Hi, I’m thinking about running a d20 Modern/Future Sci-Fi/Horror campaign and wanted to check interest. Idea is as follows:
- Use d20 modern/future and relevant supplements (not modern path, etc)
- Setting is 300 years in the future
- Travel between inhabited worlds is via doorways as per Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, John Barnes’ A Million Open Doors, etc.; FTL travel, in spaceships, required to set up the doorways uses Stutterwarp (from 2300AD - but the 2300AD geopolitical background would not be used). I’d expect most of the action to take place on planets and stations rather than in space, though (no ship to ship combat, for example).
- “Mythos” based on Pathfinder Dark Tapestry
- Players all start off as human; there has at this point been no first contact with sapient alien races
Just an idea at the moment. The opening adventure would involve the party investigating a broken “doorway” on a world under terra-formation.
It will probably take me a month to prep everything and I have a couple of other campaigns, one underway and one about to start, but this is something I’ve been keen to do for a while. Want to check interest before I undertake the prep.
Your set up sounds very interesting. However, personally I would prefer a different system. Is there some more open system that you know well enough to run? Alternatively, is there some system that I could teach you or something?
Your set up sounds very interesting. However, personally I would prefer a different system. Is there some more open system that you know well enough to run? Alternatively, is there some system that I could teach you or something?
Thanks (really!) for the offer, but I like d20 modern (and I do know a fair number of other systems), and it's part of the reason I'm keen to run the campaign.
I'm interested as well, is this going to be a play-by-post or VTT(Roll20/Maptools) game?
PbP
cool, I am also interested.
This sounds pretty cool. I used to play a fair bit of d20 Modern, mostly Urban Arcana but with some Future thrown in for cybernetics. In my head I'm imagining a Prometheus kind of group- scientists with a support team, sponsored by a company and with a clear goal in mind (explore this "doorway" and report back). Is that what you have in mind?
I really like the d20 modern format, would you permit arcane characters?
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I also am a fan of D20 Modern and I have a lot of books and supplements.
What among these books are allowed for character options?
D20 Core
D20 Future
D20 Future Tech
D20 Cyberspace
D20 Urban Arcana
D20 Modern Player's Companion
D20 Modern Player's Companion 2
D20 Martial Arts Mayhem
D20 Martial Arts Mayhem 2
Hmm, psionics are cool.
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As for my character, I am thinking of being the tough chick, the one who walks around in full body armor, soaks up the damage and hits hard, so a Tough hero. I am hoping to eventually get into the Dreadnaught class combined with Cybernetics & Genetic engineering to make my character a capable survivor.
I'm thinking of a fast hero/gunslinger. Could be a sniper/overwatch type, but I was thinking of trying out a gun-fu style. I know there's a gun-gu advanced class somewhere but can't remember where it was. And I have the vague memory that it had some magic, so that's probably out.
Though if we're heavy on shooters I could always do a smart hero, maybe a MacGyver sort of field scientist. Scientific Improvisation is pretty cool.
Hmm. This went quiet for a few days and I was getting worried the interest level would be too low. Seems I was wrong - excellent! I'll post a more detailed background tomorrow.
Just out of curiosity, what level would we start out at?
I'm thinking around 4. I'd like to start with an "origin" story and then be able to kick into advanced classes on the back of that.
I really like the d20 modern format, would you permit arcane characters?
Yes, once we get past the "origin" - see above.
This sounds pretty cool. I used to play a fair bit of d20 Modern, mostly Urban Arcana but with some Future thrown in for cybernetics. In my head I'm imagining a Prometheus kind of group- scientists with a support team, sponsored by a company and with a clear goal in mind (explore this "doorway" and report back). Is that what you have in mind?
For the initial scenario, yes. I'll post more detail at the weekend, but they'd be sponsored by a government agency.
I also am a fan of D20 Modern and I have a lot of books and supplements.
What among these books are allowed for character options?
D20 Core
D20 Future
D20 Future Tech
D20 Cyberspace
D20 Urban Arcana
D20 Modern Player's Companion
D20 Modern Player's Companion 2
D20 Martial Arts Mayhem
D20 Martial Arts Mayhem 2
I have the print version of Modern Player's Companion, which I think combines the PDF vols 1 and 2. Similar for Future Player's Companion.
I need to go through the books but basically - at a very high level - not Martial Arts Mayhem (I don't have it), but some subset of options from the rest plus Future Player's Companion, Dark Matter (and would have to check others).
I'll figure out and provide a precise list of what does and does not work. Mech rules won't, as an example, and "space pilots" won't be particularly relevant. Magic and psionics probably will - this is dark matter/urban arcana in a far-ish future setting.
