Post/Author/DateTime	Post
0gre 08-31-07, 02:51 PM	Hello folks, The campaign, combines elements of many ancient cultures that once there was a greatflood and previous advanced civilizations that existed on our earth and the solar system. This was inspired by such tales as Plato's Atlantis, the giants & nephalim in the bible, the indian Vedic writings which speak of flying ships called Vihmana's, the Face On Mars, etc. So basically to sum it up, this is a "What if" type of campaign. Hundreds of million years ago, our solar system was a very different place than it is now. Our ancestors, came to this system fleeing persecution from another star system. They created a new civilization, of which's hub was located on Mars. Mars during this time period is a green lush and living world, while the earth is still in its infancy. Mar's orbits a parent planet where the asteroid belt now exists, so in essence it is the moon of a planet which exploded to later create the Asteroid belt. This event is what will lead to the death of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and which also decimated mars. Thos refugees that manage to survive flee to the garden earth and start civilization anew. Races: Humanity, is the only race. However, it is not the humanity we know. The term being more of a generic term for any sentient. There are baseline humans (standard humans), genetically engineered humans (upgrades), parahumans (humans with non-human DNA), provolves (artificialy evolved animals with sentience), infomorphs (information based consciousness, such as AIs, ghosts (uploaded human consciousness into machines), etc. Classes: This is the biggest change. There are 14 core classes. There are no prestige classses, nearly all of that stuff has been condensed into talent trees. Most typical sci-fi archetypes are represented. Adventurer (jack of all trades, somewhat like the D&D ranger and druid) Agent (roguish character, infiltrator, spy, etc) Bureaucrat (these are somewhat like a caster class, but they focus on charm, manipulation, that type of stuff.) Doctor (your typical RPG healer, they also recieve some offensive stuff such as poisons, diseases, anatomical strike (sneak attack). Enforcer (kind of like a cross between a rogue and barbarian. Think street thug, hired muscle, mobster, crime goon, etc.) Engineer (self explantory) Fixer (the name is misleading, these are the rogues, scoundrels, smugglers, etc. Whatever problem you have, they can "fix" it. Keeper (Paladin/jedi like class. These guys are the guardians of ancient estoeric in a futuristic setting. The Keepers of Knowledge, a secret society, few people even know they exist. These guys are the only ones who still practice the art of psionics) Martial Artist (self explantory) Meta-Physicist (this one is a bit harder to explain, somewhat like a D&D cleric) Nano Technician (This is your "wizard". A specialist in nano technology) Omega (The opposite of the keeper, they are symbiotic beings with creatures from beyond hyperspace. Kind of like demon possesed.) Soldier (The generic fighter/warrior) Trader (Self explanitory,they do recieve some offense stuff too based around the concept of "trading" such as draining life, stats, skills, etc from their enemy and adding it to their own. Kinda like a necromancer in some ways) Technology: While there is no magic in the D&D sense of the word, nanotechnology serves the same purporse. This is basically D&D/fantasy spellcasting, with a technological theme. Nanomachines can be called upon to do various tasks that resemble spells from D&D. These spells are called "Nano Programs". Psionics: Psionic's in the game, are very rare and still not understood well, much like today's real world psychics, remote viewers, telepaths. Typically psionics is based around the concept of mass universal consciousness and information. So, the psionics will be a little less flashy than standard psionics from the expanded psionic's handbook. There will be mostly powers from the subtle disciplines, such as telepathy and clairsentience. There will also be some psychometabolism and psychokinesis powers, though more along the lines of classic psionics. Such as telekinesis, self healing, and so forth. There won't be psionic powers tossing fireballs, or turning you into creatures, or any such extremes. I guess the easiest comparison would be the force from star wars or the 2nd edition psionics. I will definately be using the "Psionic's Is Different" approach. So such things as NR (my version of SR, aka Nano Resistance) will be ineffective against psionic powers, and PR (power resistance) will like will not provide you any form of resistance against nano programs. Worlds: There will be many worlds to explore in the campaign. Civilzation has footholds and colonies on many unihabitable worlds, and several worlds have even been terraformed into earth-like status, such as Venus, the moon, and so forth. There are also virtual realities, that will be similar to the "planes" in D&D, in the sense that the rules and nature of these places will vastly be different from each other. Of course there will be extreme planetary conditions on some places, like Neptune's frozen moon Triton. These type of extreme enviroments will be the "inner planes" almost of the campaign and provide some bizarre and dangerous landscapes for PC's to explore. Well, that's all for now. I've still got alot of work to do, but I thought I'd test the waters and see what people thought of the idea, and if anyone had any suggestions/ideas. As for the adventures and the theme of the campaign, I wanted to mostly just design my own world, so that I can run several different campaigns, but I'll definately say that Transhumanism and the concept of "What makes us human" is one of the central elements. Other themes will include such things as how does god fit into all of this and man in essence becoming like god with his technology. Since they now have the power to create whole new lifeforms and transform dead worlds into living ones, etc.
