D20 Modern - The Twilight Zone - Ideas?

[The Glyphstone]

I'll probably be starting up a second campaign to amuse myself with over the summer, and I think I'd like to try d20 Modern, see how it differs from D&D classical.

For a theme, I've decided on a mystical/creepy air. The characters would be ordinary people at first, in an orundary world, till they are mysteriously sucked into a shadowy world not of fact, but of the mind, yadda yah...hence the thread title (play creepy music). Wierd things would be happening, and they'd keep getting weirder.

Unfortunately, that's all I have thought up at the moment. Fortunately, there's plenty of time till I would be starting anyways, so I need to brainstorm. I'd be drawing both from different literature/story sources, and the classic TZ episodes for inspiration as plots/friends/enemies. For example, Pennywise the Clown (A.K.A. IT from Stephen King) would make an excellent villain, just as King's Roland the Gunslinger would work as an NPC ally at times. They might encounter the Creature On The Wing from the famous Shatner "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode, or become trapped in a haunted board game maze...heck, even Elminster or Drizz't could show up...even if it's just so that blasted dark elf can be devoured by the deadlights....

Ideas? Suggestions? Should I be checking the expiration date on my bottle of Zoloft?

[TheThan]

“Curse those meddling kids!”

Scooby Do comes to mind, only without the semi-logical explanations at the end. For example that old creepy mansion really is haunted! All it really needs is an appropriately creepy atmosphere.

[Dhavaer]

Sounds a lot like Shadow Chasers. Things like the Night Terror, the Doom Hag and the Whisperer in the Dark from the Menace Manual would work well in that kind of campaign. Demonic Autos, Demonic Machines and the Final Church would be interesting too.
Do you want PCs to have access to magic/FX?

[Koga]

Player One: Damnit man! We gotta do something about that gremlin before it totals this plane we're on!

Player Two: You're seeing things...

Player One: What would you know? You're Hitler!

Player Two: Ohnoes! *Player Two freaks out and Player's three glasses falloff and break*

Player Three: That--That's not fair! I had all the time in the world now!


Twilight Zone d20: A barrel of laughs.

[asqwasqw]

Player One: Damnit man! We gotta do something about that gremlin before it totals this plane we're on!

Player Two: You're seeing things...

Player One: What would you know? You're Hitler!

Player Two: Ohnoes! *Player Two freaks out and Player's three glasses falloff and break*

Player Three: That--That's not fair! I had all the time in the world now!


Twilight Zone d20: A barrel of laughs.

Where is the Hitler reference from? I know the other two (I feel so bad for the guy with the books...)

[Jothki]

How about ripping off either the Etherial Plane or the Plane of Shadow from D&D? It might not be enough of a reference (although there would undoubtably have been something like that on The Twilight Zone) to something else to your tastes, but you could probably pull off something appropriately creepy by having the characters see things that no one else can.

[The Glyphstone]

Alternate planes would work - shadows/bodaks/other planar-travelling beasties would be good "generic" monsters. Magic and FX would definitely become part of the game, though not in the initial character generation - but what's Shadow Chasers? Never heard of it...

[Atrelegis]

Ideas for possible literature that you can use. Comic books are also included:

The Invisibles/ The Filth by Grant Morisson. Heavy weirdness, lots of weird ideas.

From Clive Barker's comic book run, check Saint Sinner and Hokum and Hex

From Harlan Elisson, read I have no mouth and I must scream, the Paingod.

From Michael Moorcock, see any story of Jery Cornelius, especially the one of the Mongolian Horde.

William Gibson's Neuromancer.

Bad World or Strange Casualties by Warren Ellis

Wanted by Mark Milllar

The man in the High Castle or A scanner Darkly by Philip K. ****

As far as series go, watch the old seasons of the Twilight Zone (especially the episode a Demon with a Glass Hand), or episodes from the first X-Files season, when there was more weirdness and less conspiracy powerplaying.

Last, but not least, check the word mind**** in wikipedia. I know the term sounds vulgar, but that is the proper name for weird storytelling techniques. Characters are probably gonna start normal, but you can foreshadow the coming strangeness in this manner.

[Dhavaer]

but what's Shadow Chasers? Never heard of it...

It's the first campaign model described in the rulebook. Starts on page 285, goes until 298.

[mikeejimbo]

Where is the Hitler reference from? I know the other two (I feel so bad for the guy with the books...)

I forget the name of it, but there was an episode where this neo-Fascist or white supremist (maybe both) kid starts to get tips from an unseen advisor, who turns out to be Hitler.

My sociology teacher lent it to me. As well as the Star Trek episode about Nazis.

[The Glyphstone]

It's the first campaign model described in the rulebook. Starts on page 285, goes until 298.

Hm - well, good thing I plan on buying the rulebook.

