Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
So when should a publisher ditch d20 and develop their own system?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="buzz" data-source="post: 3311562" data-attributes="member: 6777"><p>Why not, IYO?</p><p></p><p>I think any talk of genre w/r/t what d20 (or any system) can "do" is sort of tangential, because there's a lot to genre that's often really just color, in RPG terms. E.g., I'm prepping the original <em>Gamma World</em> module <em>Legion of Gold</em> for a Gameday event. The adventure is basically a dungeon crawl with some wilderness encounters; it even begins with, "You all meet up in a tavern," though it uses the term "saloon." But, it's post-apoc sci-fi, not high fantasy. Why? Because you fight mutants, not goblins. I'd point to Mearls comment above about the <em>Serenity</em> dungeon-crawl, too.</p><p></p><p>Ergo, I think the bigger question is whether d20's framework will allow your game to do what you want it to do, not just whether it will fit the genre trappings. We know d20 is great for a game focused on tactics and resource-management, but what about a game focused on thematic play? Or "reality simulator" games like GURPS or HERO? (<em>d20 Modern</em> and SC2.0 start getting into the latter territory a bit, IMO.)</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure I have an easy answer to this question, because it brings into discussion, "When is a game no longer d20?", i.e., how much modification can you make while still calling a game d20 (touched on by the Dancey quote upthread). </p><p></p><p>For me, a game is d20 if my existing knowledge of systems like D&D and d20M are still useful. So, M&M is d20 in my book, as despite the classless, level-less, power-based system, it still feels d20 mechanically to me. And, it's largely doing the tactics + resources thing.</p><p></p><p>But, if you took, say, <em>HeroQuest</em>'s roll-under d20 mechanic and made it roll-over, and then switched character traits to bonuses instead of target numbers, that'd basically be the core d20 mechanic... but I don't think that would be enough, as the rest of the system wouldn't build much on my existing d20 knowledge, and doesn't really focus on tactics (AFAIK; I could be wrong).</p><p></p><p>So, back to transhumanist SF... Having read the first <em>Transhuman Space</em> book (which rawks, BTW), I don't really see anything about it that you couldn't do with a d20 framework. A lot of the SF material published for d20M already does it, in fact.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="buzz, post: 3311562, member: 6777"] Why not, IYO? I think any talk of genre w/r/t what d20 (or any system) can "do" is sort of tangential, because there's a lot to genre that's often really just color, in RPG terms. E.g., I'm prepping the original [i]Gamma World[/i] module [i]Legion of Gold[/i] for a Gameday event. The adventure is basically a dungeon crawl with some wilderness encounters; it even begins with, "You all meet up in a tavern," though it uses the term "saloon." But, it's post-apoc sci-fi, not high fantasy. Why? Because you fight mutants, not goblins. I'd point to Mearls comment above about the [I]Serenity[/I] dungeon-crawl, too. Ergo, I think the bigger question is whether d20's framework will allow your game to do what you want it to do, not just whether it will fit the genre trappings. We know d20 is great for a game focused on tactics and resource-management, but what about a game focused on thematic play? Or "reality simulator" games like GURPS or HERO? ([I]d20 Modern[/I] and SC2.0 start getting into the latter territory a bit, IMO.) I'm not sure I have an easy answer to this question, because it brings into discussion, "When is a game no longer d20?", i.e., how much modification can you make while still calling a game d20 (touched on by the Dancey quote upthread). For me, a game is d20 if my existing knowledge of systems like D&D and d20M are still useful. So, M&M is d20 in my book, as despite the classless, level-less, power-based system, it still feels d20 mechanically to me. And, it's largely doing the tactics + resources thing. But, if you took, say, [i]HeroQuest[/i]'s roll-under d20 mechanic and made it roll-over, and then switched character traits to bonuses instead of target numbers, that'd basically be the core d20 mechanic... but I don't think that would be enough, as the rest of the system wouldn't build much on my existing d20 knowledge, and doesn't really focus on tactics (AFAIK; I could be wrong). So, back to transhumanist SF... Having read the first [i]Transhuman Space[/i] book (which rawks, BTW), I don't really see anything about it that you couldn't do with a d20 framework. A lot of the SF material published for d20M already does it, in fact. [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
So when should a publisher ditch d20 and develop their own system?
Top