DND Classes in T20

[archhealer]

My players give me headaches.

One of them wants very much to play a character from a very low-tech world (4 or 5) with little contact with the rest of the interstellar community. I told him that was fine, and we started to roll up his TL5 rogue character. Very quickly, he became frusterated and wants now to play a D20 Rogue instead. However, several of the abilities look like they may cause certain imbalances, and make the TL5 Rogue much mroe powerful than a standard T20 Rogue. Specifically, the Uncanny Dodge ability, the sneak attack mechanics (Which differ somewhat from the T20 flavor Sneak Attack), Disable Device (Where is the line where their knowledge of mechanical stuff falls apart? Big difference between a tripwire and a motion sensor).

Any input? I'm sure somebody must have tackled this before, and this particular player will shamelessly abuse ANY advantage I give him...

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

You're the Ref. Tell the player he/she is playing Traveller, not D&D. If that don't work, tell the player it's the T20 Rogue or no rogue at all.

I had a DND player that complained that his DND Rogue was a lot more powerful than the T20 Rogue.

Just to rub his nose in the dirt, I let him play the DND Rogue. Killed him half way through the adventure. Actually, he did himself in this time. I let him have the Uncanny Dodge, but when he ripped a hole in the Vacc Suit that you have no training for, vacuum sucks.

 

[Rossoneill]

Id say if your playing T20 He uses T20 rogue rules .
If he is TL5 he knows how to Disable up to that TL of mechanical or electrical devices .
If he insists on D20 rogue it seems like he already saw that it would make him a super rogue
and i would Not allow it unless you want to allow all your characters to bring in other rules and super characters .
(Or unless you are ok with this ,which from your post i would say you are not .)
I say this because i have been through this in lots of games D&D,Traveller etc. etc. and it usually annoys the other Players when they see that his character uses other rules than the ones that they have to play under and that he gets advantages they can not get .
Or if you like just use the skills and feats as they work in T 20 not any other rules set and say that the way they work in T20 is the way they work IYTU period .

"and this particular player will shamelessly abuse ANY advantage I give him..."

After reading the above quote id say No to the D20 rogue Feats and or Skills
If he is that sort then you really dont want to start a race among your Players to see who can get the best character by mixing and matching game rules and in the process possibly killing your game or the Enjoyment of you and your Players.
Of course this is only my experience ,as always
YMMV
If you allow the d20 rogue i would still say all the Feats and skills work Exactly as in T20 and you could also say that this is an experiment that if you feel it is not working out, the player has the option of your adapting him to a straight T20 Rogue or him starting over with a New T20 Character
My comments may seem harsh or Dictatorial but i have learned over the years that it is best to nip Rules abusers in the bud at the start .
Hope this helps a little .
If you try it post how it works and how you did it what changes you allowed or made etc.

 

[Rossoneill]

Marquis Deadlock,
I think you said the same thing i did but in a lot fewer words

 

[Falkayn]

Don't let him do it. 'nuff said.

The main point being that the T20 classes are balanced, and the DnD classes are balanced, but they are NOT balanced with each other.

Also, combat works differently in T20 to standard d20/DnD and mixing abilities from one game to the other leads to weird stuff happening.

At the end of the day if he wants to be a super-rogue then he should invest in high-tech gadgets like Drake Maijstral or the Stainless Steel Rat. He really needs a sidekick who is an uber-geek, and incredible personal skills, Rogue/Traveller is probably a better class combination to choose than straight Rogue.

Oh yeah, being really, really rich helps.

 

[veltyen]

Perhaps one of the first things to notice is that the DnDRogue is partially split between the T20Merc and T20Rogue.

T20Rogues are more skilled/tricky but less combat capable.

T20Merc are less skilled but very slightly more combat capable.

Taking a DnD rogue would be like taking both classes every level.

 

[parmasson]

Short answer “No”

Long answer: “No, this is another universe”

Compromise: “No and I will talk to you after the game is over”

IMHO if you cave in it becomes a negotiation all the time and it can spoil everybody’s fun. I know this type of player, had a similar situation a few months ago. Look him straight in the eye and say in an even tone “no”.

IYTU you are the judge, jury and executioner!

 

[archhealer]

Thanks for all the feedback, folks. Can always count on my trusty fellow Ref's for a little hard-bought wisdom!

I spoke with the player the other day, and this is what we went with:

I told him that we'd TRY it, for five sessions. If I felt things were going all out of whack, we'd switch him to either a T20 rogue or a T20 merc, or some mix of the two. He seemed ok with that, so now I just have to make sure I write down any instances where it doesn't work, so if I nix it he doesn't get too upset and take it personally. Though, now, it seems he might play it ok, some of his background ideas were really interesting. If I can gear it toward a more RP style game, I think it may work fine.

 

[Spinward Scout]

...but when he ripped a hole in the Vacc Suit that you have no training for, vacuum sucks .

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Chaos]

Originally posted by Marquis Deadlock:
*snip* but when he ripped a hole in the Vacc Suit that you have no training for, vacuum sucks.

Damn... a punslinger...

(But I agree completely with your post)

 

[stofsk]

I thought the correct terminology is 'blows' not 'sucks'. As in, you're going from inside a vac suit to out of it, so it 'blows you out' rather than 'sucks you in'. Into what? Vacuum is technically outside of the suit you're wearing for protection, so how can it 'suck' you into it?

So vacuum blows.

 

[Chaos]

Originally posted by stofsk:
I thought the correct terminology is 'blows' not 'sucks'. As in, you're going from inside a vac suit to out of it, so it 'blows you out' rather than 'sucks you in'. Into what? Vacuum is technically outside of the suit you're wearing for protection, so how can it 'suck' you into it?

So vacuum blows.

But nitpicking sucks!

 

[deadlock]

Greetings and salutations,

Originally posted by stofsk:
I thought the correct terminology is 'blows' not 'sucks'. As in, you're going from inside a vac suit to out of it, so it 'blows you out' rather than 'sucks you in'. Into what? Vacuum is technically outside of the suit you're wearing for protection, so how can it 'suck' you into it?

Depends on how one looks at it. It you are inside the Vacc Suit, you're being sucked out. Then again, one can look at it as being blown. Either way, that person ain't happy.

 

[parmasson]

Getting blown out of your suit can really suck!

 

[Chuck Anumia]

Originally posted by stofsk:
I thought the correct terminology is 'blows' not 'sucks'. As in, you're going from inside a vac suit to out of it, so it 'blows you out' rather than 'sucks you in'. Into what? Vacuum is technically outside of the suit you're wearing for protection, so how can it 'suck' you into it?

So vacuum blows.

* Naw..Vacuum Sucks so you actually get "Sucked out of your suit".

*(Check your home model...it sucks as long as you have the hose connected to the correct end...he, he)

 

[stofsk]

One could say vacuum both sucks and blows.