Modiphius 2d20 Advice

[zarionofarabel]

So I have very recently managed to aquire a sizable collection of second hand 2d20 materials. The core books are as follows; Conan, Dune, Fallout, Homeworld, John Carter Of Mars, and Star Trek.

Any advice on where to start? A quick skim of the interwebs has revealed that there is a disparity in crunch level and complexity of the various implementations. What game would be the best one to learn first? Note, I have no preference via IP as outside of Star Trek, I have passing knowledge of the IPs at best. I would start with Star Trek, but have informed by multiple sources that the layout is not good and can make it harder to learn the game.

Any help, including advice on system usage and pitfalls thereof would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[overgeeked]

Oh boy.

There is a massive difference in the level of crunch. John Carter is the lightest of them. I don't know Homeworld, but Conan or Star Trek are tied for the heaviest. I'd recommend John Carter or Dune as places to start. As much as I dislike 2d20 and Modiphius, those two are really well done and much easier to read and lighter on mechanics.

I'm a big advocate for RPG books being written as reference manuals more than chatty, casual style...but Star Trek shows the downside of that. The reviewers you read were probably being gentle in their criticism of the layout and writing of Star Trek. The second edition is somewhat better, but 1E is kind of a nightmare to parse.

The gist of the version in Star Trek is roll low on 2d20. You add your attribute and discipline together, that's your target number. Roll that or lower on your 2d20 to succeed. Nat 1s count as two successes. If you have an applicable focus, any die showing that number or lower also counts as two successes. Nat 20s give you a complication. The difficulty of the roll is how many successes you need to accomplish the task.

That's the core of the task resolution mechanics. There are at least three metacurrencies to track. And then there's the d6s.

I'm sure you can find some tutorials on YouTube that give better rundowns of the system.

I know they just released Star Trek Adventures 2E, but after seeing the Narrativium System they did for Discworld I really hope they start using that for a lot more books.

Good luck.

 

[haileris23]

Out of that list of games, I would recommend starting with Dune especially if the sizable collection includes the Agents of Dune boxset. Dune is one of the simpler iterations of the 2d20 system and Agents of Dune is specifically meant to teach both players and the GM how the system works.

 

[RenleyRenfield]

So I have very recently managed to aquire a sizable collection of second hand 2d20 materials. The core books are as follows; Conan, Dune, Fallout, Homeworld, John Carter Of Mars, and Star Trek.

Any advice on where to start? A quick skim of the interwebs has revealed that there is a disparity in crunch level and complexity of the various implementations. What game would be the best one to learn first? Note, I have no preference via IP as outside of Star Trek, I have passing knowledge of the IPs at best. I would start with Star Trek, but have informed by multiple sources that the layout is not good and can make it harder to learn the game.

Any help, including advice on system usage and pitfalls thereof would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Yeah, the crunch is a bit different for them all, but not as much as it may seem once you are very familiar with how Momentum works.

So here are my recommendations =

- Start with Fallout
The reason why is that most players will be to some degree familiar or very familiar with the setting and overall concepts. That could end up being a whole LOT less to explain. The system is simple enough, D&D 5e if not less.
It has tons of fun stuff to dig into from the game. Gun, power suits, pipboys, perks, and crafting and so on. its all there, and its all very easy to learn and use.

- How to Run 2d20
All 2d20 games use Momentum (some call it different term), and most all use Heat (some call it doom or whatever.) This is a pool of points the players need, so start by letting them earn it with easy rolls. Build up the drama... you know... as in... build momentum.

- Players are expected to roleplay and do lots of investigative or exploring or talky things at 0 or 1 difficulty = before they every hit the 'big problems' or combats. They scout the compound, they talk to survivors, they build items for prep, etc. This is how they get Momentum for the most part.

- GMs get Heat by the player actions. Either the players give it to the GM outright for activating more dice or abilities or whatever each system uses it for. Or by rolling 20's. This is spent by the GM to alter the scene or escalate the problems. Basically the GM will create normal plots and enemies and such, erroring on the side of "too easy". And then to balance out the fights, they will spend Heat to make things more challenging. This almost entirely solves the problems with fights being unbalanced. (and it also lets you rip through a fight in case you need to speed things up)

- GM start by using all the pre-gen baddies they can find. Let the game do that hard work. You can learn to edit them or create your own later.

- Use pregen adventures (and if our group allows it, pregen characters for first game). (its free) And then let things go off the rails. You can always spend Heat to re-introduce the plot.

 

[kronovan]

...I would start with Star Trek, but have informed by multiple sources that the layout is not good and can make it harder to learn the game...

The Core Rules were republished for Star Trek Adventures, as the Star Trek Adventures Rules Digest and The Klingon Empire Core Rulebook. Both of those are apparently reorganized for ease of use. I couldn't say what content has changed, but can say that I originally just owned the original STA Core Rules PDF and found it to be a confusing read and a challenge to build a PC. Whereas I own the soft cover of the Rules Digest, and my players and I haven't had issues with understanding and using it. Both of the new rules books feature black text on white, as opposed to the 1st books white on black.

The bigger issue of using STA 1st Ed, is finding Challenge Dice. It might not be a problem in scome countries, but in mine I had to order the online from a store on the other side of the country. You can instead quite easily substitue a standard d6 for them. They're only used for some aspects of combat and extended tasks, so it's not like you'd be too challenged often to use regular D6s. That said, my players and I find the CD with their Starfleet academy icons on some faces to nicely bring home the theme. It should probably be mentioned that the newer, 2nd Ed of the rules no longer uses Challenge Dice. So if you're just starting now, the newer rulebook is worth considering.

