Why I struggle to run D20 Modern games

[wedgeski]

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.

Actually one of the most enjoyable aspects of starting my own Modern campaign was making it decidedly British in tone (which is, after all, what I know). But yes, while on the one hand you don't benefit from a lot of the detail present in the rule book, it does mean that you get to just make a ton of stuff up without contradicting anything.

 

[Bagpuss]

Okay, here's what I mean.
If you don't know how this works:
http://www.legend.org.uk/~acovell/t.../adges_photographs/power_generator_house2.jpg

...then you can't run d20 Modern. At least not with a power generator in it.

The power generator thing is just an example, but the same problem comes up with *any* modern technology in the game.

I don't know how to cast magic missile, its has never stopped me playing a wizard in D&D.

That's what the skill system is for. You treat technology like magic. If the character has a high enough skill in Craft (electronic) or Repair then they can figure out how the power generator works and how to switch it off, disable it, etc. If they don't then they can't.

Player and GM knowledge doesn't need to come into it at all.

 

[0-hr]

Even if it is set in "modern" times, it is still an imaginary world governed by your imagination. A generator works exactly like the GM thinks it should work, regardless of how they work in 'real life'.

As GM, take your best guess and stick to it. Don't let players throw "reality" in your face any more than you'd let some guy with a Doctorate in Medival History push you around in your D&D game.

Fantasy, Modern, or Sci-Fi it's still make believe - so relax and have fun.

 

[barsoomcore]

Do you let your D&D players make gunpowder just because one of your players went online and wrote down the recipe?

No (I hope not).

Distinguish between PLAYER knowledge and CHARACTER knowledge.

Characters only know such things as their Skill checks say they know. The fact that the PLAYER knows how to disable a diesel generator means nothing. It's what their characters know that matter, and what their characters know is defined in-game.

Oh, and always be sure to only game with people stupider than you. That's very important.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I run a Modern Dark*Matter game and this sort of thing comes up quite often. I've got two 40-something know-it-alls, to boot.

Last week somebody wanted to disable the security at an NPCs house so they could break in unhindered ... I just off-hand said: "he's got a nice security system, ADT, the works." and one person said: "Welp, that's it, I know about systems like that, they're impossible to crack, you're not going to do it with a laptop from a flower van."

Dark*Matter, however, has a few helpful aspects ... like OSIRiS, the alien-designed O.S. Hoffmann uses. So my response was: "How many people use OSIRiS to bust ADT?" Set a DC and let 'em roll. Which even the know-it-alls had to agree with because nobody knows what OSIRiS is.

So what I'm saying is, even in "Modern" games you can inject a few unknowns that'll let you hand-wave stuff. We have alot of "cover stories" in D*M. Sometimes they show up as Insurance Investigators. I have absolutely no idea how those people function. I just hand-wave it as part of what a secret non-governmental agency DOES ... if I get it wrong, the players are usually willing to shrug and move on.

--fje

 

[the_dunner]

An alternative approach to this is that a Modern game doesn't have to be hyper-realistic. I run mine as if it were a TV show. I don't need to be a legal expert to enjoy Law and Order. I don't need a degree in Forensics to appreciate CSI. Seinfeld and Friends were both entertaining, even though I've never been to New York City.

IMHO, a good game session just needs to simulate reality enough to entertain. It boils down to separating character knowledge and player knowledge.

Sure, I'll find myself annoyed with the TV or a movie when I see that there's terrible science in it. So, I can understand where a player might come from if the GM is totally off base with something. However, I think it works best if you either avoid those situations or just use the classic caveat -- "It's different in my game world."

I understand that some people won't watch a network TV show, and prefer a PBS or TLC documentary. If that's what they're into, then my style of gaming wouldn't work for them. However, I haven't found a lot of gamers that fall into that category.

 

[HAR-Vee]

When I run games, I just assume everything I've ever seen in a movie or read about is real. Of course there are mazes of tunnels underground in every city loaded with connections to forgotten systems.

For anything technology related... you don't have to know anything. Just assign a skill check. This can be arbitrarily easy or hard depending on how impacting to the game a success (or failure) will be.

In the end, the idea is to have a great story--not a text book description of generator maintenance. Who cares if you really toggle the tachyon whirligig or whirl the tachyon toggle?