Can I use the Spellslinger prestige class(use the preview, don't download it) from Urban Arcana (once I meet requirements)?
stats^
Looking through the d20 Future advanced classes, the Helix Warrior looks interesting. Bioengineered soldier, ala Universal Soldier. I could see him being competitive with the Dreadnought PC mentioned earlier, pitting his 'natural abilities' against tech and gadgets. I'll see what I can come up with.
Hi, sorry didn't get round to this today ... will try and post something on the source material before I turn in, but on stats, don't worry it would be a 20 point buy. I'll post something on the background tomorrow as I have a couple of hours before a flight.
OK, in terms of sources:
- D20 Future, generic material - mostly OK, I think the Dogfighter AC won't be useful or relevant; Xenophile should note no sentient aliens (but there might be down the line, and there are widely known non-sentient ones at the start of the campaign). Most the campaign stuff is not relevant for character creation - I may use the Genetech material. There will be Franks and Moreaus.
- D20 Modern - mostly OK, including the campaign stuff. I plan to allow Psionics and Magic down the line.
- Dark*Matter - mostly OK
- Urban Arcana - the character stuff mostly OK. Don't plan to have a ton of D&D monsters though.
- Cyberscape - mostly OK
- Future Players Companion - mostly OK but not the races
- Modern Players Companion - mostly OK
Couldn't track down my copy of Future Tech - I do have a PDF and will check it in the morning.
Tech level will be mostly PL8 (bearing in mind there is terraforming) but without anti-gravity and in fact most of the D20 future stuff on spaceships won't be relevant. More on the background tomorrow.
OK, some campaign background:
Setting:
It's 2320AD. Mankind has spread to the stars, first in starships using the stutterwarp drive, then, in the last hundred years, by connecting the settled worlds together via the stuttergate instantaneous transport gateways.
Earth is nominally united, and governed from its virtual reality based, physically distributed capital of Olympia. In fact, it's too soon to have pulled together and merged all the national and ethnic interest groups, which continue to fight for prominence and recognition. Building the stuttergates, and terraforming new worlds, demands a substantial part of an existing entity's GDP, and only the richest groups are capable of making such an investment. Those worlds that originally settled by colony ships but not able to acquire a stuttergate link have been largely abandoned. But the worlds connected into the new interstellar network are booming.
What happens when a gate fails? It happens, sometimes. The technology is only a century old, after all. Starships continue to maintain communications. A maintenance crew is sent out from Earth, by the Terran Government's Interstellar Communications Agency, to help with the re-establishment of communications. Recently, however, the link to the world of Nova Roma has collapsed, and no subsequent communications have been received. The maintenance team is to be sent, literally, into the unknown. Alongside it is an investigation team from the ICA's Special Cases Group, who've been tasked with getting to the bottom of the situation. That investigation team, dear players, is you.
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Other stuff:
- Stutterwarp works in the same way as in 2300AD, roughly. I'll probably use their ship designs.
- AI - AI does exist but there are no super-smart ship "minds" as in Iain M Banks - those AI's that super-develop - at least as far as everyone knows - tend to accelerate towards a position of either transcendence or catatonia - difficult to tell from the outside
- Anti-gravity - doesn't exist. Ships need to have rotating sections to generate artificial gravity. Space to planet communication is still via relatively primitive rockets/shuttle type tech.
- Anagathics - fairly advanced - most people who can afford it are effectively immortal, though the technology was only developed in the last century and so has had limited social impact thus far
- Magic and psionics - will be introduced during the campaign - not known to the players or to the wider public at this point.
- Virtual reality - used for distributed communications, including limited AI "bots". Between worlds and between stars, it's more limited - if it doesn't travel by the stuttergates (and the network does exist) it's limited by the speed of light.
- Near-earth - there are gates on the moon, Mars and some of the outer moons. These worlds were used for experimental implementations of the gates and - in Mars' case - for experimental terraforming. Most of the lunar systems are now mining colonies.
- Genetic engineering - not widespread, but the experimental Moreau system has thrown up human/animal hybrids, which after a long "abhuman rights" controversy were given full rights within the interstellar polity 50 years ago
- Corporations - numerous. I'll produce a list later. Human civilisation is effectively capitalist
- Aliens - life has been found on numerous other planets, but no sentient life has been found. Evidence of previous civilisations, tens of thousands of years old, has been found on a handful of worlds. But it's unclear how advanced those civilisations were.
- Worlds - worlds have typically been settled by national interest groups rich enough to fund a gate. So there is for example a Texan world, a French world, a British world, an Arab world, etc. On some of these worlds there's still a debate going on about human versus ethnoreligious rights. We'll stay away from 21st century politics though.
