Modiphius 2d20: this thread's momentum is doomed

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > Modiphius 2d20: this thread's momentum is doomed

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Are there any good resources/hubs for fan material for 2d20? Especially Star Trek but any.

I'm noodling about a Kelvin: TNG game.

# ¿ Jun 8, 2021 02:34

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 05:11

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Leperflesh posted:

visit with their sorcery demonic patron to receive severe punishment for failing to burn the still-warm heart of an innocent child upon their altar as demanded

Hey now, what happens on Risa stays on Risa.

# ¿ Mar 10, 2022 02:15

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Has anybody got Achtung! Cthulhu to the table? Thoughts? The only thing I like less than WWII is the Lovecraft mythos, but I picked it up and it may be the best version of the 2d20 system I�ve seen yet.

# ¿ Apr 16, 2022 03:17

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

https://www.polygon.com/tabletop-games/23036437/cohors-cthulhu-tabletop-rpg-wargame-modiphius-announcement-release-date-price

I�m pretty over the Mythos, but a new line is a new line.

In other news: I�m looking over the Modiphius sale on the discontinued Mutant Chronicles. Any books worth picking up to grab for mechanics for other 2d20 games? I don�t care about the setting but would love to rob any crunchy bits.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2022 02:52

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Newsletter from Modiphius says SRD, DriveThru sales, and ability to sell through some of their licenses/IPs is coming.

# ¿ Apr 25, 2022 23:19

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

I can�t imagine COHORS Cthulhu being anything other than pulp horror.

# ¿ May 1, 2022 05:19

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

2d20 Day, with SRD and sale, next week.

https://www.modiphius.net/pages/2d20

# ¿ Jul 13, 2022 22:16

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

SRD is up.

https://www.modiphius.net/pages/2d20

# ¿ Jul 20, 2022 15:01

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Anybody else in the COHORS Cthulhu playtest? I really like what I see so far.

# ¿ Aug 10, 2022 20:39

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Check your email: their new sci-fi IP is in playtest.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2022 01:15

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

https://www.modiphius.net/blogs/news/conan-license-update

Modiphius loses Conan license. Monolith is going to make a new RPG?

# ¿ Dec 2, 2022 17:49

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Community license and resources are up.

https://www.modiphius.net/en-us/pages/2d20worldbuilders

# ¿ Jan 11, 2023 18:16

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Leperflesh posted:

They take a flat 20% of sales. Hm.

Drone posted:

I'm not really sure what they expect people to create with this, honestly. It seems to come down hard on any content that would apply for their RPGs based around licensed IP (specifically Star Trek I guess because CBS is so litigious), the thing is literally *all* of their RPGs are based on licensed IP. John Carter is public domain I think, but pretty sure nobody plays it, and the Conan RPG has been sunsetted.

Or do they just want people to take their 2d20 system and make entire heartbreaker homebrew games out of them, not necessarily 3PP for existing stuff?

A couple notes. (They've been pretty communicative on their Discord, in Twitch "office hours", and on rpg.net.)

20% is pretty standard for DriveThru community content programs. That royalty matches WotC, Pathfinder, WOD, Scion/Trinity, CoC, etc. I think Savage Worlds only takes 10%, though.
They've indicated they're currently budgeting all the money from that program to going back into resources for the program (the free art asset pack they just released for Achtung! Cthulhu is pretty big). That could change if the program starts making real money, obviously.
If that number is too high, they offer the Commercial License (which are negotiated on an ad-hoc basis). Pros: 10% royalty for core books, 5% for supplements (and you don't pay DriveThru 30%, you can sell it anywhere). Cons: Quarterly revenue reports, etc. - it's a commercial license.
There are actually two programs - the World Builders and the Licensed World Builders programs. WB is "make up your own IP, do whatever you want that's in your own world". LWB is Modiphius-owned IP. Currently that's just Achtung! Cthulhu, but will include the forthcoming COHORS Cthulhu setting and another setting they're playtesting right now.
Both programs allow everybody to use your mechanical content. (So if you create a cool 2d20 mah-jong minigame, anybody can use that, too.)
The World Builders program lets you keep your creative content (so you own your world, and while you can only sell the 2d20-version of World of Dronetopia through their program on DriveThru, you could release a PbtA setting book for World of Dronetopia on itch, it's yours.
The Licensed World Builders program cedes your creative content to Modiphius. You get paid, but they can run with it.
They've been pretty vocal that they expect/want people to make stuff for/using/as their IP based games with the serial numbers filed off. Want to make a game about optimistic space science and diplomacy using the exact same rules as Star Trek Adventures? Knock yourself out. Want to make an adventure for this game (or any other compatible game <wink wink>) about a warrior species obsessed with honor who fly in cloaked ships, and the pregenerated characters for this adventure are a plucky, womanizing captain, a logic-obsessed first officer, and a grumpy doctor? Sounds great!
While the obvious low-hanging fruit is "Bog Standard Fantasy 2d20", "Urban Fantasy 2d20", and "Traveller, but 2d20", I've heard talk of someone releasing a trimmed down "Unofficial Infinity Revised", making the rules of Infinity but taking into account some of the advances in 2d20 from the last couple years.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 17:33

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

mellonbread posted:

The best part of 2d20 is the way the designers mechanically systemize the themes and settings of the licensed IPs. In Star Trek shooting your phaser builds Threat. In Dune Gurney Halleck can recite a poem to build Momentum, and play a cool dueling minigame in a one on one fight.

