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Topic: X-COM Monday Nights Campaign (Read 4478 times) |
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Lazybones
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This thread is for planning and discussion of my upcoming X-COM campaign. Please use this thread for posting questions about the campaign, discussing character creation, and finally for roleplaying posts during the game itself. Knowledge of the 1993 computer game is not necessary to play!
I anticipate that this campaign may take between 20 and 30 two-hour sessions to complete. Not only will you have a chance to develop your characters, but you will have an instrumental role in determining the course of X-COM's response to the alien threat!
The roster of players and their characters includes:
- Boomer, Dr. Baron, Psychiatrist
- chiz, Dr. James Allen, Dedicated Hero/Field Medic
- Jenniza, Jane Swift, Fast Hero/Gunslinger/Sniper
- Smart Alec, Vasily Kasprjak, Tough Hero/Daredevil
- TheBaldMan, Buzz Olloff, Fast/Smart Hero
- vanya mia, Catalina De Ferrago, Fast Hero/Infiltrator
This module uses the D20 Modern system, which implements a radical restructuring of how NWN works. Even the classes, feats, and skills are dramatically changed, and you will find yourself able to accomplish things that are flat impossible in the regular game engine. If you have never played this system before, you will want to spend some time in the module prior to play, to familiarize yourself with the new options.
CHARACTER CREATION GUIDELINES
In X-COM, you are an elite recruit for a new global agency dedicated to fighting the alien menace. As such, you can come from almost any country, background, or profession. Here are some guidelines for character creation:
- Because of the way that NWN handles haks in character creation, you will need to create your character locally prior to the start of play. You should download the D20 Modern Base Module from here: http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.Detail&id=5355, and use that to build your character. We will be using local vault characters for this campaign, so you should create the character on your own machine and save it to your local vault.
- All characters must be human; either gender.
- There is a glitch in D20 Modern that requires you to create your character in a very specific way. When you start up NWN and open the module, click on "Open Existing Character". When you see your local vault characters listed, THEN you click on "New Character" in the lower left. I don't know why this happens, but if you click on "Start New Character" right away, before you open the mod, the game will crash when it comes time to select your skills and feats.
- All characters will start at 3rd level. In the D20 Base Module Test Area, there is a chain you can pull to get 1000xp. You should pull it three times (i.e. 3000xp). The D20 Modern system uses entirely new base classes and prestige classes. Most of the prestige classes are linked to particular base classes, and can be taken pretty early, so you may want to plan out your intended character progression prior to the start of the game. You should familiarize yourself with the D20 Modern Manual, a PDF that is available at the same link above.
- You can select out a few clothing outfits (0 AC), but don't take any other equipment from the Base Module. Your character will be issued new gear when you are assigned to X-COM. You can play with the guns in the Base Module, but be sure to leave them behind when you save!
- All characters start as elite in their respective professions, recruited from multiple agencies and organizations worldwide. Those professions could include law enforcement, national militaries, spy agencies, the UN, or other similar bodies. All characters should be willing to be separated completely from their existing lives, as it is likely that they will spend the next few months, if not longer, apart from friends, family, and old associates.
- Play begins with the characters being transferred from their existing lives to a secretive new agency of which little is known except for rumors and snippets. Similarly, at the time that the game starts, the alien threat is seen as little more than tabloid fodder, with a few disturbing reports just beginning to surface in the mainstream media. Playing a skeptic is perfectly acceptable, but it should become clear pretty quickly that something strange is going on.
- All classes are available, but you may wish to coordinate with other players to ensure that all specialties are covered. D20 Modern relies a lot more on professional skills than vanilla NWN. Possible roles within the group include: engineer, scientist, demolitions specialist, sniper, scout, medic/doctor, heavy weapons expert, administrator, pyschologist/empath, etc. If you have a particular focus you'd like to explore in your character, please let me know and I'll try to work it into the campaign.
- All characters will want to be familiar with basic firearms and their use. Everyone should take the Firearms Proficiency (Personal), and the Firearms Proficiency (Advanced) feat is recommended for those who want to be able to use automatic weapons. Finally, the Firearms Proficiency (Exotic) feat should be taken if you want your character to be able to use sniper rifles and other unusual weapons. Note that those feats must be taken in succession, as each is a prerequisite for the next one in the chain.
- Armor proficiency feats are not required, but will be very useful later in the campaign. The Light and Medium Armor feats will enable you to wear almost all of the armors present in the campaign. There will be a few Heavy Armors available during the campaign but none of those will be necessary to stay alive.
- All characters will start out as rookies within the X-COM organization. Additional rank will be gained over the course of play, and leadership roles within the team will develop through roleplaying.
