My current idea would be to take as much Modern Community approved material (with each author's permission, of course), and make a generic, fun supplement. I'm sure we have enough awesome content lying around on the boards to make a decent-sized PDF of it all... assuming someone is willing to make it a PDF. :P
I'm not going to try and set rules for this supplement, as that will be up to the community. I'm pretty sure that, if we decide to go through with it, we'd probably want to start another thread after we set up some rules and requirements for the project.
That said, here are some ideas for the project:
1. Some sort of voting system, or board of directors or something to decide what classes, feats, systems and the like will make it into the supplement. The biggest reason I have this suggestion here is because not all classes on this board are balanced for Modern, and having them as they are will reflect poorly on the PDF. That said, I think people should be able to change their class and re-apply it.
2. Organizational rules. We could have a thread for different categories (classes, feats, house systems, campaigns and settings, etc...), where contributors would pick the most suitable thread before posting a link to their work, or we could simply have one thread with a set of categories in the first few posts, where links to each contributor's work would go. In the later case, contributors would post links to their work, and in the same post individually mention the category their works would fall under.
Any other ideas, comments, and general advice would be appreciated.
Thanks for reading!
Sadly, we all have our separate hobby-horses, and I can speak from experience when I say that it's easy to get attached to your own project.
Anyway, it might help this effort if you told us what kind of supplement you're thinking of. Game world? Rule system? More "stuff" (classes, feats, F/X)?
Oh, and Phoenix is almost done and has been playable for months. So nyah nyah nyah.
I was just thinking this could be a miscellaneous supplement... toss in what you have. If everyone would prefer a genre or something to go by, I suppose we could go with "mundane" Modern.
If no one wants to do this project, that's fine too. Again, I'm just throwing the idea out here.
The reason I ask for a theme or a genre or something is that it'll help focus on what we'd actually like to see.
I'd be happy to donate some rules out of Phoenix, if anyone's interested. The Buiding Damage rules (untested!) could be applied to mundane games, and I have whole crap-load of original feats. Many of them only work within a supers game, and they're quite self-concsiously over-powered, but what the heck? They might serve someone's needs. I have a bunch of pulp classes, too, but their "core," not on the d20M model.
I'd be quite happy to plunder Phoenix if any of that sounds useful. I would love to get some playtesting out of it in the effort.
What kind of supplement would you like to see, Orion?
Also, have you ever GM'd a game before? I wouldn't mind playing a playtesting one-shot of the Phoenix system for testing purposes. A superhero game sounds like a blast. :P
The kind of supplement I'd want to see? You mean other than a supers expansion that I don't have to make myself? Uh, let's see, I really like the idea of generic guns with generic damage. We're discussing that in another thread. More monsters/villains/bad guys would be good. d20 Past actually looks really fun, but it's barely a pamphlet. More pulp-style source material would be fun. Maybe something pseudo-Victorian? That's all I can think of off the top of my head, and it was pretty incoherent, so there you go.
As for content.... where do you want me to send it?
If you want me to try and break the rules, I can. If I can show the PDF to a friend, and give him the time to read it, I'm sure he could find something nasty, too, if there is anything of that nature.
I was thinking just link the content to the thread if you can. If nothing else, we're starting a "cool stuff compendium".
So you'd like to see some miscellaneous new information as well? Would you be opposed to a miscellaneous supplement with rules for whatever people wanted to drop in included?
just meet at a coffe shop and away you go.
I think Vega may be onto something with the idea of more structure in a developement group. While a cadre may change members, it should have a plug&play drop in attitude that contributers can be anyone from OneShot to posts making up most of the book. What is important is that the project wont stall when folks leave, or take vacations.
One consideration for a project, Standardized Thread Prefix.
If you get all thread on the project to start with a certain prefix, then a SortThreads will group all the project tangent threads together, such as Vote threads or the Feat thread, Skill Thread, Villian thread, Maps thread etc
Maybe talk to out illustrious Lead, TrappedSlider about how much forum footprint we can get / are limited to
Although I understand the ease of just taking what's already out there and compiling it, I have to agree with Orion that the results will be a lot better if we focus on a specific genre. I would suggest a campaign setting, which allows those who are more specialized in classes, feats, character design, organizations, art, etc. to all have a part to play. Although I know it was largely the work of one person, I think the work done on the Elysium Nebula was really brilliant. I'd love to be a part of something like that yet geared specifically toward Modern.
