# The Shadowlight Chronicles; now full-fledged d20 Modern!



## Desdichado (Sep 4, 2002)

*Part I: Enigmatic E-mails*

I've never played in a campaign where I didn't generate my own character, or even have any input into the generation of the character, but as we geared up for a "d20 Modern" game, that's what we did.

We weren't told much -- just that this would be essentially an "X-Files meets _Raiders of the Lost Ark_ type of campaign and that we'd be using the Shadow Chasers rules with a few things taken from Star Wars and Call of Cthulhu (mostly weapons and other equipment that needs statting.)  So with that, my wife and I went to play last Saturday!

We're a relatively large group -- four couples, but of course one was DMing, so it was seven players.  We each got a folder including our "dossier" with a character sheet and some background material.  I got to play Joshua Carter (we each got our real first names to avoid confusion) --  a Stanford grad in electrical engineering and computer science utilizing the "Smart" hero class up to level 6.  Apparently I'd been something of a computer prodigy, and although I played at hacking, my real claim to fame was my successful freelance career as a network and network securities expert in the Bay area.

On June 21st of this last year, I had a strange dream -- the contents of which weren't terribly interesting, but when I woke up, my room was filled with smoke.  There was no fire, but a large symbol of some kind had been burned into the carpet of my bedroom.

In early August, I got an e-mail promising answers from someone who's profile said he was from Bangkok.  Although the mail delivery date was August 8th, the send date was -- you guessed it -- June 21st.  It said that for answers I was to meet at an address in Chicago at 10:00 PM on August 19th.  Because my schedule was relatively free, and because I was concerned about what had happened, I decided to book a ticket and took a taxi to the address, which was on the south side of Chicago near the river.

The neighborhood wasn't something I liked to see -- houses were old, extremely run-down and even the cabbie seemed anxious to drop me off and get on his way.  He didn't ask if I needed to be picked up.

There were, however, a number of vehicles parked in front of the house, including a Hummer and several rather nice automobiles.  I had to supress a chuckle at that -- it didn't seem like the kind of neighborhood to be parking your car.

I find I'm the last to arrive -- six others had also recieved the identical cryptic e-mail as me, and had all agreed to come to this area.  Most were from the Chicago area already, but one was from NY.  There was Amanda, the martial arts instructor, Julie, the geneticist here in Chicago, Jenny, the sixth-grade teacher, Trisha, the ex-jarhead  -- now a consultant on more traditional security, Matt, the anthropology/archeaology professor at Northwestern, Tim, the building contractor and myself, self-proclaimed computer programmer.

A little bit of discussion revealed we were all mysteriously summoned to the house, and without anything else to do, we decided to search it for any clues.  It didn't take too long; the house was small.  It had no power and no water (as I discovered trying to flush the toilet) and is almost devoid of even furniture.  Although there is no sign of recent habitation, there isn't as much dust as we'd expect from an abandoned house.  Outside, the back yard is a riot of weeds.

"Hey, check this out!" Amanda shouts to everyone.  It appears she's discovered a button under the overhang of the counter on a small "island counter" in the dingy kitchen.  When pressed, a small flat square folds upward.  Joshua is the only one to recognize it for what it is: a biometric handprint security panel.  When he says this, Amanda puts her hand on it.

The panel lights up green for a moment, and then folds away.  The entire island counter starts to move now, and fold away, revealing a small hidden staircase, apparently made from recently poured concrete.  "Don't you think it odd that that scanner was coded to open to one of our handprints?" I said, but curiousity and a sense of purpose filled the others, and without too much hesitation, we all descended into the starkly flourescently-lit room at the bottom of the staircase.  Room may be too generous a word for a 4x4 white-tiled area with what looks like a freight elevator door on the end.

Again, a little searching paid off -- one of the white tiles was slightly loose, and when depressed, the elevator opened.  So we all piled in and pushed the down button (obviously.)  Upon reaching the bottom, we were surprised to find a fairly nice office with ten workstations.  Two door proved to be merely bathrooms (women's was even equipped with a little lounge!)  We pulled up a panel in the elevator roof to look into the shaft -- we had descended about 50 ft. from the already underground room.  Trisha and some of the others immediately start searching the desks and filing cabinets (all of which are empty of anything but standard office equipment -- but there are a number of cell phones with ear pieces, so we install them to keep in touch while we spread out and continue searching the house) while I sit down at a workstation and start searching the hard drive.  It looks like a clean Windows NT install, but after exactly five minutes of searching, a network message pops up telling me that the next clue we will recieve will be at 1:17 AM on the police band.

So, we find a streaming police band channel and leave it on while we continue to search the house.  I also find, looking at the Internet Explorer e-mail settings, that apparently I have Matt's computer -- he's been installed as the default user.

Meanwhile, as I'm playing around here, Trisha notices someone standing leaning against a house about two blocks away, apparently looking our direction.   Trisha, Amanda, Jenny and Julie all decide to sneak through the darkness to get closer to the man and see what he's up to, while the guys all decide that sneaking up on a stranger is close to assault and want no part of it.  Matt does, however, agree to use his tape recorder (he's working on a book) to record the police band message if they're not back yet (it's not about 12:30 AM.)

So, with all the boys staying nice and safe inside the house, the four girls decide to investigate our strange onlooker.  Julie stays in the bushes with a pair of night vision goggles (courtesy of Trisha's Hummer's trunk) coordinating via the cell-phones/ear pieces (using a conference call number that Matt had established for work) while Amanda, Jenny and Trisha each split up to approach the guy from different angles.  Surprisingly, Jenny -- the elementary school teacher -- seems to be quite a natural at this.  

They approach very close -- Amanda gets to only a few feet away -- before he gives any sign of noticing them.  Suddenly, the guy spins and whips out a pistol, pointing right at Amanda's spot in the bushes.  "That's far enough!" he calls.  Trisha rushes up behind him, putting her M-16 (she has a permit) to his head. 

"Drop it!" she shouts.  "NOW!!"  The guy just smiles slightly and then whips around to point the gun at her, but Trisha moves first, bashing him in the face with the stock of her gun, then kicking his knee out hard.  Amanda rushes forward, putting him in a _jujitsu_ hold, although she notices a strange light coming from his hands as she runs forward.  Jenny also pats the guy down, but doesn't find anything on him other than his holster.

