Missions & Mayhem Module 1: Cryptids & Conspiracy

 The draft for Cryptids & Conspiracy is coming along fairly quickly. Over the long weekend (Chinese/Lunar New Year), despite lots of family stuff to attend to, I've managed to write up quite a bit.

The conceit for this campaign setting is that the Heroes investigate rumors or reports of cryptids, paranormal activity, and the like. In the background, one or more conspiratorial adversaries are working against them. So basically...

 Of course, me being me, and flexibility being a design goal of Missions & Mayhem, I've got advice for limiting the types of weirdness the Heroes explore, running the game without conspiracies working as adversaries, or running the game with the conspiracies but not the weirdness. 

There are three advanced classes, adapted from ones in the d20 Modern core book. I've shortened them to 5 level classes, because the originals had five dead levels. They are the Battle Mind, Occultist, and Telepath. These are all optional, if GMs want to allow Heroes to have these powers. 

Battle Minds use psychic powers to improve their combat potential, including making weapons or shields of psychic energy.

Pretty much this.

Occultists study and learn about magic, but they're not spellcasters but they can employ magic items limited to spellcasters. They do get (in my version) to Turn Undead and get an occult creature sidekick at higher levels. 

Using this picture instead of the comics, because comics Constantine is more of a sorcerer. Keanu version mostly used items and knowledge, IIRC

Finally, Telepaths are the pure psychic class. They get a wider array of powers to choose from than the Battle Mind, but aren't as combat capable. 

Not this powerful, but you get the idea.

 

In addition to the advanced classes, I've got the equipment sorted (a few weapons, gear, vehicles useful for cryptid hunting or paranormal investigations). 

I've got advice on creating conspiracy groups and using them as opposition (occasionally allies), including a random 6-step d12 chart for the Who/What/When/Where/Why/How of conspiracy groups. 

I've got a list of a bunch of cryptids, ghosts, urban legends, and prehistoric beasties, but I haven't statted them all up yet. Quite a few I can borrow from d20 Modern books or my own TS&R books, but a few will be original. No one had heard of Slender Man or the Hat Man when d20 M came out. 

After that, I'll have more notes on creating missions (adventures), as well as two or three short sample adventures. 

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I've already referenced the more fantastic Van Helsing/Dark Shadows/Stranger Things-ish module I have planned called Hellspawn & Horror, so that one should be next. But I'll probably do the sci-fi Bughunts & Bedlam next, just because I love the genre of sci-fi action/horror. 

Guns Blazing (or maybe not?)

 Yesterday, I ran a relatively straightforward combat mission for Missions & Mayhem to play test some of the combat rules. And of course, as we got started, the players were looking for ways they could solve the mission without resorting to combat. But after straight up telling them I needed to test the combat rules, they went with it. 

The players went in with a good tactical plan, hired mercenaries for extra firepower support (old school D&D players want their men-at-arms, you know!), and good use of the "I Know a Guy" rule to get access to night-vision goggles. 

We were able to test out surprise and initiative (just like Classic D&D, and they work just as well), regular attacks and the special double-tap, burst, and spray autofire rules, grenades/explosives, and the first aid rules. 

One area I had been wondering about were the double-tap and burst rules, which I'd imported directly from d20 Modern. For both of these, in d20 Modern, you sacrifice accuracy and ammunition for increased potential damage. As a game mechanic, it's elegant. Firearms all deal 2dX damage. With a double-tap, you fire two rounds and take a -2 to hit, and deal an extra die of damage (3dX). With burst autofire, you fire five rounds and take a -4 to hit, and deal an extra two dice of damage (4dX). 

However, in M&M, it's not as easy to get bonuses to hit (no feats). Also, there's less hit point inflation, because NPCs/creatures have mostly flat hit dice, not bonuses to each die for Constitution scores. When I ran the solo test with Jeremy a few weeks back, we'd discussed the option to change double-tap and burst autofire to be a bonus to hit, rather than a penalty, but deal standard damage on a hit. The thing that holds me back is that ammo expenditure becomes the only reason NOT to double-tap or use burst fire if you have the proficiency for it. 