[Closet_Skeleton]

The Occultist class is good for this sort of thing, as is the Field Scientist to a lesser degree..

[Koga]

Ideas for possible literature that you can use. Comic books are also included:

The Invisibles/ The Filth by Grant Morisson. Heavy weirdness, lots of weird ideas.

Hahah, yeah, wasn't there something like 137 letters in the real alphabet but our human brains could only fathom maybe 30 tops? And to hear the rest or see them made you go mad?

The Koga could probably comeup with some oddball concepts if he put his mind to it, but wouldn't know how to apply them to an rpg.

For example, people only die because they think they will die. They only age because they think they will age. So there's this serial killer who's been around for decades but apparently hasn't aged at all and doesn't seem to be phased by bullets. The players eventualy do kill him, and realize there are limits to the mind's power, but limitations does not mean any less awesome. Take quantamn physics.

[alchemy.freak]

given the setting, call of cthulhu seems a more appropriate game than modern.

not to bash modern, but CoC fits the normal ppl sucked into an abnormal world quite nicely, (and in my opinion has better firearms rules)

[The Glyphstone]

given the setting, call of cthulhu seems a more appropriate game than modern.

not to bash modern, but CoC fits the normal ppl sucked into an abnormal world quite nicely, (and in my opinion has better firearms rules)

Maybe, but CoC puts too much emphasis on the "you WILL die/go mad... eventually...". I'm not looking for a horror game, but an adventure with some paranormal (OK, a lot of paranormal) elements. Maybe there'll be a Cthulu cult to break up at one point, though...

[1dominator]

Hey guys, Ive wanted to try out D20 modern for a while, but I dont want to buy the books, is there an SRD sort of thing for D20 modern?
-Dom

[Diggorian]

Shadowchasers is a bit like D&D meets Buffy to me. Gnoll pimps?

Glyphstone, what you want is Modern supplementD20 Dark*Matter. Was written specifically for the dark conspiracy genre of the X-Files, but the weirdness neednt be tied to a single or any conspiracy. Sci-fi grey aliens, supernatural demons, bigfoot, secret cults; it's like CoC but the PC's can kick @$$ back.

[mikeejimbo]

Hey guys, Ive wanted to try out D20 modern for a while, but I dont want to buy the books, is there an SRD sort of thing for D20 modern?
-Dom

Yes there is, the D20 Modern SRD.

http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd

Straight from the Wizard's mouth!

[The Glyphstone]

Shadowchasers is a bit like D&D meets Buffy to me. Gnoll pimps?

Glyphstone, what you want is Modern supplementD20 Dark*Matter. Was written specifically for the dark conspiracy genre of the X-Files, but the weirdness neednt be tied to a single or any conspiracy. Sci-fi grey aliens, supernatural demons, bigfoot, secret cults; it's like CoC but the PC's can kick @$$ back.

Perfect . I'll definitely have to pick that up.

[Habzial]

Where is the Hitler reference from? I know the other two (I feel so bad for the guy with the books...)

Koga was making a Futurama reference. Their version of the show was called, "The Scary Door."

I forget the name of it, but there was an episode where this neo-Fascist or white supremist (maybe both) kid starts to get tips from an unseen advisor, who turns out to be Hitler.

You're thinking of, "He's Alive," where a very young Dennis Hopper is the neo-nazi. The episode Futurama was making fun of was one where a pawn shop owner gets a magic lamp and four wishes. He thinks he's got the genie outsmarted by wishing to be the leader of a powerful nation, with absolute power, who can't be voted out of office. (I think. It may have been another genie episode. They LOVED that be-careful-what-you-wish-for theme.) I can't seem to find the name of it, though.

As far as series go, watch the old seasons of the Twilight Zone (especially the episode a Demon with a Glass Hand)

Demon with a Glass Hand was from the original Outer Limits, though I totally agree with you for suggesting it. It's my favorite episode from the series.




Now that I've got that out of the way, I have a confession to make. Hello, my name is Habzial, and I am a Twilight Zone addict

If you're looking for that Twilight Zone feel, you have to first decide which aspects of the Twilight Zone you want and which you don't. As far as I can tell, the Twilight Zone was something of a go-to show for anyone with a good one-shot story of science fiction or horror. It encompasses a LOT of different genres and moods that might word for what you want.

The most common are:

• Evil government / Dystopic future
• Post-apocalyptic war
• Intolerance, human weakness, and evil (great episodes both for overcoming them as well as succumbing to them)
• Supernatural things happening to normal people
• Unusual and horrible (though natural) things happening to normal people
• People in possession of superhuman powers and how they use them
• What-if and Be-careful-what-you-wish-for scenarios

Could you narrow down what you're looking for from that list for me? I can give you the rundown on the best episodes for whichever feel(s) you want in the game. I'm personally fond of the dystopic government (The Obsolete Man is one of my all-time favorite TZ's) but it's your call. However, I would like to suggest a gag power/feat/ability/whatever regardless of which you want:



Smoke Break
When used, any qualified sentient being in the area is forced to stop whatever they are doing and/or join the user in a smoke break. Characters with this ability may use it on any sentient being which is not in combat, regardless of the user's relationship to the victims. This is an area effect ability, and anyone not forced to smoke is still prevented from acting until the Smoke Break is over.

