d20 Yawn
Might as well have them play Cubicle Wars.
So I'm looking over the d20 Modern books, thinking I could just try to run another World of Darkness game and at least it'll have neat character types. What is this 'The Strong Hero' bullshit? I guess one would just go by professions in that case. That'll be kind of amusing in a D&D type game.
DM: "Okay, so the Accountant, the Cop, and the Politician walk into the inn..."
Mom: "Sounds like the start of a bad joke!"
The Rest of the Group: *ROFLMAO*
I'm being facetious, of course, but when I started looking for all this source material I was hoping for something more like Shadowrun. I am going to look over the Shadowrun books, but ultimately, I might just pick and choose things to incorporate into rules we already know.
I love World of Darkness in terms of setting and character types, but I have a horrible time DMing combat scenes. I just can't wrap my head around the d10 system, and health levels. Gimme hit points any day.
So I'm toying with the idea of either doing a Shadowrun game (I haven't gotten to the part about the dice yet, but if it varies much from D&D I'll just go by D&D rules and screw it), somehow adapting WoD for d20 using the d20 Modern book, or taking the high tech stuff from both Shadowrun and d20 Modern and updating classic D&D.
kurizumaru and I were toying about with that late last night, figuring how the classes would translate into cyberpunk.
I'm thinking of taking a page from the movie Equilibrium for the Clerics, but actually merging what is the Cleric and Monk classes (which if you watch this clip, you'll see why).
Christian Bale + Gun Katas = guhhhh*drool*
I'm sure something like this has been done, but it's more fun when you do it yourself. I loooove world-building.
I'm thinking of the Cleric as part of an elite warrior force, possibly trained and managed by the ruling entity on the city state of Utopia (I'm kind of basing this on something I wrote a while back, even before I saw Equilbrium so it's really not like it at all). Clerics are generally religiously inclined, but I'm probably going to do something different with religion in Utopia. Make it a dark near-future where religion has lost much of its appeal, and may be represented by the Druid. Clerics can never have too many concealed firearms. Teehee.
Doing away with Paladins.
Fighters are basic. Military, mercenaries, thugs... not wasting too much thought there. LOL. Just gotta make a way for them to distinguish from Clerics, since I'm tanking the Clerics so much. Sure, they're both fighter types in D&D, but the Cleric has the divine spellcasting abilities. If I'm taking religion out of the Cleric, and adding Monk... He would have access to Monk feats, unarmed attack bonuses, and I should let him keep the spellcasting, but probably not as prominent as with Wizards and Sorcerers. They might level up their spells at the same rate as Rangers do. Possibly let them keep the healing abilities since a) I'm doing away with Pallies and b) if they've gone through so much martial art and physical training, they could at least know first aid. But not sure if it'd be divine. That might remain the sole domain of the Druid.
Rogues would possibly be more plentiful in a dystopian future. Thieves, con artists, hackers. Think the guys from Leverage.
Wizards and Sorcerers would probably take a lot of thought, but it would also be a fun process to adapt. They'd have to be a bit of a throwback in a modern world, but seeing as how magic never went into hiding, they wouldn't have needed to (unless this is like Brez and magic is forbidden -- which I haven't decided yet). I may or may now borrow from Mage: The Ascension as far as distinguishing one from the other. Same mechanics, sure. Keep it simple. But maybe Wizards are the way they are because they somehow depend on technology to do their spells - kind of like the Technocracy in M:tA. But if they use technology, would that invalidate the armour restriction as far as somatic componens for spells? I wouldn't want to make Wizards much more powerful than Sorcerers, or nobody would play Sorcerers. Well, Jay will play an elven sorceress no matter what we do. LOL. That's just what he does.
I'm not sure what to do about Rangers. Probably keep them about the same. Make sure there's some wilderness about that would justify their existence, but make them also good with urban jungles. And if I'm leaving the Monster Manual be, you'd need rangers to keep the dragons and beasties in line.
