D20 Heroes Playtest (Inactive)

Game Master rando1000

Hey guys. This is the discussion thread for my playtest. I want to get you thinking about your characters, but since you won't know your abilities in advance, your best course is to think about:

1. Your character's life to this point. How old are you? What are your (normal) goals? What do you value?

2. If (aka WHEN) your character becomes a super-hero, what will motivate them to be a hero, at risk to their own well-being?

Upholds Good: This character is a hero because it's The Right Thing To Do.

Responsibility of Power: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility, and this character knows it.

Seeks Justice: This character feels that, whether the system is up to it or not, by whatever means necessary, justice must be served.

Thrill of Adventure: This character is in the hero game for the sheer excitement of it.

Unwanted Power: The hero didn't ask for this, didn't want it, but seem to be stuck with it. Normal life is no longer possible, so this is the best he or she can do in the mean time.

Once you've figured out how your character will eventually relate to hero-ing, and once you understand his or her current life as a normal person, spec out the character as follows:

1. Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest die, 6 times, and assign as desired. Add the human +2 to any Ability as normal.

2. Create your (normal human) character as a 3rd level Expert (Pathfinder core rules) BUT...Give yourself Maximum HP; Only assign ONE of your three Feats (you can assign the other two once you gain your powers); Give yourself a +2 Class bonus to AC (on all AC types: normal, touch, and flat footed). Finally, use any additional skills from D20 Modern you need to create the character. There might be some Skill conflicts between D2M and PF, if those come up, we'll work them out.

D20 Modern

Oh, feel free to make your good save whichever one you want. No reason a construction worker can't have a +2 Fort Save or a basketball player a +2 Reflex Save.

Alright, cool! I think I have an idea for my starting civilian, so I'll fiddle with that later.

I'll start playing with stuff in a bit - watching MST 3000 with my wife right now.

No big rush. Thanks for helping me on this, guys. Hope it's fun for everyone.

4d6 ⇒ (1, 1, 1, 3) = 6 5
4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 4, 4) = 19 15
4d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 5, 5) = 14 13
4d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 5, 6) = 16 14
4d6 ⇒ (6, 6, 1, 4) = 17 16
4d6 ⇒ (4, 1, 2, 4) = 11 10

Gods almighty, that five... Maybe... maybe he's paralyzed? I think I'll need to rethink my concept a tad.

1. Grant Philips is a 40 year old single father, working as an insurance consultant at a local firm. He suffers from Mucular Dystrophy, needing to use at least a walking stick to get around or his wheelchair when he's having a bad day. His daughter, Gabriela Philips, is a highly independent twelve year who's already starting to show signs of the hereditary disease.
Grant wishes to obtain enough money working his job to cover future medical expenses his daughter may require, perhaps even a cure if one became available. He also wishes to get back in touch with his ex wife whom he still holds affection for, but left him almost six years ago when she felt his condition became too much.
A structured and organized man, Grant strongly values the laws and regulations of society and the workplace. But above this, he respects people that look out for and protect their family even if they're breaking the law to do so.
2. Responsibility of Power: Grant knows that power can easily corrupt those that obtain it, which goes triple for superhuman abilities. If he were to obtain powers Grant would seek to use them for responsible and just means, such as helping those that need it or refusing to abuse them for his own gain.

Great! very interesting. Numbers look fine, except I'm not sure about the 4d8 for HP. It should be 3d8 at 3rd level, correct?

Ah right, forgot to fix that.

4d6 ⇒ (3, 2, 4, 6) = 15 - 13
4d6 ⇒ (3, 4, 5, 4) = 16 - 13
4d6 ⇒ (5, 1, 6, 4) = 16 - 15
4d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 3, 6) = 16 - 14
4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 4, 3) = 15 - 12
4d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 1, 3) = 13 - 12

Well, that was incredibly average.

I promise not to get salty, I promise not to get salty...

I don't! I'm automatically bitter about everything.

I put up a very brief history of Parahuman related events on the campaign page. In short, there is evidence that such people exist, but it's not very well accepted evidence. The world has similar sorts of superhero literature and entertainment as we do on this earth, and at least one person claiming to have Parahuman abilities attempted to become a costumed hero, though his attempt did not end well.

...was it the cape in a jet engine scenario? That always sucks.

No capes!

Sorry I haven't chimed in earlier! Packing is murder. I'm going to go ahead and roll my dice here and come up with a concept over the next couple days and post it for your approval.

