Monday, February 2, 2009

Finally trying d20 Modern

This past Saturday, the 5 C's gaming group started up a d20 Modern campaign. Chris A is running us through a scenario not unlike 'Twilight 2000'. Coincidentally, the time I had played Twilight 2000, I played a mechanic - and I'm playing one in THIS game too. Anyway, we are starting out at level 7, which is good as in d20 - levels 5 to 15 tend to be the 'sweet spot' for the system.

I've always been intrigued by d20 Modern and always wanted to try it - I'm excited that I'm finally going to be able to give it a go. Its a bonus that Chris is running, as he runs a good game. Furthermore, this is a military campaign, so he is in his element.

The setting is an alternate present where the troop surge backfired. National Guard troops had so weakened the U.S.'s home defense that a number of states seceded (including Texas - the home of our characters). Around this time, the reborn USSR (under the leadership of Putin) annexed a number of former Warsaw Pact countries causing our characters to be stranded behind enemy lines. We are all from different units (with Chris's wife playing an embedded photojournalist) and now have to do our jobs AND get back to Texas (who has recalled us).

The fact I'm starting a book he loaned me called "Team Yankee" adds even FURTHER depth to this. A review of the last book I read is coming up on Wednesday.

Our first move was placing explosives that broke up a Soviet supply convoy. There was a lot of character generations, so we didn't get too far. It didn't help that I got "Airplane Crud" on the way back from Portland so a headache, burning sinuses and general 'bleh' means I couldn't contribute as much as I'd like.

I'm excited to continue with this.


EDIT - We are HERE.

6 comments:

mousestalker said...

If it's anything like T2000, if the GM lets your group have a tank, just boobytrap it and walk away. Tanks sound really lovely in theory, but they are fuel hogs (gallons per mile, anyone?) and even in Texas, finding the mass quantities of fuel is nigh impossible.

In one game we were in Germany, had an Abrams with a still on a trailer behind it. We could romp over everything in our path as long as we spent three days foraging for every one day traveling. When the trailer took a direct hit and we lost the still, we finally wised up and abandoned the vehicle.

Have fun! Post some on how you are finding the D20 system.

Chris said...

I am very mean and will not let them have any vehicle at this time. Which means the AH-64 Apache pilot has to foot slog with the rest of them.

mousestalker said...

Chris, you miss my point. If you were truly mean, you'd give 'em a tank. If you're Marquis de Sade level cruel, you'll give them an Apache Helicopter.

Apaches are lovely wonderful highly engineered pieces of machinery that require a great deal of maintenance, spare parts and fuel. Giving one to a party of PC's is truly like giving a monkey a gourd with a nut in it.

Chris said...

you see by giving them that level of fire power, whether they try to keep it moving or they just set it to go off and be a big bang, they still have to deal with being behind enemy lines in Germany surrounded by about 300,000 Neo-Soviet troops that are fully mechanized and supported by armor and aircraft. Because knowing this group they would blow up anything I gave them anyway.

I have one player that inevitably gets his character blown up by another players character. They are truly a menace to one another. So by not giving them this opportunity for mass destruction they have to come up with more mundane ways of creating mass havoc.

kahn265 said...

Chris Said,"hey are truly a menace to one another."

We are...*sigh*. I'm SO glad my character isn't in charge in this game.

Anonymous said...

i'm kinda enjoying being in charge, not that you all don't make it difficult at time, but hey that i how i got to punch a feild medic in the face.... i enjoyed this no offense clay - cliff