lulz of the epic., D20 shadowrun. Options

[Maelstrome]

sitting in my room, not even noon yet. im bored as all possible. i sit down and start flipping through my books.

thats when i realized something. i have all that i need to run D20 shadowrun.

through the combination of ogl steampunk and ogl cybernet i have achieved something ridiculous and lulzy.

using steampunk for the magic system,races,monsters and so on.

using cybernet for the cyberware,weapons,matrix and other tech.

since they both use the same rules its all come together easily.

what do the rest of you think?

[Stahlseele]

Wait for the official SR5 D20.

[Maelstrome]

ive seen you mention that a handful of times around here. thats probably what made me want to do it.

[Critias]

No thanks.

[Maelstrome]

im guessing you just dislike d20 in general then.

[Critias]

Nope, I just don't care for it for anything outside of your standard epic/high fantasy setting. I'm fine with high level Rangers wading through mobs of Orks, and nimble Elven warriors shooting eight arrows a second and yadda yadda yadda, but only in-genre. Once you try to use d20 for gritty, nasty fantasy (Thieves World or Black Company, for instance) it gets so house-ruled that you might as well use a different system instead. And when you try to use it for modern or post-modern stuff (Spycraft, Star Wars d20), I just don't care for it (outside of Jedis, which have a fantasy feel to them that the rest of the setting doesn't).

I'm fine with high armor classes and ridiculously huge hit point pools and silly numbers of attacks per round and all that, but only in a fantasy setting that makes no claim towards realism. Once you toss in guns (with it taking dozens of .50 shots to down a high level character) or grenades or whatever, the system just falls apart to me. When it's totally devoid of any claims towards realism and focuses on a high-magic, epic, fantasy setting, it's alright. For anything else, there are other systems I prefer.

For my Shadowrun, I want a gang of Orks to present a very real threat, regardless of a characters "power level."

[hobgoblin]

heh, never taken a look at d20 modern then i take it?

rather then a flat 50 damage massive hit rule, it ties it to the targets con stat.

however, i think cybernet (have the book here somewhere) went with the flat 50, as its based of the D&D srd, not the d20m rsd...

and with urban arcana and d20 future+cyberscape, one have the makings of a d20 shadowrun right there.

[ludomastro]

I saw a d20 variant that gave the characters Constitution HP plus class HP and that was it. No HP/level, no feat to grant more HP, no more HP, period. It works better when the level 12 gun guy is afraid of a 12-year old girl with a knife instead of thinking that she is a bug on the windshield of life. While I am not a big fan of d20, I could see it working with the right group.

[Fuchs]

I use d20 for "medieval fantasy" games, and SR rules for any game/setting with modern firearms. That works very well in my experience.

[paws2sky]

If one were serious about this, I'd suggest using Ken Hood's Wounds/Vitality System instead of normal Hit Points. Its very similar to the system in one of the D20 Star Wars core books.



-paws

[ludomastro]

If one were serious about this, I'd suggest using Ken Hood's Wounds/Vitality System instead of normal Hit Points. Its very similar to the system in one of the D20 Star Wars core books.

Specifically, the pre-SAGA edition. I have that one on my gaming shelf and it works (sorta) but I still prefer my West End Games version of Star Wars.

[hyzmarca]

I'm fine with high armor classes and ridiculously huge hit point pools and silly numbers of attacks per round and all that, but only in a fantasy setting that makes no claim towards realism. Once you toss in guns (with it taking dozens of .50 shots to down a high level character) or grenades or whatever, the system just falls apart to me. When it's totally devoid of any claims towards realism and focuses on a high-magic, epic, fantasy setting, it's alright. For anything else, there are other systems I prefer.

What about a game in which, due to a very poorly worded Wish by an epic level character, fully armed M1A2 Abrams and its crew get sucked out of Iraq and land smack dab in the middle of Greyhawk?

[Fuchs]

What about a game in which, due to a very poorly worded Wish by an epic level character, fully armed M1A2 Abrams and its crew get sucked out of Iraq and land smack dab in the middle of Greyhawk?

Those who hunt Elves! (well, almost - they got a japanese tank, and a schoolgirl gunnut as crew).

Though I have had such a theme as an astral quest in our campaign: Runners with a tank messing up some fantasy world!

[hyzmarca]

Back before they put hard limits on the effects of Wish, in the good old days (damn you, WOTC), there would have been something fun about using a Wish in the middle of a naval battle by wishing for Carrier Strike Group 7. Even if the GM decides to twist the wish so that they attack you, there is no way to get around the awesomeness of the USS Ronald Regan and all of it's support ships appearing in the middle of a high fantasy setting.

[Chrysalis]

There was a series of books about M113A1 and a troop of soldiers being transported from the Vietnam War to a fantasy world.

Besides you can always wish that the opposition flotilla disappears.

