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View Full Version : Making a d20 "Mercenary" game



Yora
2010-02-02, 05:19 PM
Probably everyone has played some games or seen movies about "Mercenary" bands. Small groups of elite soldiers, who conduct special missions within larger military conflicts, which are probably the closest modern world equivalent of classic fantasy adventurers.
Metal Gear Solid, Aliens, Resident Evil, Ghost in the Shell, Modern Warfare, Stalker, Ronin, ... you name it. They don't have to be actual mercenaries, as such characters are often employed by the government, but the things they do are still the same.

I think it's a great background for modern RPGs, as you have all the things you have in adventurer paries. Visiting exotic places, doing dangerous stuff for random people for monney, killing everyone who gets in the way, being mostly autonomous without being restrained by a larger organization, and most importantly keeping all the cool stuff you find with killed enemies. :smallbiggrin:

We started playing a week ago using the SW Saga rules, which I think are the best d20 rules to play cinematic action campaigns that involve a lot of thechnology. I also include some light amounts of science fictions, mostly in the form of fancy tanks and planes, and extensive cybernetics.
I've allready started with doing changes to the base classes and coming up with an extensive weapon and armor list. I allready use d20 Future, Future Tech, and Cyberspace as additional sources of ideas, but these are very generic and don't provide that many new ideas how you can make creative campaigns around mercenary bands in a TL 6 setting.

I'll probably post some of my materials in a week or so when exams are finished. But right now I'm looking for additional material that could be a good scource of ideas for high-tech warfare and covert opperations adventures.
Anyone know about good free online rescources for such games?

Giegue
2010-02-02, 05:50 PM
Star Wars D20 as a base? Never tried it. I have experince with D20 Modern and Shadowrun, though, and both are great systems for this type of thing. Shadowrun can be an especially interesting system, and out of all the PnP games out there is the best for portraying normal, modern humans, at least in my eyes anyway.

As for using Star Wars D20, I really can't say great or not great because I have absolutely no experience with the system at all. However, I will say that I really love modern style games and such, especially D20 Modern. I actually once thought I could try and use the Shadowrun rules for a more original mercenary game in my own setting rather then the one Shadowrun gives you, but I had nobody to try it with. I would love to see what you can do with Star Wars D20, even though I know nothing of the system, simply because I wish there where more modern RPGs out there.

Oh, and also, are you going to have a magic system like D20 Modern or Shadowrun or are you just not going to include spell casting at all?

Yora
2010-02-03, 09:21 AM
Star Wars Saga edition is mostly the basic d20 rules striped down to the parts that are really neccessary. You chose your good skills once and then all skills advance automatically. Firearms are handled much like weapon types in D&D, like "heavy blaster pistol" or "blaster rifle", without bothering about different models. Ranges for all pistols or all rifles are all the same as well. Bonuses and penalties only come in 2, 5, and 10, and there are no miss chances, while there is only "difficult terrain", without bothering to make differences between ruble, ice sheets, stairs, or whatever. The only magic is force powers, and there are only about 20 in the core rulebook, and the game works very well if you don't have a force user at all.
It's certainly not for every group and all types of campaign, but I think is the best d20 game out there for campaigns focusing on cinematic action and fast paced plots. As the game is much more simple, there are few incentives to figure out special combinations of feats, spells, and class features to do very powerful things the designers never intended or even thought of. I think its much easier to handle for game masters, as there are much less things to keep track off or special rules for very specific situations that you have to remember. And players can just pick a feat that allows them to do something fun, without having the figure out the entire rules of the game. If you want to recreate the action of the Star Wars movies, the Saga rules are just perfect! And it also works well for any other modern-ish games, where you want intense firefights without pouring five minutes over your spells and feats before making your turn.

I'm not yet quite sure about what you're allowed to post online regarding a non OGL-game. Making new feats, talents, equipment, and vehicles should be perfectly safe. But I'm still unsure if posting variant classes would get this thread closed.

KaganMonk
2010-02-03, 05:20 PM
In general, I believe a safe rule to follow for homebrew is to not copy/paste any material that was printed by what you're adapting. For example, if this were 3.5 D&D Hide in Plain Sight, instead of writing out the description word for word, you would simply say:

Hide in Plain Sight: As the ranger ability

If your new mechanic works in a completely different way, you'd be perfectly alright to explain the new ability. By adapting and referencing the original idea, you're still giving credit to the original creator without claiming their work as your own.

I encourage anyone who has a clearer or more correct way of saying this to go ahead and try.

Drolyt
2010-02-03, 07:35 PM
I'm not yet quite sure about what you're allowed to post online regarding a non OGL-game. Making new feats, talents, equipment, and vehicles should be perfectly safe. But I'm still unsure if posting variant classes would get this thread closed.

It's iffy. It's unlikely that this thread would get closed unless you started copying things word for word, but that's not to say it's legal, just that unless it's egregious it will get ignored, both by WotC and the mods. Variant classes are posted here all the time though. As a general rule don't copy things word for word, and consult a lawyer if you plan to actually publish anything. Technically, if I understand the court rulings correctly, in the US at least game rules can't be copyrighted, but the text of the rules can. That's why back in the day there were so many clones of AD&D and TSR couldn't do a thing about it, since they didn't just copy and paste.