Hitchhiker d20

[Jeph]

oh . . . my . . . GOD this would be so fun to play! I can just imagine a four hour block of a five hour session taken up by arguing with an elevator! Or having one of the PCs be a mattress from Squornshellas Beta! Or a PC that has mastered the art of flying (you know, tripping and then forgetting that you're supposed to hit the ground, so you don't?)! A sample skill:

Flying (Wis, see below)
You commonly forget that the ground is where it should be.
Check: Whenever you fall (weather on purpose or by accident), either you or your GM can state that your character is making a Fly check. If you succeed, your character floats a few inches to feet off the ground, and is now Flying. The base DC for Flying is 25; it increases by 2 to 6 points under times of special stress.
A Flying character can move with a speed of up to 30', plus an additional 5' per three full ranks in Fly. Manueverability is always considered to be Average, although with a Flying check (DC 14 for Good, 18 for Perfect), you can act is if you had a better manueverability for one full round.
Once every number of rounds equal to your ranks in Flying, you must make a Wisdom check (DC 15). If you succeed, you remember where the ground should be, and start to fall.
Retry: Yes, providing you trip or fall again.
Special: Instead of applying their Wisdom modifier to Flying checks as a bonus, they apply the opposite of their Wisdom modifier to Flying checks. Thus, a character with Wis 16 would recieve a -3 penalty, and a character with Wis 7 would recieve a +2 bonus.

-Jeph

 

[Jeph]

Characters

Class doesn't really matter much, cuz combat doesn't matter much. What matters is what a character is good at: i.e., skills and feats. The class that all characters have is presented below:

Hit Die: d6 + Con modifier (max at lv 1)
Base Attack Bonus: As Wizard
Fortitude Save: As Scout (Starwars RPG)
Reflex Save: As Scout (Starwars RPG)
Will Save: As Scout (Starwars RPG)
Skill Points: 4+Int modifer per level, 4x at 1st level
Class Skills: All skills are considered class skills for all characters.
Proficiencies: All characters may draw up to 3 free proficiencies from the following list: Blaster Proficiency, Blaster Rifle Proficiency, Melee Weapon Proficiency, Archaic Weapon Proficiency, Random Object Proficiency, Light Armor Proficiency, Medium Armor Proficiency, Heacy Armor Proficiency, Verbal Dagger Proficiency, Verbal Sword Proficiency, Verbal Scythe Proficiency.

Viola! Hithchhiker characters!

 

[Jeph]

Verbal Conflict

In Hitchhiker books, it is rare that charcters actually draw guns. More often, Marvin the Skizzy Android will trick the stupid battle-trak into shooting the floor out from under himself. When a verbal conflict occurs, don't bother to keep track of rounds, just Comments.

Making a Comment:
Whenever a character makes a Comment, they make a Verbal Attack Roll. Roll 1d20 + 1/3rd (round up) their ranks in Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate (whichever is more appropriate) + your Intelligence or Charisma modifier (again, whichever is more appropriate). If the result is higher than 10 + 1/2 target's level + the target's Wisdom modifier, they deal Sanity. If hte character making the comment has no Verbal Proficiency feats, their Comment roll suffers a -4 penalty.

Dealing Sanity Damage
Whenever a character rolls a succesful Comment, they deal Sanity Damage. The amount of damage you deal depends on the highest Verbal Proficiency feat that you have:
None: 1 + Cha or Int modifier (whichever is more appropriate)
Dagger: 1d4 + Cha or Int modifier (whichever is more appropriate)
Sword: 1d8 + Cha or Int modifier (whichever is more appropriate)
Scythe: 1d12 + Cha or Int modifier (whichever is more appropriate)

Recieving a Comment
Whenever a character takes Sanity because of a Comment, they lose their opponent's Sanity Damage roll in Sanity. Characters start off with Sanity equal to their Wisdom score. When a character reaches 0 Sanity, they are forced to do something really stupid. They are also forced to do something really stupid every time they are dealt Sanity Damage after they have reached Sanity 0. For example, the elevator has driven Zaphod over the line. Zaphod asks Marvin to talk about his relationships with other sentient creatures. (If you've ever read Hitchhiker, you'l know just how stupid this was.