-Chrysalis

[Adarael]

If that's your thing, read "Janissaries" by Jerry Pournelle. CIA-backed mercs overthrowing a communist government are abducted by aliens, made to farm space drugs on a penal planet populated with cultures from throughout earth's history. A heavy cavalry charge of knights mees heavy recoilless rifle. Hilarity ensues.

[hobgoblin]

Besides you can always wish that the opposition flotilla disappears.

and that happening by your side being transported to some other world?

using wish in combo with a creative and evil GM can be "interesting"...

its the kind of stuff SR great dragons are made of...

[hyzmarca]

Forcibly combining Planescape with D20 Modern can give us a great little variation on The Salvation War, which is essentially Left Behind meets D20 written by a for military nerds. Demons with pitchforks vs humans with cruise missiles. It is a very one sided conflict.


Other fun wishes to make in D&D.

Create a permanent 10 mile high by 10 mile wide square gate between Baator and Detroit, Michigan.

This wish is preferably followed by a wish teleporting you to Earth, some place other than Detroit, and using knowledge about Devils that humans from Earth would lack in order to get a lucrative job consulting with the Pentagon, and than spring boarding that into a Hell or two or being Secretary of State.

Use a Wish to establish a Constitutional Democracy in Mount Celesta. Establish in the wish that the Constitution must contain anti-discrimination clauses making everyone equal under the law, which is perfectly reasonable for a Lawful Good plane. Then file a class action lawsuit protesting Alignment Discrimination in Mount Celestan immigration policy on behalf of a bunch of evil souls who are being tortured horribly in the lower planes.

Wish for Tenacious D, the band, not an actual D that is tenacious.

Wish for Voltron, Defender of the Universe.

Wish for a blueprints for a steam engine and use it to jumpstart the industrial revolution.

Wish for The Rolling Stones to tour the Nine Hells eternally, playing nothing but Sympathy for the Devil.

[Critias]

Create a Permanent 10 mile high by 10 mile wide square permanent gate between Baator and Detroit, Michigan.

What's the poor inhabitants of Baator ever do to you, asshole?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

[Chrysalis]

Create a Permanent 10 mile high by 10 mile wide square permanent gate between Baator and Detroit, Michigan.

How does this differ from Detroit today?

Use a Wish to establish a Constitutional Democracy in Mount Celesta. Establish in the wish that the Constitution must contain anti-discrimination clauses making everyone equal under the law, which is perfectly reasonable for a Lawful Good plane. Then file a class action lawsuit protesting Alignment Discrimination in Mount Celestan immigration policy on behalf of a bunch of evil souls who are being tortured horribly in the lower planes.

You do realize that this just means that your portion of Mount Celestia just slides closer to Elysium (or the lawful neutral side which is used as the staging post for crusades to the lower planes.) Its where all the rules lawyers go. They usually end up drafted for the crusades. If you are lucky you get captured and can start up a small practice in Dis.

Wish for a blueprints for a steam engine and use it to jumpstart the industrial revolution.

What about that engineering degree to understand it or to prevent you from building a large steam built bomb? Your plane starts moving closer to Mechanus.

[hyzmarca]

What's the poor inhabitants of Baator ever do to you, asshole?

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif)

They were there.

You do realize that this just means that your portion of Mount Celestia just slides closer to Elysium (or the lawful neutral side which is used as the staging post for crusades to the lower planes.) Its where all the rules lawyers go. They usually end up drafted for the crusades. If you are lucky you get captured and can start up a small practice in Dis.

Just part 1 of an elaborate master plan massively alter the cosmology by fusing the all the Outer Planes into a single democratic Superplane, preferably in a way that either corrupts all Outsiders with aspects of other Alignments, such that they're able to act against their Alignments of their own free will, or just kills them outright, I don't particularly care which. This in turn being part of an even bigger scheme with the ultimate goal fusing all planes and demiplanes into the Superplane.

[Chrysalis]

Just part 1 of an elaborate master plan massively alter the cosmology by fusing the all the Outer Planes into a single democratic Superplane, preferably in a way that either corrupts all Outsiders with aspects of other Alignments, such that they're able to act against their Alignments of their own free will, or just kills them outright, I don't particularly care which. This in turn being part of an even bigger scheme with the ultimate goal fusing all planes and demiplanes into the Superplane.

"Another clueless. Tell you what I will give you this sign and dare you to walk around Sigil with it for an entire day for a gold piece. When you come back tell me how did it feel, berk."

[silva]

Just passing to say Planescape and Shadowrun are 2 of my all time fave settings.

But Planescape has a disadvantage: the system. I mean, a setting all about philosophy, exploration, politics, etc. with a system thats pretty much a wargame. Wuh?

[hobgoblin]

well, planescape makes it possible to settle philosophical debates with the sword, rather then the pen (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Chrysalis]

Death can also be a philosophy.

Besides pens are the swords of bureaucracy.