The rules for spray autofire (expend 10 rounds, trying to target several people with one attack) works similarly to the explosives rules. You only need to hit AC 11 (ascending AC) with your attack roll, but the targets in the area get to make a reflex saving throw. In the case of spray autofire, they take no damage on a save. With explosives, they take 1/2 damage (like fireball in D&D). This seemed to work well. No need for a change. 

I do have notes for figuring out where a grenade or other thrown explosive goes off on a miss. I think I need to also implement them for both burst and spray autofire. We had one instance where a burst attack missed a terrorist standing among the hostages. On the spot, I had the player roll a reflex save to avoid the bullets striking a hostage (failure! But the hostage survived with 1 hit point). That worked, but since I already have rules for how to determine where an explosive goes off (and it may still affect the intended target if you're lucky), it's easier to implement those for missed autofire attacks in crowded areas as well. 

We didn't get to test out the suppression fire rules (empty your magazine in one direction, opponents must make will saves or dive for cover/lose their actions for the round), but everything else went fairly well. 

Right now, I'm working on the first campaign module: Cryptids & Conspiracy. Basically, X-Files, but with potential for psychic or occult Heroes (and villains). I've got the advanced classes and psychic powers done. I need to write up a system/advice for creating and running conspiracy groups as opponents, and of course stats for a bunch of cryptids, alien visitors, and ghosts/demons that can be investigated. Once those are all done, I'll add some mission design guidelines and XP award guidelines. I'll likely include a few sample missions as well.

So still early in the process, but so far I'm happy with what I've done. 

Should I put the chocolate in the peanut butter?

I think my base rules for Missions & Mayhem are done. At least, the heavy lifting is done. I've got rules that seem to work for all the areas of play I think a modern (action/adventure/investigation) setting RPG should probably cover. That doesn't mean I won't continue to tweak things here and there, but for the most part it seems good. 

Now, I've got to start work on rules for fantasy, sci-fi, horror, etc. that go along with this. Some of that won't be too hard. d20 Modern has d20 Future, d20 Past, d20 Apocalypse, etc. to draw from for ideas. And there's all of the WotC and OSR output to draw on for creatures, magic/sci-fi items, etc. 

Originally, I planned to just release the base rules as a stand-alone set. Then I'd release adventure modules or campaign settings that had the rules for adding in cryptids, horror creatures, normal D&D type fantasy creatures, near-future (utopian or dystopian) sci-fi, space opera sci-fi, post-apoc stuff, etc. as their own supplements. 

But d20 Modern core rules did include three "FX" campaign settings. One is about D&D monsters living/hiding in the real world (like Shadowrun, but modern world instead of near future), one is psychics and government conspiracies (X-Files meets X-Men), and one is hunting down the monsters that secretly lurk in the shadows (Call of Cthulhu-ish, but assuming you can and will kick the monsters' asses). 

Should I include a few tastes of the fantastic in the base rules? Or should I stick to my original plan? If you have a preference, let me know in the comments. 

I know some of my players have been waiting for me to start adding in the alien invasion/zombie apocalypse/monster hunting aspects into the game. We gamers do love our speculative fiction. I'll probably start working some of these ideas into my play tests in a month or two.  

In Search of Elegant Design

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. - Albert Einstein (apocryphal) 

 I haven't made a lot of progress on Missions & Mayhem this week, but what I have done feels elegant. 

When I started out, I tried to pare down d20 Modern to the bare essentials. 

Then, I started pulling in systems and ideas from other old school games to fill out systems where I didn't want to rely on a d20 system mechanic. Because d20+mods isn't always the best roll to make for every situation, and the scaling DC system gets progress backwards. 

But I quickly realized I had a mishmash of disparate game systems, and they didn't work well together. So the past few weeks have been about simplifying and trying to find elegant solutions to problems. 