4d6 ⇒ (4, 4, 3, 6) = 17 - 14
4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 2, 3) = 11 - 9
4d6 ⇒ (5, 6, 6, 2) = 19 - 17
4d6 ⇒ (3, 5, 2, 3) = 13 - 11
4d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 4, 6) = 19 - 15
4d6 ⇒ (5, 4, 6, 2) = 17 - 15

Okay, JonGarrett and Phylotus, now that you've got your stats, whip up the rest of your crunch according to the instructions above and come up with a concept and a (eventual) Motivation. Your character need not even have ever thought about becoming a super hero, the motivation is just what will spur him/her/pronoun of choice to action once the situation arises, and beyond.

I'm also at the point I can tell you a little about the setting. Your characters will be in a small-ish Illinois city which has river-related industry (mostly shipping), an Airforce base, and really any sort of white-collar industry you could think of. Blue-collar is probably dock-related or working at a factory out of town somewhere. There will also be a community college nearby. Anyone who can fit into that framework will work. I guess technically so could a farmer from outside town or someone traveling, as long as the character remains in town or nearby after the game starts.

Interesting spread of languages.

Short and simple biography though, seems like a neat fellow.

Whoops, forgot to edit those out. Sorted.

Man! Alexander notices ALL THE THINGS. Well done. The languages...yeah, those are mostly fantasy languages in this world, although your having them might lead to plots I hadn't imagined previously. Real world languages in place of at least Gnome might serve you better.

Okay, Alexander's language edits noted.

While we're waiting, I wanted to point out that while I'm using Pathfinder for a base, there will be some pretty substantial house rules. Mostly these involve Advancement, which is point based like Mutants and Masterminds rather than level driven. Essentially, you'll be awarded points, and each item you can advance will have a point cost. Higher numbers will have a higher point cost. For example, advancing your BAB from +2 to +3 will probably cost 4 points, but upping it from +3 to +4 will cost 6. So while you can save up to get crazy-focused, you'll advance more evenly for cheaper. I'll post an advancement chart at some point in the next week or so.

Also, one you'll be familiar with from Arzata, Action Points. Your characters begin with 5 Action Points, which replenish each day.
These may be used to:
A. Add 1d6 to any D20 roll.
B. Avoid 5 HP of damage.
C. Make minor changes to the environment with GM approval.

Another alteration I've made is to Attack Bonus. I'm limiting the Attack Bonus gained from Str and Dex to +4. The Damage Bonus from Strength is not limited. Most Dex attacks will do more Dice of damage, while Melee will do a single die plus your Bonus.

I'm not outlawing melee weapons, BUT...in attempt to stay consistent with the genre, I'm removing the X 1.5 for two-handed weapons and Power Attack. Also, weapons will have to make saving throws if wielded by super-powerful people, making their advantage significantly limited for such users.

Makes sense so far. Not sure how I feel about all of it, but I'll be interested to see how it plays.

Yeah, I'm interested to see how the parts work and if I've got anything way off.

Hey, I'm willing to give it a shot too man. Looking forward to seeing what the superhero lottery rolls out for us.

Holding on Phylotus to whip up the rest of his character, I know he's had a lot going on. I'll probably just go ahead and write in the two current characters, to get the ball rolling. I'm going to throw one NPC in as well for a party of four (eventual) heroes.

I already know a few details about his character, and we decided she was to be one of the doctors Grant has seen in search of treatment. Think it's alright if I mention her at all if you want us to start now?

And if you do want us to start, do you mind saying what the date, time, and weather is like? I have an idea of where to start off as well, if you don't have a specific location in mind.

Thanks, knowing that will help me make my NPC unique from the rest of you. Yes, I'll give a run-down of the setting information in my next post, along with where everyone currently is on the downtown map I posted.

Sorry for holding things up, character is ready now. Have the alias up in a moment

Born to a well-off family, Lucretcia didn't want for much growing up. She went to good schools, had the great personal tutors (including an ex-NASA scientist), and had her choice of extra-carricular activities. The fact taht she excelled at any she decided to actually try didn't help her massive ego any, nor did it lessen how har her parents pushed her once she chose something to do. No matter what, she had to do her best in that activity and stick with it for at least the season, whether she got bored of it or not. For what it was worth, she found that she enjoyed tennis and hunting immensely, especially when bows were involved (with which, she'll leave you to guess).