Suddenly the guy says three strange words in a loud voice, and with a flash of light, he disappears, leaving Amanda holding all his clothes.  Back in the room downstairs, where the guys are listening on speaker phone to the cell phone conversation, Joshua startles as he hears the strange words.  They remind him eerily of chanting he heard in his strange dream the night his carpet was branded.

With nothing left to do and nothing to show for their trouble except a black suit and white shirt (although Julie did find a hair sample that she puts in a plastic envelope for DNA analysis), the girls all come back to the house with just a few minutes to spare before the police band clue is promised.  The guys have been listening with half an ear to the police band for the better part of an hour, and it's been relatively quiet so far: a domestic disturbance here and there, someone ran a red light.  Right at 1:17 the chatter dies down for a second, then a quick report from Yeager, IL -- a tiny town about an hour/hour-and-a-half south of Chicago.  At the Strohbel farm, there's been a strange report of arson -- cult symbols and what not present.  Joshua quickly pulls of the Strohbel's on Yahoo! People and gets an address.  Another quick search of past news, and I find a few stories from local newspapers "Police Beat" about the arsonist gang "the Dragons" who have burned symbols into various locations around town.

We give the Strohbel's house a quick call, but get a voice mail greeting.  "You've reached the Edward, Lynn and Scott Strohbel.  We are unable to take your call at this time.  Please leave a message."  We hang up without leaving a message.

"OK, I think it's time we start talking about why we're here," Jenny says, just a hint of panic tinging her voice.  

"I've got a better idea," says Joshua.  "Let's talk about it on the way to Yeager."


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## fenzer (Sep 5, 2002)

Very neat!  I love this kind of thing.  What was it like playing with couples and a larger group?  Did things slow down or did things move along fine?


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## Jeph (Sep 6, 2002)

This is *exactly* the story hour that I'm looking for.

Right now, I'm on a modern-day-fanatic streak, and have Modern pre-ordered on Amazon. This is just the kind of thing I'm looking for: A Modern playtest, straitforward, clear writing, suspense, good plot . . . perfect. Can't wait for the next installment.


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## Horacio (Sep 6, 2002)

I like it! I like it a lot!


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## Desdichado (Sep 6, 2002)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *Very neat!  I love this kind of thing.  What was it like playing with couples and a larger group?  Did things slow down or did things move along fine? *



The first time we all played together, our first combat probably took two hours.  But there was a lot of talking, and kids interrupting us to say their movie ended, Jessica was hitting me, blah-blah-blah.

We've actually been playing together for a few months now and have it down a little better now.  This session, of course (and I've only posted half of it so far) went quickly, but we didn't really have much in the way of combat either.


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## Desdichado (Sep 6, 2002)

Jeph said:
			
		

> *This is *exactly* the story hour that I'm looking for.
> 
> Right now, I'm on a modern-day-fanatic streak, and have Modern pre-ordered on Amazon. This is just the kind of thing I'm looking for: A Modern playtest, straitforward, clear writing, suspense, good plot . . . perfect. Can't wait for the next installment. *



Thanks!  Just to clarify though; we're not playtesting the actual d20 Modern rules, we're playing with all the preview rules that we've seen so far (especially the Shadow Chasers mini-game), and where there's holes, we're pulling elements out of either the new Star Wars book or the Call of Cthulhu book.


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## Desdichado (Sep 6, 2002)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *I like it! I like it a lot! *



Somehow I'm not surprised!  Welcome aboard, Horacio!


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## Thorntangle (Sep 6, 2002)

Very interesting so far - keep up the good work, Joshua.


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## jonrog1 (Sep 6, 2002)

We should compare home-brews sometime, although with d20 Modern ticking down, it may be moot.

I'm interested in seeing how this goes.  Modern games have their own advantages and disadvantages, but there are no hints and support for GM's of such games yet.


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## Desdichado (Sep 6, 2002)

jonrog1 said:
			
		

> *We should compare home-brews sometime, although with d20 Modern ticking down, it may be moot.
> 
> I'm interested in seeing how this goes.  Modern games have their own advantages and disadvantages, but there are no hints and support for GM's of such games yet. *



Sounds like fun, although I agree, it may be moot soon.  Although I don't think our plan is to convert this campaign - we'll probably keep using the Shadow Chasers rules with some CoC.


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## Desdichado (Sep 9, 2002)

*Part II: Farmyard Frolics
*

_OK, here's the second half of our first session.  I'm already running a bit behind, I'm afraid -- we've had a second session already.  Unfortunately, due mainly to some "meta-game issues" I wasn't able to take good (or any) notes on the second session, so a lot of detail may slip through the cracks.  Let me make the first session part II update quickly, and I'll try to jump right on our second session while the memories are still relatively fresh.  Interestingly enough, our DM told us that we still haven't gotten to the point he thought we would during our _first_ session, so we've obviously been overanalyzing this whole game! _

While on route to Yeager in Jenny's 2001 Ford Windstar, we each spilled the beans on what our "secret" was that brought us to this point in the first place.  A lot of really weird stories ensued.

Julie, while showering, noticed a strange lump on the back of her neck.  When she went in to have it x-rayed, she discovered that she had some kind of artificial implant of some sort.  Then, when she went to look at it again, it was gone.
Trisha disappeared for three monthes.  She went to bed one night, and woke up three monthes later (on June 21) without having any idea of what happened.  More, she had a strange symbol scarred into her face, which she covers with make-up now.
Amanda saw, in June 21st, her dead mother.  She tried to chase her in the crowd, but lost her.
Matt recieved, on June 21st a series of pictures, apparently taken in the 1880s, of some archeological digs in Central America, where a number of odd boxes were being excavated.  What's even odder, and he had these authenticated by photography experts, is that _he_ is in the photos, and what's more, after seeing Trisha, she is also in the photos.  Tim also recognizes someone from the photos as well.
Tim (he didn't actually tell us at this time, but he told me later, so I'll just include it here) was hired by a company called Venture Resources to equip and supervise a dig in Russia.  During the course of the dig, they came across a large natural cavern, and while in the cavern, Tim was _attacked_ by some -- creature -- that looked like nothing so much as floating red eyes.  He woke up several days later in the camp hospital to find that the dig had been completed, and he was free to go home.  The person Tim recognized in Matt's picture was one of the guys from this Venture Resources.  Somehow, he associated the word 'Croatoan' with the creature, although we didn't yet figure out how he made that association.
Jenny went to bed with something in her pocket that a friend gave her (she later admitted that it was a bag full of diamonds) and woke up just a few minutes later in a hotel in Bangkok.  Somewhat bewildered, she managed to get the airport and take a plane back home.  This also happened on June 21st.
When we arrive at the Strohbel farm, we find it to be located well out of town, and dark.  It is surrounded by cornfields.  The house itself looks fine, but a shed nearby is still smoldering and shows signs of having been recently sprayed with water -- it is drenched and a thick steam still hangs over it.  A yellow police line surrounds the shed.  Closer to the shed, we can see tire tracks in the mud, presumably from the fire trucks.  Inside, there is a strange burn pattern, reminiscent of the symbol in my room, yet blotted out by extreme burn conditions.  In the center of the burn pattern is a charred and blackened human skeleton.  We did some quick searching -- Julie examined the body and some other folks looked in the house.  In one room, presumably son Scott's, some notes were found about the Dragons and a delivery of some box.

