Near Epic play in a modern setting?

[dream66_]

I'm thinking about a very high powered epic style game set in the modern day, This will involve the PC's trying to stop ancient demons and even gods from destroying the world. Very end of the world thing going on,

I'm just not sure what to use. I'm a serious d20Modern fangirl, but I'm not sure if that's how I want things to play out. I'm sorta looking for an over the top kind of thing.

I've never ran Mutants and Masterminds but I have read through it, it looks promising. Is there anyone out there with experience who can tell me how these systems hold up at the upper end of the spectrum? Or suggest another system even.

 

[dougmander]

Why do you believe that d20 Modern might not be appropriate? My own d20 Modern campaign started very modestly, and is now building toward just the sort of gameplay you describe, with the PCs trying to prevent the end of the world. Seems to work fine at high levels, except for the same problems I tend to encounter when I GM any d20 System game (high-level NPC bad guys take forever to generate, and it's hard to use all their feats and class abilities effectively in a combat when you're also managing all their flunkies).
Are you familiar with Unknown Armies?

 

[Christopher Lambert]

Modern doesn't handle high-FX very well. Non-FX classes get left in the dust (again!) and saving throw values are very low compared to the save DCs getting dished out.

 

[takyris]

Hey dream,

If you don't mind me asking, what defines "epic" for you? I think that'll give folks a clear way to answer your question.

If epic is "the big struggle, forces coming together and using all their power to fight the big bad guys," then you can do that in almost any system. The feeling of watching your fleet of assault helicopters converge on the Deep One as it comes out of the ocean (d20 Modern, no magic, CoC monsters) can be just as cool as the feeling of slaying an ancient wyrm and fighting off its cultists as they try to start world war three (d20 Modern, Urban Arcana) or working together to fend off an alien armada or an incrusion from hell (M&M). It's all in the feel.

M&M can, quite simply, get more boom in the box. At PL20, you can blow up planets, extinguish suns, or remove the stain of evil from every living creature in the world.

In d20 Modern, 4 20th level characters are still threatened by a room filled with 20 2nd-level guys with assault rifles. Their epic scale is more a matter of things all coming together, the charismatic hero calling in all his favors and making the big bluff that surprises the enemy, the smart hero coming up with a fantastic plan or decoding the ancient strategy, the tough hero standing proud while blood streams from a dozen wounds, and the fast hero getting past the enemy lines to take out the dread wizard before his spell is completed. Barring D&D spell-stuff (as in, Urban Arcana), you're not dealing with stuff that would look as impressive if turned into a movie. That doesn't mean it's not epic.

For my money, epic is less about level or bigness of boom as it is about the kind of music that's playing in the background during the final fight. If it's a techno track, it ain't epic. An epic fight could be done in slow motion while a heartbreaking orchestral score played on, and it would still be just as cool. If that makes any sense.

 

[Ymdar]

Cool

This Epic gaming sounds really cool (as most stuff people usually post to EnWorld )
IMHO Epic is almost like superhero gaming.
I was also thinking of running a game like this but the main problem with it is
Massive Damage Threshold: You can't get thrown out of the window you'll die from the Massive Damage. Or look at my favorite scene: You get hit by the bbeg you fly from the shock into a wall...break it, then get up and say: "Now you have insulted me...I'll really fight you now!"

 

[dream66_]

Well, to answer the question of exactly what i'm looking for... I'm not sure yet. Lots of rough ideas in my head. I know that I'm kinda thinking, less "movie" more "myth" Extraordinary people doing Extraordinary things, Achilles, Odyseus, Sinbad, etc as a for instance, but other things too.

The things takyris said about M&M at PL20 suggest to me that it's more than what i'm looking for. Alot more

I've been thinking about Tiamat (Babylonian Tiamat, not D&D) awakening, but that's unlikely to be a straight out physical confrontation, (I don't think I could handle the math in any system for that.)

And what was said about the music makes perfect sence. I feel the same.

 

[Stormborn]

Your best bet is the system you are most familiar with. While other systems may seem to work better for the story you have in mind, you and your players will be much happier with the game if you are all comfortable with the system.

Having said that, your idea of Tiamat awakening is interesting. Take a page from Call of Cthulhu and have Tiamat be an ancient spirit of Chaos that is awakenign as the New Age approaches in 2012. It begins to work first through the minds of those sensative to its influences. Creating cults, terrorists cells, and all manner of disorder. Maybe coupled with a rise both in artistic expressions of chaos, new schools of painting, music, and literature, and pure violence. Let the PCs work on these manifestations for awhile, perhaps with one or more of them having dreams/visions that influence him or her. As they progress they begin to see how wide spread these influneces are. It also becomes apparent that some people are more heavily influenced than others, these beings become the Voices of Tiamat, kind of avatars of the spirits powers.

Meanwhile the Sons of Marduk are an ancient Illuminati like organization that exists to promote civilization and fight the forces of Chaos. Theya re a source for ancient weapons, scrolls, etc. Depending on the way you want to go with that they could be a patron organization for the PCs. Personally I would play the one against the other with the PCs in between. Emphasise the negative aspects of the secret master's of the world that are the Sons and the artistic and freedom loving aspects of the Voices.

Hmmm...do you have Green Ronin's Psychic Handbook? I think i would use it for any FX, fits in well with the scenario i describe above.

I always like to hear about others campaigns and how they create them.

 

[dream66_]

Thanks for the advice everyone. This game is gonna need some thought...

No, I don't have Psychic Handbook, Wish I did. Can't find anyone selling it and hate to order online. If I do find it I'll be using it in this game.

I was inspired by reading about looting going on in truely ancient sites in Iraq and how much history is being destroyed from literally the dawn of human civilization, so I got to thinking about Tiamat being a Chaos loving Goddess I thought she'd like the current events. Start egging things on, expanding the conflicts. Seemed interesting.