T20 weapons in D&D

[Blue Ghost]

A friend of a friend is running a traditional D&D campaign, and I've emailed him about bringing in a high tech rifleman (tech 9 or 10).

Anyway, I'm looking at the weapons' chart on page 200 of the T20 book, and something struck me as being curious; the level system in D&D, in regards to hand to hand combat and HPs, is supposed to reflect characters' abilities to take a blow. The more skilled you are the higher your level and vice versa.

But a bullet travelling at high speed, unlike a sword swing, isn't something you can parry with a wooden shield or polished blade.

If this is the case, then how are T20 weapons supposed to operate in a D20 setting?

 

[Spinward Scout]

Well, T20 shows an AssaultRifle damage as 1d12 and D20 Modern has most AssaultRifles as 2d8 or 2d10. So there's a bit of difference in damage in firearms. I actually like the D20 Modern better. Maybe only until my character got hit by one. Bow and crossbow damage is the same in T20 and D20 Modern, so, I'd probably go with those stats in T20. You might want to have the DM take a look at the Armor Reduction rules in T20. That could probably help a bit. If you know someone with the D20 Modern rules, tho, they'd work better since you can pull characters between D&D and D20 Modern without any changes.

Hope that helped,

Spinward Scout

 

[Blue Ghost]

That helps a lot. Thanks

 

[far-trader]

I never liked the D&D rational being an ability to dodge or soak damage. I preferred my own rational of it being luck and or magical protection.

"But why do fighters get so much more magical protection from damage than wizards?"

Because the gods like them better. The gods get more entertainment value from pushing fighter pawns all over the map than they do in watching the wizards who are outside their control.

"You mean my 20th level fighter is just a pawn in some deity driven game?"

BINGO! :devil:

Likewise I never liked the rationalization that a melee round (if you remember back to when it was a minute long) represented a series of feints and parries with maybe one or two strikes at an opening. It didn't mesh well with the ranged weapon attacks. At least they went a ways to fixing that by shortening the round.

"What does this have to do with T20 and D20 Modern weapons used in D&D?"

I dunno, I'm just a keyboard monkey :smirk:

OK, what I'm saying is if you transport gunpowder weapons (and such) into D&D you need to rethink some stuff. But even just saying "the gods favor those with high levels" may be enough. It is for me. It's fantasy, high fantasy mostly, no need to overthink the reality of unreal worlds, right? Just don't say "the fighter dodges the hail of gunfire from the SMG and flips over the blast from the shotgun" unless you're going for a Matrix or Martial Arts Gods style in which case, let everybody go kung-fu fighting! HAH!

 

[Blue Ghost]

He emailed me back today, and said he'd have a look at it.

Our setting isn't high magic; i.e. as per one of our player's observations you can't walk into a "magic shop" and purchase a potion off the shelf. So it's a bit more grounded than a high fantasy setting.

Well ... we have a small warband of about a dozen characters or so, half of whom are surrounded by werewolves atop a hill at midnight, while the half went after an unconcious member tied to a horse that fled in the excitement.

It's more grounded than the previous campaign, and we're anticipating doing a Traveller run after this chapter of the campaign. In this regard it would be an interesting graduation from one setting to the next to introduce this character.

I'm pretty excited about it

 

[aramis]

Well, in T20, damage unadjusted by armor goes to Stamina (read: Hit Points), and the same roll, adjusted for armor, is applied to Lifeblood (which, when full, equals Con).

T20 damages for firearms are more towards multi-dice for ranges when the weapon is expected to be AP. This is due to how damage is affected by armor when being applied to Lifeblood.

In fact, a house-rule I used was figure the average, and for Hollowpoints, adjust up a die size, but reduce dice, and for AP, drop size by a step, but up the number by one.

 

[Blue Ghost]

Some great news. As of this late afternoon I got an email from the GM allowing me to bring the character into the campaign.

What kind of restrictions and whiz-bang stuff he's going to throw at my guy (and the party in general now that he's with them) only the GM and God himself know. But, it should be exciting and intiguing, and a whole lotta fun!

I'm going to do some write ups tonight to flesh him out a bit.

Also, I bought myself a copy of Battlefield 2142 to get some inspiration for this character, because I kind of picture him as a Trav 2300 type.

Our next meeting isn't until September, but I'll keep you all posted on how it goes.