Adventure! RPG - Adventure d20 Released

[Matt]

Adventure d20 was released a few days ago. Does anyone have it yet? I'd really like to find out how people think d20 works in the Trinity Universe, and then get some reviews for it on the site.

[David 'Dr. Troll' Smith]

New stuff shows up on shelves the following Thursday(?) around here so I haven't checked just yet.

[Vitalis]

Waiting for it to come from Amazon... Haven't gotten the email that it has shipped yet, though.

[Matt]

If anyone is purchasing it through Amazon would like to help out the site please use this link: Adventure! d20 .

[Wakinyan]

I thumbed through it at the game shop this evening but didnt pick it up yet. I am still a bit up in the air over it. I might pick it up Friday.

[Vitalis]

How does that work, Chosen? Does the site get a percentage of the order? Is the price the same to the buyer? Can we buy anything through that link or is it only specific products you get a piece of?

[Femme Darkle]

Got my copy of it yesterday and have had a leaf through it so far. The conversion seems to be better than I would have expected, although I don't know D&D 3.5 well enough to be sure of exactly how well the d20 rules would play out. First impression: a lot of it just a reprint of the orgiginal book on larger pages, with the d20 rules pasted in. Not necessarily a bad thing if you wanted to preserve the original feel of the game.

From looking at how they handle Knacks and character class/level progression, a few interesting points. They have being a Daredevil/Mesmerist/Stalwart as a template that you can take a level or two in to get the higher level Knacks of. The conversion of the Knacks looks to have been pretty faithful to the original and to work fairly well. Interestingly, Backgrounds and their Enhancements are now Feat Trees, which seems to more or less work.

The big problem is one that the game mentions as a deliberate choice on their part. As with other d20 systems, the game assumes you start off fairly weedy and beef up with time and experience. Having a high-level Knack or ability at character gen is a no-no. This does seem to detract from the PC's as larger than life Pulp figures. I think the game would still work, particularly in a longer running game but it doesn't capture the feeling of the setting as well as the original rules. This could be solved by starting the PC's out as higher than 1st level characters but the general aim is still towards an ever increasing power curve.

That said, the various character classea and their class specific abilities add another avenue of Stuff to collect, most of which are quite Pulpy in their feel. They do look a little bit restrictive to someone who is used to the Storyteller chargen but with enough bits of their own to maybe be worth it. They do beg for more of them to be published in future supplements or on the web, though.

All in all, it seems to be a pretty good job. Not quite as suited to the feel of the game as the original system but with the potential to have its own selling points. Just my opinion from a quick going over of it.

[Lemmy Chillmeister]

Well, you can counter it much the same way M&M does, start characters off a higher levels. Base assumed start for an M&M character is PL 10. Most X-Men could be cobble together at PL 7.

[Femme Darkle]

The book does suggest this, although it goes for level three as a default, rather than anything higher. Assuming the d20 mechanics work out the way they look they do then it should work fine for the game. I haven't played D&D 3 or 3.5 but from previous experience of the system and of the 3.5 based computer games it all _looks_ workable.

Interestingly, the build-up approach to power should probably work better for Aberrant d20 than it does for Adventure. The idea of am inexorable rise in power is much more suited to the Aberrant setting than it is to Adventure. Not sure how they'll fit in Taint, but there you go. The one really nice thought is that since d20 has lots of experience handling ludicrously high power levels, Epic and so on, they may eventually come out with some much better balanced Q6+ rules.

Anyway, I'm definitely looking forward to Aberrant d20 in June and Trinity d20 in August. They might suit the conversion even better than Adventure has.

[Kirby1024]

I dunno. D&D has attempted to tackle high power levels, but there's debate as to whether they've ever actually succeeded. The prevailing thought among my neck of the woods (and one I agree with with my limited experience playing D&D) is that the system breaks down around L10 (L15 if you're lucky).

Of course, this is purely D&D experience, not generic d20, and I will heartily reserve judgement on the scalability of Adventure! d20 until I get to GM/Play it sometime in the near future. I'm certainly intending to pick up a copy of the book as soon as is feasible, if only to read the mechanics and share the love

[Matt]

Quote:

Originally posted by Vitalis:
How does that work, Chosen? Does the site get a percentage of the order? Is the price the same to the buyer? Can we buy anything through that link or is it only specific products you get a piece of?

