Re: [DL] Experience in DL and D20 comment

[balance@tubas.net]

On Wednesday, February 20, 2002, at 07:00  AM, Bruce White wrote:
> Sorry, I may have been unclear with my statement.  What I meant is that
> D20 settings are designed to be balanced in comparison to each other.
> An n-th level fighter-type from Star Wars is evenly matched by a
> Deadlands fighter-type of the same level and by a D&D fighter-type of
> the same level, as are each of the iconic character classes for each
> setting (to each other, that is - each class has its own
> advantages/disadvantages within its own system).  The differences
> aren't so great as to give one setting an advantage over any other.  I
> don't advocate using unchanged rule sets like Rifts/GURPS with D20, as
> that _will_ cause an imbalance.  But within D20 settings, things are
> pretty much even.  Hope this makes things a little clearer.

This really doesn't work that well... D20 Star Wars [1] uses a different 
basis for generating hit points (and implements an explanation for HPs 
that many have used for D&D for the last 20+ years!) and D20 Call of 
Cthulhu will do away with a lot of concepts, supposedly, as CoC 
investigators are intended to be... fragile... when compared to the 
Great Old Ones and even their minions.

Basically, while they use the same rules, all D20 games are not the 
same, or intended to be comparable. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

I'd still say Deadlands D20 is a good idea for one shots, and may be a 
perfectly good game, but I'm not going to try to switch my posse over to 
it.

[1] Mini review of D20 Star Wars (I played in about 3 sessions of a Star 
Wars campaign before we were forced to abandon because of schedules 
changing.)

Pros; It's D&D with the Star Wars setting! Basic rules and terminology 
will be familiar to many players. There are some efforts made to make it 
more 'heroic' than a normal D&D game (which often degenerates into a 
sort of Fantasy SWAT team mission at times, but that's part of the 
fun.). Background material coverage is OK, although we found that it's 
difficult to get the same sort of adventures because there's so many 
ways a player with an X-Wing can ruin an adventure.

Cons: It's D&D with the Star Wars setting! Experienced players tend to 
go into a low-level munchkin mode almost instinctually. No system is 
immune to munching, but people started to plan out ways to make a 
character invincible within minutes of the GM cracking open the books... 
If not for a good job by the GM I think it could have gone much worse 
Really, how many sets of stormtrooper armor do you need?

--
Brett

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER 
MAN? (Reaper Man, Terry Pratchett)