Idea I've been kicking around

[Dogface]

I've been kicking around an idea that uses the D20 Modern rules as the basis of a fantasy setting. I want to incorporate a "caste"-like structure.

My first idea was to restrict classes to caste, but that didn't give me the feel I wanted. Finally, I came up with the following:

Greatly reduce the Feats and Skills associated with each Class. The three castes would each have a feat and skill list. This went by the wayside, too.

Now, I'm toying with keeping something similar to the given feat and skill lists for each class but restricting some of them to a particular caste.

 

[Karl Green]

Grim Tales might be an idea if you don't mind grapping another game system. I am using it to run a Warhammer PBP game right now. There are three 'default' settings in the book... Archaic, Modern, and Apocalypic
It uses the basic classes as D20 Modern, but no listed PrC and a very interesting take on Magic.

BUT before I got it I had thought about using D20 Modern a number of times for a fantasy game. D20 Past will be out next year and should be cool also

 

[Angel Tarragon]

Malladins Gate Press has Dark Lore which blends DnD and D20 Modern. Second World Simulations has the Second World Sourcebook. The Second World Sourcebook is a bit like Urban Arcana with one exception. An individual from either dimension (Earth or Fantasy game) can jump to the other and back. Any (standard [d20]) fantasy campaign could be the second world, however the book presents it own second world.

 

[Turanil]

I suggest to go Grim tales for a simple reason: there is many more talents, so if you want to restrict them by castes, it should prove easier.

Also: you could use GT as is, then add a few Advanced-Prestige classes that would be restricted to the castes. As such, you can have d20 Modern occultist restricted to a particular caste, etc.

 

[Ghostwind]

I agree with everyone else, Grim Tales will probably fit your needs.

 

[Dogface]

And the guarantee, BEFORE I lay out any money, that this will be LESS work to tightly fit into my setting than the less topheavy D20 modern would be?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Well, I don't think anybody is going to guarantee anything.

Modern and Grim Tales are very very similar but GT advances the classes out to 20 levels and breaks down alot of special class abilities from other sources into talents and feats.

Merely suggestions from the board collective on things that may help you do what you were kicking around. It's not necessarily more top-heavy but it is another investment in gaming material, one you may not want to make. As with all things gaming, its a price-to-value consideration based on the amount of time it may save you against the amount of money your time is worth. If you have a FLGS you may want to page through it, if you can't it's just a roll of the dice. I have both D20Modern and Grim Tales and I like both of them equally well for all that they're very similar systems. For that, they still do different things differently. I would say, though, that if tomorrow I were told all of my gaming books but one would explode in flames I'd probably pick GT just because it has GURPS-like flexibility in a d20 package.

--fje