Sanity Damage from Situations
Whenever characters are in a really stressfull situation, they must make a Will save when they enter the situation, every 10 minutes of endurring the situation, and when they leave the situation. The DC is 9 for moderately stressful situations, 14 for stressfull situations, 19 for very stressfull situations, and 24 for mindbendingly stressfull situations. If the save is failed, characters take Sanity Damage as shown below:
Moderately Stressfull: 1d4
Stressfull: 1d8
Very Stressfull: 1d12
Mindbendingly Stressfull: 2d8


Five new feats:

Sane[General]
You are a stabile, normal personality.
Benefit: You gain +3 Sanity.
Special: You may take this feat more than once. It's affects stack.

Beligarant[General]
You are mean, or otherwise socially rutheless.
Prerequisites: Cha or Int 13+, Verbal Dagger Proficiency
Benefit: You gain a +1 bonus on Insanity Damage rolls and Verbal Attack Rolls.

Verbal Dagger Proficiency[General]
You can insult people, or make them feel bad.
Benefit: You deal 1d4 Sanity Damage with a successfull Verbal Attack, and no longer suffer any penalty to Verbal Attack Rolls.

Verbal Sword Proficiency[General]
You can insult people, or make them feel bad.
Prerequisites: Verbal Dagger Proficiency
Benefit: You deal 1d8 Sanity Damage with a successfull Verbal Attack.

Verbal Scythe Proficiency[General]
You can insult people, or make them feel bad.
Prerequisites: Verbal Sword Proficiency
Benefit: You deal 1d12 Sanity Damage with a successfull Verbal Attack.

 

[Crothian]

Interesting idea

 

[Jeph]

Guns:
Some guys have guns, but they are normally considered jerks, and people don't like them.

Kill-O-Zap Light Pistol: damage 1d10 Electric, range increment 50', crit x2, gets 50 shots from an energy cell.

Kill-O-Zap Heavy Pistol: damage 1d12 Electric, range increment 70', crit x2, gets 40 shots from an energy cell.

Kill-O-Zap Rifle: damage 2d8 Electric, range increment 90', crit 19-20/x2, gets 30 shots from an energy cell.

Kill-O-Zap Blaster Cannon: damage 3d6, range increment 110', crit 19-20/x2, gets 20 shots from an energy cell.

 

[Piratecat]

Freakin' cool. I'll slide this over to the d20 system forum.

 

[Ausderop]

Nice. Very nice. I think that these rules are exceptionally true to the books, and I must complement you. Now if you would excuse me, I simply must go to the chiropractor to get this party out of the small of my back.

 

[Jeph]

A bit of clarification on Sanity . . .

Optional rule: Characters have thier Sanity score increases by their Level. So, a level 7 Hitchhiker with Wisdom 15 would have Sanity 22

Regaining Sanity: I neglected to include this. I hereby rule that characters regain 1 point of Sanity for every minute they spend outside a stressfull situation or verbal conflict.

Verbal Attack Rolls: Always use Charisma (I changed my mind). If the character is being quippy, use the modifier normally. If the character is just being annoying, use the opposite of the character's charisma modifier.

Sanity Damage: As Verbal Attack Rolls, above.

Generating Ability Scores for Hitchhiker d20
Ability scores really don't matter, as higher is only somtimes better. Just choose your scores to fit your character concept.

 

[Jeph]

Melee Weapons
As with guns, some people have them, but they're generally not verry nice.

Small and Tiny melee weapons deal 1d damage, medium deal 2d4 damage, and large deal 3d4. Archaic weapons are worse quality and deal 2 less damage.

Archaic Ranged Weapons
People really don't use this crap at all, so I won't even bother.

 

[Jeph]

The Importance of Towels
Towels are vastly important to any hitchhiker. When a Hitchhiker would suffer negative effects from anything but is wearing a towel draped over their head so that they can't see, the GM rolls 1d20, and consults the table below:

01-06 All ill effects are negated
07-11 All ill effects are halved
12-13 All ill effects are normal
14-17 All ill effects are increased by half
18-20 All ill effects are doubled.

As you see, having a towel over your head is not always the best of ideas, but is is a lot of the time.

Heh heh. Writing this Hitchhiker stuff is fun.