Good books for d20 Modern Shadowchasers?

[GilaMonster]

Hi all

I'm running a shadowchasers campaign and I've just started taking a look at the large number of pdfs available from the various stores.

Does anyone have any recomendations as to good pdfs for a shadow chasers campaign? One of the main things I'm looking for is an alternative magic system to the one presented in urban arcana. I'd like something where magic is rare, possible but risky

Thanks
Gail

 

[C. Baize]

For that sort of magic, you need to look up a story hour, and the subsequent postings about their magic system... I believe it's called "Medallions".

Other than that, there's Blood and Relics II (some magic with some definite Shadowchasers/Constantine action), Blood and Fists series (real world martial arts), Modern Backdrops (cities, plot hooks, etc...), Modern Player's Companions... Man... there's so so many things that are good for a low FX shadowchasers type game...
Best thing to do is go to RPGNow, look up D20 Modern stuff, and start going through the list... I suggest paying particular attention to companies like RPGObjects (the best stuff for D20 Modern... Period), The Game Mechanics, 12 to Midnight... I'll add more when I get some more time... was just popping on for a minute to toss my 2 cents in.

 

[RangerWickett]

Hi all

I'm running a shadowchasers campaign and I've just started taking a look at the large number of pdfs available from the various stores.

Does anyone have any recomendations as to good pdfs for a shadow chasers campaign? One of the main things I'm looking for is an alternative magic system to the one presented in urban arcana. I'd like something where magic is rare, possible but risky

Thanks
Gail

Wow. You pretty much want exactly this:

[imager]http://www.enworld.org/shop/images/engs/product101/mec.JPG[/imager]Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth

Mythic Earth is very flexible, and it includes clear guidelines on making the magic safer or more dangerous. There are several reviews for it (some at EN World, some at RPGNow), all quite positive.

The default rules assume magic is fairly reliable if you know how to use it, but as for rarity, that's up to the GM to decide. There is, after all, a difference between true rarity (how common it is in the world) and perceived rarity (how common it is to the PCs). If you want an example of the magic system at work, I playtested it and am continuing to use it in my ongoing D20 Modern game, for which I write a storyhour. The link is in my sig.

What kind of game are you planning on running? I'm always interested in modern fantasy games, and maybe I could offer some suggestions on tweaking the magic system to fit your interests just right.

 

[GilaMonster]

Best thing to do is go to RPGNow, look up D20 Modern stuff, and start going through the list...

I'd do that, but I still need to eat... Every second book I look at there I want to get.

Thanks. I'll put the Modern player's companion and blood and relics on my to-buy list.

 

[GilaMonster]

Wow. You pretty much want exactly this:

Elements of Magic - Mythic Earth

Great, looks interesting. Will check the reviews tomorrow. Mind a couple questions?

Skill-based magic, feat-based or class-based? (or options for all?)
How complex is it to run? (compared with standard D&D magic)

What kind of game are you planning on running? I'm always interested in modern fantasy games, and maybe I could offer some suggestions on tweaking the magic system to fit your interests just right.

The style's a little in flux at the moment. This is the first game I'm DMing and I'm still finding my feet.

Pretty classic shadowchasers, with a lot of inspiration taken from Buffy.
There's a parallel world to earth where evil reigns (I have defined why that is the case, but is not important here). The 'distance' between the two worlds varies over time, leading to periods of 'high' magic and periods of no magic

I'm pulling in a lot of real-world myths into the game. Knights Templar, Wild hunt, ley lines, etc. Campaign is set in England so lots of history and myth to draw from.

Regarding magic, I want it to feel like fighting fire with fire. (at least for arcane magic. Haven't decided on divine)

There are demons and part-demons, there are monsters from myth, there are normal humans with a desire for power, and into all this is drawn four students who are just beginning to realise that the world is much larger than they thought.

The write-up of half of the first session is here (http://www.digitalsuicide.co.za Forums>d20 Modern > Shadows Rising > Shadow Rising. You don't need to register to access it.) I'm very behind with my writeup, we've played several more sessions.

