Spycraft meets Dark Angel

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Has anyone tried converting Manticore and the transgenics over to Spycraft? I was thinking something along the lines of making transgenic feats and allowing such characters a certain number of such feats at first level as a means to represent their abilities.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Thats an interesting idea. I hadn't thought of that one.

I was thinking of using Spycraft for a Stargate: SG-1 game.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Give 'em transgenic points and treat transgenic points just like gp to purchase magic items from the DMG. However these items are all inherent powers. I'd suggest maybe giving one TP per 2 GP the character would normally have from level advancement and so forth (inherent powers are better after all).

If you do this and use Spycraft though you'll likely need to dump the defense bonus.

 

[Steve Conan Trustrum]

Instead of using a money equivalent, wouldn't XP make more sense? This would necessitate an ECL, however, for beginning characters.

 

[2WS-Steve]

By making it a money equivalent you have a way of easily balancing your characters against comparable D&D characters. Characters in D&D are truly built using two kinds of points, XP and GP but in a lot of settings we don't want to actually use GP so I think it's best to simply have a GP surrogate.

For one thing, your players will like you better since they want to hoard their XP for more levels and they know they're already getting the shaft by playing in one of those awful Star Wars-like games where you don't get any pay-off for missions.

Secondly, a more subtle point is that challenge ratings, modules, monsters, and even class abilities are all designed around the assumption that players will have certain amounts of magic items at certain levels. By funnelling off XP to pay for those abilities you break the connection between experience level and magic item power level. This is because you could wind up with a 5th level character with a boatload of magic item style powers surrounded by 10th level characters with more reasonable "magic item" sets.

From a purely gaming perspective I also think it's just a more fun idea to have two or more kinds of resources. In computer games like Warcraft you have Gold, Wood and Mana (I think; it's been a while), in V:tM you have xp and Bloodline rank, in Ars Magica you have skill points and Vis. I'm not sure why but I've generally enjoyed games where I have to balance off a couple resources (but not too many, 2 to 4 generally seems to be fun without being cumbersome).

I'll insert a shameless plug here too; I suggest a few options and specific implementations of this stuff in Bodies and Souls: 20 Templates, on sale at RPGNow for 5 bucks.

I certainly don't think you need to go the GP route. But I think doing it right makes it a lot easier to import stuff from other d20 supplements (like running the occasional fantasy module, drawing down some stuff from Dragonstar, or just pulling some NPC writeups off the net). It also makes it easier to take the work you did on Dark Angel rules and port them back over to a fantasy d20 game, giving it a lot of re-usability value.

 

[Tonguez]

Ever considered races

Okay way I did it was give everyone 3 feats and allow a feat to be used to gain a +2 stat bonus (used by Transgenics to increase ability scores)

Everything else done with DnD Races (so ECL is easy to convert)

I've presented Joshua using Orc stats using a feat for +2 Str feat (Str 22)+scent feat + cleave feat

For the X5 I used half-elf base stats

 

[Voneth]

Even crazier and even simplier at the same time.

Some ideas:

1
One of the simpliest is that transgenics are Chemical Monsters. They don't mention it anymore, but in season one the main character had to take a regular medication or get the shakes really bad. I never saw any indication that they found a "cure." So one could use a Chemical Monster template and it's done.

2
One of the "hidden" aspects about Spycraft is that character levels are not neccessary advancement levels, they are levels of power.

Also take note that only people who give Transgenics a run for their money are other modified humans, so evidently we have two leauges of power here. So make it a reality game wise as well.

Start off transgenics at something like level 8. This power level and their action dice modifiers should allow them to do all sorts of crazy stuff that will bend the rules of reality. Normal humans are down at level 1 or 2. This sort of assumes the whole party will be transgenics.

And what if it is a mixed party? It depends on how mature your play group is.
The series seemed to divide things up, normal humans did all the work pulling strings and working computers while transgenics did what they did best -- fight. Even with disparite levels, that could still be done in Spycraft. But don't forget ...

It is d20 and you're the DM. Normal humans in your campaign could have a -4 to STR and CON or could have on a d4 hit points per level, or no defence bonus.

Personaly, I think the concepts in Dark Angel are radical enough that game balance needs to be more abstract that usual.

 

[Ashtal]

Shhhhh!

I'm scooting this over to the d20 games.

*boing*

...

Dang...I boinged instead of whooshed! Dead giveaway!

 

[Horacio]

I like the idea of Chemical Monsters. Or, naming it differtently, Genetic Altered Monsters.

But one thing must be clear, IMHO. Even a freshly released X5 should be able to defeat any low- or middle- level human without effort. If not, it isn't Dar Angel.

YMMV, of course...

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

One abbrevation: ECL.


Maybe you look in the Dungeon Master Guide under "Monstrous Humanoids".

Mustrum Ridcully