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View Full Version : Need help with system for DnD/Sci-Fi campaign



Axolotl
2010-05-23, 01:28 PM
I'm currently planning a Sci-Fi campaign basedaround using as many aliens/monsters from as many different Sci-Fi settings as possible combined with typical DnD monsters/ setting concepts. I'm aiming for a sort of sandbox playstyle in a setting that's somewhere between Silver Age comics, Doctor Who and Pulp Fantasy/Science Fiction, with a setting that's overflowing with the unusual and the bizarre and where I can place any monster or race from any source and have it fit in.

However I need help trying to work out what system to use. I want to use an edition of DnD because that's the ruleset I'm most familiar with and the one that most captures the feel I'm going for. ODnD is far too rules lite for the type of characters I want, 1e ADnD would work well but to try and adapt it to a Sci-Fi setting would require me to gut al the classes and rebuld them from scratch, 3e is the set I'm most familiar with but is somewhat too topheavy for m likeing and I've never seen any sort of vehicle or starship rules that haven't been painfully bad and for 4e I like the system but it's not suited to the more sandboxy playstyle I'm aiming for (also building all the required Sci-Fi classes would be beyond my abilities).

At them moment I'm torn between taking ODnD and building it up to the required level and trying to blend 3e with d20 future rewriting most of the rules.

The Rose Dragon
2010-05-23, 01:38 PM
Mutants & Masterminds.

OK, it's not D&D, but it is pretty similar to d20 System (considering it's based on OGL), and it will work very well with a melting pot of fiction kind of setting.

J.Gellert
2010-05-23, 02:18 PM
...somewhere between Silver Age comics, Doctor Who and Pulp Fantasy/Science Fiction, with a setting that's overflowing with the unusual and the bizarre and where I can place any monster or race from any source and have it fit in.

That's screaming Mutants and Masterminds, so I'll second the suggestion.

AstralFire
2010-05-23, 02:21 PM
Mutants and Masterminds by far.

Star Wars Saga a distant second.

Don't touch d20 ______.

Axolotl
2010-05-23, 02:55 PM
I hadn't reallythough of Muntants and Masterminds, I've had alook at the rules a few times but I never really had a good grasp on them. How similar is it to 3e DnD? As in how much work would be needed for conversion? And how easy is it to homebrew for? Also I'm probably wrong but I got the ipression that M&M characters were fairly static as far as power level goes how true is that?

The Rose Dragon
2010-05-23, 02:59 PM
It is extremely difficult to homebrew for in terms of mechanics. It's actually a good thing, since the reason is there is little need for homebrewing.

You are sort of right about the power level issue. If you want to keep a low power level throughout the game, it is difficult to have it grow, since M&M power levels grow exponentially. So the difference between PL 6 and PL 10 is like the difference between PL 10 and PL 12. However, if you're OK with your street-level heroes growing up to be cosmic movers and shakers, you can do that no problem.

Axolotl
2010-05-23, 03:16 PM
However, if you're OK with your street-level heroes growing up to be cosmic movers and shakers, you can do that no problem.That's actually exactly what I'm aiming for since large power curve gives me the chance to use lots of different races as bad guys showing off all the weirdness of the setting.

How well does it handle sandbox style campaigns? I thinks it's somewhat less simulation style than 3e but I've not seen anything that would stop a sandbox from what little I've read.

I've mostly got the general setting nailed so M&M sounds like a good system I'll look into buying it soon.