With this strange assortment of cryptic clues, our investigation is cut short -- a police car seems to be approaching.  Everyone piles in the van and tries to sneak away except me -- I hide in the cornfields.  When the police car doesn't leave, I creep closer to the house to investigate.  Looks like Ma and Pa Strohbel have arrived -- they appear very distraught.  The deputy talks to them for about an hour, by all appearances trying to console them.  Finally he leaves, and I'm able to use my cell phone to call for pickup, telling the group that I suspect that Scott Strohbel is the body in the shed.

_Note -- from this point on, I wasn't able to take good notes, and our group also split up to accomplish more, so I probably lost track of a lot of clues.  I'll try to write what I can as I remember it, but I may have to post updates or edits that add more stuff as I remember it._

Late that night, I decide that things are getting a little weird, and I need a back-up plan.  I hack into various bank organizations, subtly creating false accounts that give me as much money as I would need if it turns out I'm in over my head.  A few of us also go shopping the next morning for a cheap used car -- we buy a 1985 Honda Civic, which we figure is just about good enough to let us get around.  I also decide to hack into the Strohbel's AOL account, which we saw open briefly at the house.  The account is fairly cluttered with older e-mails, but I do find two e-mail addresses for Scott, one from AOL and another from the Unversity of Chicago.  I hack into both of these accounts fairly easily as well.  One e-mail in particular catches my eye -- a Doug Trenton, apparently a local boy who goes to school with Scott, writes to tell him that he shouldn't be messing around with that Dragon stuff anymore -- he got out of it and if Scott knew what was good for him, he would too.  And he especially shouldn't try what he thought he was going to try without Marcus' supervision, as if something went wrong the results could be catastrophic.  This e-mail was sent yesterday afternoon.

Jenny and Trisha go to the local sherriff's office, trying to get a story -- Jenny poses as a reporter.  The deputy sees through her, but thinking quickly, Jenny says that actually she's a freelance reporter trying to get a story.  This loosens the guy up a bit, and he tells her a little bit about the Dragons, that they're troublemakers who go around in brown cloaks (at least when making trouble) and they are all young guys, he also mentions several bars where they occasionally hang-out.  Amanda, after talking to a local martial arts instructor, finds that attendance has dropped off lately amongst young boys, as they have been recruited by some other pasttime at the local computer games store  Joshua goes the computer game store, and makes some conversation with the attendant.  When I mention Doug's name, oddly enough, he's in the back room on the network PCs playing Unreal.  I pay for an hour of playtime and go in as well, sitting so that the other two folks in the room have their back to me.  I log into Doug's game, and rather handily hunt him down and kill him three times in a row.  After this, he turns around to talk to me for a minute or two.  When I mention Scott's name (saying I know him from the University) he gets suspicous.  How come he doesn't know me too, when he takes at least half of the same classes as Scott, for instance?  And am I mixed up with those Dragons, because he's quit all that and doesn't want any part of it.

I get some more info out of him, after calming him down a little, saying I freelanced on some projects with the University and just met Scott briefly while doing that, and what the heck are the Dragons?  Turns out they have a warehouse just over the Indianna border -- they recruit kids (high school and college mainly) and get them to come do some freaky LARP stuff or something like that, but then it gets real serious, and they start messing around with some seriously scary occult stuff.  Not only that, they seem to have funding from some company called Venture Resources, and guards with Uzis started showing up.  Doug's frankly scared of them, and has been trying to talk Scott out of messing around with them anymore.  I thank him for his warnings, and he goes away, leaving me to wonder what in the world is going on.

_Next issue: -- autopsy of the body, and more info from Doug._


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## Horacio (Sep 10, 2002)

You're giving me reasons to buy d20 modern, did you know it?


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## Desdichado (Sep 10, 2002)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *You're giving me reasons to buy d20 modern, did you know it?
> *



It's all part of my insidious plot to get royalties out of WotC.  Especially since my setting proposals didn't advance!

P.S.  Look for an update later today that  -- hopefully -- will get the story hour up-to-date with the game.


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## Desdichado (Sep 10, 2002)

*Part III: Garbled Gamboling*

_Well, hopefully this post will bring us entirely up to date on our game sessions so far.  As mentioned previously, this one is a little bit harder for me to write, as I missed portions of it, or at least, was unable to devote my full attention to some of the stuff that was going on.  In addition, our group splintered as we tried to accomplish more quicker by splitting up, so how much I got of the other players circumstances may be somewhat missing.  Anyway, I'll take a first stab at this, and if I remember really significant things I later, I'll fill them in via an edit or another post._

As Jenny was talking to the deputy and Joshua was tracking down Doug Trenton, Matt and Tim decided to take a bus back to Chicago to retrieve Tim's Harley and Trisha's HumVee (which was loaded with surveillance equipment as well, something we thought might come in awfully handy.)  On the bus ride, they apparently talked quite a bit, and Matt showed his picture to Tim, who recognized another one of Matt's 120-year old buddies as someone he had dealt with recently through Venture Resources.  They come up with a working theory, and a bit more of a plan, but as the rest of us don't hear about it until later, I'll add it in as we learned of it.

