Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 angel_blade Aug 27, 2008 15:16:30	Hey everyone, Just wanted to throw this out there for some constructive criticism. I'm thinking of starting up a High School Drama campaign. The inspirations are Bully(video game), Harry Potter, and maybe a dash of Avatar (If you watch foreign kung fu movies, think Volcano High). So I'm thinking of a boarding school, where the kids have some kind of special powers... These can be combat, psychic, or low magic. The kids are going to be a group that gets caught up in a conspiracy where the other kids' abilities are getting drained. Do you think this will work with D20 Modern? Just as a side note, I have BESM, both original tri-stat and D20 versions, but I don't want this to be over the top. I like low-key. : ) Ideas? suggestions? Angel Blade
#2 AnimeSniper Aug 27, 2008 18:41:33	Hey everyone, Just wanted to throw this out there for some constructive criticism. I'm thinking of starting up a High School Drama campaign. The inspirations are Bully(video game), Harry Potter, and maybe a dash of Avatar (If you watch foreign kung fu movies, think Volcano High). So I'm thinking of a boarding school, where the kids have some kind of special powers... These can be combat, psychic, or low magic. The kids are going to be a group that gets caught up in a conspiracy where the other kids' abilities are getting drained. Do you think this will work with D20 Modern? Just as a side note, I have BESM, both original tri-stat and D20 versions, but I don't want this to be over the top. I like low-key. : ) Ideas? suggestions? Angel Blade Could work... the conspiracy could be a world organization trying to create super soldiers via the drained abilities... That's my only idea off the top of my head right now!
#3 faghter_hero Aug 27, 2008 19:07:01	Only a few things I can think of. - Average physical stat for highschoolers is an 8 rather than a 10 when making NPCs. - Certain gear should be more difficult to obtain than normal. Weapons should be particularly hard to bring to class, especially in public high school where security guards use metal detectors and other equipment. Cars and other vehicles may be unavailable for characters under the driving age. Loose clothing may not be permissible if there is a school uniform. Professional equipment might be very hard to get a hold of. Wealth DCs might be greater because of less financial independence. - If it's hard for a student to bring a gun to class, it's just as hard for a teacher to do the same (and that goes for assassins, mercenaries, or anyone else who would pull a gun on students). If there are going to be firefights, look at the gadget system in d20 Future and try miniaturizing handguns and other weapons to improve concealment. - Some Advanced classes don't fit a high school setting. Soldier, Negotiator, Investigator, Field Medic, and Field Scientist are unlikely for high school kids because they are closely associated with professions. Gunslinger is another unlikely class, Columbine jokes aside, if it's difficult to take guns to school. This means that you will have a lot of Smart, Dedicated, and Strong heroes with very limited options. If this is a psi-heavy campaign, the Telepath and Battle Mind can fill in for some, but Dedicated heroes still need something to do (might want to make a Psychic Healer advanced class to fill in for the Field Medic). - D20 Past has a Secret Identity feat which could come in handy for students trying to keep their private lives separate from their school careers. - Homework may involve things like Knowledge checks or Craft: Visual Art for a project. You could change Knowledge to have one skill per class, but it's usually not a good idea to mess with skills in d20 Modern.
#4 AnimeSniper Aug 27, 2008 19:45:23	Only a few things I can think of. - Average physical stat for highschoolers is an 8 rather than a 10 when making NPCs. - Certain gear should be more difficult to obtain than normal. Weapons should be particularly hard to bring to class, especially in public high school where security guards use metal detectors and other equipment. Cars and other vehicles may be unavailable for characters under the driving age. Loose clothing may not be permissible if there is a school uniform. Professional equipment might be very hard to get a hold of. Wealth DCs might be greater because of less financial independence. - If it's hard for a student to bring a gun to class, it's just as hard for a teacher to do the same (and that goes for assassins, mercenaries, or anyone else who would pull a gun on students). If there are going to be firefights, look at the gadget system in d20 Future and try miniaturizing handguns and other weapons to improve concealment. - Some Advanced classes don't fit a high school setting. Soldier, Negotiator, Investigator, Field Medic, and Field Scientist are unlikely for high school kids because they are closely associated with professions. Gunslinger is another unlikely class, Columbine jokes aside, if it's difficult to take guns to school. This means that you will have a lot of Smart, Dedicated, and Strong heroes with very limited options. If this is a psi-heavy campaign, the Telepath and Battle Mind can fill in for some, but Dedicated heroes still need something to do (might want to make a Psychic Healer advanced class to fill in for the Field Medic). - D20 Past has a Secret Identity feat which could come in handy for students trying to keep their private lives separate from their school careers. - Homework may involve things like Knowledge checks or Craft: Visual Art for a project. You could change Knowledge to have one skill per class, but it's usually not a good idea to mess with skills in d20 Modern. Good Points above...Though teachers, gangs, etc can't stop Sousuke Sagara, Full Metal Panic, from packing the contents of a single platoon on his personage? Exactly where did he hide a Bazooka in the school gang episode... I still can't figure that out! Heeero Yuue wasn't stopped from bringing his Gundam to the academy ball? Yes I like Anime/Manga! My point is, in RPG's/D20/Anime/Manga that the student/underage person sitting next to you could be a soldier/whatever in their off time that it could happen! Angel Blade could have an NPC that attends the school to find out why some VIP's kid disappeared for a couple of days then returned totally different... i.e. Dark broody psychic Goth girl returns with a new sunny disposition on life and the president of a country wants to know why?
