IRL vs d20

[PSINinja]

Alright I've been doing some thinking about how d20 Modern pcs would match up against their real world counterparts in various activities.

For example, the world's longest sniper kill was by Corporal Rob Furlong of the Canadian Army. He used a MacMillan TAC-50 to drop a target at 2,430 meters, 2,657 yards, or 7,971 feet.

Can we build a d20 Modern hero that can match this feat of shooting prowess?

I can't seem to find the stats for the ol' TAC-50, but let's say it's range increment is 120 as that seems to be the case for .50 BMG rifles. Add 60' for the Far Shot feat and another 60' for a telescopic scope. The Sniper prc from the UA web enhancement has a class ability called Improved Far Shot. This class seems like a good fit, plus we really need the range. It supercedes Far Shot, but doubles the range increment instead of just adding 50%.

So far, we've got a total range increment of 300 feet or a total range of 3,000 feet. Bummer. Not even halfway there. Okay, then. It's time to get cheesy. Let's open up our handy copy of Future Tech and slap on a Extended Range gadget to our TAC-50. Hmmm... This only bumps it up to 4,200 feet. Oh well, in for a penny in for a pound, let's slap that gadget on our ammo, too. That makes it 5,400 feet.

Still missing something... Reading more about the shot, it seems that the shot was made easier by the thin Afghan air. (Not to depreciate Corporal Furlong's marksmanship, of course). The big quesiton is how to factor that in. The previous record was by Carlos Hathcock. He used a scope mounted M2 for a 2,500 yard shot.

Okay, maybe the air density didn't help that much after all.

Okay, for a last ditch effort to get the record, I'm using a prc from the d&d wiki. It's called Marksman. At fifth level, it bumps up the range increment 75%. This would bump the total range of Mr. d20's rifle to 6,300 feet. Well over a mile, but also well short of the record.

Scratch one up for the Corporal and real life.

[PSINinja]

Since the Olympics are coming up, let's take a gander at how Team D20 Modern would do against some of the real world's top athletes.

For our first event, let's try the 1500 meters. Now, according to Wikipedia the fastest 1500m time was 3:26 by Hicham El Guerroj of Morocco on July 14th, 1998. Put into more d20 friendly terms, El Guerroj ran 4,922 feet in 35 six second rounds, or he had a speed of about 140.

Pretty good, huh?

Not really.

Let's look at a 5th level fast hero. Assuming our boy takes all his talents in the Increased Speed talent tree, he can get the Advanced Increased Speed talent for a total speed of 45. If our hypothetical runner also took the Run feat (hardly unreasonable), his total running speed would by 220, roughly 64% faster than El Guerroj. Mr. Modern's 1500 meter time would be 2:18 (or 23 rounds), shaving over a minute off the world's fastest time.

Not too shaby for a low level character!

If you're REALLY in a hurry, you could use the Increased Speed feat from Martial Arts Mayhem Volume Two by the Game Mechanics. It adds 10 feet to your base speed and can be taken multiple times and it's only prerequisite is the Run feat. Suppose our runner took this feat at both 1st and 3rd level. That would boost this movement to a smoking 65! A running speed of 325 would give him a 1500m time of 16 rounds or 1:36.

That's right, less than half the world's record.

[Zeke]

 I really dislike simulationism in RPG theory. The point is not to create characters that can mimic the admittedly laudable acomplishments of the Corporal and/or Olympians.
The point is to create a playable game where people can have fun and accomplish certain goals in character. I think it can be enlightening to look at certain IRL bench marks during game design. this can enable players to feel that their characters are as cool as (insert cool IRL thing here).
However, the same can be said about any feats performed by characters in books or movies.

[Meg]

Let's look at a 5th level fast hero.

Interesting exercise!  I think the only issue is assuming an Olympian is 5th level.

In a world without magic or "supernatural" powers, we've got the extraordinary. 

Low level characters are the equivalent of folks without much training or experience.  I'd be a low level musician-- took piano for a few years in school, know some stuff, but it's just a hobby.

Midlevel would be those above the norm-- significant experience/ training/ skills.  I would probably be about an 8th level executive IRL.  Still climbing, but have quite a bit of training and a few years' experience. 

The higher level characters are those that are the cream of the crop- I think of 20th level as the absolute highest you can get in the field and then even out from there.  For example, in the Futurama episode with Gary Gygax, Deep Blue and Al Gore, Gore says "I'm a 10th level Vice President!"-- no, he'd be 20.  You can't get higher than what he was.  Of course, Vice President is actually probably a 10-level PrC in which case he's accurate

So an Olympic Runner is the cream of the crop- they have trained more than any other runner in the world, besides other professionals of the same caliber.  A 18th level Olympic gymnast IRL may only be 17 years old, but the amount of time put into that field is vastly superior anyone else. 

So how does it change it if you had an 18th level Fast Hero?

[PSINinja]

Hmm..... I have other ideas about what level and class Al Gore would be, but let's leave politics aside. 

Fast Hero, like all of the base classes in d20 Modern, only go 10 levels. Depending on what kind of guy you wanted to portray, I'd either go hardcore althletics with a mixture of fast, strong, and tough (with fast being predominant) or maybe you could throw in some levels of charismatic and then personality in later. After all, track is a young person's sport, but you can turn that into a career as a sports commentator or start selling little grills.   

Regardless, an 18th level character could take the Improved Speed feat a total of six times. When combined with the Advanced Increased Speed talent, this would net you a base speed of 105 and a running speed of 525. That would give him a 1500m time of about 0:56.


Please keep in mind that this was a mental exercise, no more meant to be played than the infamous Pun Pun. As virtually all of the Flash's feats would be gobbled up in boosting his speed, he probably wouldn't be that great in combat (but, if you add Spring Attack and a good melee weapon it might have promise). This was meant to show how the rules were geared toward some types of character and not others.

[Prime32]

Link to an article on this: http://www.thealexandrian.net/creations/misc/d&d-calibrating.html

[Soda]

I was thinking about that article.