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Looking for d20 system for Metroid (Nintendo game franchise) universe

Laserwolf7

First Post
Hello everyone,
First time posting but no stranger to this site. Played mostly D&D d20 systems including D&D3.5, 4th ed, and now 5th ed (D&D Next).


Was greatly inspired by a Kotaku article summarizing the lore of the Metroid universe:
http://kotaku.com/the-spectacular-story-of-metroid-one-of-gamings-riche-1284029577


Was hoping to get some help in running a sci-fi, space-faring, power suit-wielding, bounty hunting sort of campaign.


Googling "metroid D&D" revealed a few attempts at this in the past:
New Metroid d20 system: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?162380-Metroid-system-d20-based
Another Metroid d20 system: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?69382-Metroid-D20
D&D 3.5 Metroid creature: http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Metroid_(3.5e_Creature)
D&D 3.5 Chozo warrior: http://brilliantgameologists.com/boards/index.php?topic=3121.0


A comment from one of the above links mentioned maybe using d20 Modern? Or the Star Wars d20 system?
Would using the D&D Next system be grossly out of place?


Basic concept: Team of bounty hunters hired by the Galactic Federation to explore ancient ruins, stop Space Pirate activity, save planets / space stations from alien threats.
(could potentially be an evil campaign with PCs being Space Pirates thwarting the Galactic Federations efforts)


I don't think I want or need to create an entirely new d20 system just for a Metroid universe campaign, but I am horribly unfamiliar with anything other than D&D. Please let me know if any other Metroid fans have tried this before, or if the alternative sci-fi d20 systems have what I would be looking for.


Any references or help would be greatly appreciated!
 

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I used Metroids as an enemy, successfully, in the last Pathfinder game I ran. You should have no trouble adapting 5E to work, if you're happy with a group of mostly fighters and rogues.
 

Do you say that because those are the only classes that would work, or that the players would only pick those? I honestly haven't thought about how I would convert clerics or any spell users in a way that makes sense, but was hoping for any suggestions.
 

Because those are the classes that don't have magic, and barbarians don't make sense for the setting. You might be able to add rangers to the list, if you don't mind re-fluffing their spells to be natural talents, but that's a lot of work.

One problem with trying to convert the Metroid series into a TTRPG is that we really only have one character as reference for PCs. There's a similar issue with the Zelda series, but Link has enough different abilities through his various incarnations that it's not too hard to make five distinct PCs.
 

Yeah that's true, but instead of a direct remake, I was hoping to take some of the universe lore and monster concepts and frame it in such a way that it could work with a group of 5 PCs.
The lore article hints of other bounty hunters like Samus, albeit not as powerful since they were defeated by her, and there is an entire Galactic Federation spanning many systems and worlds that are backing her, not to mention many many unique and interesting planets that might have served as Chozo outposts that were abandoned.
But yes, it would need some work to make different classes feel unique. That's why I was wondering about other sci-fi systems such as d20 Star Wars, which I assume has some more relevant skill checks and abilities than D&D.
The more established work that I can borrow the core system from the better, since as I mentioned I would like to try to avoid creating an entirely new d20 system just for Metroid.
Let me know if there are some good resources out there for Star Wars or d20 Modern. I guess I could just find the equivalent player's handbooks for those systems...
 

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