Vega: PM me or email me or something about a game. I'm busy busy busy right now, because it's the end of the semester, but over the summer, I might be able to work something up. And feel free to give the Phoenix PDF to anyone and everyone who might be interested! I'd love to get feedback.
The idea is that there a number of competing magic schools, and each has possession of a magical artifacts, (it may be a gem, or something else) that gives them access to a powerful, ancient spell (allowing some sort of transformation). Not only are the schools competing against each other, hoping to gain the secrets of all three artifacts, but they are also trying to locate and gain control of other artifacts, whose existence and location may or may not be known.
The biggest change in the way players would have to approach the game is that heroes fight in teams (one magic-user and one fighter). A strict code of conduct between the schools forbids magic to cause physical harm, so magic-users would be focused more on aiding their fighting partners with ability-boosting and defensive spells. Fighters could run the gamut from fast gunslingers to tough brawlers.
Just something to get the creative juices flowing...
backstabbist -- I almost made that joke...
Anyhow, I PM'd Trappedslider and am now waiting for a response, here or via PM.
TheRealOrion -- Do I need to decide the concept? I was kinda hoping you guys would so you'd all be more excited/into the project. :P
Battle's idea sounds good, though not everyone on this board is incredibly into magical settings... should we do a Magical-or-Mundane campaign, where it can be supernatural or just a huge conspiracy (possibly involving classified high-tech goodness?)
If we're up for that here's a mundane version of Battle's campaign setting:
The "schools" are top-secret branches of different corporations. The artifacts are still artifacts, recovered from either a lost civilization, alien crash site, or perhaps they have passed over so many hands that it's nearly impossible to tell where and how they were first found.
"The Games", as they are referred to, are what happens when one "school" loses hold of an artifact. All companies send out recovery teams to hopefully find and acquire the lost artifact before it reaches the school that stole it... There have been several times when all three artifacts were in play.
How's that?
That might just be too much for one game-pack. I can see wanting to focus on either modern fantasy, or action-hero, or contemporary SF, but if we're looking for a unifying concept (i.e., excuse to toss in everything we like), then one big city would be a good way to go.
Now, the question would be, which city?
I'm not a fan of inventing fictional cities. They always end up feeling either contrived or like they're just rip-offs of an existing city. I also would love to do a city that's not in the US, just for the exotic factor. I'm from Vancouver, which I think is a great city for gaming. Big, lots of neighbourhoods, new and old, a huge range of different kinds of spaces to occupy, a port, a nearby mountain range, right next to an international border, on the Pacific Rim (that's Yakuza, Triad, and Russian mafia). The only "downside" (for those who consider it to be a downside) is that we don't have the right to own guns/join militias in Canada, so there's less gun-play in a Canadian RPG, but that just means you default to melee and F/X, which is actually just fine with me!
If we do go to the US, though, I'd recommend staying away from New York, LA, Seattle, Chicago, and Washington DC. Why? Because far too many TV shows, movies, and comics are already set there. Go somewhere a little different, a little off-the-beaten-track, like Baltimore or New Orleons or something like that.
...though not everyone on this board is incredibly into magical settings... should we do a Magical-or-Mundane campaign, where it can be supernatural or just a huge conspiracy (possibly involving classified high-tech goodness?)
But some people on the boards are into magic, so it makes sense for the campaign setting to incorporate both...that way the people that are into magic can concentrate on that aspect, and the people who aren't can help craft the fighting side. Besides, even though UA is pretty well known, it's the only setting where magic is a vital part.
I love the idea of substituting corporations for the 'schools', and I had another idea...maybe the 'artifacts' can be the shards of some magical alien crystal, and the name of the setting can be "Shards of _______ " (with the blank being the name of the alien race? or the name of its leader?) I think each corporation should have one, and then the other two can be up for grabs. But it's important for the corporations to be pursuing other goals too, so every campaign isn't just 'find X before everyone else does'.
Well how about this, we flesh out a big city, in every aspect we can think of?
