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View Full Version : What D20 Future/Modern rules could be intigrated with 3.5e well?



Giegue
2012-09-26, 07:32 PM
As the title asks. I have a campaign setting that I'm working on that blends sci-fi-level tech with D&D magic. However, I am far from a good homebrewer and as a result was planning on lifting the sci-fi material from D20 future. However, I know that D20 future/Modern is a tad different from 3.5e and as a result I am making this thread to ask the following: Which D20 future rules would be able to be ported to 3.5e with minimal effort on my part? If any material would need alterations, what kind of alterations would they need? If the D20 future materal is all horridly unbalanced crap, then what other D20 sources would be valid to take from? Would the old D20 starwars rules for advance tech, refluffed for this setting be better then the material from D20 modern/future for this kind of thing?

If these questions could be addressed I'd be grateful.

Beleriphon
2012-09-26, 09:07 PM
If the D20 future materal is all horridly unbalanced crap, then what other D20 sources would be valid to take from? Would the old D20 starwars rules for advance tech, refluffed for this setting be better then the material from D20 modern/future for this kind of thing?

If these questions could be addressed I'd be grateful.

I think you might have more luck playing a straight d20 Modern game. The core rules and the Urban Arcana should cover you for magic. The biggest hurdle is probably making d20 Modern stuff compete with high level D&D.

Generally speaking the weapons and such should be able to pulled straight from d20 Modern books without issue. Armour might need some work depending on what you want to do with that, but the two systems are compatible enough that you can run d20 Modern characters in a D&D adventure with on the fly modifications to monsters and other numbers.

If you want a prebuilt setting you can poach from see if you can locate DragonStar material. It's written for D&D 3E (not 3.5) but if you can convert 3 to 3.5 you're fine.

Giegue
2012-09-26, 09:17 PM
I'd rather not just run strait D20 Modern. It's magic level is just not high enough for what I'm going for. The main stuff I wanted to poach was actually the sci-fi weapons, armor and mechs from D20 future, as the setting in question is based on taking your typical OA world and moving it into the future. Thus, it includes technology but also features D&D level all powerful magic, rather then the stunted, less powerful D20 Modern magic.

Also, that setting sounds like something that could be of use....

Ravens_cry
2012-09-26, 09:43 PM
Duct Tape of Repair, favoured by dwarven engineers everywhere!
But in all seriousness, the chase rules could be interesting.
The mech rule from d20 future might work for an Orguss 02 style campaign.
The allegiance based alignment system could be interesting, especially in a world undergoing civil war.

Remmirath
2012-09-26, 10:18 PM
My group has been playing a campaign that's blended D20 Modern/D&D 3.0 for about eight years now, and for the most part it works out quite well - although it did require some house ruling and a little homebrewing to smooth over some gaps. The majority of the rules are the same between the two, however, so one could probably get away with less of that. There are also some things that, in hindsight, we should've done differently - but those mostly have to do with a significant power gap between mostly D&D characters and mostly D20 Modern characters emerging at the higher levels (20+, although the real problems only started at 40+).

I would recommend using mostly D&D for what you are going for, and then just adding in the weapons and all. Be warned that, unless you modify them, guns (including the future ones) are quite weak in D20 Modern as compared to melee weapons and also magic, a problem which gets worse the higher level you go. Basically, they are little better than a crossbow.

In other words, all of the rules could be integrated well, so it's a question of which ones you want. Some of them will take a little bit of work while some of them are already the same between the two systems anyhow.

Kelb_Panthera
2012-09-27, 11:52 PM
+1 What Remmirath said. Also, you can pull pretty freely from D20 starwars and D20 call of cthulu.

One thing to bear in mind though, a 20th level barbarian isn't going to be impressed by a low-ish level expert driving a mech. Tech is nice, but nothing is more important in a D&D character than getting his class and feat set right.