Characters trapped in a Smoke Break may continue any discussion that was going on before-hand. However, if one of the sentient beings is non-human, there must be some discourse regarding how good cigarettes are which no one may disagree with.

Duration: 1 - 3 minutes, depending on sponsorship.

Note: Any character with this ability in a hospital must use this ability at least once per visit.

[The Glyphstone]

I think the overall flavor best fits "Supernatural things happening to normal people" - though by the time I'm done, it'll be turning into more of an Ultimate Showdown of scifi/fantasy/horror genre characters.

[Charity]

Try checking out some ancient British telly
They were OK and I doubt as many of your players will have seen the twists.
Also when you are about 9, they had the best title sequance ever!

[Habzial]

Well the Twilight Zone's got no shortage of supernatural. In this area, TZ is all about making things seem realistic. I guess the best way to put it is that, regardless of the subject matter, it tends to be treated like it's something only one layer separated from normal life.

My suggestion for capturing that would be to to treat the supernatural the same way the show does. It's just another dimension of existence, something of a mental realm, and most of the time people stay around 0 along that axis. Major events or trauma may push a person, place or thing further up the axis. Likewise, those effected can (whether voluntary or involuntary) elevate anything interacting with them along the axis too. There may also be some supernatural characters, but they should be few and governed by rules that only apply to them.

I'd say you give everything in your game a "Zone" rating (for lack of a better name). These should be people, places, and things your players can interact with, all of which have a reason for being effected in this way. Normal interaction with the effected pushes up your PCs' own Zone ratings. Resolving whatever was keeping the effected in the Zone (by reducing its rating to 0) reduces your PCs' Zone rating. The PCs themselves should start out with an elevated rating. Their ultimate goal should be to resolve whatever it was that pushed them into the Zone so they can resume a normal life.

To make things interesting, the PCs should have abilities that only work when their Zone rating is above a certain threshold or that are more powerful at higher ratings. At the same time, the higher their rating is, the better the odds are for Very Bad Things Happening should be. The VBTH should be related to whatever they're interacting with at lower levels. At high and critical levels, the VBTH should be related to why they're in the Zone themselves. Once the Zone rating gets too high (or they get unlucky), it's game over. They cease to exist, they're trapped in an infinite void and starve to death, or something cinematic and related to their reason for being effected.

Start out by deciding why your players' characters are in touch with the Zone. Keep in mind that this reason doesn't need to impact what kind of characters your players make. Maybe they were all on a boat that disappeared. Maybe they survived a plane crash despite the overwhelming odds. Maybe they wandered somewhere that the fabric between universes is thin and their extra-dimensional counterparts came through. It doesn't matter as long as the reason is common to all of them. Otherwise those whose reasons were resolved wouldn't be able to assist the still-effected.

[TheLogman]

One idea I just had is to make it rather like Limbo (Of the planes, the shifting chaotic void), except the players can't control the shifting chaos, or make their own seperate sections i.e. They start in what looks to be the "Real world", but is just a stable part of Limbo, and then, they find the exit, and step into a shifting chaotic void, where they stumble from twisted reality to twisted reality, all formed by some Slaad that got bored. As they progress, they could learn to tinker with these twisted parts of reality, giving them minor magical abilities, like creating a small item at first, then maybe a room, then a whole shelter ect. I haven't played D20 Modern, but I figure by making these twisted imaginings based off the monsters/situations of the twilight zone, you could have something going there. This is more DnD fantasy than Twilight Zone, but it would provide a way to have separate situations linked with insanity in-between.

[The Glyphstone]

Wow, nice ideas there...I'll have to remember that.

[Habzial]

Glad to help. Let us know how it goes, or if you need anything else.

[Tor the Fallen]

You could have them be doing some crime fighting/investigating police beat stuff. Maybe for the first 2 or 3 sessions have everything completely ordinary. Explicitly say out of game that this isn't a game of magic or crap like that.

Then have things get weird. Subtley. Coincidence. Murders in rooms that all happen to be identical. Never describe the victim except in vague, unimportant ways. Have people and items show up in virtually every scene. At first, have them far away, unimportant. Always describe them the same, but don't over emphasize. Bring them closer. The familiarity will breed contempt. "A pale, aenemic man, with a bland face snaps a few shots at the corpse, before leaving."