Take away the theming and you've got a serviceable generic system, but not one that really stands out against a background of other generic systems.

I mean, I wouldn't build it as a generic system. I don't think they sell it as that, either.

The SRD reads like the Cortex Handbook (though with stronger defaults). "Here's how you build your genre-specific version of 2d20."

I don't think of 2d20 as comparable to something like Savage Worlds or Genesys. I think of it more as a crunchy Pbta/FitD, where each game relies on a similar core mechanic, but does its own thing in a unique way. I don't think the World Builders programs change any of that.

I do think we'll see some people publish games using 2d20 that don't lean into their genre, though, just like we see weak-rear end versions of PbtA.

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 19:27

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Drone posted:

This was the sticking point for me, but it looks like they've revised some of the language in their announcement. I distinctly remember an early version of their FAQ that had a much longer version of this current text:

Publishing a rough first draft is kind of Modiphius's modus operandi.

Ninja Edit: I think the not-so-secret story behind those changes are two-fold:

Modiphius wants a broader version of the license than DriveThru provides as a default, so as people have asked questions about hypotheticals they've been massaging the default DriveThru boilerplate.
That being said, I think they want to discourage any John Carter of Mars stuff. Everybody understands the state of copyright and trademark for Star Trek or Fallout, but people will argue that John Carter of Mars is public domain (which I think it's not in England, where Modiphius is headquartered). So I think that's the one corner where they don't want to get into it.

Not ninja enough.

CitizenKeen fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Jan 17, 2023

# ¿ Jan 17, 2023 19:34

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Just bought Dishonored at MSRP yesterday, alas. Good to support my FLGS?

But I'll take a couple Conan and John Carter books I don't have.

Thanks for bringing this up.

# ¿ Jan 23, 2023 15:19

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Doctor Zero posted:

The SRD is the generic core rule book

I�ve never played a 2D20 game but I have Fallout and Star Trek and they both look great. Seems like the perfect system to give the feel of a TV show or movie. I also like how the players can do things to make success probable but then will have to deal with the consequences. I mean that�s RPG gold right there.

I'm going to disagree.

2d20 is not a generic system. Nor is the SRD. The 2d20 SRD is a toolkit with which to build a system.

It sounds like they're going to use the SRD to make a generic core rulebook, which you could absolutely do.

If I invite you over to my table to play a Savage Worlds game set in [Established Universe], characters built with core rule book only, you know what you're likely getting into. You can make a character. Same goes for GURPS or HERO or Fate. That's what makes those "generic" systems.

If I invite you over to my table to play Cortex Prime, set in [Established Universe], core rulebook only, you don't know enough, because I haven't shared the rules with you. What attributes are we using, etc. There are too many unknowns because you don't play Cortex Prime out of the box, you use it to build system. I've taken to calling the distinction a "toolkit" versus a "system", but I don't know that we have a phrase for these rules frameworks that use some common building blocks to build different systems. (Like Year Zero, or PbtA, or FitD.)

The same goes for 2d20. If I tell you to make a [Star Wars/Mass Effect/Skyrim] 2d20 character for my game, that's not enough for you to go on. I haven't told you what system we're using.

BTW, I hadn't seen their plans for a generic set of core rules for 2d20; if they're actually doing that that's going to be pretty solid. Thank you!

# ¿ Jan 23, 2023 15:31

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Leperflesh posted:

Cross-threading:

Which of the 2d20 systems do this, do we know? I think it's a really cool system!

I first encountered it in STA. I don't recall if it's in the three previous games. It's in the SRD and Achtung! Cthulhu. The phrase you're looking for is "extended task".

# ¿ Feb 4, 2023 05:01

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Leperflesh posted:

Seems like it's not in Conan, or at least I can't find it.

No, looks like it's in Star Trek and then better implemented in A!C.

It basically puts non-combat on equal footing with combat. Since Star Trek isn't about combat, it gives the scientist/engineer a way to "roll damage" in a fight. Turns out even in a game about combat (A!C), it's a great system.

# ¿ Feb 6, 2023 03:38

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Going to need a third Kallax cube.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 04:07

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Drone posted:

I had no idea the Infinity RPG was popular enough to warrant all of those splatbooks

Gonna finish out my STA collection this year at some point... still need to pick up Utopia Planitia, Shackleton Expanse, the two adventure books, and the Disco guide (meh).

How is Dune doing for them anyway? I only have the core book and have been meaning to check back into things, especially now with the Landsraad book, but I feel like my chances of finding a live group to play a Dune game are really low.