Meanwhile, Julie, Jenny and Trisha now team up to go to the coroner's office.  Since Yeager doesn't have a really well-qualified coroner, the body we found in the shed was left sitting there while someone was fetched from Chicago to deal with it.  Julie, as a leading genetic researcher from NYC, feels she can pass herself off as a CDC agent, investigating the unusual death to make sure there is no threat to the area.  The coroner accepts her story (and that Jenny is a collegue of hers) so the two of them are left inside while Trisha talks to the cops up front, dropping her names from the Chicago force that she's worked with closely in the past.

The coroner is glad to see her, because some elements of the body are very intriguing to her, and she doesn't want to have a very intriguing report with her name attached.  She decides to write the report up as a simple suicide by fire, but before she does, she shows Julie some of the very unusual features of the body.  First of all, although commonly believed to be Scott Strohbel, the dental records of this corpse do not match his, so her report will call the victim a John Doe.  Second, which she will _not_ put in her report, each of the digital phalanges (finger bones) show an unusual extension, giving the victim uncommonly long -- in fact, freakishly long -- fingers.  And finally, a strange artifical "box" of shiny metal is attached firmly to the base of the spine, with filaments that dig through the vertebrae into where the spinal column would have been if it hadn't been burned to nothing.

The coroner agrees to allow Julie to perform an autopsy, and with a judicious call from Trisha that pulls her to the front desk, Julie and Jenny are left alone with the skeletal corpse.  First, Julie cuts the box free from the spine and scans it with a digital camera.  It appears to have smooth, yet tiny, markings all over its surface.  She photographs it from all angles, including with an x-ray camera.  She then examines the skeleton itself, looking at the strange fingers.  She takes a tiny core sample of one of the bones and makes a few more startling discoveries -- it appears that the bone isn't just burned on the outside surface, as one would expect, but also is burned at it's core, as if the skeleton burned from the inside out!  Using a high-resolution color fax, she sends the data to some collegues in NYC for further analysis, as well as keeping the core sample in the hopes that some DNA can be extracted from it.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel, I has found that Doug Trenton discovered my careless hacking and sent me an e-mail.  I e-mail him back (after first establishing the most anonymous and secure e-mail account I can devise) and tell him that actually I'm investigating the apparent death of Scott and want more information.  Doug responds fairly quickly that some kind of box has been delivered to the warehouse of Venture Resources -- he fears that something big is going down tomorrow night.  He says he will meet me at his house tonight at 10:00 PM.

Amanda does some searching on the warehouse, and finds that the building permit and zoning are all on the up and up, but she can't seem to find out who the actual owners of the building are.  She calls the appropriate county offices to get the blueprints, but is surprised that she cannot (as legally, she should be able to.)  Trisha also calls and tries, and with a slight tinge of panic in his voice, the county clerk that should give her the blueprints tells her to get lost, and wonders what all the interest in this warehouse is anyway.  On a whim, I try to call and get blueprints for another nearby building, and am told that there's no problem, I can come pick up copies the next morning.  When I hang up and give my account, the group is somewhat sobered.  Trisha decides that its time the buidling got the once-over with her high-tech surveillance equipment, but as its only about 5:00 PM, we decide to go to the local bars to see if we bump into any of the Dragons.

Actually, I want to go to the local Big Boy, but when I'm told by the Day's Inn Desk Clerk that some of these bars are locally famous for the cheeseburgers and onion rings, I'm convinced to go with Amanda, Jenny, Julie and Trisha.  Not surprisingly, since we're a big group huddled in a corner and are 10-15 years older than the audience we're targetting, we don't really see much.  Amanda tells us all to get up and mingle.

Around this time, I get a cell phone call, and I duck into the men's room to take it.  It's Tim.  Apparently, he and Matt are going to Alaska!    While searching for more information, they discover the Venture Resources, which has a corporate headquarters there, has burned to the ground just a week or so ago.  While the trail is still hot (no pun intended) they want to quickly investigate it.  I also get to hear Tim's story (related last "issue") which the girls actually still don't know, as well as the theory advanced by Matt that Venture Resources has uncovered, or maybe developed, some kind of technology that enables time travel.  I advance the counter theory that maybe we are all clones of this original group, and that's why we are suddenly all being pulled together.  _(To that, my DM tells me I've been reading too much Dark*Matter!)_  In any case, I tell the girls that Tim and Matt will be in Alaska investigating Venture Resources.  When I get the inevitable slew of questions, I have to beg ignorance (only partially feigned) of what they're up to and what they know.

After dinner, Trisha pop across the border to set up a stake-out on the warehouse, while Julie and Amanda drive me in the Honda Civic to Doug's house for our meeting.  Jenny tells us she can get a hold of the blueprints we didn't get before.  Julie and Amanda decide to stay back so as not to alarm him with a large group.  The house seems dark except for one light from a room upstairs.  I approach the house cautiously, though, on the look-out for anything unusual, and I hear the sound of a running automobile in the garage.  Before knocking, I decide to check it out.  The garage is pitch black inside, but as I open the door I'm assaulted by the stench of exhaust.  I quickly open the large garage door and flick on a light -- as I fear, Doug is sitting in the car, his skin somewhat blue -- wearing nothing but a large brown cloak.  Amanda rushes up to try and administer CPR, although Julie can tell immediately that he's been stone dead for several hours.  I rush through the house to find clues, but not much is forthcoming.  In what is presumably Doug's room, a computer is on, with a timed out logon to the Internet.  I log back on, and notice that the last action he took was to send his e-mail to me.  In the back of the house, we also find that the door has been forced open -- the dead bolt is still extended, although the wooden door frame has been broken where the dead-bolt was.

With this, Julie and Amanda leave, and I call 911.  Since I had an appointment with Doug already, I decide I'm not a suspect.  I'm questioned for an hour or two, but that's about it.

When I get back to the hotel, Jenny has arrived with the _original_ blueprints for the warehouse.  "What is it you teach those sixth-graders again?" I ask.  Not for the first time.  Later in the evening, Trisha arrives, with a little bit of information herself -- the warhouse is surrounded by an electrically charged chain-link fence topped with barbed wire.  Two armed guards patrol it regularly.  She didn't see any sign of any other activity.