I feel like that's what I've done recently. On the first page of my playtest document, which I share with my players, I've been putting a rundown of the various mechanics involved in the game. I'm not sure if they're reading it (I should ask), but for me it helps me keep track of what the game does and doesn't do. I'll copy/paste it here: 

 

Die Rolls: The following types of die rolls may be made in this game.

Ability Scores (character creation): 4d6, drop lowest single die. Roll six times to set ability scores.

Wealth Status (character creation, level up): 3d6, sets or modifies status level. Rolled at character creation to set initial status, and checked when a level is gained for possible changes.

Funds on hand: at the start of a mission, roll 2d4 or 3d6, multiplied by a modifier to determine additional cash/credit available for this mission.

General Proficiency Check: non-proficient 2d4, proficient 2d6, advanced 2d8, roll target number or higher. Possibly with modifiers depending on talents or Gambles.

Attacks, saving throws: 1d20+modifiers (Str for melee attacks, Dex for ranged attacks), roll Armor Class or save number or higher. Situational modifiers may also apply to attacks or saving throws.

Damage rolls: various, depends on the type of attack. Strength modifiers affect damage for all unarmed/melee weapons and some ranged weapons.

Gamble: In chases and some other emergency situations involving a general proficiency check, a player may roll 1d20 trying to roll equal or below one of their ability scores to gain a +1 bonus to a check. If they fail, they get a -1 penalty. How that ability may help must be described before the roll.

I Know a Guy: 1-2/d6 chance to know a guy in general, 1-4/d6 to know a guy related to occupation. If successful, the Hero gains information, access, or a favor.

 

I've described in previous posts how the proficiency system works, but here's a brief summary. There are combat proficiencies (access to weapons/armor, removes penalties for their use) and general proficiencies (replace skills/feats from the d20 system). Players get 2 proficiencies from their Starting Occupation (background), four or five from their level 1 character class, and if they have a high Wisdom, 1 to 3 bonus proficiencies. They gain more proficiencies at every 3rd level. Everyone starts with basic proficiency in ALL of them, and the proficiencies gained above are improvements to Skilled or Advanced levels. 

For the most part, difficulties are set. They don't scale with level as the PCs go up. That way leads to the backward progress I mentioned above. If your Hero has basic level infiltration proficiency, they roll 2d4. They can't disable any security devices with a difficulty of 9 (unless they gamble and get lucky, or get a bonus from one of their class talents and get lucky). After a few levels, if they boost infiltration to skilled, they now roll 2d6 and they've got a chance to disable that security device. A few levels more, they can boost it to advanced and roll 2d8, and have a pretty good shot at disabling that type of device. 

On the GM side, as well, the 2d4/2d6/2d8 scale, and 5/7/9/11/13 difficulty levels have been useful for a variety of systems. 

One more system that I keep finding useful is the I Know a Guy mechanic. Yes, it's a metagame mechanic. Yes, it shifts (not quite retcons) what's "known" in the fictional world. But it's goddamn useful! 

"Do we know the layout of the compound?" You do if you know a guy. 

"Can we get some uniforms to disguise ourselves?" You do if you know a guy.

"We need to get into the Grammy after party to find evidence." If you know a guy, he can get you in. 

Earlier in the design process, I had borrowed from d20 Modern the idea of equipment being unlicensed, licensed, restricted, or illegal. But it was a complex mess in play, and players were getting confused about needing both proficiency and permits to have certain types of weapons. Technically, they needed proficiency to use the weapons efficiently, and permits to legally own the weapons. They could have owned them illegally, or legally owned them without being very good at using them....

Anyway, I was working on a black market system related to this, and the abstract purchasing system (another hold-over from d20 Modern), and a Wanted Status system (with varying levels of "wantedness") for adding complications when the authorities are onto PC activities. Overly complex. 

This week, I added back in the Wanted Status, but it's binary. You're wanted or you're clear. No more "of interest" "suspect" "wanted" and "fugitive" levels. And if you're wanted, there are random encounter checks made once per mission/session, and at times when the party runs into the authorities, to see if some complication develops. 