I don't know how it's making money. A friend of mine who is into the wargame went all in on the Kickstarter. We ran a year-long Infinity campaign but he didn't love it (Infinity had some weird hiccups, like all armor being [CD], PCs having a variable number of lifepaths, and the infamously rough structural editing). He offered to sell me the line (save the core book, which he kept and I already had) for $40.

It was very much a monkey's paw situation. Absolute deal, but it opened up the question of "Maybe I could own all of 2d20?" I've already blown through a year's TTRPG budget picking up Conan (I only had the core book at the start of the year) and all of JCOM (I had it in PDF).

There's one more book in the line promised by the Kickstarter. I suspect Modiphius will be done then. I wonder if they're actually making money on Infinity, or they're just fulfilling a Kickstarter obligation gone slightly awry.

Dune seems to be trucking. It's not a Dishonored/Fallout situation where they seem to be one-and-done. Dune got Sand and Dust, the "Dune is all about Arrakis, if we're being honest" sourcebook, a recent campaign book Masters of Dune (a campaign book picking up after the Agents of Dune starter adventure), and the forthcoming Houses of the Landsraad (a "Dune is more than Arrakis" sourcebook for those who aren't following, which is pretty exciting).

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 15:08

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Tsilkani posted:

What book is being waited on? As far as I know the line is done with the last shipment they sent out last year, and the beast is finally done, years overdue. I highly doubt they're going to make anything more for it.

I stand corrected. I was under the impression there was one more coming, but I was wrong.

# ¿ Feb 9, 2023 22:46

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Snorb posted:

I'm still surprised that Star Trek Adventures got the Utopia Planitia book. (Mostly because there were a couple of Picard-era ships in there, and I thought Modiphius was very intentionally keeping the game line focused on 80s/90s Trek.)

They got an expanded license recently (last year?) that included Picard and Discovery. They still don't have a license for Lower Decks or SNW (despite a book named such). So it's less an intentional focus and more a scope of the license.

I really want them to get a license to Star Trek Online, but I doubt it.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2023 02:31

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Snorb posted:

Closest we're gonna get is Utopia Planitia; the Sutherland, Ross, and Odyssey class ships were from STO (and showed up in Season 2 and the Season 3 trailer for Picard.)

EDIT: It annoys me slightly that the Utopia Planitia book acknowledges, yes, we're going into the 2390s and 25th century, but all they could (legally) do was mention Lower Decks and not stat out the California class from that show. Then again, it also annoys me that the ships in that book aren't in alphabetical order, but roughly service introduction date.

Modiphius has worked with STO for STA before on free resources, and they made MMO-based books for Conan, so I don't think an STO book is that unlikely. But probably after they get the SNW/LD licenses.

# ¿ Feb 10, 2023 03:10

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Check out the free Mission Briefs in the Modiphius store. There's about 40 adventures there. Less fleshed out, but all very non-linear.

# ¿ Feb 13, 2023 23:58

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Polly Toodle posted:

Has anyone else had issues ordering from modiphius.us? I ordered $125 worth of stuff from them during their January sale, and it still hasn't shipped almost a month later. I emailed them asking about it a week ago and only got the automated message that says to expect a response within two business days (lol).

They're fulfilling in the US through Funagain. Took me a month to get my stuff and then I got my email back a week later.

# ¿ Feb 21, 2023 01:52

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

https://www.startrek.com/news/star-trek-adventures-brings-the-action-to-the-lower-decks

Lower Decks Campaign Guide. Crew roster and adventure available now.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2023 14:41

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

https://www.dreamsandmachines.com/

Modiphius's "it's not quite Horizon Zero Dawn" is publicly acknowledged. (The playtest documents looked great.)

Regarding Conan: Leperflesh wrote up summaries of the Conan books. "Best" is "best for what you want to do with Conan", so I'd read that awesome post then come back with questions.

# ¿ May 4, 2023 15:50

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

They lost the license, but they did so on good terms. They were given a very good window to clear stock.

If you want PDFs you have one more month. No more physical books will be forthcoming.

https://www.modiphius.net/blogs/news/conan-license-update

# ¿ May 30, 2023 13:03

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

For the few 2d20 fans who haven't purchased the Conan bundles, tomorrow's your last chance.

# ¿ Jun 29, 2023 18:39

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

rydiafan posted:

May be bad form to bump a thread by quoting myself, but there's 24 hours to go and I was hoping somebody had an answer.

Very little from my read. (Haven't played.) It's Actung Cthulhu with one more skill (Oratory), and using the reach rules of Conan. It'll probably shape up to be a more approachable (and in print) Conan.

# ¿ Oct 28, 2023 20:03

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

Tequila Bob posted:

Star Trek Adventures 2E Quickstart is up! https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/478367/star-trek-adventures-quickstart

I'll give it a read after work.

Did I miss an announcement about a second edition of STA?

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 15:48

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# ¿ May 22, 2024 05:11

CitizenKeen: Nov 13, 2003; easygoing pedant

That's cool. I'll buy it. Wonder what the refinements are.

# ¿ Apr 24, 2024 19:05

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