This dedication to finishing anything she started carried her through her college years, earning her a doctorate in Orthopedics from Johns Hopkins and placing her at the top of her class. Unfortunately, her ego also didn't work out for her unlike a certain fictional TV doctor. Princeton Plainsboro didn't want her, the Mayo Colinic didn't want her, and no other big name hospitals wanted her either despite her skill in her field. It was this that caused her to begrudginly accept a position at (what she considered to be) the small nowhere town of Cavelier, Illinois, where she felt her talents would be wasted. At least there was good hunting over in Iowa...

.

Bored with her current lot in life, she would jump at the opportunity to learn the limits of her powers and master them, like she mastered all other things that were thrown before her (at least in her mind), placing her squarely in the Thrill of Adventure camp.

I also don't know where in the scene you want her to be, so I'll await your guidance on that

Uret Jet hinted that your character might be involved in the treatment of his disease, so I placed him in the commissary of Maimon Medical Center in the current scene, he having just finished an appointment. My intention was that you were involved in that appointment, but honestly there could be any number of reasons you'd be at the medical center right now. So, my recommendation would be that you just throw yourself in scene at any point, getting caught up in the scene while heading to your car to go home, for example. That way, all the PCs (and one NPC) will all be in the vicinity of the action when it goes down...

Here is the Advancement chart we'll be using for however long the playtest lasts:

Advancement Chart

In general, you can count on receiving a XP point or two for each combat scene like this one or for extended RP scenes.

As far as Feats, feel free to spend the two I had you hold back now, as you have some idea what might be useful. In general I'll allow any Pathfinder Feat we can makes sense of fitting in, but some might not work or might require some adjudication on my part. I will also allow some Class Features as a Feat; I'm thinking of Evasion and Uncanny Dodge, off the top of my head. If you come up with something you'd like to work in I can price it out for you if it's more powerful than a Feat.

EDIT: Just realized I left Hit Points off the advancement chart. 1 XP = 4 HP.

For Lucretcia - I noticed I didn't put the cost of extra spells per level/spells known down.

Assume the cost is 1 per spell level each for spells/day and spells known.

So in other words, for 2 XP, you can get either one addtional 2nd level spell/day, 2 additional 1st level spells/day, or one additional 2nd level spell known.

It's a little too early to be thinking of hero names, right? :v Oh- And I assume we've yet to actually earn our new Xp, yes?

Yeah, I'll award the XP after this next encounter, which doesn't seem like it should take too long. As far as hero names, go for it. Never to early for fluff. After this adventure I might move us ahead in time a bit so we don't have to RP through establishing the group, finding an HQ, all that stuff.

I shall be...Captain Deadpool!

No, wait...

No no, I think you have something there. I can be... Man Power.

Also, I dunno about you folks but I'd love To have some extended RP to interact and get to know one another

I rarely say not to more RP.

Just need to find some feats for Alexander now...I was tempted by the Brawler and Martial Arts chains in the Modern setting stuff, but I'm not sure they fit the character or will work all that well. Maybe I should just take all the Skill Focuses...

BTW, not sure if you noticed but we flew through a round pretty quick. Alexander is up again.

Woohoo, issue 2! I'm still looking forward to how we go with this, hope y'all are too. And I suppose I should ask, were there XP awards for finishing issue 1?

Oops.

Thought I posted those. 3 XP. Use the advancement chart about 9 posts up from this one to determine how to spend, and let me know if you have any questions.

That was a reference? To what?

The Inverness coat and Ozark art joke is from the Dresden files (the main character wears an Inverness duster so enchanted with magic that it's nigh on indestructible, and carries a six-foot long staff that he once tried to pass off as 'genuine Ozark folk art' to get around security).

...he also once rode the magically reanimated remains of a T-Rex to battle three necromancers trying to become a living God.

Hah, that's awesome. I'm fairly sure our resident doctor is more akin to filling out that role though. ;P Though, Pythos initially described her as more akin to doctor strange... which made it even funnier when the powers came about.

Still havn't finished the things I need to do for grant, asign xp and draw him, but I'll get around to that uh... eventually...... cough.

I have...four characters that all levelled up this week. Sadly, other things have been on my mind, so I keep not doing them like I should.

Man I don't even know what my excuse is there.

Psst, we're in an office building, not a car park.