Transformers d20

[Plague]

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

With the usual d20 model, a 5th level character is generally about the same power level as any other 5th level character. But this breaks down very quickly when you have varying degrees of equipment. A 5th level character with a bunch of +3 gear is much more powerful than one without.

With Transformers, you're dealing with the difference between the fusion cannon and a bunch of 2d6 laser pistols. The character levels (which generally define the internal skilsl and powers of someone) are completely overridden by the body and equipment the character currently possesses.

Vance is Right...With a Transformer themed game you will be focusing on equipment more instead of character developement. However to kind of even the playing field you can make Equipment level based, and you can base stats and skills off what "race" they play. Everytime they gain a level their stats go up based off the race they are. Each race specializes in certain area's so they get bonuses to this and minuses to that...or they gain a combat prowess which proves them with a +2 to attack...so on and so forth.

Creativity is hard sometimes to find and muster up. However transformers is awesome for me. I have been watching Transformers since i was old enough to poop. I owned and watched the 85/86 Animated VHS so much that about 7 years ago the VHS Ribbon broke...I was devestated...my childhood flashed before my eyes lol...(sigh) ahh the love for transformers never stops amazing me

 

[Anton85]

I will put in another vote for Mutants and Masterminds. The system can handle all of your Transformers problems, without any hassle.

The game assumes each character starts out at Power Level 10, with 150 Power Points to spend. If you want characters of different power levels, but who have the same overall usefulness, you just change the number of Power Points they can Spend.

For example
Ironhide: pretty typical transformer = Power Level 10, 150 Power Points
Megatron: Powerful Transformer = Power Level 12, 120 Power Points
Ravage: Weak Transformer = Power Level 8, 180 Power Points

You could have all of these characters on the same team and all of them will have a lot of fun. Megatron will be the best at combat, Ravage will be handling most of the utility.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Are you being deliberately obtuse?

Not at all. I'm just not seeing how "majority of character power is in equipment" and "d20 worships / is obsessed with the almighty xp" are connected statements.

With character power in equipment, especially level-independent equipment, most CR / EL / XP reward systems go right out the window (though not all). So it would be easier and faster to not use XP rewards at all, and by extension disconnect advancement from experience and instead tie it to story and / or character actions and growth.

After that, you're worried about having challenges that are relatively fair. For that, you need to know the sorts of bonuses your party has, as well as the sorts of punishment they can both dish out and take.
If you've ever run a True 20 game, or most level-less systems, you've been dealing with exactly this issue for every single session. Once you get a feel for what your players can actually take, it's fairly easy to assign challenges that aren't overwhelming but aren't too easy.

So, I'm wondering why the entirety of your advice is "Use another system" instead of starting with that and then moving to advice on how to make d20 better do what the OP wants it to do. Because that sort of focused advice is of extremely limited utility, and gets churlish after the first time it's used.
Where as your discussion of where character power lies has led to this nifty exploration of encounters and experience, which is actually useful to the OP.

 

[Vance]

Because d20's entire design philosophy is centered around the idea of XP as a 'game balance mechanic'. Yes, you can fudge around it, like you can at any game.. but if you've made that step, you might as well go to a new system outright that does want you really want by design.

So the best question starts with.. what does d20 give you for Transformers as opposed to other systems? That is a question that hasn't been asked, much less answered, here yet.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Because d20's entire design philosophy is centered around the idea of XP as a 'game balance mechanic'.

Wha.....? I've never heard anything like that before, let alone seen anything in the system as a whole to lead to that conclusion. Experience rewards, especially as an indicator of level progression, and the experience costs of some spells and item creation might, conceivably, lead someone to your conclusion, but that's one heck of leap.
I'd love to hear your logic, and your methods, though I think we'd be going a tad too far off topic and should probably start a different thread for it. Unless the OP really wants to have it happen here.

So the best question starts with.. what does d20 give you for Transformers as opposed to other systems? That is a question that hasn't been asked, much less answered, here yet.

That question really doesn't have much of a place here since the OP already answered it, as it is relevant to this thread. If you want to get into a big discussion of it then we can, but let's do it in another thread.