Military based D20 game

[Ranger REG]

Sticking to the theme of this forum: d20/OGL game

Once again and I hate to keep beating it's drum but one of the reasons I like T2K is that it wasn't level based. Your initiative roll was probably the single most important roll in character creation. When you take damage you suffer a penalty to initative to represent the effects of shock (both physical trauma as well as shaken cool). When your initative drops to 0 you are out of the fight. You could have a 20 year veteran who never saw combat but sat behind a desk for the most part with an initiative of 1 but you could also have a 20 year old kid fresh out of Ranger school that seemed born to fight with a initiative of 6 (the max). Also, during character creation you roll after every 4 year term to see if war breaks out. That way you have a wide variety of experience between the characters. It all works very well together... check it out.

If you can provide a classless d20/OGL ruleset for such a military-type RPG, then more power to you. But just so you know, not all of us think it should only be that way.

d20 Modern offer that kind of variety in the military community structure. Smart Soldier would probably be assigned to the Logistic unit. Dedicated Soldiers are combat medic or field doctors in mobile hospitals. Charismatic Soldiers are lieutenants and captains who bark orders but still rely on the expertise of sergeants.

 

[JPL]

If you can provide a classless d20/OGL ruleset for such a military-type RPG, then more power to you. But just so you know, not all of us think it should only be that way.

d20 Modern offer that kind of variety in the military community structure. Smart Soldier would probably be assigned to the Logistic unit. Dedicated Soldiers are combat medic or field doctors in mobile hospitals. Charismatic Soldiers are lieutenants and captains who bark orders but still rely on the expertise of sergeants.

Also...Blood & Guts expands your character options dramatically with MOS feats, which provide additional class skills [among other benefits]. Since some of the advanced classes therein require a very high BAB [+10 for Delta Force or the British SAS, for example], you can stick with high BAB classes like Strong Hero while still advancing steadily in critical skills --- Treat Injury for medics, f'rinstance.

I really dig that Field Officer advanced class from d20 Future, too...fills a niche.

 

[DMScott]

I read that the game took place in an alternate 1997, how out of date are the weapons and equipment tables? Were the scenarios strictly US vs Soviets?

Twilight 2000 was originally published in 1984. The weapons and equipment are based on projections of non-secret procurement and development plans at the time, and they've actually held up reasonably well (T2000's war starts in 1995, so they were projecting about 10 years into the future - not too much of a stretch). A couple of later editions revised the timeline to match later events, one hypothesized that the capitalist/democracy revolution in Russia would be a failure and lead to a war much like 1E T2000's, and another set up a world in which no major wars occurred but brushfire and terrorist conflicts provide the backdrop for roleplaying (the Merc: 2000 game). But all the timelines are obviously pretty dated now.

The invasion of Texas in T2000 occurred when the Soviet "Division Cuba" was kicked out of Cuba to avoid nuclear attacks, after the two sides had basically lost any large-scale ability to transport troops. Since they couldn't go home (or very far), they ended up in Mexico, which made a grab for parts of the southern US once most of the US army was stuck in Europe and the US government had pretty much collapsed. So the Soviets helped. It was kind of a silly and far-fetched element of the timeline (which otherwise wasn't too implausible), I imagine it was added specifically to allow "Red Dawn"-style scenarios. WOLVERINES!

 

[Bobitron]

See my recently created thread for some military prestige classes I made based on the Spycraft rules.

 

[Mr. T]

Class changes: The advanced classes will be modified so a scientist would become a field tech who could jurry-rig things with spare parts and duct tape (fixes everything). Soldiers will have rank rules for issuing orders. They can also trade in levels of Soldier for Officer (new class) or Special Forces (new class). I may eventually write a futurist expansion (like Command & Conquer: Generals).

Note: The making of this game may take awhile so don't get anxious.

 

[JPL]

Class changes: The advanced classes will be modified so a scientist would become a field tech who could jurry-rig things with spare parts and duct tape (fixes everything). Soldiers will have rank rules for issuing orders. They can also trade in levels of Soldier for Officer (new class) or Special Forces (new class). I may eventually write a futurist expansion (like Command & Conquer: Generals).

Note: The making of this game may take awhile so don't get anxious.

If you haven't, you might want to take a look at the Field Officer advanced class [from d20 Future, and in the SRD] and the SpecOp class [from the Urban Arcana web enhancement, just to see how other designers have approached these archetypes.

Good luck.