For the black market, the I Know a Guy rule solves a lot of problems. If you're wanted, you can't buy certain items that would require you to present identification (firearms, explosives, new cars, surveillance gear) without triggering an automatic complication. But if you know a guy, you can buy from a black market source for a small mark-up in price. 

Clean, simple, elegant, and works with something I've already been developing in the rules.  

Another Successful Play Test

 This afternoon, I ran Steven (my younger) and my friends Denis and Charles through a stealth/subterfuge infiltration mission with Missions & Mayhem. Well, first we needed to update Charles and Denis' Heroes to the new rules. That went pretty well, with minimal fuss and only a few things fudged to match what came before to what they have now. 

The rules worked well. They were simple for me to run, with minimal referencing to the rules (they're written by me, but in flux so my mental model of the game doesn't always update to my latest ideas). The new proficiency system (2d4/2d6/2d8) was simple and easy for them to grasp, and very easy to implement in play. Yes, it is basically a skill system. But it's independent of class/level for its power growth, and it's limited to just the three levels. 

The new version of the "I know a guy" rules came into play, and worked in the group's favor so they were happy with that. In this case, they decided to pose as OSHA inspectors, and Steven's "I know a guy" roll showed that his hero did know a guy who could get them OSHA uniforms. A bit of forgery here, paying to have the rich hero's helicopter (Charles's) decorated with OSHA livery there, a little shopping, and they were set for their mission. 

A few things did come up in play that either hadn't been addressed yet, or I'd dropped from the rules. In particular at the end of the mission, they noticed the hidden security camera only AFTER they'd hacked the computer system. But their cover wasn't yet blown so they decided on a quick retreat rather than deal with that. In a campaign, this is the sort of thing that would bring them heat. At the moment, I've dropped the "wanted status" but the players today seemed to think it should come back.  

We also discussed a few ways to make it work. For one thing, they suggested that random encounter chances could be pegged to a character's (or group's) wanted status. Every few game hours, or once per scene/setting, roll to see if someone recognizes the wanted PC and alerts the authorities. I'd need to work out how that system plays out, something I hadn't finalized before dropping the original idea. 

To complete it, I'll need to decide exactly what sorts of complications might arise from being wanted, how likely they are to occur, what are the effects of each possible complication, and what players can do to lower their heat. 

There was hardly any combat this session. The manager in the office was already suspicious of them, and when they came in to "monitor the computer system for safety reasons" he wouldn't buy their story. So they tasered him. While he was out, they hacked the computer and got the information they were after. 

Which reminds me, the computer hacking rules worked OK, but I think I need to increase the chances of automated responses to actions while hacking. Most of the actions have low percentages, and there weren't any reactions or complications from the hack. To spice things up, I need to bump them up a bit. Not too much, or no one will try hacking. 

The important thing is, the entire hack was quick, and the other players weren't bored while it happened. So that's a success. 

My take-away: The basic combat rules are good. The proficiency system is good. Most of the resolution mechanics are easy to run. I need to tinker with a few probabilities and add/refine a few systems. 

We also leveled up everyone's heroes to 3rd level. Charles stuck with Fast Hero 3, but Denis multiclassed into Strong 2/Tough 1. Steven decided to do the changes later, but he will go Fast 2/Smart 1. Charles was a little confused by getting both a talent from his class, and a free proficiency slot from being 3rd character level, but we got that sorted quickly. Denis leveled up with no problem, but a complaint. When he rolled for hit points, the die slipped when he picked it up. It was a 2. I saw that it obviously slipped from his hand, so I let him re-roll it. He got a 1. 

Next time, I will run a combat heavy mission, in order to test out some of the more advanced combat rules (the autofire rules, explosives, etc.). We expect some or all of the heroes to die, but since it's a play test not a regular campaign, they'll resurrect if that happens. Charles didn't roll very well for hit points either, so they're all feeling a bit uneasy about a heavy combat mission. Should be fun!