Scratchbuilt D20 Project - Way too Ambitious to take on by myself!

[GrandDukeJerot]

Well, I was discussing with a friend the other day about a campaign design he'd like to play. He had this idea of creating a futuristic setting with the worn down look and feel of Star Wars (Episodes 4-6), but with some influences from Warhammer 40k and the BattleTech universe. However, what really caught my eye with his idea was a double currency system. There would be both hard cash and credit. For using credit, there would be a DC wealth check to see if you could afford the item, which would allow you to shell out early game for big things like your own ship.

So, I boiled it down to some basic concepts:
- Use the D20 system as barebones building blocks - If it ain't broke, don't replace it with something untested.
- Make my own Base Classes, Races, Feats, and Skills that I need to fill in gaps.
- Create some kind of Starship battle system. No matter how tempted I am to steal the old Star Wars RPG system for ship battles, I feel like there should be a less clunky way to play it out, as I would love to encourage lots of space use.
- Add in Credit Wealth Checks
- Add in 'Suits'. These 'Suits,' as they are dubbed are sets of power armor. They range in size from skintight to about as big as a large minivan. They can give all kinds of bonuses to players. Smaller suits would have subtle abilities like stealth, while the larger ones would replace your Str Dex Con and AC stats, making you a powerhouse in combat, or even allow you to hold larger weaponry.

This is obviously beyond my own skill to create, so I would like to seek assistance and Ideas from fellow GITP users. I'll take up the first couple of posts to reserve for Classes, etc., but I really want to see what anyone else can come up with.

In Particular, the new ideas, including Wealth checks, Suits, and Starship Battle are things that I have little experience in coming up with. So, I am totally open to suggestions on systems for this.

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Races -

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Classes -

Ideas so far:
Spacer (Jack of all trades, uses the Fighter progression for DnD, or similarly the Soldier from Star Wars RPG)
Spacer
A spacer can characterize everyone in the universe. This ranges from the ship pilot making his way through life as a soldier, a card shark at the local casino-cruise, or even a bounty hunter. In the 25th century, people are quite versatile and learn vary quickly.

Abilities: Because of the versatile nature of the Spacer, all abilities are equally useful. A high strength could characterize a bruiser, quite proficient with melee weapons, while a high dexterity could create a nimble but accurate gunslinger. Constitution could boost the meager D6 health that the class starts out with, if you plan to get up close and personal. A high intelligence is quite useful, to take advantage of the already high number of skill points the class starts out with.

Hit Die: D6

Skill Points at Level 1: [Int mod + 6] X 4

Skill Points per level Int mod + 6

Spacer
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+1|
+2|
+2|
+0|Bonus Feat

2nd|
+2|
+3|
+3|
+0|Bonus Feat

3rd|
+3|
+3|
+3|
+1|

4th|
+4|
+4|
+4|
+1|Bonus Feat

5th|
+5|
+4|
+4|
+1|

6th|
+6/+1|
+5|
+5|
+2|Bonus Feat

7th|
+7/+2|
+5|
+5|
+2|

8th|
+8/+3|
+6|
+6|
+2|Bonus Feat

9th|
+9/+4|
+6|
+6|
+3|

10th|
+10/+5|
+7|
+7|
+3|Bonus Feat[/table]

Skills: All skills are considered class skills for a Spacer, with permission of the DM.

Bonus Feats: You may choose any general feat as a bonus feat, as well as any of the feats in the Feats Section of Vital Link D20.

Creditor (Rich, very rich. Specializes in acquiring expensive items.)
Suit Pilot (Specializes in using Suits)

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Feats -

Suit Familiarity
You are proficient in the use of 'Suits' the advanced personal technology.
Prerequisites: Pilot(Suits) 4
Benefits: You suffer no penalties when using a suit.
Normal: While wearing a Suit, you take a -2 penalty to dex, and a further -2 on all to hit rolls.

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Skills -
New Knowledge Skills:
Knowledge (Xenos) - You have some knowledge of the various races beyond humanity.

Synergy: 5 ranks in Knowledge (Xenos) gives a +2 bonus to all Diplomacy, Intimidate, and Bluff checks against non-human species.

Knowledge (Suits) - You are familiar with 'Suits,' advanced mechanized constructs that permeate the 25th century.

Synergy: 5 Ranks in Knowledge (Suits) gives a +1 Bonus to all Dodge and Attack rolls against Suits.

Pilot - You can drive vehicles, whether they be starships or otherwise.
Special: When you choose this skill, you must choose: Fighter, Suit, Capital, Domestic. Your pilot skill only pertains to the one that you choose. You may take this skill multiple times, for different types of piloting.

Synergy: 5 Ranks in Pilot gives a +2 bonus to all other piloting types. For example, if you have 5 ranks in Pilot (Capital), you pilot Domestic vehicles with a +2 bonus.

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Items -

Suits

Weapons

Armor

Other

[GrandDukeJerot]

- Reserved for Suits System, Wealth System, and Starship Battles

Credit System:
Using one's credit account, they may make a Wealth check to purchase items in a civilized structure. The wealth check DC is as follows:

1 DC for every 100 Credits Being Purchased
+1 DC for every wealth check done in the last week
+1 DC for every failed wealth check done in the last week

Once per day, you may take a 10 on your wealth check.

