Umbrella Chronicles: A D20 Modern Discussion

As some of you might or might know, I've been working very hard on a RE themed
version of the Modern D20 system for dungeons and dragons. I began this lil project
a number of years ago, but never got far due to various things. This is something I
intend to work on until it's complete, no matter how long it takes. It'll be as close to
cannon to the games as I can muster.

So, the main reason I want to make a discussion about this is to gear up hype on
the game. So, what better way than to start with the T-Virus?

First, a little insight into how disease works in D&D. Disease and illness works in
the same way as Poisons do. Lets take a look at the disease template.

Name: The diseases name.
Infection: The means in which the person is infected: Inhalation, Wound, Ingestion, etc.
Incubation: The time in which the virus lays dormant before initial & secondary damage.
Initial Damage: If a person is infected, they typically take initial damage automatically.
Unless otherwise stated, the person takes this damage every day after the initial damage,
until he succeeds 3 Fort saves, or is cured by other means.
Secondary Damage: After some time has past, the person rolls a save for secondary
damage. Secondary damage is typically worse an initial, and may even lead to some
permanent damage.

Should a person succeed their fortitude save to resist initial damage, the disease is
flushed out of their system as a waste product, and thus negate the need to roll for
secondary damage. Sometimes diseases come with special effects, such as causing
blindness, or in some cases, turning the person into a zombie, such is the case of
the Ghoul in D&D.

There have been a number of different ways I've tried to re-create the T-virus, all
of which having various results. Nothing I ever did seemed to work out right for me.
I had to do a lot of research and study into this.

In one version of the virus, I had the effects on humans specifically linked to the
persons Constitution score. As the person's Con drops, they would have to take
on a various flaw or mutation, mimicking the symptoms of the T-virus. This would
include fun little effects, such as itchy skin, strange cravings (compulsion to eat
things that would otherwise sicken players). Violent outbursts, temporary blindness,
etc. The person would eventually use their mutation points to turn themselves into
a zombie, at which they would go after other players and try to infect them.

But this ultimately turned out too linear and controlling and might not be as fun.
It also turned out to be very convoluted and unnecessarily complicated, at least
for me, anyway. Plus, this was wouldn't help explaining what happens to plants
and animals, for those rare cases someone would want to full on simulate an
outbreak. Which, is what I wanna do. So yea, I kinda ran into a wall here, too.
So in all this time I've been trying to think of different methods to make this
possible.

Anywho, how will the T-virus look on paper? Alright, I'll share with you what I
have so far, it might help me out in the long run.

Tyrant Virus
Infection: Contact/Wound/Inhalation DC: 15
Incubation: 1d2 rounds. plus 1/2 the hosts HD, plus their Con modifier
Initial Damage: 1 Con Ability Damage
Secondary Damage: 1d3* Con Ability Drain (permanent loss)
* If initial damage is taken, make a second saving throw to avoid 1 point of
ability damage from being drained.

The T-virus was the first mutagenic virus created by Umbrella to be used as a
biological weapon, it’s capable of infecting all species and effects them differently.
The information presented here represent the virus’ effects on humans.

The incubation period for the T-virus is 1d2 days if a person comes into contact
with the virus, should they succeed three successful saving throws in a row, the
virus is neutralized and is carried out through the persons’ system. If the person
is infected by injury, the incubation period is 1d3 hours, the person must make a
saving throw every hour after infection, and can only be cured with the “Daylight”
serum.

Those who receive secondary damage from the T-virus roll 1d10 per progression
stage (See: Table 1) and apply the resulting effects. Unless otherwise stated,
conditions caused by the T-virus can be treated with an appropriate Treat Injury
check. The virus’ progress can be suppressed with Antivirus (S), Antivirus (M) and
Antivirus (L).

A person who dies from the T-virus’s effects, or dies after becoming infected, will
raise as a Zombie within 1d3 rounds of their death,. A humanoid whom becomes a
zombie in this way retains none of the abilities it possessed in life. It is not under
the control of any other creature, it behaves in the same way as any other zombie.


Table 1: Stage 1 (¾ Con)
Result Effect Duration
1-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10 Nauseated
Itchy
Dazed
Unconscious
1 Con dmg (temp) 1 hour
See desc
2 rounds
30 minutes
—
Stage 2 (½ Con)
1-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10 Dehydrated
Sickened
Starving
Fatigued
1 Con dmg (perm) See text*
1 hour
See text*
8 hours
—
Stage 3 (¼ Con)
1-3
4-5
6-7
8-9
10 Exhausted
Necrotic
Blinded
Dying
Dead See text*
See desc
1d2 rounds
See text*
—

DO IT

DO IT RIGHT NOW

But seriously though, PM me if you can use any help at all. I could totally get behind this like a Swedish hooker.

