What are the Differences between High-Fantasy and Futuristic/Cyberpunk Games?

[Bagpuss]

No take backs
Dead is dead, no resets, no raise dead. Personally I like it that way but it can upset some players.

Law and Order
In a fantasy setting the players are frequently a law unto themselves, either because they are much stronger than the local militia or they are in the wilderness. In a cyberpunk setting the police are usually much better armed and armoured and if they need to they could swat you like a fly. You need to consider if the parties actions will show up on the police radar, evidence they leave behind and things like that. The more they screw up, and the more high profile the screw up the more trouble the police need to be, having a firefight in a downtown shopping mall, rather than one in an abandoned warehouse.

Depending on how you play the police and how the players play there characters they can bring a very quick end to the game.

Talking of evidence from experience most cyberpunk players leave more than enough clues for decent CSI type team to have them locked up within the week. They are also able to tie them to several previous incidents as the PCs tend to keep the same guns and use them on every job. When I'm playing I clean them and dump them once they have been fired, then buy another one.

 

[Bagpuss]

Subdermal armor?

Basically some sort of armour hidden under the skin, a sort of kevlarweave or even plates designed to be concealed under the dermis, hence subdermal (although they call it Subcutaneous Body Armor). Not sure why it's a problem in D20 Modern.

Here it is from the SRD.

Subcutaneous Body Armor (PL 6)
Subcutaneous body armor consists of small plates of flexible armor implanted under the recipient’s skin.
Benefit: The character gains a natural armor bonus to Defense. The bonus depends on the density of the armor: Light +2, Medium +5, Heavy +8.
Type: Internal.
Hardness/Hit Points: –/varies. The armor has one-quarter the maximum hit points of the recipient.
Base Purchase DC: Light 15, Medium 20, or Heavy 25.
Restriction: Military (+3).

Personally I would have thought this...

Invisiware (PL 8)
This technology enables its recipient to turn invisible for a short time. Invisiware uses crystalline refractors grafted to the skin and powered by rechargeable solar battery units protruding from various points on the recipient’s body (usually the spine).
Benefit: By using invisiware to bend light around its body, a creature can turn invisible. An invisible creature gains a +40 bonus on Hide checks if immobile, or a +20 bonus if moving. Pinpointing the location of an invisible creature that isn’t attempting to hide requires a Spot check (DC 40 if the creature is immobile or DC 20 if it is moving).
While invisible, the creature gains 50% concealment against attacks from other creatures that correctly pinpoint its fighting space.
Activating or deactivating invisiware is a free action. However, the technology consumes a great deal of the battery power; after 10 rounds (1 minute) of use, the solar batteries must be recharged for 1 hour, during which time the invisiware cannot be activated.
Type: External.
Hardness/Hit Points: 4/20.
Base Purchase DC: 35.
Restriction: Military (+3).

Real sci-fi stuff that shouldn't really be in a cyberpunk game. Although saying that I have no objections to PCs having it game balance wise since you'd need to be naked for it to work and it only lasts 10 rounds, hardly enough time to even sneak in the girls locker room.

Still you probably want to stick with PL 6 stuff to start with.

 

[Clueless]

Man, I'm starting to think that this is going to be really hard for me to run! I can imagine a million environments and whatever that would fit into D&D, but half the time it sounds like you guys are talking gibberish! Not from a "I don't know what that mean/is" standpoint - more from a "Wow, I never thought of that..." standpoint.

Naw. You asked for a laundry list of problems - ya got one. A newbie DnD GM wouldn't have thought of scrying as a problem either ya know. (And I personally don't think of it as one either - but then most of my societies are still primitive enough to use lead paint....)

 

[arscott]

Why is that? Guns? Worse?

The guns do make combat deadlier. But it's the lack of Cure spells that really hurts.

 

[arscott]

Basically some sort of armour hidden under the skin, a sort of kevlarweave or even plates designed to be concealed under the dermis, hence subdermal (although they call it Subcutaneous Body Armor). Not sure why it's a problem in D20 Modern.

It's game-breakingly good, basically. It's a natural armor bonus, so it stacks with almost every other available bonus to defense. Add in the fact that d20Future cyberware doesn't cost you much, and you've got an invincible character.

Real sci-fi stuff that shouldn't really be in a cyberpunk game. Although saying that I have no objections to PCs having it game balance wise since you'd need to be naked for it to work and it only lasts 10 rounds, hardly enough time to even sneak in the girls locker room.

Still you probably want to stick with PL 6 stuff to start with.

Yeah. PL 6 is where you want to be for a cyberpunk game, technology-wise. Your standard space-opera game is only PL7. PL8 tech should be avoided like the plague.

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Real sci-fi stuff that shouldn't really be in a cyberpunk game. Although saying that I have no objections to PCs having it game balance wise since you'd need to be naked for it to work and it only lasts 10 rounds, hardly enough time to even sneak in the girls locker room.

"Cloaking suits" are not uncommon in the cyberpunk genre - most notably in Ghost In The Shell.

But these are suits - to get the same effect as cyberware you would have to be naked. Not a problem if you are a Tachikoma, but annoying otherwise...

 

[Umbran]

I left my character at home.
Your next biggest issue is with 'get away drivers' and with 'hackers' as an archetype. Neither of these archetypes are exactly designed to get in the thick of things if they do their jobs right. So make sure they have to...

Um, I'd have to disagree with this. It is rather like saying, "You've got wizards in D&D that aren't built for melee combat - make sure they get in melee combat!" If you are not going to allow people to take advantage of their strengths, and are in the meantime going to prey upon their weaknesses, you'll hear cries of "Foul!" PCs are supposed to reap benefits from doign their jobs right, after all.

The guy who works the computer matrix will present some challenges. He works in a whole separate universe from the guys with the guns. If you've got a bunch of physical PCs, and one hacker, you'll tend to find that one hacker taking up an inordinate amount of GM-time, dealing with him alone in his virtual world. The rest of the party tends to sit around bored out of their skulls while he does his work.

 

[Bagpuss]

Hackers are a big problem, mainly because it becomes a either a big solo adventure to hack a system or you shorten it to a few Computer skill rolls, one way it takes too much of the GM's time the other it reduces a character key focus to a few minutes and a dice roll or two. I'd discourage players from taking one, and make that the role of a contact or NPC they need to protect.

So perhaps they are hired to bodyguard a hacker while he is in cyberspace, or sneak him into a building to get access to an secured mainframe that's not on the grid, etc.

 

[mythusmage]

In high fantasy it's The Dreadful Abominable Stave of Visceral Liquification.

In cyberpunk it's a hunting rifle from Walmart.

 

[GlassJaw]

Hackers are a big problem, mainly because it becomes a either a big solo adventure to hack a system or you shorten it to a few Computer skill rolls, one way it takes too much of the GM's time the other it reduces a character key focus to a few minutes and a dice roll or two. I'd discourage players from taking one, and make that the role of a contact or NPC they need to protect.

So perhaps they are hired to bodyguard a hacker while he is in cyberspace, or sneak him into a building to get access to an secured mainframe that's not on the grid, etc.

I like how SR4 handles this. By making everything wireless, the hackers can travel alongside the rest of the group. They also got rid of the complex Matrix maps that the hacker (and only the hacker) would navigate.