I have to say, the 1e sourcebooks, supplements and companions for STA are very good. I've spent hours pouring through the 4 different quadrant sourcebooks and enjoyed the time spent. I've even enjoyed reading the 3 division (Command, Operations & Science) supplemental books. I was fortunate to get every PDF Modiphius has published for STA 1e for about $25 USD in a Humble Bundle sale. So lots to read and GM with.

As to the other 2d20 games, there seems to be a consensus among 2d20 fans, that Fallout and Dune have benefited the most from what has come before. Were I not to have a group of friends that play TTRPGs and are also Star Trek fans, Dune would definitely be my choice. Read most of Herberts Dune verse novels in my youth, have watched the 2 movies and yes, I even enjoyed the TV series.

 

[kronovan]

...I'm a big advocate for RPG books being written as reference manuals more than chatty, casual style...but Star Trek shows the downside of that. The reviewers you read were probably being gentle in their criticism of the layout and writing of Star Trek...

What I tell my players to simply a CRB 1st read, is to read the "Reporting for Duty" chapter 1st, the "Operations" chapter next, followed by the "Conflict" chapter. The reason being, that STA PC creation uses a Life Path system, so they're going to get some of the Starfleet background by going through that alone. I typically take them through the "Gear and Equipment" chapter in a zero session. The ordering of those above mentnioned chapters in the CRB are actually 5th, 4th and 7th. Just focusing on those brings 240 pages of player readable content down to less than 100.

I've found that once my players have built a PC and have some understanding of the rules, reading all of that wordy backgound in other chapters is easier. If the player has never watched a single episode of any Star Trek series, I usually suggest reading the 1st 5-1/2 pages of the "United Federation of Planets" chapter, as that briefly outlines the most known planets.

From a rules perspective the core game is quite easy, with the 42 pages in the Operations and Confict chapters comprising the majority of what a player needs to know. There's also 30 page of starship rules and combat in the "A Home in the Stars" chapter. But I always send my players out on away mission 1st, so they can read those once they're into the game.

 

[Thomas Shey]

So I have very recently managed to aquire a sizable collection of second hand 2d20 materials. The core books are as follows; Conan, Dune, Fallout, Homeworld, John Carter Of Mars, and Star Trek.

Any advice on where to start? A quick skim of the interwebs has revealed that there is a disparity in crunch level and complexity of the various implementations. What game would be the best one to learn first? Note, I have no preference via IP as outside of Star Trek, I have passing knowledge of the IPs at best. I would start with Star Trek, but have informed by multiple sources that the layout is not good and can make it harder to learn the game.

Any help, including advice on system usage and pitfalls thereof would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

As I recall John Carter is the simplest of those (I don't think I have that one, though I do have Conan, Fallout and Star Trek which all feel vaguely of a piece in complexity to me, but I also haven't got so into the guts to be sure of that).

 

[zarionofarabel]

- Start with Fallout
The reason why is that most players will be to some degree familiar or very familiar with the setting and overall concepts.

Haha, funnily enough I decided to skim a book last night and chose Fallout for this very reason! While I did play Fallout 4, I didn't get into the lore all that much. I did watch the TV show, which I thought was totally awesome. Hopefully any potential players will not be too harsh if I get the lore wrong.

- GMs get Heat by the player actions. Either the players give it to the GM outright for activating more dice or abilities or whatever each system uses it for. Or by rolling 20's. This is spent by the GM to alter the scene or escalate the problems. Basically the GM will create normal plots and enemies and such, erroring on the side of "too easy". And then to balance out the fights, they will spend Heat to make things more challenging. This almost entirely solves the problems with fights being unbalanced. (and it also lets you rip through a fight in case you need to speed things up)

Okay, cool, thanks! That makes a lot more sense now. I have heard of games that used GM bennies, but never really grasped why the GM would even need them because, well, GM! As GM I can do whatever, why would GM need bennies? So yeah, thank you for making that make sense! Start with enemies that may seem "too easy" then use GM bennies to make the encounter more difficult so as to avoid a situation where the enemies are "to hard" and end up with a TPK. That's actually a neat way to allow the GM to "fudge" an encounters difficulty, without actually fudging. Nice! Cause I'm a real stickler for GMs never fudging, and I never do, so that is cool mechanic to have.

 

[zarionofarabel]

Out of that list of games, I would recommend starting with Dune especially if the sizable collection includes the Agents of Dune boxset. Dune is one of the simpler iterations of the 2d20 system and Agents of Dune is specifically meant to teach both players and the GM how the system works.

I would totally love to Dune if I could find some Dune familiar players. However, I am very hung up on what to actually do in a Dune game. I've obviously watched the two movies (got chills when Paul asks "what's in the box" and the Witch say "pain" cause that scene got seared into my brain when I was a kid, and the movie showed it perfectly). Outside of the whole Quiznos Hatrack thing I am at a loss as to what to with a Dune game.

 

[kronovan]

...I have heard of games that used GM bennies, but never really grasped why the GM would even need them because, well, GM! As GM I can do whatever, why would GM need bennies?...

To the best of my knowledge, only Savage Worlds features bennies, but there's ceratinly other TTRPGs out there that have a similar metacurrency. Bennies are core to Savage Worlds, as among other things, they allow a player or GM to remove the Shakened condition or to soak a wound. Soaking wounds in particular is important as a sort of safeguard against damage dice that can ace (multiply.) As both of those occur in combat, they impact combat encounters and in a round about way have an equivalent effect to the sort of things you suggested/described.