Complications:
If you fail your Wealth Check, there are consequences. Failures in a week increase your Wealth Check DC, making it harder to draw funds. Also:

Fail by -5 or more: You are reported to the credit company. Permanent +1 DC to all Wealth Checks. This may be undone by paying 500 Credits in hard currency to the credit company.

Fail by -10 or more: Not only are you reported to the credit company, you are reported to the local authorities. In addition to the penalty for -5, You are incarcerated for one day for credit fraud. This may be paid off by 1000 Credits in hard currency to the jail.

[Silence]

Sorry to be a party pooper, but I have a strong feeling that this will die of lack of interest, crawl under the front porch, and slowly rot, producing a foul stench for months.

But, best of luck. I might drop by and write a few thingies up if I have time.

[GrandDukeJerot]

Wow. Thanks for that stunning vote of confidence, lol. I guess I did overreach, but what's the point of making something new in D20 if you can't make it stand out? I've been thinking of some fluff, though. I really do need that to balance out the crunch that this idea seems to be built upon.

I've come up with a name for the Setting, called Vital Link. Let me explain how this works.

In the universe, Humanity is not alone. However, if is not like what we have fantasized in our literature, of finding beings quite similar to us. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Almost all of the life forms we know are virtually the opposite of what we characterize as sentience. The Drelmags are diminutive swarm like creatures that have very little singular consciousness. The Valarin, as we call them, are a complete egnima, being beings of pure energy. Right now, the only race we can truly relate to are the Merr, a race of hyper - light sensitive creatures. They are our Vital Link to the rest of the sentient universe.

And we had a rocky start, with the away team of the Ulysses, an Alexander class cruiser fitted with the best in FTL technology at the time, encountering the Merr on a supposedly abandoned ship. It was a slaughter, and they returned heroes for their actions, unknowingly sparking of the greatest war in Humanity history. The Encounter War, as it was called, was very bloody and lasted generations before the language barrier was finally broken. However, there is still bad blood on both sides.

[The_Herald]

double currency system. There would be both hard cash and credit. For using credit, there would be a DC wealth check to see if you could afford the item, which would allow you to shell out early game for big things like your own ship.

i think that it would be easier to try and add hard cash to the system used in d20 modern...
for the Suits you might wont to see about tweaking this stuff form modern (http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Mecha_%28MSRD%29)

[GrandDukeJerot]

Thanks for the ideas, Herald. I'll have to look through the mecha page right now.

Edit: The mecha page is very good, I think that we can just link this in and restrict it to Large Suits (Also, damage needs to be reduced). For medium sized suits (I'm thinking stealth suits or digital interfaces - skill suits) I'll add it as an equipment that may or may not be combined with armor depending on the suit.

Also, how do you make level progression tables? I wanted to build the Creditor class, and start up a Techie class.

[The_Herald]

i think this is what your after... if not take a look at Fax_Celestis's Guide To Homebrewing (it's one of the Stickies)

NAME OF CLASS
{table=head]Level|Base Attack<br>Bonus|Fort Save|Ref Save|Will Save|Special

1st|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

2nd|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

3rd|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

4th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

5th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

6th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

7th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

8th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

9th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

10th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

11th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

12th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

13th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

14th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

15th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

16th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

17th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

18th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

19th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability

20th|
+x|
+x|
+x|
+x|Class Ability[/table]

[GrandDukeJerot]

Thanks for that, Herald. I've put up spacer class so far, and am starting on creditor right now. Comments and Criticism would be greatly appreciated, as this is my first time doing this.

[weishan]

What I see so far:


Mechs and starship rules and creation:
Please don't use d20 modern for this their systems are garbage. D20 mecha (it has a free onlines SRD) has a good combat system (especially for starships), and a briliant vehicle creation system that even lets you estimate CR, purchase DC and cost in credits. It covers everything from suits to tanks to starships. Agian, it's a great system, and it makes creating any kind of vehicle really easy. It also unifies them under a consistent system.


Spacer:

I think you might consider adding 6+int skill points instead of 4+int because d20 modern tends to require a lot more skillful characters to function. Otherwise, there's not much else to say about it except what is it's class defence and reputation bonus?

[GrandDukeJerot]

Thanks for the advice, Weishan. I've been looking at the D20 mecha system, and I think it needs a huge overhaul before it'll work the way I want it to. Basically, I want Suits and Humans to be on the same playing field, just that the Suits are far superior. That's why I've already decided to reduce it to only Large Suits. I'm also thinking of subtracting 2 die of damage for the mecha guns for every 5 die of damage it originally does (A Mass Driver that usually does 15d6 damage would now do 9d6 damage, losing 6 die of damage. This way, suits can still dominate combat without it being ridiculous.)

As for the spacer, I made the change. You are correct, skill checks are much more important in the future. I didn't know how to add defense and reputation to the table. If I ever figure it out, I'll edit it in.