0gre 08-31-07, 02:58 PM	Ok, as for the "magic" system. Here's a brief explanation on how I'm planning on doing that. Well, basically it's spellcasting from D&D. So mechanically it works the same way, and the same "spells" are available. So for the nano's, those will just come from the spells of D&D. As for the specifics of how it works "in game", its like this. Every being able to use nano programs, posseses a factory inside their body, an implant. It is much like an artificial organ, that's sole purpose is to produce nanobots. These are like mana or magic points from an RPG, they fuel your "spells". Hence the need to rest and recooperate your spells daily, ie it takes your body time to reproduce the nanomachines. Some areas of the campaign worlds also feature ambient nanomachines in the atmosphere. In such places with higher than normal nano, spells may be more powerful, in places of less spells may be weaker. So for example, a fireball spell. Once the program (spell) is executed (cast), the nanomachines carry out the function of the program. A fireball for example would create a blast of flame by some means, such as turning all the ambient particles in 20' radius into pure oxygen and igniting it, or creating a small fusion reaction, and so forth. A spell of flight, might utilize the nanomachines to produce some kind of thrust via air or even some gravity defying field generation. I don't really care to get down nitty and gritty and explain the specifics of how each nano works, but basically it comes down to Arthur C Clarke's famous line.... "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" If anyone has ever played the newest version of Gamma World, or Anarchy Online, they're prolly familiar with magic = nanomachines. If you were wondering more specifically about the in game, rules and mechanics, then I'm still in the process of creating the nano programs file for the campaign, but basically, the nano technician recieves talents that grant him spells. The talents are broken down into trees related to spells fiting a certain theme, ice, force, beguiling, movement, etc. Each talent tree grants a list of spells associated to it. Caster level has gone out the window, now instead of your caster level being equal to your levels in the spellcasting class, such as in normal D&D. Your caster level is equal to your hit dice. Thus, more wizard levels = more spells. This makes multicassing with a caster type more appealing, since if you only decide to take a few spellcasting talents, then those spells scale with your character and remain effective. For example, you wanted a Soldier who could use a few nano programs related to fire effects, you could take a level in Nano Tech and use its talent to pick up the basic fire spellcasting talent. These fire spells would thus scale and stay useful your entire career, instead of only getting a few cruddy low level spells that you suck with since you're not a pure wizard. Here's an example of some nano related talent trees to give you an idea of what I mean. This was originally something my group used for D&D, so just ignore the "spell" references. Spells and "Nano Programs" are used interchangebly and carry the same meaning. AW= at will Enc= once per encounter (refreshable), may pay AP to use it again in same enc. To refresh must wait 1 minute after duration expires AP= Action point (S)= sustained (can only have one sustained spell at a time). Replace spell’s normal duration with “permanent while sustained” Fire Spells Fire Basic AW: burning hands, ray of flame* Enc: Orb of Fire, Pyrotechnics, Flaming Sphere, Flame Arrow Fire Advanced AW: Scorching Ray Enc: Fireball, Fire Shield Fire Master Enc: Fire storm, delayed blast fireball (S) Air Spells Air Basic AW: Whispering Wind, Feather Fall, Jump Enc: gust of wind, wind wall, fog cloud, obscuring mist Air Advanced (Prereq: level 6) AW: water breathing, fly (S) Enc: Stinking Cloud Air Master (Prereq: Level 12) AW: Mass fly (S) Enc: Whirlwind, Solid Fog Lightning Blasting Basic AW: shocking grasp, ray of shock Enc: Orb of Lightning Lightning Blasting Advanced AW: Lightning bolt Enc: chain lightning AP: Ball Lightning
taradusis 09-01-07, 05:11 PM	Which D20 system will you use?D20 modern or D20 apocolypse might prove useful.If nothing else why spend 20 hours on developing something when you can use a rule book developed by the pros?
