Judge Dredd d20?

[Aaron2]

Why? Personally, I don't like the idea of using D&D classes to set limitation for games of different genre. IOW, a 1st-level superhero shouldn't balance with D&D barbarian in terms of their abilities (talents, skills, powers).

I disagree. Level should determine the power of an individual character, not class. First level characters should be roughly equal in power. If a superhero is significantly better than a first level barbarian, then the superhero shouldn't be first level.

For example, rather than give Judges a super-class with everything good, they could have just started Judges out at a higher level.


Aaron

 

[LoneWolf23]

Aha! Thanks, guys! I guess I should have Googled first...

Gospog- do you think that the material is pretty balanced with other d20 products out there? Since my group is fairly D&D-centric, I was thinking about essentially adding Mega City One into D&D terms, with a vengeful-minded Lawful Neutral city guard, of course. And, most of the mutants will translate easily. The technology will not work well, but I think I can get the spirit of the source material pretty well. If there was not a game already out there I was planning to use Grim Tales as a starting point, but I would rather take the setting wholesale if it will convert fairly easily. What do you think?

Try Sharn as a sourcebook to fill in for Mega City One, using magic whenever technology is used. Your Judges could be an order of Clerics of St Cuthbert, with an Inquisition-style approach to enforcing Law and Order.

 

[Aaron2]

Did I miss something?

Where's this rule from?

My bad. Judges, well everyone actually, add their Reflex saves to their AC so this isn't really a balance issue.


Aaron

 

[Krieg]

I disagree. Level should determine the power of an individual character, not class. First level characters should be roughly equal in power. If a superhero is significantly better than a first level barbarian, then the superhero shouldn't be first level.

Within a single game that is certainly true, however there is absolutely no need for that to be the case when comparing characters of equal level from different games with vastly different design goals.

Should a 5th level Barbarian from Conan D20 be quantitatively equal to a 5th level "Popular Kid" from the Grimm mini game?

I certainly don't believe so.

 

[Aaron2]

Should a 5th level Barbarian from Conan D20 be quantitatively equal to a 5th level "Popular Kid" from the Grimm mini game?

I don't know enough about Grimm to comment on this. However, there is no real reason that 10th level characters from D&D, Conan, Dredd, Star Wars and Spycraft couldn't all be been close in relative power. It would be cool to have a Wookie Judge with an elven Jedi romping through a fantasy world. It seems most game designers could care less whether races or classes can port over to other d20 games and, to me, that's a shame. It greatly limits the usefulness of their game.


Aaron

 

[JoeGKushner]

It seems most game designers could care less whether races or classes can port over to other d20 games and, to me, that's a shame. It greatly limits the usefulness of their game.
Aaron

To me, I think that the designer's don't care.

And that's fine. A barbarian in Conan is not the same thing as one in standard D&D. heck, Conan is OGL, not even d20.

However, part of the promise of D&D and the whole d20 thing, was that you'd be able to take whatever you wanted from a wide variety of 3rd party adventures and source material.

Turns out, that's not the case.

It's times like this that I'm glad to have pure point buy systems like Hero and GURPS so I can have my 'universal' system and still enjoy the different game systems under the guise of OGL.

 

[Aaron2]

It's times like this that I'm glad to have pure point buy systems like Hero and GURPS so I can have my 'universal' system and still enjoy the different game systems under the guise of OGL.

I got into a similar argument on the Hero boards. Some feel that the stats for, say a gun, shouldn't be the same for a military game as they are for pulp game. Or that two identical characters should have different costs based on the genre they are built for.


Aaron

 

[Ranger REG]

I disagree. Level should determine the power of an individual character, not class. First level characters should be roughly equal in power. If a superhero is significantly better than a first level barbarian, then the superhero shouldn't be first level.

For example, rather than give Judges a super-class with everything good, they could have just started Judges out at a higher level.

But why must we use D&D as a benchmark? That's too restrictive enough as it is. If the designer of the game want to make a totally different game but still use the rule mechanics established by D&D (or should I say d20), then it doesn't matter if Superworld's 1st-level Speedster is on the same level as a Forgotten Realms 1st-level dark elf House fighter.

Crossover is not mandatory, just optional.

 

[argo]

However, there is no real reason that 10th level characters from D&D, Conan, Dredd, Star Wars and Spycraft couldn't all be been close in relative power. It would be cool to have a Wookie Judge with an elven Jedi romping through a fantasy world. It seems most game designers could care less whether races or classes can port over to other d20 games and, to me, that's a shame. It greatly limits the usefulness of their game.

I guess that depends entierly on what you see as being the purpose of the d20 system and the OGL.

If you see it as being able to open any d20 book at random, pull a race or class out of it and port it with minimum hassle to any other game then you are indeed correct.

However, if you see it as a ruleset which can be easily modified to support many different genres without significantly altering the core mechanics then not only does it make sense to have base classes with a different power scale, it is probably a good idea as that is a change that has minimal impact on the rest of the ruleset.

Remember, we aren't just talking about a different campaign setting (Greyhawk vs FR) we are talking about different genres (epic fantasy vs comic book superhero).

Later.