Heh, I know that the way I talk about the RE supplement that I want makes it sound like
it could take forever, but I assure you, it sounds a lot grander than it really is. There is
a lot provided by D&D stuffs that can be readily used, or at the very least, modified in
a few ways to make it work. A prime example is a lot of the generic giant creatures you
see in the re games: Yawn (Huge Viper), Centurion (Large Monstrous Centipede).

There are a few things making this process hard on me though. The viruses, how they
work, and how I want them to work is proving difficult. There are so many ways that
they can be implemented, all of them having their own benefits that its hard to decide
which way to go. Like B.O.W's for example. We all know B.O.W's are genetic weapons,
we could make a monster template just for them, or we could make them a subtype,
which can be applied to pre-existing monster types. And considering that, the t-virus
is used mainly to splice two different dna's together, this could work, too. There's just
so many possibilities, lol. Its both the best thing and worse thing bout dnd. There is no
limit to what you can do, but there is little that can guide you, either.

What about people make there own monsters, if they want, describe how it works, how it fights, how tough, and stuff, so we can get a little variety, and you can focus on other stuff

Damn, Z! I'm sorry it took me so long to reply to this! D:< I remember seeing it but I
got so caught up in the DM'ing thing that I must have forgotten to reply, sorry man. It
might be a bit redundant to tell you now given you're already starting to take steps in
making your own monsters, but if you'd still like some help with the process, I'd be
glad to do so.

In the mean time I've been giving this a lot of thought and I've come to realize that
perhaps it'd be best if I opened up and got more help with this project of mine. You
guys have taken a serious interest in D&D and I'm surprised, I thought it would only
be a small fad with you guys but I can see you guys are really enjoying it, so I feel
confident that with your help, we could make this game in no time! So I'm going to
post my list of things to do. This will give you some idea of what needs to be done
before a core game can be played and some ideas of future things I'd like to add
into the game itself.


Resident Evil Modern Supplement List

Introduction
Alternate Rules
MSRD (Core Game)
Homebrew Skills & Feats
Homebrew Items
B.O.W Bestiary
Chapter 1: Monsters A to Z
Chapter 2: Animals (Mostly provided by the MM‘s)
Chapter 3: Vermin (Mostly Provided by the MM’s)
Chapter 4: Feasts & Special Qualities
Glossary

Homebrew Elements

Items
- miscellaneous items
- health items
- key items
- tools
- keys

Equipment
- weapons
- ammo
- armor

Other things
- Diseases / Viruses
- Mutations
- Monsters as playable characters
- Creating monsters in-game
- Mutation Packages

As you lot might know, every creature in DND has a Type, some even have various sub
types. which is what I aim to introduce into the ReD20m game. A subtype gives additional
things to the creature (or player), and can be as simple as a cosmetic change (such as the
reptilian subtype) or give special abilities and qualities (such as the Angel subtype).

In Red20 there are going to be a few different subtypes that will be added into the game,
but the primary one I need help with right now is what I call the T-Mutant subtype. As you
can speculate, the T-Mutant subtype would be given to creatures afflicted by the T-Virus.

I -could- make it an entire type all together, but I think that it would either limit it's overall
use, or be so case-specific that it'd be entirely too hard to use. I mean Christ, we're talking
about precise as in whether how the creature heats' its body would effect mutation or not
(hot or cold blooded animals mutate differently). That and I really don't think I could dig
up enough information to actually cover an entire type based on the T-Virus alone, so
what we CAN do is take what we know and use it in a subtype that we can add on to a
pre-existing type.

Before We get going with this, I should tell you a little about a type and subtype. A type
is basically a class but for monsters. The class determines the creature's Racial Hit Dice,
their Base Attack Bonus, and various other aspects of the creature. A subtype is merely
an addition of things used to compliment a previous type.

Problem with converting the T-virus is that there aren't a whole lot of traits that I can
make out of the information out there. It all focuses on how the virus works, rather
than what it does. The only two things I've discovered about the virus that can be
counted as traits rather than symptoms, is a vulnerability to sunlight/fire, and the
fact that the creatures infected mutate. However I feel that there is more that can
be added to this subtype, I just need help locating the extra information.

