The Shadow-Files

[Munin]

The Shadow-Files, a D20 Modern campaign

I’m using this forum as place to deposit my ideas for an upcoming campaign. Your thoughts and ideas are always welcome.

Introduction to the S-Files…
As the name implies, the S-Files is a modern campaign inspired by the X-Files TV series. Other inspiration comes from the popular Dark*Matter campaign setting, which I might add is a fantastic supplement, and the Shadow Chasers campaign setting described in the D20 Modern core rulebook.
The mood of the game will be a mix of action/horror with heavy emphasis on investigation and roleplaying.

Like the X-Files series, the story arc will be quite broad and interspersed; a mingling of odd and horrific encounters strewn along the path of the players to keep things lively, and the occasional carrot to keep their interest.
The general theme will involve two otherworldly powers vying for control of the human race, both attempting to achieve the same end result but going about it in opposite ways. These two powers not only subvert humanity, but also actively fight one another. The players will possibly be members of the Hoffman Institute, an organization stuck somewhere in the middle of these two powers, faced with the task of peeling away layer upon layer of conspiracy in order to discover the ‘truth’, which is, in fact, out there. But more on the storyline later.

Game Mechanics
In truth, this campaign is only loosely based on the D20 Modern rules.
I’ve dropped in the WP/VP system of Star Wars, the Sanity rules of CoC, and a slightly less painful version of the spellcasting rules from the Medallions Story Hour, found in the story hour forum.
I haven’t settled on a Psionics system yet, but I’m close.
Various skills and feats have been added and removed as well.
Over all, I think I have a pretty interesting ruleset to go with, but I’ll withhold judgment till we actually play.


Up next:
The major players of the Shadow-Files.

 

[darkbard]

i'm sure there are many of us who clamored for details of old drew id's magic system from the medallions story hour campaign who would love to see what you've worked out for your magic system....

 

[Wraith Form]

The general theme will involve two otherworldly powers vying for control of the human race, both attempting to achieve the same end result but going about it in opposite ways. These two powers not only subvert humanity, but also actively fight one another. The players will possibly be members of the Hoffman Institute, an organization stuck somewhere in the middle of these two powers, faced with the task of peeling away layer upon layer of conspiracy in order to discover the ‘truth’, which is, in fact, out there. But more on the storyline later.

Aww. I want more storyline info NOW.

Sounds pretty cool--! Please keep us...ahem, "posted"!!

 

[Munin]

i'm sure there are many of us who clamored for details of old drew id's magic system from the medallions story hour campaign who would love to see what you've worked out for your magic system....

Old Drew ID posted his magic system on his story hour, I'm sure I have it around here somewhere. I'll repost it if I can find it.
I left his system mostly intact, except I added the Evocation school, as I'm going for a little more flash than he is.
Like him, I cut a lot of spells that duplicate player abilities and such, and cut all divination magic.
I added Sanity point costs to the spells and changed most of the names. So far, I really like what I have. Old Drew's system was nothing sort of genius!

 

[Desdichado]

Can someone give a quick and dirty summary of the magic rules? It seems to me, if you're going to use CoC Sanity, that the magic and psychic powers of that game are just crying to be used along with them.

Also, you can check out my old Shadowlight Storyhour which is very similar in theme, at least. We didn't really get that far into it before our group starting moving all over the country and stuff, but we've talked recently about possibly reviving it with a condensed group.

 

[Munin]

Can someone give a quick and dirty summary of the magic rules? It seems to me, if you're going to use CoC Sanity, that the magic and psychic powers of that game are just crying to be used along with them.

Here's the gist:
Each school of magic has its own knowledge skill, which one must put ranks in to learn spells.
A caster cannot learn a spell of a certain level unless he already knows a spell of the level below it.
In order to cast a spell, the caster must make a roll based on his skill with that school, against a dc that increases according to the power of the spell.
Each school is color coded and the related color is used when Detecting Magic which is an ability the caster can use at will, instead of a spell.
Like Medallions, there is no published spell list, but a lot of the CoC spells made the cut.
There is no artificial limit on the amount of spells a character can cast. They can cast until they drop.
The reason I didn't go with the rules from CoC is that I don't want to drive my casters insane, I just want to establish a level of tension that the Sanity rules help provide.
Unlike CoC, not all of the spells will have a sanity point cost. The actual cost of the spell depends on the school and level of the spell. Some schools are less apt to drive the caster into a mental breakdown than others.
I attached the spellcasting rules from Medallions that Drew put up on his storyhour, if you want to take a closer look at the system he devised. It really is pretty nifty.

As I said before, I haven't settled on a psionic system yet. The only thing I know is that I want the two systems to have totally different feels to them.

 

[Munin]

curse the double-post and its wicked ways!

 

[Munin]

Major Players on the S-Files world, part I

The Ithillids, because nothing says evil quite like a mindflayer!

