Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 someonelse812 Mar 13, 2008 11:06:19	I am new to D20 Modern, I am going to run a game this Saturday and I have some questions. This will be the first time I have ever played D20 Modern and I will the “GM” (I quote because my brain has difficulty exchanging GM for DM), none of the other players in the group have ever played it either so we are all n00bs, though I have been playing D&D for many years so most of it is simple enough. For my first campaign I decided to run something that I know, Ravenloft. So I am going to use Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, in a Modern Pulp setting. I am writing here seeking advice, and I am also going to post some of my thoughts on how to put it together, maybe someone else has some good ideas I could use too. I know this has been done before and I am going to read through some of those other threads as well. Here’s the setup: The PCs are a special forces unit working for the allies in WWII (maybe Dept. 7?). They had to sneak into a Nazi base hidden in the mountains of south eastern Europe and steal a certain microfilm (what's on the microfilm is irrelevant, though maybe not?). They barely escaped with their lives, they stole an airplane and tried to fly over the mountains to freedom, but they were shot down. The plane crashes into the side of a mountain, the Nazi pilots turn back to base, leaving them for dead. The only survivors of the crash are the PCs, from their high altitude they can see the chimney smoke of a small village a few miles away and there is a road about 3 miles from the crash site. If they take the road away from Barovia they will go for about 10 miles until they find a bridge over a deep chasm that has been destroyed by the war. When they go the other way they will eventually reach the gates of Barovia and then the little village itself. And thus begins the Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. The PCs will be Lv8, No FX to start off with. The only sources I am allowing for character creation (partly because I am new to this myself and I don’t want to get carried away) is the Core Rule Book and the D20 Past supplement for anything relating to the era of the story. Ashlyn will be changed to Ash, a guy with a Battle Axe (D20 Modern didn’t have a decent axe so I took this one from D&D) and a sawed off double barreled 12-gauge (yes, this was blatantly stolen from Evil Dead, and no, I have no shame). This is the only NPC I have bothered to re-imagine in the D20 Modern setting, but I am going to have to do this for all of them. I’m going to have the Lightbringers be part of the catholic church (just like the million and one movies out there with a similar idea), even tough they are warriors every one of them is also a priest, though not necessarily a spell casting priest. For every major NPC I need to either figure out an alternative, or just run it as written. Some of the stuff would work, since this is kind of like the little corner of Europe that time forgot. If anyone has some of these important NPCs already rebuilt as D20 Modern characters I would love to see their stats if you wouldn’t mind, especially Strahd, though I might just use him as written with a very minor conversion (I found a page in the rulebook about how to convert D&D characters so I will probably take the time to do that) I am going to go with the Dynasty goal, with undertones of Descent into Madness, Undead Legions and Untamed Allies, I might mention that Strahd hates the witches too, but I’m not bothering with that story line. Knowing my players there actually is a real possibility that they could join Strahd, that would make for an interesting campaign. Once they became vampires Strahd would send them out to take revenge on the two nations that trampled his country side, Germany and Russia. Just imagine some high level Vampire PCs taking on the Nazis, that would be sweet. But I digest… Considering magic: What I like about D20 Modern is that there is no magic. Of course if I’m running Ravenloft it would be unfair to restrict the PC’s magic access wouldn’t it? I am going to remove as much magic from the game as possible, the only people with magic should be Strahd and his most powerful minions and maybe the old hag who gives their reading. I’m still keeping all of the story related magic items, random magic is gone though. There are a lot of magic items listed in the back of the book, I don’t want to use most of them. Does anyone know off hand which items are important to the plot and which ones are just cool little knick knacks that show up in the game? I am not going to suggest magic or even tell the players if it’s available, they have to seek it out themselves. If a player wants to develop unusual abilities they need a reason for it (like maybe fighting zombies has terrorized them to a great extent and they turn to religion, taking a level of Acolyte, or maybe they find an old book store in town with some arcane texts and the Smart hero takes a level in Mage as he studies it). I love the wealth system for D20 Modern, that’s really what made me fall in love with the system. I see a few potential problems here though. If they are in the military isn’t most of the gear issued to them rather than purchased? If they are in a foreign country they had not expected to visit isn’t whatever money they have useless? Is it possible to have multiple Wealth scores for different currencies? I would imagine that these soldiers would have an average soldier’s wealth score back home, but in this tiny Romanian village in the middle of nowhere that cash is hardly worth the paper it’s printed on (or is it? I’m no historian, maybe these people would place a high value on American currency?). I figure I need a realistic history for the region. Barovia is up in the mountains and secluded. Germany had occupied this territory for a couple of years, then the Russians came and pushed him back. No army held the town for long though, Strahd drove them away. Ask any German or Russian officer or soldier who was stationed there and they will tell you that the valley of Barovia is haunted. The PC’s actual mission, aside from getting out of Barovia, is to get to the nearest allied military base with that microfilm for debriefing. I need to determine where that base would be. I’m not sure exactly what year I’m going with here, probably some time after Russia pushed back into Europe. Can anyone recommend a good website where I could find these kinds of answers without having to read half a history book to find it?
#2 doomsought Apr 06, 2008 21:02:52	Wikipedia. Google. If they go vampire, make them all do it at the same time. heck, you could make it so only vampires can use arcane magic. (and the church has the divine magic) that could work out well in your campaign.
#3 scarabrae Apr 22, 2008 10:14:24	You could consider using elements from a game published by Pinnacle several years ago called Wierd Wars 2. THe whole premise of the setting is "What if the Nazi obsession with the occult actually produced results?" It is worth checking out.