Has enthusiasm died?

[takyris]

Well, I made it while trying to get my players to see the difference between D&D and d20 Modern. We had two very different sessions.

Session One: Trial by Whoopass -- I had everyone make a 10th level character, allowed them any equipment they wanted (but nothing mastercrafted), put them in an arena, and had them try to kill each other. When somebody's melee monster got killed in the first round after a Massive Damage hit from an assault rifle, they started to get the message. When my Strong/Fast Chainsaw Specialist (Having Spring Attack but choosing to provoke an AoO because I have Agile Riposte... ah, the beauty) killed three people in one round... man, that was nice. People realized that they could die a lot more easily, and that taking a lot of damage is NOT a good idea in this game. No clerics, no healing except time and surgery...

Session Two (and this one is the module): The Unliving Will -- In this game, I wanted to show people how flexible PCs could be. I made characters and let them pick based only on the description. When they saw what I'd done with the person, many of them were surprised. I was going for odd combinations, like Charismatic/Fast or, as my favorite, Smart2/Fast1/Dedicated1/Charismatic2 -- a plucky journalistic spitfire who uses her brains, her wiles, and her charm to get the full story. Almost everyone ended up with a lot of skill points in a lot of areas.

I also gave them all different allegiances -- some to their family, some to each other, some to... more interesting... stuff.

Then I stuck them on an island (in the late 1920's) with a rich patriarch who brought them all there to announce that he was going to make an alteration to the will. Each PC was connected to this patriarch in a different way:

- The Adventurer Son, returned from hunting in Africa
- The Gangster Son, who uses his father's connections to get away with petty schemes
- The Gangster's Girlfriend, an undercover reporter using her boyfriend to get to the story about the rich patriarch
- The Mistress of the rich patriarch, who wants to make sure that she's in that will, whatever happens
- The Son of the Mistress, who believes himself to also be the son of the rich patriarch, but who is currently unacknowledged and definitely unliked by the two legitimate sons
- The Family Priest, who also serves as the rich patriarch's legal counselor

The adventure begins when the rich patriarch is found murdered in the middle of the night by what looks like an occult knife.

 

[Pagan priest]

First off, sorry, but I've never done play-by-post, wouldn't know where to begin.

Second, perhaps I should expand a bit. Sky Pirates of the South Pacific was inspired by the anime movie Castle in the Sky by Hayao Miazaki. My son loves that movie and has watched it numerous times. In it, there are aetherium crystals that allow great flying vessels, stuff like aerodreadnaughts. The main pirate band flew a sort of combination dirigable/ rotor lift aircraft and used small ornithopter-like vehicles (with rocket assist) to land on other airships. Between that, and vague memories of a cartoon called (I think) Talespin, I intend to have a party of adventurers in a tramp aero-freighter wandering back and forth from San Diego to Diego Garcia, Aukland to the Aleutions, fighting off sky pirates and thwarting the perfidious Imperial Japanese Aeronavy. I've been reading Dr. Fu Manchu novels to warm up and for inspiration.

At the beginning of the campaign, only the Chinese and the Japanese (thanks to Manchuria) know the secret of growing the aetherium crystals.

(Okay, here's the PC aside: I do not want to in any way imply that there is anything wrong with the Japanese people, government, or culture today. Unfortunately, in the 20's and 30's, the military was generally controling the country. Without adequate checks and balances, they ran amuck. Subversion and invasion of Manchuria, the Rape of Nanking, smuggling opium, heroin and morphine as well as regular goods into China to destroy the economy. The Japanese Army and Navy make villains as good or better than the Nazis.)

 

[Morgenstern]

Sounds like great fun to me, I look forward to hearing more.

And yes, the cartoon was Talespin, with Sher Khan as a corrupt businessman (businesstiger?) in a suit and the ever lovable Don Carnage as a sky-pirate whose base appeared to be a hanger built between two more ordinary looking dregibles. The main character was Baloo of the Jungle Book, and several other characters from Disney's addaptatoin made regular appearances.

It seems like you could have an interesting technological arms race between the folks who have to genuinely deal with gravity, and those who can use the crystals. Non-crystal based fighters would probably have a lot shorter range, but be significantly more agile, and they don't have to deal with the added mass of a giant chunk of rock. The crystals provide boyancy, but they're far from mass-less. A group like Don Carnage's using real lighter than air vessels and lift rather than crystal based fighters could be quite the terror against more cost efficient and long running crystal-based sky-freight-haulers.

 

[buzz]

Or even E-Bay. I've seen it for cheeeeeeeeeeeeep. Yeah, UA is quite good. So's MenMan.

Well, I was recommending getting it used because I didn't think it was very good (yet still think it sometihng a d20M fan should probably own), but that's a whole 'nother thread.

Granted, I think it possible that, had UA been a real winner, we might not be having this discussion.

 

[buzz]

Green Ronin is the only Big House putting out print products, it seems.

Don't forget Gamma World d20. It's got the might of White Wolf (S&SS) behind it, and from all indications is going to rock on toast.

 

[RodneyThompson]

Don't forget Gamma World d20. It's got the might of White Wolf (S&SS) behind it, and from all indications is going to rock on toast.

True, Gamma World is going to kick arse. I've seen some of it already. It's just that it's not out NOW and isn't generating conversation.

 

[psychognome]

Has enthusiasm died?

No way! My enthusiasm is just flaring up, baby! Now, just to get a decent campaign started...

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

Mmm, sky pirates.
Among the 1000 ideas I had for campaigns when I got D20 Modern, a late 30's era air pirate campaign was one of the first. It never really got fleshed out because I'm working on other stuff.
Part Tailspin, part Crimson Skies with some Indiana Jones and Tales of the Gold Monkey thrown in for good measure... Sound good to me.

Some people have complained that D20M has no flavor. What I love about it is that it can be almost anything you want it to be.
The campaign I'm working on starts out looking like it's about the undead and witchcraft, but quickly takes a turn into the neighborhood of government coverups, the Bermuda Triangle, and finally involves traveling back in time to stop the nazis from successfully using recovered alien technology to create super-weapons.
With the versatility of D20M, I don't see how anyone could tired of it; unless they've simply run out of ideas...

 

[Pagan priest]

A group like Don Carnage's using real lighter than air vessels and lift rather than crystal based fighters could be quite the terror against more cost efficient and long running crystal-based sky-freight-haulers.

Bingo!

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

What this forum needs is a Modern BoEF! I was big into it but for what I really want to do its looks like Spycraft is the big choice... Plus I don't ever need to see characters with a level in almost everything again... I really haven't seen much from any body that strikes me as awesome... Well at least right now and I expect that times will change.