Although it's late at night, we have a rather heated argument about our next course of action.  Julie says, "I was told to come here to get answers, and instead I find we're being led by the nose by someone who hasn't given us a thing!" _(Julie is played by my wife, Julie, by the way -- isn't she wonderful?! )_ so why not just return to NYC and her successful life?  I'm also not in favor of risking my neck over whatever is happening with the Dragons and Venture Resources, although I'm at least curious.  There's also considerable debate over whether our anonymous summoner is in league with this group or opposed to them.

But as our debate can have no satisfactory conclusion without more info, it trails off and we finally go to sleep.  _And with that, I'm caught up!  More fun next week, I presume._


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## fenzer (Sep 10, 2002)

Good Stuff Joshua.  I can't wait to see what's next.  I love time travel.  It gets so messy.


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## Desdichado (Sep 10, 2002)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *Good Stuff Joshua.  I can't wait to see what's next.  I love time travel.  It gets so messy. *



Yeah, we also had a discussion on the classic time travel paradox.  Since few of the wives were into sci-fi literature, it was all new to them!


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## Leopold (Sep 10, 2002)

fsck it's all over!! damnitt!


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## Horacio (Sep 11, 2002)

Really wonderful.

So, Joshua, which rules do you use here? Shadow Chasers? Spycraft? CoC d20?


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## Desdichado (Sep 11, 2002)

*Re: The Shadowlight Chronicles; a d20 Modern Preview game*



			
				Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> *We weren't told much -- just that this would be essentially an "X-Files meets Raiders of the Lost Ark type of campaign and that we'd be using the Shadow Chasers rules with a few things taken from Star Wars and Call of Cthulhu (mostly weapons and other equipment that needs statting*




Here ya go, Horacio.  From the first post!


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## Horacio (Sep 11, 2002)

I asked for more details...


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## Desdichado (Sep 11, 2002)

Oh!  Of course!      Everything from the Shadow Chasers game (except for magic, at least to my knowledge) is being used, including base classes, the VP/WP set-up and all that.  Weapons and equipment is from CoC, as are a few skills and feats that aren't in Shadow Chasers.  Other than that, I'm not sure.  So far, we've only had one "combat", if you can even call it that, so other than chargen and some skill checks, we haven't used the mechanics much yet.

Although, like I said, our DM is very surprised at how slow we're going.  We're going into our third session this coming Saturday with our DM saying he's still going on material he thought we'd get through in our _first_ session.  Most likely, we'll have to pull out our guns a bit next time as we get involved with the Dragons and their mysterious warehouse.


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## Horacio (Sep 11, 2002)

Thanks for the answer! 

And the Hero classes (Charismatic Hero, Strong Hero...) work well in your game? I mean, do you like them?


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## Desdichado (Sep 11, 2002)

Horacio said:
			
		

> *Thanks for the answer!
> 
> And the Hero classes (Charismatic Hero, Strong Hero...) work well in your game? I mean, do you like them? *



Yes, I do.  I like how they fade into the background.  As a rogue in D&D, for instance, I never quite got rid of the "what does the thief do this round?" kind of thing.  Here, our classes are so transparent that I can't even remember what most folks classes are.

Yet they still work well.  Like I said earlier, we didn't make our own characters, but I ended up as a 6th level Smart hero.  I'm glad I also have some stealth feats and skills, as well as pistol proficiency, though!


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## Desdichado (Sep 12, 2002)

...


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## RangerWickett (Sep 13, 2002)

This is nifty, and it reminds me of the game I played in, Savannah Knights.  It had much more magic than this one does, but we had our own share of mysteries and plots.  Very fun.  I now wish I could replay the game with modern classes.  I never even looked at Shadow Chasers.


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## Desdichado (Sep 13, 2002)

RangerWickett said:
			
		

> *This is nifty, and it reminds me of the game I played in, Savannah Knights.  It had much more magic than this one does, but we had our own share of mysteries and plots.  Very fun.  I now wish I could replay the game with modern classes.  I never even looked at Shadow Chasers. *



Thanks!  To be honest, we don't know how much (if any) magic is present in the setting.  We're somewhat assuming that Mr. Disappear-o from the first session used some kind of technology, but it sure seemed more like magic.  Really, I think the thrust of the setting here is to be like CoC except not so fragile.

Hey, is that Savannah Knights archived?  Or here on the forum somewhere still?


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## Uvenelei (Sep 13, 2002)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> *Part II: Farmyard Frolics
> 
> 
> 
> ...




Wow, I love it. I've just started a modern day game myself (DnD rules with a few CoC and Spycraft elements thrown in for tech an such), and I was wondering how I was going to introduce a new character for the next session when I came upon the above. It is _so_ stolen. 

I love games like this, and the Savannah Knights storyhour is another really good one. I think it's still on the forums, but you'll have to look a ways back to find it.

Keep it comin': I have a feeling I'll be back for more "inspiration" soon.


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## Desdichado (Sep 13, 2002)

Uvenelei said:
			
		

> *Keep it comin': I have a feeling I'll be back for more "inspiration" soon. *



Thanks!  I fully intend to be back after the weekend with another update!


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## Desdichado (Sep 16, 2002)

Arrgghh!  We didn't play this week.  One couple couldn't come, and two other wives (including my own) had been burning the candle at both ends too long, and went home and crashed instead.  So with a group of 7 players and a DM reduced to 3 players and a DM, we just played Settlers of Cataan and Tim's new xbox all night.

Fun, but not worth reporting the results, I wouldn't think...


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## Horacio (Sep 17, 2002)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> * and two other wives (including my own) had been burning the candle at both ends too long, and went home and crashed instead.
> *




Non-native English speaker alert: What does it mean?


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## Esiminar (Sep 17, 2002)

> Non-native English speaker alert: What does it mean?




Waking early going to sleep late.


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## Desdichado (Sep 17, 2002)

Exactly.  Hence, you have to burn a candle at both ends of the day, because it's dark when you get up and dark when you go to bed!


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## Horacio (Sep 18, 2002)

"Every morning I learn something new thanks to EN World" 

Thanks!


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## Desdichado (Sep 22, 2002)

Well, one more week of not playing.  That xbox just calls our name, especially when you rent Halo and Gauntlet Legends (and have four controllers all hooked up at once!)