Gosh, I'm yawning up a storm here this morning. Nevermind trying to get any actual writing done. I haven't even cooked lunch yet and I have maybe an hour to do so. I don't even know what I have I can make. I'll just pack a sammich. Or maybe mix up a quick batch of waffles.
Anyway, classes. Who am I missing? The Bard. Not sure what to do about him yet. Same with Barbarians. Might make them a human racial subtype rather than a character class. We'll see.
Druids will probably remain about the same. Throwback to the 'old religion'.
As to game mechanics, I want to keep everything more or less the same, but I'd have to make some adjustments to combat if I'm going to let a powerhouse like the Cleric play play with the other kiddies. Gee, does it look like I like these Clerics? LOL. I'd have to tone him down or beef the other guys up. I'll have to think more on the other fighter types, particularly the fighter.
A Cleric would need high Intelligence and Dexterity more than anything. He needs to be able to process high levels of information while he's dodging bullets.
Sure, this only works in sci fi movies and RPG games, but it's an interesting concept. You'd need to be highly trained in math and statistics, and be able to process all that, all while moving ridiculously fast.
Fighters, on the other hand, will be more Strength-oriented as they always have been. I might just make them more Barbarian-like and do away with the Barbarian altogether. Somebody who's probably been in some great recent war and tends to go berserk. Or, failed training/modification experiments by the government/armed forces. I'll do some more thinking on that. I don't want to restrict history too much, just add possibilities for the players to latch onto.
I still want to give the Bard a fighting chance, since I've already axed Paladins and Barbarians... we barely play Paladins or Barbarians anyway, and I think there's one Bard in our entire character folders, but I don't want to just dismiss them.
But yes, must work on character balance. So a merging of Barbarian/Fighter would help match the Monk/Cleric clusterfuck. Which leaves me to work on Wizards, Sorcerers, Rogues, Druids, Rangers and possibly Bards. Ideas welcome.
I think I'll stop there. I'm getting too into it and I need to get ready for work.
So I'm looking over the d20 Modern books, thinking I could just try to run another World of Darkness game and at least it'll have neat character types. What is this 'The Strong Hero' bullshit? I guess one would just go by professions in that case. That'll be kind of amusing in a D&D type game.
DM: "Okay, so the Accountant, the Cop, and the Politician walk into the inn..."
Mom: "Sounds like the start of a bad joke!"
The Rest of the Group: *ROFLMAO*
I'm being facetious, of course, but when I started looking for all this source material I was hoping for something more like Shadowrun. I am going to look over the Shadowrun books, but ultimately, I might just pick and choose things to incorporate into rules we already know.
I love World of Darkness in terms of setting and character types, but I have a horrible time DMing combat scenes. I just can't wrap my head around the d10 system, and health levels. Gimme hit points any day.
So I'm toying with the idea of either doing a Shadowrun game (I haven't gotten to the part about the dice yet, but if it varies much from D&D I'll just go by D&D rules and screw it), somehow adapting WoD for d20 using the d20 Modern book, or taking the high tech stuff from both Shadowrun and d20 Modern and updating classic D&D.
kurizumaru and I were toying about with that late last night, figuring how the classes would translate into cyberpunk.
I'm thinking of taking a page from the movie Equilibrium for the Clerics, but actually merging what is the Cleric and Monk classes (which if you watch this clip, you'll see why).
Click to viewChristian Bale + Gun Katas = guhhhh*drool*
I'm sure something like this has been done, but it's more fun when you do it yourself. I loooove world-building.
I'm thinking of the Cleric as part of an elite warrior force, possibly trained and managed by the ruling entity on the city state of Utopia (I'm kind of basing this on something I wrote a while back, even before I saw Equilbrium so it's really not like it at all). Clerics are generally religiously inclined, but I'm probably going to do something different with religion in Utopia. Make it a dark near-future where religion has lost much of its appeal, and may be represented by the Druid. Clerics can never have too many concealed firearms. Teehee.