T-Virus Traits
* Vulnerability to Sunlight / Fire
* Mutates (in the case of DND would give some amount of Mutation Points)

Anything?

- Healing Items
Bandages - Cures Bleeding
Old First Aid Spray - 50% Recovery
First Aid Spray - 100% Recovery
Green Herb - 33% Recovery
Red Herb - No effect alone / Combines with Green Herb
Blue Herb - No effect alone / Combines with Green Herb
Green / Green Herb Powder - 66% Recovery
Green / Red Herb Powder - 100% Recovery
Green / Blue Herb Powder - 33% Recovery / Cures Poison
Green / Green / Green Herb Powder - 100% Recovery
Green / Green / Blue Herb Powder = 66% Recovery / Cures Poison
Green / Red / Blue Powder - 100% Recovery / Cures Poison
Red / Blue Powder - No effect alone / Combines with Green Herb
(The remaining possible herb combinations are wasteful, like green/green/red)
Sunlight - Cures T-Virus
Morphine - Revives incapacitated teammate with 33% Recovery
Defibrillator - Restores dead teammate to incapacitated status / Can be used only by those with medical training
Pain Pills - Player will not be incapacitated until condition falls below -33% / Lasts 30 minutes
Eve Hypo - 100% Eve Regeneration

Don't worry bout the Resident Evil related health items, I've mostly got them worked out.
The only one giving me trouble is the Blue Herb. And perhaps yellow herb. Otherwise the
herbs and their counter-part mixtures are all fine. I haven't decided if Blue Herbs will heal
damage caused by poison (which typically deals damage to your stats rather), or make
poison more true to the game: A status condition that gradually depletes your char's
hp, in which case, the blue herb will remove the poisoned status, just like in the game.


Health Item List
-----------------------------
Name | Item | Note
-----------------------------
Green Herb: Restores 1d8 Hp
Red Herb: Cures “Bleeding” status
Blue Herb: Cures “Poison” status
Yellow Herb: Increases max health
First Aid Spray: Restores health 100%
Anti Virus (3): Slows down T-Virus for xdx hours
Hemostat Pill (3): Cures “Bleeding” status
Antidote Pill (3): Cures “Poison” status
Recovery Pill (3): Heals 2d6 Hp


Herb Combination List
--------------------------------------------------------------
Name | Effect | Craft DC (All are 10 for the time being)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mixed Herb (G,G): Heals 2d8 Hp
Mixed Herb (G,G,G): Heals 3d8 Hp
Mixed Herb (G,R): Heals 3d8 Hp and Bleeding
Mixed Herb (G,R,B): Heals 3d8 Hp and Poison
Mixed Herb (G,B): Heals 1d8 + #d# Poison
Mixed Herb (G,G,B): Heals 2d8 Hp + #d# Poison
Mixed Herb (G,Y): Heals 1d8 Hp and adds #d# Hp to max
Mixed Herb (G,G,Y): Heals 2d8 Hp and adds #d# Hp to max
Mixed Herb (G,R,Y): Heals 3d8 Hp and adds #d# Hp to max
Anti-Virus (3): Delays effects of “T-Virus” for #d# Hours
Antidote Pill (3): Cures “Poison” status
Hemostat Pill (3): Cures “Bleeding” status
Recovery Pill (3): Restores 2d6 Hp

On home brew feats theirs a lot that can be taken from the games. Each char had something that set them apart, from increased inventory, to skills no one else had, to better health.

Maybe make a lottery, or some sort of bid on a list of skills, make them all useful, but some would require thinking to use effectively. Could bid skill points or something.

Also, a decent amount of players want a free running feature. This could just mean people get an extra 30 feet movement space, or increased points for certain skills, or the skill freeruning based off dex. With vaults over waist high objects dc 10. vault over a wall dc 15 wallrun dc 20-25 with 5 ft of movement on the wall per dex bonus.

Well there's the thing. In D&D there is no such thing as an item slot, instead we have
the carrying capacity which is decided by your char's strength. I will however, have item
slots and the attache cache's set aside as an alternative rule, just to include them.

Instead of the treasure chests we have in dnd, the storage trunks that are so famous in
Resident Evil will take their place. These boxes will contain items to help you survive, but
just like the above, I will have them "universally linked" as an alternative rule.

Leveling will be handled as thus: In order for a player to level up their character, they will
be required to to use the various type-writers situated through-out the campaign in order to
process their accumulated experience points. This will not only control how fast the player
progresses, but it makes those ink ribbons suddenly invaluable rewards.

