Whats Different

What whats different about Future Path? What sets it about from d20 Future or for that matter any other Pen and Paper game? Well glad you asked! Here is a list of things different from d20 Future and what we strive to make uniq about our game system.

1. Wealth System:

A lot of P&P (Pen and Paper) game systems use a simplified way of handling wealth. The goal is to stream line game play and make it more about the story then about epic shopping. However this forces the GM and the Player to roll play in a certain way. What if you want to play out attempting to pay for the illegal substance or for your new Star Ship. Buying a ship can be a major commitment and achievement for a Player. So why not have Players manage there money? Well... its difficult when you get into modern finance. Things are more complicated. There needs to be a middle ground. We believe that our Wealth System is a good middle ground that helps to express a Players Wealth in a way that represents modern money without bogging down game play.

2. CMO/CMD:

CMO stands for Combat Melee Offense and CMD stands for Combat Melee Defense. This is inspired by rules from d20pfsrd.com. Except we change it up a little. Our take on it is simple. In Future settings its more about epic laser battles and space ships. Not swords or melee combat. This isn't to say there isn't melee. But you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. So we take all melee style fighting and got it into Combat Melee System. That includes the classical maneuvers like trip and grapple. But also means punching or pistol whipping and even the use of a sword or knife. Our goal here is to make melee combat smooth and quick. You roll the same d20 dice and you already know your modifiers because they are on your Character sheet. Combat should be able to transition quickly into melee and back into use of a ranged weapon.

3. Campaign Setting:

What originally inspired this was the serious like of a Campaign Setting to explore for d20 Future/Modern. There was no Forgotten Realms or Golarion to explore. Although not completely a bad thing it kept the d20 Modern/Future game from feeling whole. Although it did make some sense. d20 Future is simply an expansion/module for d20 Modern. And Modern didn't really need a full Campaign Setting. It could be easily based in real world today. Maybe with just a few twists in it. d20 Future never had the attention it needed. It was too tied to its base on which it was founded on. The first thing that inspired this whole project was simply to give d20 Future a galaxy to run around in. Still largely unknown with possible mysteries or dangers at every star system but at the same time a home to go back to. Large amounts of explored space with civilizations all striving to prove themselves.

4. Tech Level:

The Progress levels explained in d20 Future seamed over simplified yet also possibly over complicated. On one end there was not a lot of restrictions laid out on characters Progress Level. There civilizations progress level doesn't effect a Players Knowledge/Crafting and general experience with items of different levels. On the other end there was a lot of different levels. 9 to be exact. When Playing a d20 Future game rarely did we bring in Progress Levels with any relevance. But technology is so cool! Sci-Fi is surrounded by neat tech that unlocks wondrous impossibles and brings them into the palm of a Characters hand. They can bring power and awe. People of lower understanding may simply view someone with advance Technology as a god. Or at least someone of great power that should be feared. Technology is the fuel source of Sci-Fi story plot and can be used to empower GMs and Players alike. In Future Path Player Characters inherit the Tech Level of the civilization they grow up in. The Tech Level effects what level of items a player can repair/modify/craft. And penalties are given for the use of items with Tech Levels to high for a character to understand. More on Tech Level here

5. Attack Bonus:

Taking a page from D&D Next while also attempting to better balance Classes and levels we have separated the amount of attacks per turn a Class gets from its Attack Bonus. Now extra attacks are special abilities awarded at certain levels. Also the term "Base Attack Bonus" has been replaced with "Efficiency Bonus". Although similar to D&D Next its not quite the same. Your Efficiency Bonus goes towards your Melee and Ranged attacks with weapons you are trained to use. It also is a modifier for saving throws with Attributes you have an affinity with. D&D Next doesn't stop there and applies the bonus to other things. Also how you determine Attributes you have an affinity with differ slightly. And even more different is you can have different "Efficiency Bonus" for each class. So you have a Base Class Efficiency and your Advance Class also has an Efficiency Bonus.