Doing away with Paladins.
Fighters are basic. Military, mercenaries, thugs... not wasting too much thought there. LOL. Just gotta make a way for them to distinguish from Clerics, since I'm tanking the Clerics so much. Sure, they're both fighter types in D&D, but the Cleric has the divine spellcasting abilities. If I'm taking religion out of the Cleric, and adding Monk... He would have access to Monk feats, unarmed attack bonuses, and I should let him keep the spellcasting, but probably not as prominent as with Wizards and Sorcerers. They might level up their spells at the same rate as Rangers do. Possibly let them keep the healing abilities since a) I'm doing away with Pallies and b) if they've gone through so much martial art and physical training, they could at least know first aid. But not sure if it'd be divine. That might remain the sole domain of the Druid.
Rogues would possibly be more plentiful in a dystopian future. Thieves, con artists, hackers. Think the guys from Leverage.
Wizards and Sorcerers would probably take a lot of thought, but it would also be a fun process to adapt. They'd have to be a bit of a throwback in a modern world, but seeing as how magic never went into hiding, they wouldn't have needed to (unless this is like Brez and magic is forbidden -- which I haven't decided yet). I may or may now borrow from Mage: The Ascension as far as distinguishing one from the other. Same mechanics, sure. Keep it simple. But maybe Wizards are the way they are because they somehow depend on technology to do their spells - kind of like the Technocracy in M:tA. But if they use technology, would that invalidate the armour restriction as far as somatic componens for spells? I wouldn't want to make Wizards much more powerful than Sorcerers, or nobody would play Sorcerers. Well, Jay will play an elven sorceress no matter what we do. LOL. That's just what he does.
I'm not sure what to do about Rangers. Probably keep them about the same. Make sure there's some wilderness about that would justify their existence, but make them also good with urban jungles. And if I'm leaving the Monster Manual be, you'd need rangers to keep the dragons and beasties in line.
Gosh, I'm yawning up a storm here this morning. Nevermind trying to get any actual writing done. I haven't even cooked lunch yet and I have maybe an hour to do so. I don't even know what I have I can make. I'll just pack a sammich. Or maybe mix up a quick batch of waffles.
Anyway, classes. Who am I missing? The Bard. Not sure what to do about him yet. Same with Barbarians. Might make them a human racial subtype rather than a character class. We'll see.
Druids will probably remain about the same. Throwback to the 'old religion'.
As to game mechanics, I want to keep everything more or less the same, but I'd have to make some adjustments to combat if I'm going to let a powerhouse like the Cleric play play with the other kiddies. Gee, does it look like I like these Clerics? LOL. I'd have to tone him down or beef the other guys up. I'll have to think more on the other fighter types, particularly the fighter.
A Cleric would need high Intelligence and Dexterity more than anything. He needs to be able to process high levels of information while he's dodging bullets.
Sure, this only works in sci fi movies and RPG games, but it's an interesting concept. You'd need to be highly trained in math and statistics, and be able to process all that, all while moving ridiculously fast.
Fighters, on the other hand, will be more Strength-oriented as they always have been. I might just make them more Barbarian-like and do away with the Barbarian altogether. Somebody who's probably been in some great recent war and tends to go berserk. Or, failed training/modification experiments by the government/armed forces. I'll do some more thinking on that. I don't want to restrict history too much, just add possibilities for the players to latch onto.
I still want to give the Bard a fighting chance, since I've already axed Paladins and Barbarians... we barely play Paladins or Barbarians anyway, and I think there's one Bard in our entire character folders, but I don't want to just dismiss them.
But yes, must work on character balance. So a merging of Barbarian/Fighter would help match the Monk/Cleric clusterfuck. Which leaves me to work on Wizards, Sorcerers, Rogues, Druids, Rangers and possibly Bards. Ideas welcome.
I think I'll stop there. I'm getting too into it and I need to get ready for work.