- The Crafting skills in D20 Modern allow a character to create almost any equipment items. These can be used, but crafting should be done in consultation with the DM to ensure that the system is not abused.
If you have any questions, just let me know! I have run a few hybrid-modern campaigns in my day, but this is really my first one that goes full into the intricacies of the D20 Modern system.
I welcome character submissions in advance; the sooner I know about your character background, the sooner I can start working it into the campaign.
Finally, once you know your character head model and voice set, you may want to post it here, to avoid overlap. There are a TON of character portraits in D20M, but if you find one that's not included that you want to use, post a link so everyone can get it before we start.
Have fun!
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| « Last Edit: on: Jul 2, 2008, 12:10AM » |
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Lazybones
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I'll get the first session of the new campaign posted tomorrow, but here's the character creation guidelines, in case anyone wants to start playing around with D20 Modern!
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Lazybones
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Let's all welcome vanya mia, our newest addition to the Monday Night Crew. Welcome aboard!
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Mulu
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Hey LB, just wanted to point out to your crew that at character creation they get to choose a background profession. Most of those come with feats and some of them come with the personal firearms or light armor feat. Do realize that d20 modern implements that through a ring with the feat on it, which means you have to take the feat again in order to progress to advanced firearms or medium armor. It's a trap for the unwary.
Have fun all!
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Lazybones
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There are a LOT of haks on the Worms download page. Here is a list of the files that the X-COM campaign uses. Hopefully this will help us avoid confusion.
- sf_maintileset 4/8/07
- sf_ddstextures1 4/8/07
- sf_ddstextures2 4/8/07
- worm_cypressv2 4/2/06
- wrm_extreme 12/22/06
- wrm_undersea 5/28/07
Also, just a note that I haven't seen any character ideas yet!
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Smart Alec
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Hi VM! 
Character ideas, character ideas... well:
- Favourite idea is for a big, broad-shouldered Russian soldier, a member of the Russian OSNAZ special forces attached to the FSB, taciturn and speaking with mildly broken English.
"This not look good. I say, we fall back."
Attached to X-Com through virtue of being a living model of service to the state; a decorated patriot, heroic, stoic and uncomplaining. Current name in the running: Vasily Dmitri Kasprjak. I like the hard sound of that.
Was either going to use him as a classic super-soldier type, Tough/Strong/Soldier (A little like Arnold Schwartzenegger in Red Heat), make him a more streetwise type and go for a Strong/Tough/Daredevil (think Karl Urban in The Bourne Supremacy), or make him a field surgeon and go for Dedicated/Field Medic/Soldier (not as awkward as it sounds). However, given that there sounds to be a bit of research into alien studies involved in this campaign, it might be better if the 'medical' type was more of a scientist? Or do we have other people for that in this organisation?
Edit: Tough/Strong. Guess that makes him the Milkybar Kid.
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 3, 2008, 11:51PM » |
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Lazybones
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Having a Russian soldier on the team actually fits in nicely with where I intend to take the campaign. Sounds like an interesting fellow.
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vanya mia
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*waves at SA*
Should perhaps flesh mine out. Still a bit torn over personality but tending towards a wild child, and I do mean wild, who began military training and was then co-opted into MI6. Running a fast/infiltrator. Stealth and disable as key with some manouverability aimed stuff.
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Lazybones
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Just about anything is doable, TBM; it's your campaign! My only requirements are as noted in the first post above; i.e. everyone needs to be able to pick up a gun, and eventually most of you will want access to light and medium armor.
Just let me know the details once you decide, as Smart Alec did, so I can tweak the plot and campaign details accordingly (I try to moderate the challenges so that everyone has a chance to shine, and use their special skills).
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 4, 2008, 6:37PM » |
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Smart Alec
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Out of curiosity, roughly how quickly will we be gaining levels in this campaign, do you know? That sort of info helps - a bit - when deciding what (if any) multiclass options are feasible. For many of the advanced classes, the really cool abilities come at the end...
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 5, 2008, 12:33AM » |
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TheBaldMan
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Buzz was and is always the least threatening looking "kid" among "grown-ups." Despite his receding hairline and red goatee he appears to have missed much of the effects of puberty. Pale skinned, from all his time spent indoors torturing the keyboard with hacking scripts that led him into his current predicament, Buzz Olloff is not quite as helpless as he first appears. After all, how could a poor boy living in the slums afford such equipment? Wise to the streets and quick with his hands he had survived a hard life. If it were not for his incorrigible propensity for finding his way around what others thought of as “secure areas” he would have had a nice normal life; a life outside the rat filled rooms of his childhood. Now he felt like one of those rats stuck in a glue trap.