Next Saturday, we're scheduled to play for real, though.


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## Horacio (Sep 23, 2002)

I hate your XBox


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## fenzer (Sep 23, 2002)

Dog gone you Joshua!


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## Desdichado (Sep 24, 2002)

Hey, it's not _my_ xbox!  Although, on a whim, I asked my wife if she'd buy me an xbox if I got back down to 180 lbs (I've been just over 200 lbs. since about a year or two after we were married -- and we just had our 8th anniversary this last summer) and she said sure!


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## Horacio (Sep 25, 2002)

Well, I hate youir group's xbox


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## fenzer (Oct 9, 2002)

Joshua, I wanted to come by and say hi.  I had hoped for an update but _Noooooo_.  Post soon, between you and Jonrog1 it's a wonder I can satisfy my fix at all.


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## Horacio (Oct 10, 2002)

I want an update!


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## fenzer (Oct 15, 2002)

_Helooooo?_


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## Desdichado (Oct 23, 2002)

Sorry!  I've had trouble posting to the boards lately.  Our group has not disbanded, but we haven't really played much either -- we've ended up getting together and doing other things for about a month and a half now.  I'll talk to the DM and see what he has in mind.

And yes, the xbox (or pair of them, now -- nothing like two linked systems playing Halo teams!) has contributed a lot to our delinquency.


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## Horacio (Oct 23, 2002)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> *And yes, the xbox (or pair of them, now -- nothing like two linked systems playing Halo teams!) has contributed a lot to our delinquency.   *




I really hate your xboxes...


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## fenzer (Oct 23, 2002)

No really, we hate your xboxes.


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## Ascending Crane (Oct 23, 2002)

I love my Xbox.

However, I hate _your_ Xbox.


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## Desdichado (Oct 28, 2002)

OK, I talked to the DM and here's the latest.  Apparently, I'm not the only one who's asked for us to get back on track with this game, so we're looking at having a go again this weekend, assuming that some other real-life interruption doesn't intrude (I should comment, that while the xbox certainly contributed to our delay, real-life interruptions have done so considerably as well.)  Also, when d20 Modern comes out, we may actually do a full scale conversion.  Since the classes will be the same, the conversion process will actually be quite simple, I think, so there's really no reason why not to do it.

Anyway, with any luck, at this time _next_ week, I'll be typing up my update from our latest play session.


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## fenzer (Oct 29, 2002)

Hurrah!


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## Jodo Kast (Oct 30, 2002)

Glad to hear more updates are forthcoming!  This story hour helped inspire me to run a d20 Modern (actually, Shadow Chasers mini-RPG rules) horror game that has been a real success so far.  We're planning to convert to d20 Modern as well.  We've even started a story hour called First Sight.  I look forward to following the further exploits of your group.


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## Desdichado (Oct 30, 2002)

Jodo Kast said:
			
		

> *Glad to hear more updates are forthcoming!  This story hour helped inspire me to run a d20 Modern (actually, Shadow Chasers mini-RPG rules) horror game that has been a real success so far.  We're planning to convert to d20 Modern as well.  We've even started a story hour called First Sight.  I look forward to following the further exploits of your group. *



We are too!  The game's been great fun so far, if a bit rocky on actually having session lately!  But we have a pretty fun group.  The husbands are all old-timer roleplayers, who like roleplaying (as opposed to other styles!) and the wives are all game to jump in there and do a good job too.  This campaign is perfect for us right now.


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## shadowlight (Nov 1, 2002)

*11/02/02 -- The date on Joshua's tombstone?*

OK J-Dog, tomorrow night is definitely on... and it's all about survival >

.... Muhahahahahahaa......


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## Desdichado (Nov 1, 2002)

J-dog has a knack for saving his own skin!  In fact, I'm thinking that we _must_ have enough evidence with the death of Doug that any judge in the area will grant us a search warrant.  Trisha puts in a call or two, and we raid the warehouse with an entire S.W.A.T. team at our backs!  Meanwhile, J-dog sits out in the car with his head down!


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## Desdichado (Nov 2, 2002)

By the way, let me introduce the DM!  And J-dog, the nickname I rather inexplicably picked up with this group...


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## Jeph (Nov 3, 2002)

*waves* hello, shadowlight! How do you like Joshua's write ups? Personally, I love em. Made me pre-order d20 modern from amazon (get here soon . . . . yes, soooooooon . . . ).


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## shadowlight (Nov 5, 2002)

I think the write-ups are great... Joshua does a good job with the novelization and it makes me feel like my adventures don't just evaporate when they're over!

jdawg also talked me into posting some of my handouts.  I'm trying to determine best way to do that...   either as attachments on this thread or as links to a website.... I'm not quite sure yet.

- ShadowLight -


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## Desdichado (Nov 5, 2002)

Razzin'-frazzin' freakin' boards!  If they behave for a few hours, I'll post our latest play session.  Stay tuned.

OK, here it is:

*Part IV:  Hayseed Horror*


After a lot of discussion on how to handle the “something big going down” at the olde tyme country warehouse.  Joshua and Julie were determined to observe and figure out as much as they could and figure out as much as they could about it and how it related to their particular and personal mysteries.  Tricia (sorry, I’ve been spelling it wrong all this time, but I’m not going to go back and change them all now!) on the other hand, was more determined to stop it.  Since we didn’t know what “it” was, there wasn’t broad agreement on this strategy.

Some really wild plans were proposed, including Amanda and Jenny parachuting down to the gatehouse in bikinis and asking if this was where the bachelor party for Stan was while the rest of us snuck past the guards into the compound itself.  What we finally settled on was that Amanda, Tricia and Jenny _would_ parachute down (thanks to Chopper Dan from WRPG news in Chicago, who happened to be a friend to… one of the girls anyway, can’t remember who.)  However, they’d parachute discreetly to the roof, where the blueprints told us they should be able to watch through two large skylights the proceedings below.  Julie and Joshua, on the other hand, would stay outside the perimeter with night vision binoculars, rifles with bipods and laser sights, as well as tranquilizer rifles (which Joshua, at least, promptly set aside – having no interest in tranquilizing people who were probably going to be trying to kill him – assuming things went badly.)  Julie was opposite the main gate and had a directional mike in addition to her other equipment, hiding in the woods near the perimeter, while Joshua was at the opposite end, where he could keep an eye on what looked like three water towers and a generator, with several guards.  At about 22:00, Joshua and Julie were in place, and Amanda, Tricia and Jenny were jumping from the plane.

