I’ve been playing around with making a homebrew version of “B/X Modern,” something like d20 Modern but based on the old 1981 Dungeons & Dragons/OSR rules: “Players take on the roles of secret agents, brilliant scientists, streetwise detectives, criminal masterminds, urban explorers, and other modern-day heroes (or anti-heroes). Working together, these characters navigate a world of shadowy conspiracies, cutting-edge tech, and unpredictable danger.”
Instead of fighters, elves, and dwarves, I wanted something that allows for player character cyborgs, vampires, urban cryptids, techno-shamans, and other stuff along the lines of the World of Darkness and Shadowrun settings.
I’m familiar with M. A. Packer’s B/X Frontiers, which does a strong job of covering modern and sci-fi combat, vehicles, and NPCs, but those rules lack an updated framework for traditional supernatural powers such as magic or psionics. (Packer does lift the mutations from Gamma World 1e, which overlaps a bit.)
I really liked Ben Minton’s Knave – especially its simplied magic system – so I tried to patch the two together without getting overly complicated. Below is a first draft; nothing has been playtested yet…
NUMBER OF POWERS
A character with 1 or more levels in a spellcasting class (or, for B/X rules, levels as a supernatural creature) may know up to five supernatural powers that work on any sort of target. Alternatively, a character may know eight powers that only work under specific conditions such as when targeting a specific type of living creature, affecting a specific elemental substance, or during a specific cycle of the moon). A character may spend one week swapping a power for another through meditation, performing new enchantments, retrofitting weird super-science gadgets, or doing whatever fits the character’s theme or story’s genre.
POWER FATIGUE
Using supernatural powers causes physical, mental, or spiritual strain on users, or drains energy from their super-powered devices. To activate a power, characters roll d20 + caster level. Results must meet or exceed their current Power Fatigue target numbers, which start at 10. If the roll is below this number, the power fails. (Some powers may also fail if a target succeeds on a saving throw.)
Each time the character attempts any supernatural power, whether new or repeating a previously used power, the Power Fatigue target number increases by 2. (For example, 12 for the second attempt, 14 for the third, and so on). This increase happens regardless of success or failure of past attempts.
The Power Fatigue target number decreases by 1 for each hour the character rests, down to a minimum of 10. Certain conditions may decrease Power Fatigue faster (resting at the nexus of magical ley lines, working within a mad inventor’s laboratory, or so on.)
RANGES
Distances are simplified into range tiers. A target 50 meters away (165 feet) would fall into “Close” range (more than the minimum of 25 meters but less than the next tier of Short range at 100 meters).
- Touching: Grappled, held, connected.
- Adjacent: Up to 3 meters (10 feet).
- Close: 25 meters (80 feet)
- Short: 100 meters (320 feet)
- Medium: 300 meters (980 feet)
- Long: 750 meters (about a half mile)
- Very Long: 3 kilometers (2 miles)
- Distant: 25 km (15 miles)
- Very Distant: 250 km (150 miles)
- Orbital: 1,000 km (620 miles)
- Beyond: More than 1,000 km (620 miles)
POWER DESCRIPTION NOTES
“You” means the character using a power.
“(Level)” refers to the character’s spellcaster level. Class levels in other roles (Fighter, Thief) do not count toward this number.
“Anywhere in the world” generally means the surface of one planet, but it also includes anything in orbit around that planet. Special shielding (a bunker with lead walls, a room covered in sigil wards) may block such powers.
“Familiar” means you have had several close interactions with a subject for several days, or months if less frequent, or it is a location you have been at before for a similar amount of time.
“Hit Dice” assumes ordinary humans are Hit Die 1 (4 hit points), with larger animals ranging from HD 2 (camel, wolf) to HD 5 (grizzly bear, lion) or more.
POWER DESCRIPTIONS
Animate: You cause (Level) number of adjacent human-sized objects to move about as if alive and obey your commands for (Level) hours, after which such animations revert to their original state or continue without their creator’s control.
Bless/Luck: Within close range, you cause (Level) Hit Dice of people or creatures to gain the following benefit for (Level) minutes. When making an attack roll, saving throw, or other task requiring a d20 roll, any rolled result of a 1 or 2 instead becomes a result of 20.
Boost/Strengthen: You cause a person, creature, or source of energy within medium range to become more powerful, gaining either a bonus equal to (Level) for either d20 rolls or damage for (Level) minutes, or gaining (Level x 2) extra hit points for 24 hours.
