D20 Modern/Future setting

[Michaeljpatrick]

I'm at the very early stages of planning a campagin using Modern rules with a little of D20 future thrown in.

It is a near future setting (sort of). The PCs will be relatively ordinary people. They can have high ability scores and skills and feats, but they are all natural humans- no cyborgs/superhero/robot/alien/wizard/ninjas. I have made some sample PCs for my players to pick from (or they can roll their own. So far I have created- a retired CEO of an IT company, a physician, a tough-as-nails pilot and a con-man.

The players are given no info about the setting or what types of challenges they will face at first.

The basic scenario will be like this:

One of the PCs (chosen at random) wakes up to find himself in some sort of glass coffin. He has some sort of selective amnesia. He remembers his name/history/skills/profession, but doesn't recall how he came to be there. Upon examination he should realize that rather than a coffin it is more like a high-tech hospital bed. There are little devices monitoring the PCs blood pressure and heart rate. An IV seems to be supplying nutrients, and so on. Assuming the PC doesn't panic he should easily figure out how to open the chamber without hurting himself.

When he exits the chamber he will find himself in a sterile environment. White light from an indiscernible source fills the room. The PC may be surprised to find that there are more (3-5 probably depending on how many players) chanbers like his.

Inside each chamber is a human being. Each (including the first PC) is roughly 30 years of age and in peak physical health. If the PC was older than 30 (I may change the age depending on the average age of the players) at the time before finding himself in this room he will learn that he looks and feels like a 30 year old again.

Hopefully the PC will realize that the other chambers contain the other PCs and hopefully he will assist them in awakening.

The room they have come into looks sort of like a hospital/laboratory, except the ceiling is unusually high (20-30 feet) and the walls are made of a seamless metal.

The characters will realize they are naked (or perhaps wearing nothing more than hospital gowns.

They will also soon become hungry.

This should motivate them to find food and clothing.

The first task will be to find a way out of the lab.


SPOILERS BELOW--------











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OK. So I said this is still in a planning stage, I haven't figured everything out just yet, but the premise of the game is this:

All of the players died millions of years ago. DOZENS OF MILLIONS. Since that time the entire human race has died out- as a matter of fact all mammal life is gone due to a horrible virus. The machines were designed to clone humans (and reprogram them with their old memories) and repopulate the planet at a future date once all traces of the deadly virus had been eradicated. The laboratory is a man-made cave complex deep within a mountain somewhere in the continental US.

Some of this information will be available to the PCs if they can access computers/archives in the laboratory as they attempt to escape the complex. I am thinking about naming the complex "Genesis Beta" or something like that.


For all they know they are the last remaining humans alive.

When the PCs escape to the outside world they will probably wish they had stayed in the labs. The world has evolved quite a bit in humanities absence. All mammal life is eradicated. Birds have evolved to fill in the ecological niches. It is almost like a second age of the dinosaurs with tiny to massive avians ruling the globe- The Pterozoic Age!

Whales and Dolphins are long extinct and replaced by giant penguins. Packs of dog-sized chickens roam the country side.

Massive lone predators with beaks developed for shredding and tearing flesh stalk the jungles and the plains. And the skies are filled with terrible flocks of highly organized ravens with near human intelligence.

You get the picture I suspect. Reptiles, fish and insects have evolved too, but not in as much variety and scope as the birds did.

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So, the obvious adventure hooks revolve around survival, and perhaps gathering and using some of the remaining human technology which has mostly fallen to rust. I mean in a hundred million years not much is left.

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Another idea is for the PCs to come across other humans. Perhaps hostile humans. Humans who themselves were awakened to this frightening world. Perhaps they are descendants of humans who arrived here a generation or two ago and have managed to master some of the fauna of this strange yet familiar land.

So, that's what I got so far.

It's a little rough, but I will be working on it.

Any thoughts?

[Sendro]

You could have descendants of humanity that may have mutated into crazies from the virus/starvation/life in general, etc.

These PC's could struggle to survive, or they could bunker down, secure an area and start a "plantation."

Generally though, there should be other humans in the storyline. Having just 4-6 people in an entire highly evolved world isn't cool; however, whether the other humans are good or bad could be completely up to you.

[Shesheyan]

You could have timed opening of different coffin groups around the world. For the last 1000 years prescheduled openings have occured. Maybe one group of " 100 settlers" every 10 years or so. This would give you lots of latitude to play with. Humans could refer to themselves by their reanimation dates. Of course players coffins are the last group to open. Unfortunetely of 100 settlers only 5 survived...