Why I struggle to run D20 Modern games

[Insight]

The great thing about a modern game is that you don't need a setting. YOU'RE FREAKIN LIVING IN THE SETTING! Do a little research (about the same as what you might put into creating your own setting and/or adventures), and that's it.

If my players ask me questions like those raised above, it's Knowledge check time. If they succeed, I make something up if I don't know the answer.

Part of being a good GM is the ability to improvise. Things work because they do. Don't waste time trying to understand everything. You'll only make your head hurt.

 

[Christopher Lambert]

The great thing about a modern game is that you don't need a setting. YOU'RE FREAKIN LIVING IN THE SETTING! Do a little research (about the same as what you might put into creating your own setting and/or adventures), and that's it.

Easier said than done. GMs are already running Mafia or military campaigns, often in foreign countries. It's hard to do research on them, especially the Mafia, and most people I know aren't in the Mafia, the military or in a foreign country - including me. I still can't answer the question "is a hitman expected to track down the target themself?" which, of course, makes designing villains very difficult.

Some (fictional) sources say yes, some say no. I'd probably go with yes, if only because Colombia D20 suggested that, but I'm not sure.

I'm just glad I worked at an airport for my campaign. Now I have a good idea how to create building security without randomly plopping video cameras all over the place That's a question that comes up a lot.

 

[Olive]

I think you're getting too hung up on the detail. Good stories are more or less good stories. And if you don't know what the ACTUAL sewers look like, chances are neither do you players. Make a good guess and go with it.

Just like you don't know what it's like to be in the Mafia or in the Ukarnian army, then neither do your players. If it seems reasonable to you, then it will to them.

What's real doesn't really matter. What matters is creating a world that seems real to the players.

 

[Insight]

I have to echo Olive here. You guys are getting too hung up on details. It's cool when you can inject realism into a Modern game, but despite what you might expect, it's not required.

If you are running a game with FX, the modern setting is just a thinly veiled window dressing anyway. Even if you're running a grim n gritty realistic D20 Modern game, you don't have to do a ton of research. In fact, your story (and ability to tell the story) will probably suffer if you go into too much detail.

The main hangup I see with GMs and Modern settings is that they set their own expectations of the players' perceptions too high. I have been guilty of this. Your best bet is to do enough research to satisfy yourself that your adventure will be believable and that's about it. Most likely, if you are setting your game somewhere odd, or put the characters in some unusual situation, your players have no reason to believe your version of things is any more 'real' than what they imagine it to be.

 

[The_Universe]

I think you're getting too hung up on the detail. Good stories are more or less good stories. And if you don't know what the ACTUAL sewers look like, chances are neither do you players. Make a good guess and go with it.

Just like you don't know what it's like to be in the Mafia or in the Ukarnian army, then neither do your players. If it seems reasonable to you, then it will to them.

What's real doesn't really matter. What matters is creating a world that seems real to the players.

The problem the original poster was hinting at above is that it's so much harder to make something that seems real, but isn't, in the real world.

In D&D, you can hand wave a lot of the stuff because it is essentially unfamiliar to your players. The problem in Modern is that your players are intimately familiar with everything in the game, and have a lot more assumptions about how stuff works.

Sure, a power generator can be destroyed with a gun, or with explosives....but what if you want to shut it down without making the sabotage obvious? In order to lend detail to the story, you need to know how to reflect certain things in reality in the game, as well.

In D&D, it's easy to provide details for situations, since if you just make it up, odds are no one will be the wiser. In real life, stuff that lack verisimilitude becomes immediately and glaringly obvious.

We don't want to know how to make a fake ID in real life - we want to know a process that seems real,and can be played through in a game.

 

[deltadave]

The dice are your friend. Rely on skills checks in addition to a bit of roleplaying. Generally it is easier to break something than to work it properly. Most times I give a DC to stop or break something that is a 10 or 15 and the correct startup procedure is 5-10 points higher depending on the complexity of the machinery. An example that came up in a recent game - a running gas turbine generator - I gave a DC of 10 to break and stop, graceful shutdown would be a DC15 and a critical failure on either of these would result in a catastrophic failure. The restart DC after a normal shutdown would be DC25 and after a break and stop would require a successful repair check and lots of time first.

 

[Olive]

Sure, a power generator can be destroyed with a gun, or with explosives....but what if you want to shut it down without making the sabotage obvious? In order to lend detail to the story, you need to know how to reflect certain things in reality in the game, as well.

You mean in terms of describing it right? Cos in game terms, it's pretty easy - you roll a disable device check. In terms of descbing it, well, that doesn't seem that difficult to me, but obviously some people are going to want more description that I do.

 

[The_Universe]

You mean in terms of describing it right? Cos in game terms, it's pretty easy - you roll a disable device check. In terms of descbing it, well, that doesn't seem that difficult to me, but obviously some people are going to want more description that I do.

Yes. I mean in terms of story and description. Sorry that wasn't clear.

I also think that not everything could or should be taken care of in a single roll...but that's an entirely different discussion.

What I was also hinting at was that there are consequences in dealing with certain real world objects that not everyone realizes, and it might be nice to get some of them hashed out in Game Terms.

To go back to the generator, just because we're already using it, deciding what kind of generator it is can be important for determing stuff besides what dice to roll. Diesel generators are very loud, and thus turning one off, no matter the method, will be immediately noticeable. Gas generators can be much quieter, and are thus easier to kill without attracting attention. There are also generators that run on natural gas or propane, which will react in an entriely different way to explosives or gunshot than gas or diesel. It'd be kind of nice to have game stuff for all of that, is all I'm saying.

Sure, you can just roll disable device and call it good - but it's the details that lend the game verisimilitude, and the verisimilitude (but not realism - blech! ) that makes the game so pleasing a pastime.

YMMV, of course.

 

[LurkerFreak]

I can sympathise with not knowing what its like in a foreign counrty, but they still keep making games set in America, just to stuff up all us non-americans.

 

[DMScott]

In D&D the technology is all either (a) medieval or (b) magic, so explaining how things work is easy. In Modern, you potentially run into SO many problems with "how things work", especially if the players are smart.

I tend to disagree. D&D technology is described simply because us modern 21st century types only have a vague idea how they did things, and thus we're not really aware of how much we skip over when we move things along for the sake of the story. In a modern setting, most people know just enough about how things work to be dangerous , so it's harder to let the details slide.

My solution is to only get into specifics about things I have some knowledge of (usually from research). To take the generator example, I generally wouldn't set up an adventure where the PCs were likely to walk into a room with a generator unless I was ready for the questions. If I didn't know much about generators (say the room came up when the PCs wandered way off track) then I'd put something in the room I do know something about - maybe a control terminal for a generator, instead of the generator itself.

This is no different than in D&D - I have nothing more than a vague idea of what a medieval forge looks like or how it works, so I gloss over the details whenever the PCs visit the blacksmith. If for some reason it seems likely to be important in an upcoming session, I read up a bit on forges. I don't set up a situation where the operation or design of the forge is critical unless I'm ready to run it.