RangerWickett
Legend
I just finished my d20 (post)modern fantasy game, so now I plan to run a short (4 - 6 session) campaign to give me time to plan my next long-duration campaign. The idea I have is to run something in the setting of the games Halo and Halo 2. I have decided I really don't like the classes from d20 Modern, so I'm planning to just use D&D classes - fighter, marshall, and rogue - but with d20 Modern skills, feats, and equipment.
I need help coming up with stats for the Covenant and Flood (but only the ones that show up in Halo 1, not Halo 2), and some rules to recreate the feel of the games (like being able to kill an elite with three pistol headshots). I'd also like some help fleshing out the plot, particularly the final chapter.
Wake the Beast
The party will consist of UNSC space marines (not SPARTANS), set in about the same timeline as Halo 2, and in good Halo tradition, the game will reference biblical motifs in a sci-fi setting.
The Plot
[sblock]My plan is that the group is being sent as reinforcements against a Covenant assault on a tactically valuable moon of a gas giant, Nineveh 3. The Covenant have been engaged in a massive land war, since the facilities on the moon are reclaimed Forerunner technology. Neither side wants them destroyed, but the human forces are losing the battle, and so a cruiser of marines have been dispatched to scorch the earth and help the human forces evacuate.
Of course, things aren't so simple.
We begin the game with the PCs on the ship 'Yet Not Forgotten,' en route to Nineveh. The PCs get their orders from the Sergeant Major, and then break up to discuss their individual unit assignments with their squad (three lances of 4 marines, plus 1 sergeant). One member of the crew - Pvt. Jonah Sexton, the team's computer specialist - thinks it's a suicide mission and would rather be tried for treason than go into the line of fire. At least that way, he says, he'll live a few days longer.
I'll give the PCs a bit of time to roleplay, and then their ship is set upon by a Covenant cruiser. Both ships are crippled in a space battle and must be evacuated, but the PCs' sergeant gives them a mission first. The Cole Protocol demands that Covenant not recover a ship AI, because they could then get coordinates to Earth. The PCs must fight their way to the demolished bridge of the crippled ship, destroy the AI, and then get back to their escape pod, while having to fight Covenant forces which have evacuated from /their/ ship and are trying to board the PCs' ship.
From there, the party evacuates. Their escape pod gets swallowed by a strange spaceship, a leviathan (taken straight out of Farscape), a living ship that managed to survive the last activation of the Halos because by random chance it slipspace jumped through the oncoming destructive wave, avoiding being hit. The ship (which is over 100,000 years old) was making a delivery of flood specimens to a Forerunner facility, but it was never able to deliver its cargo because all the Forerunners had died. Inside the ship is the key to activating the defenses of the facility on Nineveh, which would allow the PCs to save the humans there.
Unfortunately, the leviathan also picked up some Covenant escape pods, and so the party must battle for control of the ship. I'm still trying to think of how best the flood specimens can be released, because I /really/ want a flood-infected leviathan. However, the main foes of this game are the Covenant, not the flood, so I won't make there be too many flood.
Finally, the marines need to get off the leviathan, get onto Nineveh, and get to the facility control center, where they can activate the planetary defenses and drive off the Covenant. I've got a few ideas of how to make the finale something special, but I want to refine things.
1. Maybe the gas giant the moon orbits isn't a gas giant at all, but some sort of strange cloud of organic matter that could be infected by the Flood.
2. Maybe there's a Forerunner held in stasis in the facility. The facility could have been a medical center, and they were trying to cure Flood infection. One Forerunner gets released when the defenses get activated, and he can be an appropriately monstrous beasty.
3. Maybe there's an entire Forerunner battleship hidden in the gas giant, which gets revealed when the defenses are activated. The PCs have just scored one for Earth by getting a bad-ass space ship.[/sblock]
What do you think? Any suggestions? I'll post my own ideas for rules variations in a second.
I need help coming up with stats for the Covenant and Flood (but only the ones that show up in Halo 1, not Halo 2), and some rules to recreate the feel of the games (like being able to kill an elite with three pistol headshots). I'd also like some help fleshing out the plot, particularly the final chapter.
Wake the Beast
The party will consist of UNSC space marines (not SPARTANS), set in about the same timeline as Halo 2, and in good Halo tradition, the game will reference biblical motifs in a sci-fi setting.
The Plot
[sblock]My plan is that the group is being sent as reinforcements against a Covenant assault on a tactically valuable moon of a gas giant, Nineveh 3. The Covenant have been engaged in a massive land war, since the facilities on the moon are reclaimed Forerunner technology. Neither side wants them destroyed, but the human forces are losing the battle, and so a cruiser of marines have been dispatched to scorch the earth and help the human forces evacuate.
Of course, things aren't so simple.
We begin the game with the PCs on the ship 'Yet Not Forgotten,' en route to Nineveh. The PCs get their orders from the Sergeant Major, and then break up to discuss their individual unit assignments with their squad (three lances of 4 marines, plus 1 sergeant). One member of the crew - Pvt. Jonah Sexton, the team's computer specialist - thinks it's a suicide mission and would rather be tried for treason than go into the line of fire. At least that way, he says, he'll live a few days longer.
I'll give the PCs a bit of time to roleplay, and then their ship is set upon by a Covenant cruiser. Both ships are crippled in a space battle and must be evacuated, but the PCs' sergeant gives them a mission first. The Cole Protocol demands that Covenant not recover a ship AI, because they could then get coordinates to Earth. The PCs must fight their way to the demolished bridge of the crippled ship, destroy the AI, and then get back to their escape pod, while having to fight Covenant forces which have evacuated from /their/ ship and are trying to board the PCs' ship.
From there, the party evacuates. Their escape pod gets swallowed by a strange spaceship, a leviathan (taken straight out of Farscape), a living ship that managed to survive the last activation of the Halos because by random chance it slipspace jumped through the oncoming destructive wave, avoiding being hit. The ship (which is over 100,000 years old) was making a delivery of flood specimens to a Forerunner facility, but it was never able to deliver its cargo because all the Forerunners had died. Inside the ship is the key to activating the defenses of the facility on Nineveh, which would allow the PCs to save the humans there.
Unfortunately, the leviathan also picked up some Covenant escape pods, and so the party must battle for control of the ship. I'm still trying to think of how best the flood specimens can be released, because I /really/ want a flood-infected leviathan. However, the main foes of this game are the Covenant, not the flood, so I won't make there be too many flood.
Finally, the marines need to get off the leviathan, get onto Nineveh, and get to the facility control center, where they can activate the planetary defenses and drive off the Covenant. I've got a few ideas of how to make the finale something special, but I want to refine things.
1. Maybe the gas giant the moon orbits isn't a gas giant at all, but some sort of strange cloud of organic matter that could be infected by the Flood.
2. Maybe there's a Forerunner held in stasis in the facility. The facility could have been a medical center, and they were trying to cure Flood infection. One Forerunner gets released when the defenses get activated, and he can be an appropriately monstrous beasty.
3. Maybe there's an entire Forerunner battleship hidden in the gas giant, which gets revealed when the defenses are activated. The PCs have just scored one for Earth by getting a bad-ass space ship.[/sblock]
What do you think? Any suggestions? I'll post my own ideas for rules variations in a second.
) and the covenant with a smaller number.