He had told them he had meant no harm but when they found his stash of removable hard drives, even though they found enough evidence to understand he was telling the truth, it was the other evidence and how seemingly easy he had obtained it that mattered. Into the back of a white van, why was it always a white van he thought, and he was off out of the slums. And he knew no one would miss him.
He was tested, prodded and probed. His captures learned quickly to keep him away from anything electronic. He heard one guard mutter in frustration, "That damn kid could jack into our network with a paper clip!" Buzz puzzled in silence about the possibilities of that while he fell asleep.
It was in the middle of the night that he was often awoken to "learn some real hacking" he was told. This meant bruises and bumps and blisters for the most part. Buzz was not use to such physical endurance and after their initial shock that he could indeed defend himself they seemed to take masochistic joy in pushing him to his limits. The days and nights blended together with one burning question, "Who were these people?"
It was in the middle of pondering this question, as he lay pretending to be asleep and waiting for them to rouse him off to more training, that he would finally get close to an answer. "Come on boy! Time to earn your keep!" Buzz shook his head and could not help but sarcastically reply, "You mean I have to pay for this?!" It earned him a rough push down the hall and into a waiting white van. Buzz smiled weakly: another white van.
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 5, 2008, 3:27AM » |
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Lazybones
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on Apr 5, 2008, 12:33 AM, Smart Alec wrote:| Out of curiosity, roughly how quickly will we be gaining levels in this campaign, do you know? That sort of info helps - a bit - when deciding what (if any) multiclass options are feasible. For many of the advanced classes, the really cool abilities come at the end... |
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It should be roughly the same as GGS. In that campaign you started out at 5th level and ended up at 13-14th after 30 sessions. Since you start at 3rd in this one, initial leveling should come a bit faster, but the pace should slow a bit once you get a few levels under your belts. Keep in mind that in d20M you can start qualifying for Advanced Classes with as little as 3 levels in the right Base Class.
IC posting bonus will start at 300xp per week (with the +50% bonus if everyone posts) and advance from there.
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vanya mia
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A lithe figure, dressed in dark clothing and with a balaclava concealing her face and hair, made it’s way along the stone parapet that ran around the roof edge of the old building. On the walkway below, sentries patrolled completely unaware of the figure’s passage. It reached a point nearest the next building, and made the short leap to grab onto the flagpole protruding from its roof edge.
The figure swung around the pole and steadied in an upright position before dropping to the small balcony outside a third floor window. It froze to no more than a shadow as a sentry passed below, and then reaching to a belt pouch withdrew a small, thin tool. Working quickly and quietly the lock was bypassed and the window opened. With a swift glance around the figure slid silently inside.
Across the room a man lay sleeping on a bed. Carefully the figure drew a knife from a sheath, and, the oiled blade no more than glowing in the light seeping in through the window, crept across the room. The first the sleeping form knew was when the knife rested against his throat. His eyes snapped open and he stiffened, staring up at the shape above him. “It looks like you win,” he said, in even tones, “What is it that you want?”
The figure pulled the balaclava off, and a mane of black hair fell down around the face of a young woman as she grinned wildly down at the man. She moved the knife away from his throat, flipped it, and slid it back into the sheath. Flopping down onto the bed, Catalina ran her fingers through hair now free of the mask, and then stretched luxuriantly. Mischievous blue eyes gave him a look as old as time. “What do you say to the usual?”
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Jenniza
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do we have need of a sniper, or is that role filled? I suppose I don't have to specialize in sniping and all that it entails. The concept of Susan Polerton and some Medal of Honor and other characters intrigued me. I was hoping to play a CIA operative. I was getting tired of always playing the healer.
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chiz
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Guys, I haven't figured out what kind of character I want to play yet, in part because I haven't had time to look read all the D20 rules - though I'll do this soon.
Where do we seem to have a gap right now? I could play a medic/doctor, for example, if no one in our group will be playing one and we need one. Alternately, I'd be happy being the smart but slightly psycho heavily armored guy (Tough Hero type) who goes in and absorbs the first shots from the baddies, so the rest of the team can locate and eliminate them. So let me know where the holes in the current group makeup are.
So far looks like:
Boomer, [TBD]
chiz, [wise/field medic]
Jenniza, [sniper]
mannedoc, [TBD]
Smart Alec, [tough/demolitions]
TheBaldMan, [smart/computer guy]
vanya mia, [fast/infilitrator]
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| « Last Edit: on: Apr 14, 2008, 8:14PM » |
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