What's out there for d20 Future?

[Olive]

Sespite my intention to buy everything I could for d20 Future, I've bought absolutely nothing so far. But my promise to start a sci-fi game this year has caught up with me, and now I'm in the position of having not a lot of time, in addition to running a sci-fi game for the first time ever (I've never played in one either).

So what time saving devices are there out there already for the time poor DM? What have you used?

 

[Turanil]

-- Mostly Crunch (d20F): Blood & Space a serie of three PDFs on rpgnow.com

-- Monster Book (d20M): Menace Manual is a good investment, especially if it is still at 13$ (instead of 30$) on amazon.com

-- Setting: I have got Transhuman Space and Alpha Centauri which are both GURPS books. Despite being for GURPS they mainly emphasize on the setting rather than rules. Otherwise they are both extremely well done and full color books. My preference goes to Transhuman Space though (more interesting, bigger book, and less rules). I am also told that GURPS Blue Planet also makes a good setting.

 

[Wycen]

Blue Devil Games is releasing Operation Quick Launch and has a site dedicated to their d20 Future products, http://www.dawningstar.com which has a free preview here: http://www.dawningstar.com/pdf/ds_oql_preview.pdf

 

[jester47]

I have been kicking around an idea for Mechwarrior d20 and that got me thinking about other scifi fiction stuff.

This has got me thinking about what intersteller expansion might look like. What I have envisioned is somthing like Transhuman Space spread out over many many systems.

The big question is transportation and communication. As far as I have been able to tell, "subspace" is "magical ability to talk in real time over intersteller distances." Hyper Pulse Generators seem to make more sense. That is they fold space long enough to get a transmission through. Though what they look like in the BattleTech universe is unknown. I would think they would be orbital stations with huge arrays to recieve HPG communications from elsewhere.

Transport will require some form of "warp" or "space fold" or "hyperspace" or "gateway." All that can be worked out. (at this point Dune is looking to be the most believable. But at this point, stuff starts to break down. The problem is keeping track of where people have been and where they have colonised. This is easy with a gate network. Its harder when there are warps and folds (I personally don't go for hyperspace). In any case it requires huge ammounts of energy ( I mean colossal ammounts). This means that a ship would be huge (maybe moonsized?)

Religion would play a big role in such a universe. It would be the sole reason why people remain more or less human.

Just thinking of the implications is mind boggleing.

AAron.

 

[philreed]

So what time saving devices are there out there already for the time poor DM?

Ronin Arts has released a large number of PDFs, including starships, aliens, nanotech, cybernetics, and an asteroid base. There's even a PDF of rules that change the way starship weapons work.

Check here to get started:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=4016&SRC=EnWorld

 

[Justin D. Jacobson]

I'll add that Dawning Star: Operation Quick Launch includes a full-scale, 18-page intro adventure. And OQL is built on d20 Future from the ground up. So, no conversion time-sinks.

I just checked out the latest dailies for OQL, and it's looking great. It should be available in pdf format on February 7th and in print format in mid-March.

 

[Aries_Omega]

Awesome Idea

I love the idea of a d20 Mechwarrior! I loved Battletech and when I first played it thought to myself "this game would be good if we could do stuff off board...like what do mechwarriors and aerojocks do when they are not in their vehicle?" and low and behold...mechwarrior came out. I didn't like the mechanics but ehh....it worked. If anyone does a mechwarrior d20 homebrew conversion PLEASE LET ME KNOW!!!! I am at MarsAlpha@yahoo.com . I got a few ideas for it and one request. If you do the actual mechs that are in the universe do my favorite....the SHD series....the Shadowhawk! I mean in the computer games and console games they do every single Clan mech under the sun and only the most obscure or sucky Innersphere mechs out there and everone ignores one of the most versitile mechs out there.

As far as the mechanics of the game...perhaps humans of the Innersphere should be like humans everywhere but depending on if you are from the Draconis Combine or the Free Worlds Leauge dictates that you gain another benefit and a penalty. Also dictates your starting and bonus languages.

The clans same thing. Make each clan caste a race. Perhaps an ECL +1 race for them. Give them advantages and balance it out with a +1 ECL. A clan warrior has the same stat bonus as all others and a +1 ECL...but their clan gives additonal stuff. Like Clan Hellhorse is into combine arms warfare. A Hellhorse Mechwarrior has the usual stat bonus that all other mech warriors have but they can purchase skills in other vehicles as a class skill but they get a penlty somewhere else.

Anyhow please if anyone does this contact me with a quickness!!

Aries

 

[nocanes]

I had to create my own world...

I had to fill in the culture stuff and I think I'm going to go with a Star*Frontiers feel of just having the PCs in a secret service to minimally equip them and give them a starting point for adventure. Ultimately, If they enjoy the mission style, I'm going to bump the PL from six to seven and they'll have first access to the equipment. I can then place them against greater odds with a chance of success. I want to keep my first DMing of a scifi setting fun and full of blaster fire...the deep intrigue can wait for next time...or can it?

 

[Emiricol]

A BattleTech/MechWarrior conversion to D20F shouldn't be difficult. The Mechs would not be exactly the same, but that's to be expected, and the D20F rules would handle the range of tech pretty well I think. As to the setting, it's mostly flavor - the devices and weapons in the MW universe were pretty generic sci-fi. And the jumpships would be pretty well handled by the existing D20F rules.

 

[Crothian]

EN Publishing has two small PDFs on some slightly futuristic weapons