March of Progress

Changes are marked in orange.

Basic details

System: d20 Modern through IRC.

Setting: Late 20th-Century Earth. The emphasis will be on roleplay, but there will be combat. Your characters are ordinary people: office workers, students, laborers, officials, celebrities, vagrants. Ordinary, until...

Character Creation

Books allowed: d20 Modern SRD, excluding the FX, Urban Arcana, Future, and Menace rulesets.

Effective Character Level (ECL): 1

Ability Scores:

  1. Determine three ability scores by rolling 3d6 for each, then spend the remainder of a 25 point buy on the three remaining ability scores; the three ability scores determined by point-buy have a minimum score of 8, with no maximum. (Assign each ability score after all six scores are determined.)

    You may continue to roll sets of three ability scores until you have rolled at least three sets, and rolled one set containing at least one ability score below 8. Choose one of the sets of rolled ability scores to keep.

    Ex: I roll 3d6 three times, obtaining rolls of 11, 12, and 7; these scores would cost 3, 4, and -1 points in the standard point-buy system, respectively, a total of 6 points out of 25. This leaves me with 19 points to spend on my remaining ability scores.

  2. or

  3. 25 point buy, minimum 8, maximum 18 per ability score.

Hit Dice: Maximum hit points at 1st level. At each subsequent level, choose whether to take half of the maximum die result or roll the hit die.

Other: Basic Classes do not gain Talents or Bonus Feats.

House Rules and Clarifications

Feats: Open Minded is available as a feat. Beginning at character level 3, each time you gain the feat, you may give up three of the skill points granted by it; if you do, treat your levels in Basic Classes as one higher for the purposes of determining your maximum ranks of the Ability Endurance, Ability Intensity, and Ability Versatility skills. These effective levels stack.

Skills: Three new skills are class skills for all Basic Classes:

These skills are not available during character creation. Instead, up to 12 skill points may be left unspent during character creation, to be assigned during play.

Unlike normal skills, your maximum ranks in these skills is your total level in Basic Classes+3. Furthermore, each skill point buys a quarter rank in one of these skills when purchased cross-class, as opposed to a half rank.

You cannot take 10 with these skills. Feats and other character options that affect the use of these skills (or your ability) are subject to Rule 0.

Some existing skills will also affect various roleplay and mechanical aspects of latent abilities.

Bleeding: If an attack roll exceeds the target's Defense by at least 5, or is a critical hit, and deals at least 1 point of piercing or slashing damage, it also causes Bleeding. A creature that is Bleeding loses 1 hit point each round on the initiative count of the attack until treated with a DC 15 Treat Injury check.

Character Background Guidelines

Including some basic psychology, and the most significant moment or moments in your character's life to date; the GM will use this to determine your character's latent ability.

Your character is presently in the Los Angeles area, explain his or her presence there. Your character's occupation and wealth may help determine this, and vice versa.

Changelog

30 November, 2006
Ability Scores: Improved the rolling option
Feats: Expanded the Open-Minded feat
Skills: Added vague comment about existing skills

29 November, 2006
Hit Dice: Expanded options
Skills: Adjusted maximum ranks and cross-class purchasing

28 November, 2006
Created