Ok guys, it took me nearly 7 hours, but I finally did it... Get it while you can, cause I won't
be uploading this bastard again. X.X http://rapidshare.com/files/431168878/Resident_Evil.rar

This RAR contains the first 3 Monster Manuals, the modern core rule book, my own
personal notes, documents and other aspects of this that I've worked on, and a poorly
made RE supplement.pdf based on the Cthulu Mythos made by some other group of
guys that I've been skimming over for ideas.

I will also share with you a few links that I've found that may help.

Another RE Supplement: http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=2833324
(This one is way better in quality as avid fans of the series worked on it.)

Wizard Forums: http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19877614/Resident_Evil_for_Modern_d20
This is where my project began, I got a lot of ideas from this group and even tried to
take part in it, but by the time I found it the people involved had already moved on,
so I sorta salvaged what I wanted and went on my way, still might be of use.

It's been almost a year since I or anyone for that matter, has posted on this thread and I
feel its time to revive it. Alas I've not really made any progress on the project in that time.
Some time after posting this, my momentum ran out and the project came to a screeching
stop. I blame this on that 2/3 month Runescape binge, our failed dnd campaign and most
of all, my own incompetence.

But I feel its time to get back on the saddle and get something done. I've decided that it
would be in the projects best interest to start from scratch while using the information that
I acquired before where it can be applied.

Since the viruses play such a big role in the RE universe (the almighty McGuffins!), it seems
like the best place to start. The viruses are responsible for the monsters within an otherwise
mundane modern setting, and this importance is exemplified in the d20 system. I want the
viruses to function in the d20 system the way they do in the video games, but that's proven
to be quite tricky given that there's not a lot of information on some of the viruses or too
complicated to work in the game itself, so in such cases I'll go with functionality over continuity.

So, with that aside, I hope that you'll keep your eyes open for further updates, if you're willing
to help, or have ideas, please post them here, or you can chat with me on AIM at berserkfhurer,
or yahoo: geno_raptor, or you can catch me on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BiohazardCerberus

I need someone's opinion on this here.

Ok, I've been working on the g-virus and decided to use the Polymorph Spell as a basis
for the virus. The main problem with the polymorph spell is that it's built around using base
creature entries, while the g-virus creates new creatures.

Quote :

Polymorph

Unless stated otherwise, creatures can polymorph into forms of the same type or into an aberration, animal, dragon, fey, giant, humanoid, magical beast, monstrous humanoid, ooze, plant, or vermin form. Most spells and abilities that grant the ability to polymorph place a cap on the Hit Dice of the form taken.

Polymorphed creatures gain the Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution of their new forms, as well as size, extraordinary special attacks, movement capabilities (to a maximum of 120 feet for flying and 60 for nonflying movement), natural armor bonus, natural weapons, racial skill bonuses, and other gross physical qualities such as appearance and number of limbs.

They retain their original class and level, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma, hit points, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, and alignment. Creatures who polymorph keep their worn or held equipment if the new form is capable of wearing or holding it. Otherwise, it melds with the new form and ceases to function for the duration of the polymorph.

There are a few problems that present themselves when using this as a basis for the g-virus. As stated
before, the g-virus produces new creatures, so do we alter the polymorph's rulings to try and suit our
needs, and if so, how? Or do we just use the rulings as they are?

I don't know dangit, I'm just a cobbler. D:<

*Angrily taps a tack into a boot*

How about deleting the first sentence out of the last paragraph? New intelligence, HP, attack bonuses, etc.

Trigger Type-8808 wrote:

I don't know dangit, I'm just a cobbler. D:<

*Angrily taps a tack into a boot*

How about deleting the first sentence out of the last paragraph? New intelligence, HP, attack bonuses, etc.

Because retaining one's mental capabilities is one of the traits of the g-virus.

Even if we did go with new intelligence, hp, etc, etc, how would we go about it? What would we use
to determine the proper amount of hp, attack bonuses and ability scores? Do we randomly roll em?
That could lead to hilarity.

At any rate, a character's base attack bonus and the nature of their hp is determined by their class,
or in the case of monsters, their creature type. I figure that a player infected with the g-virus will have
their creature type chosen at random, that's fine and all, but the creature type alone isn't enough. If
we didn't use a base creature from the list of creature types, then how do we determine str, dex, con,
hit dice, etc?

I am going to kill you ingame. I have decided.

Trigger Type-8808 wrote:

I am going to kill you ingame. I have decided.

D:< you will come to regret this decision.