Dominion Designs - D20 Modern meets 4th Edition pt.1
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Ever since the creation of D&D, players have been struggling to get the game out of that disgusting fantasy garbage setting and style. Swords, orcs and halflings - what about terrorists and mafia goons? Too vulgar for Tolkein I’m sure, the elitist!
Traveler took players to the stars; Vampire let them play monsters and Paranoia featured ways to backstab your friends in creative but suddenly inevitable betrayals. D20 Modern came out as a way to demonstrate the flexibility of the new D20 system, when other games had been modeling contemporary action in far more interesting styles for years.
I’m changing my D20 Future campaign to the 4th edition D20 rule set, for the most part. Why? I like the simplistic design of 4e. If you prefer 3.X D20, that’s fine. Here, have a seat next to the second and first edition players in the RPG nursing home. Diner is at 3:00 and if you don’t poop yourself I’ve got a nice bowl of rice pudding for you, ok buddy? For the rest of you trendsetters, let’s start at the basics: character design.
Classes
The essential table for all Modern classes is you get a talent at first level and bonus feat the next, with the pattern repeating. This is all right. Experience progression as is I can live with. Bonus feat every third level, sure. Plus one to and ability every four levels, ok. Reputation as a stat I dislike. It should be left to Knowledge skill rolls with difficulty that decreases the more awesome a character is.
What I mostly dislike are the different crucial stats that vary per class, the varying rates of advancement in different areas. I like the one time bonus that scales with level. Strongs get +1 to Fortitude and Reflex, Fasts get +2 to Reflex, Toughs +2 to Fort, Smart get +1 Willpower and Reflex, Dedicated stalwarts have +2 Will and +1 Fort, those Charismatic bastards have +1 Will and Reflex. The Defense stat is replaced by the Reflex defense - a small nod to Saga Star Wars - armor replaces the half level modifier when worn. The versatile ability modifier, Strength or Constitution - Dexterity or Intelligence - Wisdom or Charisma, will be in this version as well. Dump stats, schmump stats.
Multi-classing doesn’t exist in 4e, bit is essential to the Modern character: I’m a blogger/GM/pimp for example - yeah, some fantasy elements remain. I’m thinking the bonuses add up for classes, but don’t stack: a Strong/Fast would have +2 Fort, +1 Reflex and +1 Defense; getting a Tough level on top of these yields nothing extra.
Feats will in general work as written in the Modern core rulebook, in general. Certain attacks will translate into At-Will abilities and others will target abilities (now half your character level plus modifier) and defenses. Proficiency will grant +2 to relevant weapons ability rolls, instead negating the -4. Talents will pretty much remain as written and take the niche of powers in the new D&D. Modern characters don’t have awesome powers unless the go into advanced/prestige classes or have racial abilities or deals with Satan/lobbyists. I have expanded the Talent options for classes to make things interesting.
The formula for your skill points determines the amount of trained skills you get at first level. Just don’t multiply to get those old skill points. Following the 4e trend ability requirement lightening, Intelligence or Wisdom can be used to determine extra skills. Since I’ve consolidated some of the skills - the number of skills you can be trained at have to be altered: Strong 3+ Int or Wis modifier, Fast 3+, Tough 3+, Smart 7+, Dedicated 5+ and Charismatic 5+. The consolidated skill list looks like this.
Trained skills modifiers equal half your level plus 5 plus ability modifier; untrained skills are basically just ability checks. Whenever you gain a new class you gain you’re Intelligence or Wisdom modifier in new trained skills from the new class that are under modified by the classes core ability. Strong character with a 14 Wisdom (+2 modifier) that gains a level of Fast can chose two new trained skills from the Fast list that are modified by Dexterity.
Hit points are the maximum for first level added to your Constitution score. I still like a some chaos in my HP advancement, save some tapioca for me, I’m going to replace the flat hit die though with these rolls for PCs to prevent fate rape: 1d6, roll 2+1d4; 1d8, roll 2+1d6; 1d10, roll 4+1d6. More detail will be given in following articles on this.
I think this is a good start, or a horribly unbalanced waste of three hours akin to the mental equivalent of masturbation to a woman later revealed to be a dude. Next up I’ll go into combat updates and then those damn FX powers. How’s it looking so far?
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