[rant] Something I realized about the d20 system...

[Quasqueton]

To hell with the rules. If I want a person to be brilliantly skilled in something but otherwise mundane and not special, I'll make them that way. I'm not going to have the best weaver in the kingdom by virtue of the level system have better skill at killing people (BAB) than 9/10 of the king's army. That's silly. If I just want to have someone be better at something I'll just give them a nonspecific bonus.

Johan the greatest beer maker in the world isn't going to be able to take three dozen arrows in his chest that would have killed any of the professional soldiers in his city. Nor by virtue of the level system that allows him to have such a great skill rank in profession 'beer maker' should he be uniformly able to withstand injury more than people specifically trained in fighting etc.

Johan the greatest beer maker
Human Expert 2
Str 10
Dex 10
Con 11
Int 12
Wis 10
Cha 10

AC: 10
HP: 7

Skills: Craft (Brewing) +15, Profession (Brewmeister) +8 [gives synergy bonus to craft], Knowledge (Beer) 5 [gives synergy bonus to craft], ?, ?, ?

Feats: Skill Focus (Brewing), Brewer's Nose [+2 to two brewing skills]

There, he can regularly (Take 10) reach "Formidable" [DC 25] levels of brewing, and can with luck, make "Heroic" [DC 30] beer.

Quasqueton

 

[Thunderfoot]

I agree with barsoomcore!
Having knowledge of future tech doesn't mean the person is more intelligent, just more learned NOT the same thing. Case in point, look at a rogue with INT 17 - many skills (learned practices) versus a mage with INT 17- few skills but can obtain magic - which one is smarter? Neither, they both have the same understanding quotient, but different knowledge - I would be leaning more towards a 19 - 23 INT on your tech "wizard" and lay down a unique class for the character that is skills heavy - use d20 Modern as your template and have your main resource be d20 Past instead of 3.5E D&D.
Just my two coppers, hope this helps and happy gaming.

 

[Henry]

I second that M&M 2 can mimic this EXACT effect. You can have someone with a BAB of +0, but a STR of 30, and a Damage Save (equivalent of Hit Points) of +0. They'll look funky, but then, ANY character will when they're totally lopsided in capability.

 

[Hjorimir]

When the rules get in the way of the game just push the rules aside.

 

[William_2]

To agree with some other posts, I see those rules as there to provide balance between PCs, and hence fairness among the players. I don’t use them to make NPCs balanced relative to PCs – there is just no point to that concept, in my view. If a very smart NPC is called for, then they exist. The world has to allow for every possible combination of abilities, even though the PC building system cannot realistically hope to do so. Nor does it need to. A PC could themselves be a great brewer in addition to their other capabilities – what are the chances that it would ever matter?

 

[Aaron2]

The reason I'm ranting about this is because the aforementioned conversion project drove this limitation home pretty hard. Gina, the main character in GD, lives on modern-day Earth, but has technology so advanced that it'd still be beyond conventional science centuries from now.

I have two questions. First, what does she do with this super-tech? Are you trying to simulate this by giving her mega-ranks in normal 20th century skills? Would this be better described as a special ability or, even, a new skill all its own?

Second, if she is the main character of the entire game world, why is she only first level?


Aaron

 

[Crothian]

When the rules get in the way of the game just push the rules aside.

lots of people sasy this, but in reality it takes a good DM to actually be able to do it. THere is a point that pushing rules aside actually hurts the game.

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Yeah, Mutants & Masterminds certainly allows you a certain amount of freedom while not being totally tied down to strict d20 rules. I guess what I am saying is that M&M offers flexibility that strict d20 does not.

 

[WayneLigon]

Mutants and Masterminds wojld give you what you need. In fact, there's an entire sourcebook - Gimmick's Guide to Gadgets - that caters to the Gina Diggers' of the world. Super-Intelligence plus some of the inventor feats and extras, and you're good to go. Seems that to do Fred Perry's world, with it's amazing martial arts feats, world-bending sorcery, dragons, Nomad Artificer tech and the rest, you'd need to be using a superhero system anyway: the right tool for the right job.

d20, and indeed most other RPG's, use a linear power formula because balance is a consideration. A superhero world almost never has balance among the various characters, so most systems for it reflect that.

 

[Ao the Overkitty]

Echoing in with the 'use Mutants and Masterminds' crowd. I don't know the BESM system, but that would probably work well too.

Gold Digger requires superpowered characters with varying power levels. d20 does neither of these well, in my experience.