Joshua watched nervously, but the three were able to make their drops silently and apparently, without being seen.  They landed smoothly, nobody got hung up on the water tower, and they quickly got in position themselves to watch what was going on through the skylights.  Apparently, what they saw was a large symbol scrawled in something reddish on the floor with about 8-10 folks in brown robes around the symbol chanting.  About a dozen guards were also visible in the warehouse, although several of them were merely playing cards around a table in the opposite corner.  These were nearest the large loading dock and “garage” door.  This state of affairs lasted for about an hour or so.

Around 23:30, Julie heard a car approaching – a 2002 Lincoln Town Car (we did ask the year, by the way, since two of us work for Ford.)  The windows were blacked out, but switching her night vision to I/R, Julie was able to determine that there was a driver and two other individuals in the back seat.  They pulled up to the gate and were rather quickly waved through.  From there, they entered the small lobby door of the warehouse.

Not too long later, the three girls on the roof saw two individuals in brown robes approach the circle.  They were carrying a case that looked exactly like the case in Matt’s old photos, and they walked with it as if it were extremely heavy.  When they arrived at the symbol on the ground, which was starting to glow faintly now, they walked inside carefully not to smudge it, and set down the box.  They opened it, and inside was an orb of some kind, scrawled with strange symbols and glowing fiercely.  The chanting was getting louder.

Suddenly, Tricia decided that it was time to stop whatever was happening.  Joshua looked on in frustration (deciding, after a rather difficult internal struggle not to shoot _her_ with the tranquilizer gun) as they opened up several gas grenades and let the knock-out gas (not Russian made, to my knowledge) seep through the air ducts and the small hole Jenny had cut in one of the panes of the skylight.  However, as they were doing this, one of the guards looked up and made eye contact with Jenny.

Suddenly, things started happening much more quickly.  Tricia took her tranquilizer gun and shot the two men with the case, causing them to fall to the ground.  This had two unfortunate side effects.  First, the orb fell to the ground and suddenly shot out seven brilliant plumes of light, which traveled (in two cases at least) thousands of miles through walls, earth or whatever else to hit each of the seven PCs right in the chest.  Joshua and (up in Alaska) Tim passed out, but luckily their players rolled really low on the amount of rounds they’d be out.  The second unfortunate side effect is that the second man smudged the symbol on the ground as he fell.  Suddenly the symbol erupted in a blaze of light, completely vaporizing the two men inside.  And then, the creature appeared.

In the symbol now stood a strange being that looked somewhat skeletal, 10 feet tall with tiny horns and freakishly long fingers.  It was bathed in red light and had a fleshy tongue that extended several feet from its mouth, and a monstrous black sword.  Moving almost so fast that it was hard to follow, it quickly descended on the poor fools surrounding the circle, cutting several of them in half before they could react.  Even two of the girls on the roof (can’t remember which two, though) stood rooted to the spot in fear, shock and loathing at the sight of the creature.  However, the third quickly started pumping lead into the creature as best she could, finally succeeding in (at least) getting its attention.  With preternatural ability, the demon (or whatever it was) leaped up through the skylight and cut Tricia down viciously.  

By now Julie was running for the HummVee, and most of the guards and brown-robed ritualists were running screaming from the building, while the guards who patrolled outside were dumbfounded at the bright light that had streamed from the building.  Quickly sensing the mood of panic, though, many of them hopped in cars and drove screaming like bats out of hell away from the warehouse.  Joshua woke up to see some strange creature chopping away at Tricia, with Jenny and Amanda shooting at it at close range to limited effect.  Carefully lining up his rifle, he took two shots at the creature from a distance.  Julie was now pulling the Hummer up to the building while Amanda, was able to fell the creature with a hard blow to the back of the skull.  It disappeared in a flash of light.  At this point Joshua promptly forgot everything that had happened to him since before he left for Chicago, as did most of the remaining guards we discovered.  Amanda and Jenny searched the warehouse for clues, finding a diary of Marcus’ that was written in a very esoteric fashion so casual readers wouldn’t understand much of what was in it.  The sword and the orb were also confiscated.  They did not, however, search for surveillance cameras, and even talked to several of the guards before walking away.  Julie patched up Tricia as best she could, and was amazed to discover that her wounds hadn’t actually bled nearly as much as she would have expected.  In addition, she could actually watch them closing right before her eyes, and before long, Tricia was walking around nearly as good as new, to Julie’s complete astonishment.  Perhaps more disturbing however, was that some of the cuts had originally gone to the bone.  Tricia’s bones were not white, but rather an odd grayish color. (Wolverine, maybe?  Quick healing and adamantium skeleton…)  Joshua was rounded up, and everybody left the area.

Coming next – Matt and Tim in Alaska.  They did some stuff, but they’ll do more on the road to Chicago this weekend for the gameday, so look for an update next week on them.

A few metagame comments – Julie and I both agree that 6 levels of the Smart hero is two or three levels too many.  The class doesn’t have enough bang for the buck, even in a campaign like this where combat has been extremely uncommon and we’ve been able to use our skills more than we might have otherwise.  Also, I’m really concerned about the encounter at the warehouse.  In my opinion, that was a complete disaster.  We didn’t get to see anything that might have explained what was going on with us, anyone we could have asked has been fried or cut in half, all we got for our effort was a lousy diary that explains nothing, and a strange orb in a lead-lined case that we know nothing about.  What’s worse, about a dozen folks saw us walk away with the orb (at least my character wasn’t seen by anyone!)  and can place us at the scene, if they even need to.  I find it hard to believe that Venture Resources will go to the trouble to make sure blueprints for the building aren’t available, yet don’t have security cameras.  If we’re lucky, Jenny and Amanda (at least) will now be wanted by the police in connection with the mysterious deaths of about half a dozen people.  If we’re not lucky, then the police won’t even get their hands on this as the cover-up comes in.  However, that makes me even more nervous about who _does_ know we were there, and that we walked away with their orb!