Was that what you were looking for?
I'll check out your storyhour tomorrow. *yawn*

 

[C. Baize]

Pretty classic shadowchasers, with a lot of inspiration taken from Buffy.
There's a parallel world to earth where evil reigns (I have defined why that is the case, but is not important here). The 'distance' between the two worlds varies over time, leading to periods of 'high' magic and periods of no magic

I'm pulling in a lot of real-world myths into the game. Knights Templar, Wild hunt, ley lines, etc. Campaign is set in England so lots of history and myth to draw from.

Regarding magic, I want it to feel like fighting fire with fire. (at least for arcane magic. Haven't decided on divine)

There are demons and part-demons, there are monsters from myth, there are normal humans with a desire for power, and into all this is drawn four students who are just beginning to realise that the world is much larger than they thought.

Oh! Hey... In England... Ley Lines, Demons, Part Demons...
I highly suggest taking a look at the magic system from Legends of Excalibur (don't know which section includes the magic system, since they broke it apart... I have the hard cover ), and just basically porting it straight over to Modern, with tweaks only for the spells. And for the demonic aspect... Blood and Relics II is just that game.

 

[arscott]

One of the campaign settings presented in d20 Past is Shadow Stalkers, a Victorian Era prequel to shadow chasers. It's most useful for the Spiritualist and Mesmerist (divine and psionic analogues to the occultist respectively), though if you're planning on going with a different magic system, then you may find it less useful.

As far as alternate magic rules go, I was pretty impressed with mythic earth, though it may not be dangerous enough for you. The spellcasting rules from Grim Tales are pretty nice, though I'm not sure if they're available as a standalone. Finally, SFX Skills is a nice system that's a bit more flavorful and specific than ME or GT, though only Diabolism has been released so far.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Heh. Well, if you want to feel like the players are fighting fire with fire ... I use those exact words in SFX Skills: Diabolism.

Diabolism is definately arcane magic, dealing with summoning, conversing with, and binding evil outsiders (fiends).

Hopefully, by the end of the month, SFX Skills: Enochian Theurgy will be released. It's sort of the counterpoint to Diabolism (though I wrote Diabolism with the intent that it could conceivably stand alone for a dark-feeling game where dark spell-workers are opposed by noble-intending heroes weilding that same dangerous magic themselves).

I would say that SFX Skills: Diabolism is flexible and theme-centric, but not terribly general.

Best-case scenario, we'll be having a drawing for a free copy as soon as the wish-list hits 20 names.

Worst-case scenario, it's less than 2$, which is only eight quarters more than free.

--fje

 

[GilaMonster]

Heh. Well, if you want to feel like the players are fighting fire with fire ... I use those exact words in SFX Skills: Diabolism

I've been eyeing that book since I first saw it... Only thing holding me back is that it's a very focused book by the looks of things.

Best-case scenario, we'll be having a drawing for a free copy as soon as the wish-list hits 20 names.
Worst-case scenario, it's less than 2$, which is only eight quarters more than free.
--fje

What wishlist would that be? Hell, for that price, it becomes more a why not than a why.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

What wishlist would that be? Hell, for that price, it becomes more a why not than a why.

Just click over here and check out the button that says "Add To Cart" (has a red plus on it). Directly under that is a link to add it to your wish list. Your ENWorld account is your ENGS account, so there's no need to log into anything extra.

Then you're set up for two free drawings, actually. Ours and the one ENGS has every week.

I've been eyeing that book since I first saw it... Only thing holding me back is that it's a very focused book by the looks of things.

It IS very focused. My thinking was this: The "free form, skills based" magic system is pretty big in d20 these days. It's something my players desperately want and something I really want(ed). They're great for what they do, but sometimes they're either A) too general to add flavor or B) too complex to use regularly.

So it may not be what you need. For instance, if you're running a Shadowchasers game of D&D monsters coming through Shadow to horrify America, but none of them are seen as "demons" or "fiends" ... ehh ... Diabolism has a very "dark magic" feeling to it.

Though, for instance, if you wanted to categorize the monsters coming from Shadow as demonic in origin, you could use Diabolism by changing the nature of what it summons and contacts to the dark beings of Shadow. A "CR 0-3 fiend" becomes any creature of shadow from CR 0 to CR 3. The "Black Binding" spell then works on any creature of Shadow, etc etc.

If you have any particular questions, I'm willing to continue talking about my stuff.

--fje