Clairsentience: For (Level) minutes, you see and hear as if standing at any spot within (Level x 10) meters or (Level x 30) feet, or at one familiar spot anywhere in the world.
Communicate: For (Level) minutes, you telepathically speak and understand all living minds within close range, or one familiar mind anywhere in the world. Unwilling targets may make a saving throw to ignore and block you.
Conjure: You cause a creature to appear within close range. It either has 1 Hit Die for (Level) hours, or (Level/2) Hit Dice for (Level) minutes, and vanishes afterwards or when reduced to 0 hit points. While it exists, it obeys your commands. Its movement, Armor Class, attack modifier, and damage are set by its Hit Dice.
Control: You cause (Level) Hit Dice worth of selected living creatures within close range, or one familiar person or creature at very long range, to obey your telepathic commands for (Level) hours. Subjects may make saving throws to deny your control when first targeted by this effect, and again at any time your control would put them into personal danger or behave in direct violation of their usual behavior. Once a subject succeeds at a saving throw, you may not attempt to control that target again for 24 hours.
Curse/Hex: Within close range, you cause (Level) Hit Dice of people or creatures to suffer the following penalty for (Level) minutes: When making an attack roll, saving throw, or other task requiring a d20 roll, any rolled result of a 19 or 20 instead becomes a result of 1.
Drain: Your touch causes one creature to lose up to (Level) hit points while you regain the same number of lost hit points.
Enchant/Invent: Over the course of a week’s worth of work, you make one object into a tool that others may use to cause a supernatural effect, such as the powers listed here. The object may either be used once at (Level) ability level, or (Level) times at Level 1. If not first depleted by use, the object loses its supernatural power after (Level) days. (At the Game Master’s discretion, longer time working on preparation may allow an object to last unused before losing power.)
Glamour: You make yourself, a person, or one object appear as a different person or object for (Level) hours. If copying a specific person or object, those familiar with the original may make a saving throw to notice the imitation.
Harm/Weaken: You cause (Level x 2) hit points of damage to a person or object you can see within medium range. The target may make a saving throw to suffer half damage.
Heal/Repair: Your touch restores (Level x 2) Hit Points to a wounded living body or a damaged object, up to its original maximum.
Illusion: Within close range, you create a false person, object, or area with a radius of 10 meters (30 feet) that fools observers’ senses. If it works on sight and hearing only, reacts naturally to its environment, and is obviously immaterial when touched. The illusion lasts for (Level) hours, but if it is also made to fool the sense of touch, it only lasts (Level) minutes. The illusion cannot physically support weight, influence its real surroundings, or cause harm to creatures or objects, but it can obscure actual dangers (such as covering a pit or projecting a false bridge over a chasm).
Move: Within close range, you cause yourself, a person, or an object of human size or smaller to float into the air and move at your walking speed for (Level) minutes. Unwilling targets may make a saving throw to resist this effect.
Precognition: Roll d20 dice to create a list of (Level) numbers. During the next (Level) minutes, you may use each number once to replace any d20 result rolled by you, another player character, or a non-player character you can see. (“You knew that was going to happen.”) Once a pre-rolled number is used to replace a die roll, it may not be used again.
Protect: For yourself, a person, or an object within short range, you either add +2 to Armor Class for (Level) minutes, or add +(Level) to Armor Class for one round.
Sense: For (Level) minutes, you can concentrate and become instantly aware of the presence, direction, and distance to one of the following within long range: One specific person or type of creature, one type of object or material, or any supernatural powers currently in use.
Telepathy: For (Level) minutes, you telepathically probe all living minds within close range, or one familiar mind anywhere in the world. You may ask (Level) questions about subjects’ memories, intentions, or goals (answered by the Game Master). You may also cause an emotion, a new memory, or a compulsive impulse that the subject will believe to be true even after your telepathic connection ends. Unwilling targets may make a saving throw to resist and block you.
Teleport: Within close range, you cause yourself, a person (and anything worn or carrier), or an object of human size or smaller to instantly move from its current position to another point within (Level x 10) meters or (Level x 30) feet. Unwilling targets may make a saving throw to resist this effect.
Transform: You cause (Level) Hit Dice worth of adjacent living beings to change into a different living creature or some solid material for (Level) hours. Alternately, you may change an amount of adjacent non-living material equal to (Level x 10) in kilograms or (Level x 20) in pounds into a different substance for (Level) hours.
Warn: For (Level) hours, you become instantly aware when any one of the following comes within close range of you: A specific person or type of creature, a type of object or material, or a source of supernatural power. You do not know the direction or the specific distance.