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## Desdichado (Nov 5, 2002)

Oh, and one more thing I forgot -- when the light zapped us, we each had a small, round metal _something_ attached to our clothing on the inside, right over our right chest opposite our hearts.  And Julie noticed that the strange lump in the back of her neck had returned...

Oh, and here's that demon we saw:

EDIT:  Picture gone; lost that webhost.  Sorry!


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## fenzer (Nov 7, 2002)

Nicely done Joshua.  Where did you get the image of the demon?

About the smart hero, are you using the offical class or is this still Shadow Chasers class?

I ask this because it has been my intention from the beginning to take a starting hero class, Strong, Fast, Smart, etc., all the way to 10th level before multiclassing.  I wanted to test the classes to see if there were any game balance issues.  Are you saying there might be?


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## shadowlight (Nov 7, 2002)

*Demon Pict*

The pict is something I scanned in from a Dungeon Magazine a few months ago (the one with the Omega World Polyhedron on the back).  It's a fiendish Moorg.

I photoshop'ed in the symbol on the floor to match the symbols the PCs have been finding here & there.

I also attached a low-res version of a handout describing the warehouse (it shows the guard routes that Tricia scoped out the night before).


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## Desdichado (Nov 7, 2002)

fenzer said:
			
		

> *About the smart hero, are you using the offical class or is this still Shadow Chasers class?
> 
> I ask this because it has been my intention from the beginning to take a starting hero class, Strong, Fast, Smart, etc., all the way to 10th level before multiclassing.  I wanted to test the classes to see if there were any game balance issues.  Are you saying there might be? *



Shadow chasers.  And it's not a question of balance amongst the five basic classes.  I think the problem boils down to this:

There's no reason _not_ to take advanced classes over basic classes.  In Shadow Chasers, at least, all the advanced classes are better than the basic classes.
The advanced classes broke one of Monte's rules on prestige class design -- most of them require you to have certain levels in another class rather than having more generic requirements.
The only advanced class in Shadow Chasers for a Smart hero is the Mage, which isn't an appropriate choice at this point.  _Ergo_, now that I just levelled up, I don't really have anywhere to go.  I really want to get out of the basic class thing, because they are generally poor relative to advanced classes, but in order to pick up an advanced class, I need several more levels in Fast hero, or Strong hero or something like that.
Full blown d20 Modern hopefully addresses this by giving us more advanced class options, by better balancing the classes across tiers (so that staying in the basic class tier is really a viable choice) and fixing requirements to make them more generic, rather than cookie cutter.


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## Desdichado (Nov 7, 2002)

By the way, I just picked up d20 Modern this afternoon, and while I just had a chance to flip through it, I can confirm that the second and third complaints I had have been addressed already.  I haven't had a chance to look at the first point yet, though.


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## Desdichado (Nov 8, 2002)

OK, my fears about d20 Modern seem to be completely unfounded -- even the basic generic classes rock!  We're going towards our full-blown conversion here soon.  Also, although all the boys in the campaign are heading to Chicago for Mark's gameday, we'll probably do Matt and Tim's episode in Alaska in the car on the way West, so I should have one more update next week.


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## fenzer (Nov 8, 2002)

Good to hear, Joshua.  I picked up a copy yesturday as well.  I love it so far.  I am impressed with the basic classes and I can't wait to get a game going.

Looking forward to your next update.


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## Desdichado (Nov 11, 2002)

Well, we didn't do Alaska after all, but now you can look forward to our ULTIMATE Chicago Games day story hour.  Including our first test drive with d20 Call of Cthulhu and d20 Modern.


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## Horacio (Nov 12, 2002)

I'm still waiting to see d20 Modern in Europe...

I'll buy it as soon as I get money, and it's all your fault...


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## Desdichado (Nov 12, 2002)

Yeah, but I think you'll be glad you did!    d20 Modern is one of the best games I've seen.  I'm completely impressed.


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## shadowlight (Nov 13, 2002)

*d20 Modern*

I've got to say that I LOVE d20 Modern as well.  I'm amazed at how well-thought-out EVERY aspect of the game is!  

One of my favorite things about the system is that the non-fighter types can finally contribute meaningfully to both non-combat and combat encounters.  

I'm converting the campaign to d20 Modern and I think all the players will enjoy the game a lot more.


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## garyh (Nov 19, 2002)

Great stuff, Josh!!  Now, don't make me have to steal your group's X-Boxes.


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## Desdichado (Nov 19, 2002)

Actually, we played some good old fashioned D&D this last week, and Chicago game day the weekend before.  I _think_ (shadowlight!  shadowlight!  Paging shadowlight!) that we're back on with this game this weekend, though.


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## garyh (Nov 19, 2002)

Joshua Dyal said:
			
		

> *Actually, we played some good old fashioned D&D this last week, and Chicago game day the weekend before.  I think (shadowlight!  shadowlight!  Paging shadowlight!) that we're back on with this game this weekend, though. *




Alright, then - my target has now shifted to everyone's PHBs.


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## Quickbeam (Nov 20, 2002)

Wicked cool Story Hour so far JD...keep it coming!  And like others who've posted herein before me, d20 Modern has now made its way onto my list of things I'm going to own in the near future.  You get all the credit for that WotC impending sale .


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## Desdichado (Nov 20, 2002)

Cool!  Like I said before, though -- it's probably my favorite d20 book to date.  It's just an extremely well-done game that happens to fit my tastes exactly...


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## barsoomcore (Jan 14, 2003)

And then...


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## MattL (Mar 5, 2003)

Josh,

 please finish the story, if you still remember it. I am a little fuzzy about what Tim and I found. I rember we went down in the wreckage of the burnt down head-quarters and we saw some symbols but... after that my memory is a blank as to what we did.

Matt


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## barsoomcore (Mar 5, 2003)

And then....


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## Jodo Kast (Mar 5, 2003)

Joshua, just rediscovering this story hour after being away for awhile.  I like the new stuff, glad to hear you've converted over to d20 Modern.  I'm having a helluva time doing the same with my game, as I fudged a lot of the mechanics early on.  The good part about starting with the "light" version of d20 Modern from the Shadow Chasers Polyhedron is that I tinkered around and created some cool rules and spell effects on my own.  As my game is story driven and only has one regular PC, the mechanics are not a huge issue.  I'm still considering a larger game with 4-6 PCs, using full-fledged d20 Modern rules.


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