It's really tough. I tried it with my Port Solomon project, and I underestimated the amount of sheer writing that you end up needing. You have to define the city quadrants, governments, specific buildings, law enforcement capabilities, and a bunch of other stuff. It can be a lot of flavor text, which not everyone can write well, and I ran into a bunch of problems with getting art, specifically maps (that's the one thing I'm horrible at). If you take a look at Mutants & Masterminds' Freedom City Campaign Setting, you can see how big of an undertaking it is. I think we might be better off creating a toolbox that GMs can drop into any location they want (like most of the existing d20 Modern campaign settings).
One consideration for a project, Standardized Thread Prefix.
If you get all thread on the project to start with a certain prefix, then a SortThreads will group all the project tangent threads together, such as Vote threads or the Feat thread, Skill Thread, Villian thread, Maps thread etc
Maybe talk to out illustrious Lead, TrappedSlider about how much forum footprint we can get / are limited to
*sniffle*you really think that highly of me?
You mean like an index thread with links to each individual thread? (setting)feats (Setting) skills etc?
But how about, instead of building up a city, putting together a how-to manual for making your city a game setting? Provide a bunch of generic and not-so-generic tools and ideas, complete with maps for specific buildings, but leave the actual city up to the player? That way, you can set it where ever you want.
I know it's not high on other peoples' lists of priorities, but I am (with all due respect) sick to death of only being able to play in America just because the games are made in America. It's not that I dislike the States. I like 'em fine. I travel there a lot. It's just that I like my country more, you know?
But that's just an idea. We can go with what you have so far. :P
I'd like to think I'm okay at writing backstories for orders and people, so I could take a shot at one of the organizations if you like.
Trappedslider -- I think that is what backstabbist was getting at, but I could be wrong.
Orion -- I think giving building blocks for a city is a good idea. I usually end up building my campaigns as I go, and as players ask about things.
Do the other settings (such as Urban Arcana) really take that much adaption to fit in Canada? Sure, a lot of the badguys have guns, but criminals don't tend to follow the law. If guns are banned, then it makes it that much better, and more realistic, for baddies to have them.
Then again, I've never been to Canada, so I wouldn't know what it's like there. :P
The rule changes would be things like, how difficult it is to buy guns (the PDCs and legal restrictions are part of the rules), and the effect of that different legal/cultural context is that gun play in public, any gun play, will have the PD or the RCMP on you like a tonne of bricks in minutes. Again, I don't mean to imply that Americans run around firing their pistols in the air and the cops just shrug, but there is a very different feeling about guns up here.
I mean, without trying to get all political, you know all those rationales that people use about "if you ban guns, only criminals will have gun"? They really just don't seem to be the case up here. Fewer guns all around just means fewer guns all around.
I'm not sure what to do about PDCs; perhaps you could make a D20Modern: Canada template?
I was only suggesting that we make an alternative, non-magical version for groups who prefer to play without magic
How about a campaign variant where instead of the two-person team where one fights and the magic-user assists, there are two-person teams where one fights melee and the other fights ranged? That might be a good compromise.
Do the other settings (such as Urban Arcana) really take that much adaption to fit in Canada?
Not to stray too far from the task at hand, but that's the reason that I think doing a campaign setting makes more sense than coming up with a place. Something like UA can be used virtually anywhere, whereas with a city, you're confined to one location.
As for the mundane thing, I suppose that could work.
Okay, so for projects, we have the following so far:
1. Build a campaign setting
1a. Backstory
1b. Flesh out organizations.
1c. Set up rules for playing in different locations.
1d. Decide what artifact do, exactly.
2. Dump miscellaneous mechanics into the project?
2a. Create a table of contents sorting feats, classes, new mechanics, and other goodies as well as campaign variants.
2b. Come up with a system for judging new content and assuring balance.
Anything I missed?
As far as what the shards do, my thought was that they unlocked a unique spell for the corporation, but the spells cannot be learned. That is, the corporation has to have control of the shard for its magic-users to be able to cast the spell. As far as what the spells do, it might be interesting if they bestowed some sort of alternate form on the caster's partner - each with added natural weapons, or ability boosts, or something.
I think that it would be fun to add some unique advanced classes for both the magic-users and fighters (especially an AdC that balances both melee and ranged fighting) and some new feats and spells. We may even need to create a new race if we decide the shards are alien-based - it could be that one of the corporations is really a front for the alien race to get their property back.