Put that guy in places that don't have much relevance to the PCs particlar routine- he's in the foyer of a motel in a seedy section of downtown. Then, closer. He's in a taxi. He's selling you your food. He's in your office. And as he gets closer, he starts to notice the PC. Then start to put the guy at seemingly plot important places. "The aenemic man smiles a slight, sterile smile, and briskly ducks into an alley. The blood from the corpse steams in the cold september morn." PC chases, but the aenemic man can't be found.

Raise the volume on weird. A player chases a perp through a skyscraper, where every single level is exactly the same. Have him go through dozens of floors of the exact same level. But don't tell the player "it looks exactly the same as the last floor you were on". Just draw the same map, casually note the same furniture, etc. Let him draw his own conclusions.

False start.
He wakes up in a cold sweat, rapped in his sheets, Glock clutched in hand.
A dream.

Aenemic man begins to show up in the PCs apartment. Signs of him in his house.

Then, no more. Just stop mentioning him.

The murders increase in frequency, the PC looks at bodies all day, searching for clues. He starts to see them everywhere. Is it Red Car Syndrome (have an NPC mention this after the PC finds clues everywhere-at the donut shop, coffee house, on his nightstand)? Are the murders linked?

But keep the victims in the background. Paranoia. Make the PC think there's some sort of game within a game being played that isn't there. If you can get the PC to firing his gun at old women or in crowded malls, you know you've done a good job.

The big reveal?
The murdered are him. He's dead. Way dead.
Don't bother tying up loose ends. Limbo does weird things.

Another PC-
Groundhog day.
He dies, but they're only dreams. Or are they?
Sometimes they come true. Sometimes he lives the same day, over, and over, and over. He'll have a bizarre sort of prescience, and never know when he's waking or dreaming. The other PCs will value his, ah, experience, but he'll like behave as a slightly batsh!t insane, morbid fatalist. After all, he dies several times a day.

Make sure he dies in horrible accidents. Get it so the PC buys newspapers to see if what he dreamed of dying on happened. Sometimes vindicate him, sometimes don't. Get him paranoid to the part where he doesn't want to get on public transport and is scared of heights.

Make it so he's not entirely sure if what he dreams are dreams, but not so he wants to find out. Find a balance between "The smell of blood and burnt ozone is intense, sickening. Over the ringing in your ears you can hear the moans and agon of the dying. This time they picked a crowded subway platform at rush hour. The aftermath is grimly familiar," and "you find yourself back in eigth grade, having to give an oral presentation to your class. You are also not wearing any clothes."

Only the PCs see what's going on. The aenemic man is invisible to the NPCs. No one sees Groundhog day die (if he does), etc.

The Haunter in the Dark-
Something malevolent stalks this PC. Maybe he found some arcane lore, or an artifact, or investigated to deeply in his science. Typical lovecraft lore. Feed him to a closet or something, after seemingly giving completely rational explanations to his fears. Just as it seems everything's 'normal' they come for him, drag him into a closet. When the closet is opened back up, it's empty.

Something Sinister:
Massive conspiracy theory. Give this guy evidence that all the stuff is linked, and in a completely rational way. He should be the skeptic of the group. The one who buys in most when you say "this is not going to be a supernatural campaign." Then have him try to explain what happened to the Haunted guy after hearing his screams, rushing to a room with only that one closet in it, and finding it... empty.

What's the conspiracy? Government mind control with hallucinogens. The Detective, Groundhog day, Haunted, all victims of a government experiment.

Have him get onto Something Big. It doesn't necessarily matter what, so long as it explains a little of what's going on. Just make sure he ends up institutionalized.



[edit]
Uh, wow, that's a lot.
Heh, I've been thinking about running a D20 game this summer, as well.

[Wehrkind]

Wow... win. I am apparently going to have to buy a few seasons of TZ on DVD, right after I get Read or Die...

Edit: What is "Red Car Syndrome"? I can't find a reference to it online anywhere. I presume it is something along the lines of people assuming they have seen "that car" over and over, when in fact it is just a lot of red cars of a similar type or something.

[Tor the Fallen]

Edit: What is "Red Car Syndrome"? I can't find a reference to it online anywhere. I presume it is something along the lines of people assuming they have seen "that car" over and over, when in fact it is just a lot of red cars of a similar type or something.

It's the phenomena where if told to look for something, you'll see it everywhere, when in fact, it's just selective observation.

Another good one is having street lights go out as you walk under them (r I psykik?). Due to the nature of observation, you will virtually always be in proximity to a street lamp that flickers or goes out- if you're not there, you wouldn't see it happen.

Course, you can use this to your advantage in horror games.
GM: The street lamp flickers.
Conspiracy guy: They're coming!
Haunted guy: It's coming!
Maybe psychic guy: It's all in my head!
GM: Yeah, something like that....

[Jothki]

If you want some inspiration for modern freakyness, read John Dies at the End.