 has to be compatible with Dungeons and Dragons? To think that is to limit us and the true potential of what could be created.

Not compatible as in the easy usage of magic items across games, but as using the same mechanic "d20+modifier Vs target DC"

But if you want to write a whole book, go ahead and good luck!