- Tone - no NSFW. Note there's also a horror element to the campaign and I will probably also include a sanity mechanic. I plan to keep it relatively non-linear and players will be invited to contribute ideas for the background.
- Posting - I'd look for at least once a day, although slower at weekends.
- Background - level 5, 20 point buy initially, all human, no advanced or prestige classes at the start of the campaign, but tell me what you intend to use at the start of the story. Come up with a background, you can make up the world background for yourself, in terms of nationality, culture, etc.
- Players - up to 6
- Start - some time in February. I'm running one other campaign and have a further one (Iron Gods) starting before this, so this is next in the queue. I'll look at the initial interest and then decide how long to open recruitment.
PM me or post here if any questions.
Hmm. Looks good, but for one detail: I think you're thinking of pathfinder point buy, yes?
20 pf point buy produces stats that are about the same as the ones 32 point buy does in d20, so if you were thinking of pathfinder, I'd recommend you go with that.
Yes, sorry, got too used to thinking in PF.
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Got the crunch fixed up for Jazzming. Planning on going into Technosavant advance class as soon as she hits level 6.
Since I mentioned Helix Warrior earlier, how does the 'not widespread' genetic engineering setting rule work with the class? Would you prefer I stay away from it or would military applications be part of the exception to the rule?
I like that gravity engineering isn't a thing- I've been imagining zero or low gee combat and am kind of looking forward to it.
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Starting HP so 37 plus any I get from any constitution, feats and the like
Humm not bad. Still interested in playing. We'll have to decide on gear though as I might take a stat boust from cybernetics in something or a genetic retrovirus. As for my character, bad ass Space Marine who walks around in heavy armor.
Strong Hero 3/Soldier 1, will alternate Helix Warrior and Soldier levels.
Alright, decent rolls for once.
Whoops. Totally missed that. I just saw level 4 and assumed it was because that's the first level anybody could get into their advanced class. Okay.
Strong Hero 4, then.
Are there restricted occupations, Shady? You said we would be sponsored by an organization of some sort- is that a government or corporation or something else?
Following up on that, if we're sponsored by an organization do we need to supply our own gear or will the PCs have gear and weapons supplied by the sponsoring agency?
Oh, one thing while looking at the skills- any chance you'd do a PF inspired houserule and collapse Hide/Move Silently into Stealth and Listen/Spot into Perception?
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Here is the sheet for my character, Katrin Helgunnr. Space marine and walking tank for the party. Just have to sort out her gear somewhat but I intend to wear some heavy armor and carry a powerful melee and ranged weapon (as well as a backup weapon or two).
Also have some proposed cybernetics for my character. Tell me if they are allowed or not.
You still around, shady?
Yes, I've been travelling (I'm normally in London, have been in San Francisco all week) this week, and feeding my other two campaigns, so a bit distracted. Am flying back this evening (accidentally, not deliberately, avoiding the superbowl) and will post a little more on this one later. It's still in plan as per my long post at the start of the week.
I've created a campaign tracker so I can remember to keep track of it.
Can I take a quick roll call as to who is still interested in playing? I'd like to do a quick recruitment cycle and then run development in the Discussion thread until we are up and running.
Switching avatar to my GM one.
Still here.
Whoops. Totally missed that. I just saw level 4 and assumed it was because that's the first level anybody could get into their advanced class. Okay.
Strong Hero 4, then.
Are there restricted occupations, Shady? You said we would be sponsored by an organization of some sort- is that a government or corporation or something else?
Following up on that, if we're sponsored by an organization do we need to supply our own gear or will the PCs have gear and weapons supplied by the sponsoring agency?
- It's 5 levels (I'd originally said 4 but moved it up one in a later post).
- Pick an occupation and I'll tell you whether it works - we'll probably make it work, I want to make this interactive- Per the gear, yes you'll get supplied gear appropriate to the mission, and I need to figure out how to match it to the PL. So specify the kind of stuff you think is appropriate and I'll try to figure out how to make it match. Note though that I'm thinking you won't be necessarily working for the organisation for long (not certain to be honest, let's see how it goes) so if you have wealth you may need to fall back on it - wealth isn't irrelevant after the first mission.
Oh, one thing while looking at the skills- any chance you'd do a PF inspired houserule and collapse Hide/Move Silently into Stealth and Listen/Spot into Perception?
Absolutely, good idea, if OK with everyone else.
OK, so some of these may be duplicates as I haven't cross mapped with the aliases:
Yes:
Thorn Rat/TwelvePointFivePercent
Jazzming
Probably:
Karlprosek
Katrinn Helgunnr
Would like to get to 6 if I can but can do 4 and I would be looking for at least 4 confirmations.