Superheros ...

[Azure Trance]

Just finished reading Issue #4 of 21 Down by WILDSTORM. The main character is Preston, a 20 year old guy (metahuman?) who has the ability by touching dead people how they died by experiencing their last moments. His older brother is a cop who uses his brother often to help his cases, although Preston doesn't like being only useful in getting his brother promotions. He knows he's going to die in a year, though not sure how, and takes a grim outlook on life. Why did he get shortchanged? Why can't he fly or have superhuman strength? Then a case pops up; goth girls are being murdered. He see's images of a figure quoting biblical like quotes of judgement. Through the net, he finds himself in contact with an FBI Agent who tries hard to befriend him. She's searching for this man before he kills again and needs his help ...

Of course I'm skipping out on the details that made it great; the old cynical man Sam who plays chess with Preston (hilarious dialogue). The 3rd party tailing the FBI Agent. Other metahumans with slight powers like Preston. But reading 21 Down made me (typically) wonder about how something like that could be done in d20 terms. I'm a large comics fan of all types - Fantasy, SciFi, Graphic Novel, etc. They give great ideas for adventures or themes, and I know that my party wouldn't know where these fantastic ideas came from

So I'd like to ask you how the best way to combine modern day with superpowers of all types: low-key powers like Preston to mind-bending powers of The Authority if need be. Probably mix in some supernatural powers like the occult or the devil with a dash of scifi superscience and a pinch of powerful organizations to create a modern day world capable of anything[i/]. My gut reaction is to use d20M and convert, if possible, Mutants & Masterminds powers to something workable (as in some sort of ECL modifier among other things of having a potentially low power supers campaign).

Unbelievably though, I still lack ideas on what to base the campaign on. (Espionage can all be done with Spycraft, so that won't really be an option.) I suppose I'll just wait until I get a group though before worrying about that

 

[WayneLigon]

One of the best low-level supers games I ever did was a 'now things are different' game, where there is an event (not unlike the flash in Rising Stars, or the White Event in the Marvel New Universe) that grants super powers to a certain percentage of the population. The event happens at Place X (where the PC's happen to be) and grows in a circle from there at about a fast running pace. Place X tends to have higher-powered and more supers.

The theme is "What if you got super powers? What would you do with them?" Needless to say, it throws the nation into chaos.

I designed the powers everyone got.

 

[mistergone]

Dude alert

Dude, get Mutants & Masterminds. Duh. It has the system to make all the superpowered characters you could ever want. Low powered, high powered, average powered... anything.

 

[Azure Trance]

Re: Dude alert

Dude, get Mutants & Masterminds. Duh. It has the system to make all the superpowered characters you could ever want. Low powered, high powered, average powered... anything.

I have it, but can't find it at the moment. Although I recall while flipping through it that it's only ... slightly compatible with D20M, having 'power levels' and such. I wouldn't even be sure how to quantify a superpower in ECL terms either, which I think would be necessary, and I doubt would be available (M&M>D20M)

 

[mistergone]

Re: Re: Dude alert

I have it, but can't find it at the moment. Although I recall while flipping through it that it's only ... slightly compatible with D20M, having 'power levels' and such. I wouldn't even be sure how to quantify a superpower in ECL terms either, which I think would be necessary, and I doubt would be available (M&M>D20M)

Well, who says you even need D20 Modern? You lost me, maybe I didn't read your first post right. I was saying, use M&M only. No D20 Modern. M&M doesn't have crazy things like ECL, CR, and other messy rules. It's all about the Power Level of a character, which is scaleable.

If you're Hell-bent on using D20 Modern, then you want Four Color To Fantasy or something, which I know little about, other than it's a small press PDF and I have no interest in PDFs at all so I've never even given it a second thought.

My advice, ditch D20M and use M&M.

 

[Blacksad]

Re: Re: Dude alert

I have it, but can't find it at the moment. Although I recall while flipping through it that it's only ... slightly compatible with D20M, having 'power levels' and such. I wouldn't even be sure how to quantify a superpower in ECL terms either, which I think would be necessary, and I doubt would be available (M&M>D20M)

If you want something compatible with d20 Modern, FCTF is the only super game especially designed for this purpose, you can't go wrong with this one.

 

[Arani Korden]

Re: Re: Re: Dude alert

If you want something compatible with d20 Modern, FCTF is the only super game especially designed for this purpose, you can't go wrong with this one.

Actually, the supers rules in the d20 Modern Counter Collection from Fiery Dragon are explicitly written for, well, d20 Modern. I don't have FCTF, so I can't compare the two rulesets, though.

 

[Blacksad]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Dude alert

Actually, the supers rules in the d20 Modern Counter Collection from Fiery Dragon are explicitly written for, well, d20 Modern. I don't have FCTF, so I can't compare the two rulesets, though.

oops, I knew that another publisher was writting rules for supers in d20 Modern, but I didn't knew that another one was already out.

 

[Neowolf]

Why the determination to use D20 Modern? I've looked through both books, and in my opinion M&M is superior to D20M in every way, especially when it comes to superhero games. The only difficulty is getting your players to learn the new rules, which really isn't that hard. Just wave the old "You could be character x" (character x being their favorite super) in front of their nose.

 

[RangerWickett]

Natural 20 Press (or a very similar company with the same people working) will be releasing the d20 Modern revisions for Four-Color to Fantasy soon, specifically designed to take advantage of the rules of D20 Modern. The version that's currently available (at RPGNow.com, where it's the #12 top seller) can work with D20 Modern, but it was released before D20 Modern itself was released.