0gre 09-01-07, 05:13 PM	My apologies. I'm definately using d20, as for the specifics, I'm debating the merits of d20 modern/future and the new Star Wars saga rules. Saga is looking appealing for its simplicity, and for the fact that my group of players disdain modern. I figure the saga rules, would obviously fit then since its still d20 and has all the foundations for the type of stuff I'll need. (Firearms, starships, etc). The only true material I plan on having to make from scratch is the classes themselves, some gear, and the magic system. Although the magic system itself won't take too much work, since all the spells (ie nano programs) already exist in the SRD. Flavor is the major change there. I don't really like the classes in modern, and the dependance on advanced classes and prcs, so I wanted to simplfy things by just making some core classes. Also, if I go the saga route, then I obviously don't wanna use the SW classes for a totally new campaign. Everything else can be achieved via multiclassing, feats, or talent trees. Plus, I just wanted to create my own core classes to distinguish the game from just being Star Wars, or modern. Just makes it feel a little more original. If nothing else why spend 20 hours on developing something when you can use a rule book developed by the pros? Well, that is a very simple answer. Because creating this stuff is half the fun! Some people may not like designing homebrew stuff, but I'm the opposite, I hate playing premade settings. When I typically buy RPG books, its mostly for the rules and mechanics and not the setting fluff. Just like D&D, I've always used my own campaign worlds. As for them being "pros". I'd have to disagree there. :-p I think a drunk blind brain dead gorilla could design some of the stuff I've seen better. Frenzied berserker anyone? Thought bottles? Mmmmkay.
taradusis 09-01-07, 05:25 PM	Who are the Bad Guys?Most Pcs will want a list of enemies they can kill and plunder.What sort of governments exist?Do large corporations exist?RANDOM THOUGHTS
0gre 09-01-07, 07:08 PM	Who are the Bad Guys?Most Pcs will want a list of enemies they can kill and plunder.What sort of governments exist?Do large corporations exist?RANDOM THOUGHTS All reasonable questions. My players read these boards, so I didn't want to give out too much backstory info, incase they're reading this thread. For the badguys, well this will be a very gray game, with not many black & white scenarios when it comes to who's good and who's evil. However, the main enemy is kind of a cthuhlu inspired extra-dimensional alien horror type of situation. Basically with the creation of technology to allow scientists to open up holes into hyperspace, they discovered that hyperspace was not merely some empty energyless spaceless lifeless dimension. It was alive or sentient things existed or perhaps the sentient things were it. Even considering such questions can drive one to madness. 'Things' emerged from hyperspace and into our universe. It is like they obey totally different laws of physics when in our universe. These creatures all seem to be totally alien in thought and being. Some of them seem to desire nothing but the destruction of all of reality, as if there were the manifestations of entropy itself. I figure sort of like cthuhlu, there will be some various insane cults. I mostly want two large secret socities. A very bad one that manipulates the goverments, corporations, etc. Like the Illuminati, which will be the inheritors of some of this sacred knowledge millions of years from now (aka the Modern era). There is also another secret society that opposeses the bad one, sort of like the knight's templars, aka the Keepers, from the Order of Knowledge. They're sorta like a fusion between jedi and early gnostics. Of course there will be all sorts of various bad guys more mundane in nature. I figure there will be several large planetary governments, with influence over their own colonies and such. There will also be some independant colonies in space. I'm not sure on the government systems yet, I figure their will be various types. Some ran purely by megacorporations, some democracies, etc. But regardless, the secret societies have the most influence.
taradusis 09-01-07, 08:19 PM	For a good read you could try "Moreau Omnibus"by S.Andrew Swann,it deals with questions of what is human.E.cordwainer smith wrote a "Norstrilla"seies about anthropomorphic animal men that dealt with species purity.RANDOM THOUGHTS
Orion__ 09-02-07, 06:36 AM	Who are the Bad Guys? Everyone else? :rofl:
taradusis 09-02-07, 09:12 AM	My brothers did military service and they had a little joke?THE GUY ON THE OTHER END OF THE GUN
0gre 09-02-07, 11:04 AM	Everyone else? :rofl: Actually, that may very well be the case. I'm definately going to have to work on some sort of insanity mechanic. This will definately be a "trust no one" type of campaign, never knowing who's truly a friend or foe.
taradusis 09-02-07, 10:47 PM	Some of the way you describe the different races sounds too scientific,in a world of social inequality there will be more slang terms used?Pure humans=PINKS.Augmented humans=franks(frankensteins).Parahumans= Moreaus(from island of dr.moreau).Provolves=Tinks(we tinkered with them.).Infomorphs=Ghosts.JUST SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS.
Strudel_Lumpycakes 09-03-07, 11:04 PM	There are probably systems other than d20 better suited for this. D20 represents larger than life heroes doing ridiculous, larger than life things, rather that this sortof magic-scifi somewhat plausible theme. Just a thought.