I don't want to hijack this thread, so here\'s a link to another thread discussing the Amazon thing . Now lets things get back to what we should be talking about here... Adventure d20.

[Kirby1024]

OK, I now have a copy of the book in my grubby little hands. Quite a piece of work, and great that they've thrown in the Spycraft Pursuit system - great touch!

Just one problem - Where the hell is the Character Sheet? Because it needs one. Badly.

[NeoVid]

According to an article I saw in a game mag a month or so ago, Taint in Ab d20 will be done with reduced-cost tainted levels.

Since levels are the only thing with a cost in d20, that's about the only way they could have done it, but I'm not certain about it. Still, can't judge until I see it. All I really care about when it comes to Aeon d20 is a version of this setting that might get a player base.

[Blaine]

I made a character for D20 Adventure and brought him all the way up to 20th level, just as a way to see what they can do. He's a Daredevil (Warrior 10/Daredevil 1/Investigator 9) and he's based off the character I play in the A! Roaring 20s game you can find in this forum. Here he is as a 20th level character:

Name: Blaine MacAllister Inspiration: Heroic

Class: Warrior 10/Daredevil 1 /Investigator 9

Str 16

Dex 14

Con 18

Int 14

Wis 16

Cha 16

Saves: Total Base Ability Misc

Fortitude 16 +13 +3

Reflex 10 +8 +2

Will 14/18 +11 +3 +4 (Indomitable Will)

BAB: 17/12/7/2

AC: Class +12 Dex: +2 Misc Total 24

HP: 195

Wealth Bonus:

Iniative: 13

Skills:

Intimidate 21

Listen 14

Spot 19

Drive 13

K: Current Events 13

Investigate 24

Sense Motive 19

Bluff 17

Disable Device 15

Forgery 14

Gather Information 17

Research 15

Search 15

Class Features:

Sweep the Scene (I 1), Clue Hound (I 3), Clever Plan (I 5), Discern Secrets (I7), Tarnish Reputation (I9)

Inspiration: 9 Intuition: 4 Reflection: 2 Destruction: 3

Feats:

General

Brawl, Personal firearms (1), Point Blank Shot (1), Skill Focus (Investigation) (3), Endurance (6), Quick Draw (12), Improved Initiative (15), Two Weapon Fighting (18)

Warrior

Precise Shot (1), Improved Brawl (2), Knockout Punch (4), Advanced Firearms Proficiency (6), Improved Knockout Punch (8), Improved Critical (Brawl) (10)

Daring

Fists of Stone (W1), Lie Detector (I1), Steely Gaze (I2), Resilient (I3), Perfect Poise (I4), Indomitable Will (I4/9th level feat), One-Man Army (I5), Death Defiance (I6), Greased Lightning (I7), Trick Shot (I8), Navigation Hazard: Drive (I9)

Background

Reputation: Recognized: War hero, famous (D1), Reputation: Recognized: Crime Fighter, notorious (I2), Contacts: Well-Connected 3 Local (1 Crime, 1 Street, 1 Police) (W3), Nemesis: Thorn in the Side (I4), Reputation: Eminent Crime Fighter, notorious (W5), Information Broker 3 National Contacts (Mob, FBI, Press) (I6), Sanctum: Hideout, Secure (W7), Reputation: Renowned: Crime Fighting, notorious (I8), Sanctum: Hideout, Well-Appointed (W9)

[Kirby1024]

Hey peoples,

Just letting people know that White Wolf has (finally!) released the Adventure! d20 Character Sheet.

The direct link is:

http://download.white-wolf.com/trinityuniverse/AdventureD20CharacterSheet.pdf

By jiminy, it's about time! I've been mangling Spycraft sheets, and it's just not working!

[Blaine]

Saw it and downloaded it. Looks good. Main problem is that there isn't enough room for feats. I transferred Blaine (above) to it just to see how it looked, he needed four columns for Feats all told.

The image does look nice though. They could expand it to a 4 page version by putting more room for Feats (especially Background Feats) and Gadgets and Super Science. That's what I'd do at any rate.