Why Star Wars, CoC, and Modern?

[Dismas]

This is the third time I've tried to respond today, but it looks like I can actually post again, so I'll gamely try again...

I'm amazed that you can possibly say that. Sanity most definately does not follow the standard d20 type mechanic as ability checks are not made with a d% and abilities do not go from 1-100. Monte Cook and John Tynes even specifically call out Sanity (and the Cthulhu Mythos skill) in the text of the game itself as not fitting the d20 mechanics, but they consciously left them that way as a (imo, bad) design decision.

Monte also said in an interview on WoTC site

The d20 system did not have real insanity rules before this book, and the Call of Cthulhu system is so elegant, so modular, and has been playtested by literally hundreds of thousands of gamers, so we used it practically untouched. It actually fits into d20 very easily.

(emphasis mine)

Is / should sanity an 'ability', like Str, Dex, Con etc?

My personal opinon is that I don't think that is was a bad design decision. I feel that it does fit in the d20 rules (well meta rules) as a sanity check is something that players should not be able to influence in any way. The Cthullu Mythos skill reducing max sanity and also as a skill you can not spend skill points on does not fit the d20 mechanics.

Before d20 CoC came out I did have a rough d20 based sanity check system, that did ability damage / drain when you failed a check. Do you think that is a better way to go? How would you handle Cthullu Mythos in d20? A skill that gives you penalties the more ranks you have in it?

 

[buzz]

Some tweaks

The only reason I could see that the release of these games (i.e., major releases from WotC itself) should point to possible revisions of the Big Daddy RPG is that there seem to be certain mechanics that post-3e games are universally modifying.

1. Skill Emphasis. I seem to remember a couple of the designers mentioning early on that they regretted not making Skill Focus a +3 bonus instead of +2. Subsequent games seem to all use Skill Emphasis instead, which is a +3 bonus.

2. Partial Actions. IIRC, all the other d20 games WotC have done so far have eliminated Partial Actions, and just say "you get an extra/you get only a single Move action or single Attack action."

3. Attacks of Opportunity. There seems to have been a lot of clarification in the AoO rules since 3e's release. I can see a revised 3e contaiing some of the improved explanations found in the later games. (This is my opinion at least. I found the AoO rules in CoCd20 a lot clearer than those in the PHB.)

Hmm... Nothing else is leaping out at me just yet. I have noticed that the standard Skill Point allotments are different in d20M (3, 5, 7, or 9 per lvl) than in D&D (2,4,6, or 8 per lvl), but this might have more to do with inherrent differences between d20M and d20 than with "improving" the system.

Honestly, I don't think you're ever going to see a WotC product or revision that ports mechanics like Wealth or Defense into D&D. But hey, that's what homebrewing is all about.

 

[Dismas]

Re: Some tweaks

Hmm... Nothing else is leaping out at me just yet. I have noticed that the standard Skill Point allotments are different in d20M (3, 5, 7, or 9 per lvl) than in D&D (2,4,6, or 8 per lvl), but this might have more to do with inherrent differences between d20M and d20 than with "improving" the system.

In d20 Modern you are all human, so the +1 skill point per level has been built in the classes.

 

[buzz]

Re: Re: Some tweaks

In d20 Modern you are all human, so the +1 skill point per level has been built in the classes.

*Exactly*. See? The designers are way smarter than us.

Well, smarter than *me* at least.

 

[Voadam]

Which one of these 'alternate d20' systems has the armor=DR system? I looked, but could not find.

I have been considering buying all of these books (CoC, d20M, SW, WoT), basically for all of the alterante rules bits.

Thanks,

-Fletch!

I think it is the 1st edition SW from WotC. I don't have it but I remember hearing that about it. Also that it did not use AoO.

 

[buzz]

I think it is the 1st edition SW from WotC. I don't have it but I remember hearing that about it. Also that it did not use AoO.

SWd20 2e uses DR and AoO. SWd20 1e used neither.