Ithillid involvement in earth began nearly two thousand years ago, after suffering a crushing defeat at the hands of the daoine sidhe*. Ironically, it was because of the sidhe that the ithillids discovered the alternate reality of earth and began to formulate plans to dominate this race of weak-minded ‘humans’ both for food and as fodder against the sidhe.
Through abduction and experimentation, the ithillids soon discovered that humans possessed rudimentary psionic powers which could be developed and exploited for their own nefarious purposes. By the dark ages, the mindflayers began a systematic program of abduction which culminated in the creation of a new sub-race of humanity with greatly heightened (though still inferior to ithillid) psionic abilities. These creatures, which stand between four and five feet high, have large, tear shaped eyes, oblong heads, and gray, mottled flesh, are called ‘Fraal’ by the ithillids, but simply ‘greys’ by humanity.
By the start of the 19th century, Fraal began their invasion of earth in earnest, using psionic-powered aircraft capable of traveling between the two realms. Sightings of these craft, and of the greys themselves, have only increased since that time.

The ithillid strategy is simple. Using the greys, they strive to unite humankind under one government, and then use their incredible powers of mind control to dominate that government. The idea is that controlling one body of people is much easier than controlling hundreds of fragmented societies, and through this proxy government enslaving the rest of humanity would only be a matter of time.
Once humankind is under their control, they can then move to the next phase of their plan. Part of humanity will be quietly shipped off to serve as food for the ithillids, but the majority will be focused on the task of defeating their ancient enemies, the sidhe. All while the ithillids remain safely in the Shadow realm, pulling the strings on their human and fraal lackeys.
As one might guess, the principle human agent that the ithillids work through is the United Nations.

Ithillid strengths:
The single greatest strength of the ithillids is their unmatched psionic and mental capabilities. Another is their secrecy. They have a knack for remaining behind the scenes. Up to this point, even the Hoffman institute is not aware of their existence, assuming the greys are an independent alien species. One of the mysteries hidden in the campaign is the fact that the greys come from human stock, and all the implications that bit of knowledge might reveal.
They also have advanced technology, in many cases exceeding that of humanity. Fraal aircraft, the famous ‘flying saucers’ are a product of ithillid design and are quiet adept at defying the laws of physics.

Ithillid weaknesses:
The greatest weakness is their lack of numbers. Ithillids procreate at a slower rate than even the sidhe, and have never recovered from the slaughter they sustained in the war with the sidhe. To this day, they are still savagely hunted by them in the Shadow realm.
Really, this plan to enslave humanity is a desperate play by a race on the verge of extinction. If they fail, or are revealed, the end of their race would be all but inevitable.
Mindflayers are by no means a united group. They are not as fractured as the sidhe, fighting for your very existence will do that, but they are far from harmonious. Infighting does occur, as does ‘turf wars’ between the various groups of Fraal active on earth.

In practice, the pcs will rarely encounter an ithillid. These creatures prefer to remain in the Shadow realm and use their Fraal proxies to accomplish their purposes. In fact, one of the major conspiracies of the game will involve the discovery of the human origins of the Fraal and the true power behind them.

More on the history, structure and present goals of the ithillids in the future. Next up…the daoine sidhe.


*Very little is known of the conflict between ithillid and sidhe in the shadow realm, but the enmity between the two groups is deep-seated and intense. It is apparent that the ithillids where the dominate race until full-scale exodus of the sidhe after their defeat in the pre-historic ‘War of the Ring’.
The sidhe poured their wrath out upon the unprepared ithillids and quickly established a foothold in the Shadow Realm. Defeating the ithillids was a much longer and bloodier process, but it is clear that at a point which roughly coincides with the rise of the Roman empire on earth, the ithillids were defeated and driven underground to avoid genocide.

 

[ledded]

<snip>
I attached the spellcasting rules from Medallions that Drew put up on his storyhour, if you want to take a closer look at the system he devised. It really is pretty nifty.

Hello, Ledded from the Medallions game here. Just wanted to say that this document is the basic layout of the system, and all that the players knew about magic from the start. There have been little nuggets of knowledge and new feats uncovered as we have went along, and each new spell you get makes the game even more interesting. The longer you pursue a system of magic, the more you learn about it's secrets, the more costs you pay. The way he does it so that we, as players, have no idea what's going to happen REALLY increases the tension and feel for magic being mysterious and powerful, and it makes you work HARD to increase your power while still being a lot of fun to work with. And you cant min/max or metagame what you dont know, you just have to roll with what you get. OldDrewId is a great GM though, and always manages to toss you that nice juicy bone that makes you howl at the moon with one hand, even while he extracts quarts of blood, sanity, and ability points with the other ;^)

So stay tuned to the SH, I'm sure he will post more detail as we learn it.

I'm interested to see what others have been doing that is similar; I've always thought we should have some kind of 'sanity point' costs, and to be honest we always live in fear of it even though there isnt one. Yet. ;^)

I love your backstory so far. Any chance this could turn into a Story Hour one day?

 

[Munin]

I love your backstory so far. Any chance this could turn into a Story Hour one day?

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm hoping to do a storyhour at some point. The start of the campaign is still about two months away, but I'm really getting excited about it. My wife, who is a player, is probably starting to get tired of me spending my free time on it.
I'm putting the finishing touches on the psi system now.