#5 angel_blade Aug 28, 2008 11:50:57	Yeah, i'm thinking no guns, pretty much. and not a 'killer' campaign. so just about everyone should survive a fight. but like that movie "volcano high" there will probably be a Kendo club, and martial arts, and then mix in the psionic and magic aspects. so while it's not overtly, "Street Fighter II", the players and npc's get to learn extra-human powers. Am I even making sense? I'm tyring to set up Harry Potter like intrigue, and kung-fu style combat, and a few high-school type laughs. : ) Thanks for the comments!!! Angel Blade
#6 Master_Vega Aug 28, 2008 12:32:48	Change the soldier class to allow for Archaic Weapons Pro or Combat Martial Arts instead of PFP, and soldier should still work in the setting. He could be anything from the bully with his two cohorts, to the A-student who's had to fight off the aforementioned bully his entire life... and has gotten very good at it. He could also be a Kendo/fencing student who has become adept with the bokken/practice blade. Field Medic, though more suited for a College-level EMT, could be the guy everyone knows is going to med school, and has enrolled in every medical training program the school has to offer. Negotiator is the kid who's never had to fight in his life. He's too good at smooth-talking/lying to the bigger, tougher guys to draw their wrath. He may even have a few of them on his side. He can't stand heated arguments, and tries his best to stop them by finding a middleground that both parties can agree to. Investigator always has his nose in a good mystery book. She's a huge forensics buff and talks about what happened on last night's "Police Files". She can't stand SCI because of how badly they represent the case process. She's also a bit of a snoop, and knows several of the shadier people in school. Field Scientist. The inventor nerd. He doesn't talk much except for when he has a great idea. He's always building random things in hopes that one of them will catch on. If he works hard enough, he just might make something amazing. Gunslinger you've got me on... but I thought I'd clarify that not all people with the Soldier class are soldiers, and so on.
#7 nodaisho Aug 29, 2008 0:49:54	The gunslinger could... I'm thinking he would be throwing something, maybe using a slingshot. I'm not really sure that the average stat should be lower for a high schooler than for a full-grown person, because by highschool, you are pretty much full grown, though, early on, that is the point where some people look like they are 10 and some look like they are 20. It wouldn't actually be hard to bring a weapon into class, barring metal detectors, which really depends on the school, and even then, as long as there isn't someone watching everyone that goes through, it wouldn't be hard to slip something past a metal detector. It is more that you don't want to get expelled. Now, for an anecdote that I think fits, as it could provide some insight into how teenagers could be expected to behave. When I was in junior high, someone noticed that in the school rules and regs, the weapons rule excepted knives under 3 1/2" blade length, which is at which point it becomes illegal to carry one concealed normally around here. Now, everyone here should know how quickly things can get about when someone finds something interesting, so a few days later, I know at least four people in my class were carrying pocket knives, though at least two were multi-tools. Heck, the only one that I know for sure cared was the principal, the art teacher borrowed my leatherman once. You'd get busted if the principal saw you, but no locker searches happened (not that it would matter, I don't think), and nobody's pockets were searched. Nobody got stabbed either, even though there were fights, of course. This kind of game, it would be very important to make sure everyone knows just how big of a step it is going to dealing lethal damage, maybe use an alternate nonlethal damage system so that people won't be sitting there all day whaling on each other.
#8 faghter_hero Aug 29, 2008 3:12:51	Come to think of it, there's a Gangster advanced class in d20 Past. It's based on prohibition-era gangsters, but with abilities like Sneak Attack, Opportunist, and Crippling Strike, it would work for a kid fighting with concealed blades.
#9 Master_Vega Aug 29, 2008 12:27:07	This kind of game, it would be very important to make sure everyone knows just how big of a step it is going to dealing lethal damage, maybe use an alternate nonlethal damage system so that people won't be sitting there all day whaling on each other. There's always the D&D nonlethal system, though I prefer the system Backstabbist, Tema and I came up with awhile back. Each consecutive round you are struck for nonlethal damage in melee combat, your massive damage threshold to such attacks goes down by one. Massive Damage, of course, cannot go into negatives. If you're willing to roll an extra saving throw a turn, there's also the rule that every nonlethal hit prompts a save against the nonlethal damage dealt. First failure means you are dazed for one round. If you fail to exit combat, your next failure knocks you out cold.