EN World Presents the Year's Best D20!

[jaerdaph]

So there are rules for organisations? In what way? Flowcharts? could you give me a little more detail on why it's good?

(Aside: See? Already people - not only me - are asking about nimonated product. I'm actually thinking about taking a look at this book.)

With the Organization rules in OGL Horror, you can give stats to any organization (like a cult, a conspiracy, or a government agency) similar to creating a character. Organizations have six ability scores analogous to those of characters: Force (Strength) - military/security capability, Response (Dexterity) - response time, Resources (Constitution) - how much money and power they have, Information (Intelligence) - what they know collectively, Occult (Wisdom) - what they know about the occult collectively, and Influence (Charisma) - influence over governments, people etc. Organizations have hit points, skills and their own feats. Characters belonging to an organization can make requests of that organization for certain skill checks, but it always takes longer than it would if the characters did it themselves to get a result (so it doesn't end up being a crutch). There are modifiers to these response times as well depending on the situation and the organization's modifier to its Response score. There are also some feats characters can take that effect their relationship to the organization (e.g. Pulling Strings). Several sample organizations of various sizes and influence are given, including the FBI.

There's a lot of great stuff in OGL Horror, but I'll give you a little tip: If you feel you can't use all the material in that book to justify purchasing it, pick up a copy of Ronin Arts' Modern: 13 Conspiracies. The OGL Horror Organization rules are pre-tweaked for d20 Modern use (OGL Horror, while built on the modern SRD, isn't d20 Modern), and include 13 new organizations statted (sp?) up with backgrounds: Bilderberg Group, Freemasonry, Hashishin (Muslim Assassins), The Illuminati, Knights Templar, Kokuryukai (Japanese Black Dragon Society, Majestic 12, Priory of Zion, Rosicrucians, Society of St. Albert, Temple of the Serpent, Thule Society, and Vehmgerichte (League of the Holy Court). I also recommend anyone playing OGL Horror pick this PDF up too for the organizatons/conspiracies.

 

[Mokona]

I nominate D20 Future and the simple but playable mechanics (as seen in Robot characters and elsewhere).

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Grim Tales, again, this time for the 'skull' system of rule variants. Lots of books offer optional rules. GT takes tbat to the next level by offering suggestions for changing core systems to fit a particular mood/genre/setting, and then explaining what effect each level will have on the game.

Priceless, for a DM.

 

[jaerdaph]

More for consideration (I love this time of year, seeing everybody's Best Of lists!):

The skills and feats system for psychic powers in Green Ronin's The Psychic's Handbook.

Best New Monster of the Year: The Dryden: Hero or Horror from Ancient Awakenings Publications.

 

[argo]

I am in love with the Conan RPG by Ian Sturock in ways that are probably illegal in most states I'll list a few of my favorite bits of crunch from that book below but if I had to pick just one rule to nominate for a "Best of '04" list it would be this:

Skill points gained from a high inteligence Score may be spent on any skill at a 1-for-1 ratio regardless of weither that skill is normally a class or cross class skill. In other words say you have a Soldier with a 12 Int. The heal skill is not on his class skill list, if he wanted to buy heal using the skill points granted to him by his class he would have to buy it at a cost of 1 point for half a rank (or 2-for-1) but with this rule he can use the skill point granted to him by his high Int to buy the heal skill at a cost of 1 point for 1 rank instead. (And as a side effect the cross-class max-ranks cap is removed, only the max-ranks cap of level+3 remains.)

Prety nifty no?



Some other tweaks to the combat system that Conan introduces that I like are:
- Massive damage threshold is reduced to 20 points of damage and the Fort DC for a massive damage check is increased to 10 + (1/2 * damage delt)
- Weapon damage dice are increased by 1 size category across the board
- Classes provide a bonus to defense.
- There are two modes of defense: dodge and parry. Dodge uses your Dex bonus. Parry uses your Str bonus but you cannot parry ranged attacks or touch attacks. Shields provide a Parry bonus.
- Armor provides DR.
- You can penetrate DR by smashing through it. Each weapon has an Armor Penetration (AP) score. You add your Str bonus to your weapon's AP to get your final AP with that weapon. If your AP equals or exceedes your opponent's DR then his DR is reduced by half when you deal damage for that attack
- You can also finesse your way past DR. Every character has the ability to finesse fight (effectievly everyone has Weapon Finesse for free) though you can still only finesse light weapons and selected one and two handed weapons. When you make a finesse attack you use your Dex mod to hit instead of your Str. If your attack roll is equal to or greater than your opponent's defense score then you hit, roll damage and subtract DR as normal. However, if your attack roll is equal to or greater than your opponent's DV + his DR then you have bypassed his armor (found a chink or opening) and you ignore his DR outright. You cannot finesse ranged weapons.

The result of all these rules is a combat system where any character can potentially be droped in one good hit no mater what level he is. There are several ways to defend and several ways to counter the defenses. Its a rich and rewarding combat system that encourages players to make diverse characters instead of picking a single style and simply stacking more and more bonuses on top of it.

I think thats enough out of me for now. Later.

 

[The_Universe]

I've added a running list of nominees to my original post for ease of reference.

 

[OregonGM]

Chalk up another vote for Badaxe Games' "Skull Ratings". Definately fits the "tools I can use" category.
One vote for the Arcana Unearthed magic system (and the move away from alignment that goes with it).

 

[Acid_crash]

nominations for a year's best...cool! I always wanted to do something like this.

okay, my picks ...

1) Conan finesse fighting, massive damage threshold, and bonus skill points for high Intelligence.

2) Elements of Magic Revised spell list system.

3) Advanced Player's Guide damage save system (to replace hit points), defense options system (to replace AC), and spell point system (to replace fire and forget), talents and flaws system for high and low ability scores, and their Class abilities system based on Race and Class (depending on your race and class you can get a unique ability to further differentiate yourself from other members of the same class).

4) Unearthed Arcana Contacts system, Reputation system, and Class Defense bonus system.

5) Castles and Crusades Prime system for Abilities... I nominate it cuz it will be out just before the end of the year, and since this is for the best of 2004, I think it should count.

 

[pogre]

I'm not the best judge because of the limited amount of material I pick up, but I would nominate Cooley's Buy the Numbers PDF. It's very clever and a fresh perspective on d20.

Naturally, I think Grim Tales has tons of cool stuff, but I like the spell burn rules too. Even if my players hated playtesting them My second favorite BadAxe rules variation is the mass combat system - it's not perfect, but it's the best so far.

 

[Crothian]

Buy the numbers has to be there. It is the first attempt to redo the basic core of the game at the same time keeping much the same. It changes how one gets abilities and takes apart classes but keeps the class abilities and just makes the players handbook more flexible.

THe Quintessential Artistrocrat. I really cannot say how much this book keeps impressing me. The more I read on it the more I like it. It's in pdf form, only and may very well be the best in the Quintessential line. It takes the Artistcrat class and without changing it, offers it a lot of great choices and options to make it even better for players and NPC balanced wise. At the same time it is rich with ideas and options.

Planar Factions and the demi planes book by Ronin Arts. Both of these pdfs are filled with grteaty ideas to bring the planes to the players and vice versa. I'm very impressed with both of these.

Secrets of Theurgy: this will be my last suggestion as there are just too many good things out there. But the classes in this book take a stale idea and keep the basics and make them interesting and exciting.