I've mentioned in earlier posts of my intent to publish more d20 (or non-GURPS in general) articles, ever since I started the blog back in 2015. Indeed, d20-related material was some of my earliest content, where I presented an adventure - the only one I've published so far - for d20 Modern. The "d20 bug" has bitten me a few times since to no avail, though most recently (he said in 2018) I found myself wanting to do something set in the Half Life Two universe (Half Life Twoniverse? No, that's terrible). I'm a rather bit rusty on d20 stuff, but there is an active d20 Modern fan page to help with that. Anyways, let's take the plunge.
Why Half Life 2's Setting?
Half Life 2's setting is suited for a variety of adventure types. Set in an Apocalyptic Dystopia, characters could easily be heroes, villains, or mere survivors confronted with a variety of scenarios to advance their goals.Though set on Earth sometime around...2023 or something...the setting features a variety of very high tech and very low tech devices, alien species, humans, and former-humans in various guises. As an action-oriented setting with a tradition of putting a variety of problem-solving characters to the fore, it caters to multiple play-styles. There is a clearly defined "Big Bad" - the Combine and their associates - obvious "Heroes" - the Resistance - and the Unfortunates stuck in between.
Why d20 Modern?
Though I've by-and-large abandoned d20-style game systems in favor of GURPS, I still for some reason hold an affection for the oft-maligned d20 Modern variant. It's far from a perfect system - GURPS is better - but d20 systems are easier for most Players I've known to get into due to its class-based nature that neatly package one's options. Unlike some of the other d20 engines I'm familiar with, though, d20 Modern does allow for a (somewhat) greater degree of character customization through Occupations, Talents, and the general ease of multi-classing. The fairly generic nature of base classes and other character elements also lets it readily adapt to the setting in which it is deployed, carrying with it no "baggage", so to speak - they are relative blank slates.Indeed, I credit this aspect of d20 Modern for ultimately encouraging me to transition away from pure class-based RPG systems, which is partially how I came upon GURPS. Coincidentally, one of the first games I tried to actually run in GURPS was set in the Half Life universe - though during the events of the original. That, unfortunately, never made it to the table, and those notes are long gone.
What Parts of d20 Modern are in Use?
Generally, all published d20 Modern supplements are likely of some use in a setting like this, either from the Player or GM perspective - depending on the specifics of where and when the individual game or campaign itself takes place. Even Past, with its array of primitive weapons, can be of some service, and though out of reach for most ordinary characters, Arcana may be of some assistance for certain alien abilities. This includes the likes of Players Companion and even Blood and Fists should players desire. Third-party "Talent Trees" are also generally acceptable.That said, not every bit of every book is automatically "in play", even if the book itself is approved - the specifics of the campaign at hand dictate some elements, while GM fiat some others. Here's a number of general considerations that may or may not change and expand during actual use:
Classes
All base classes are a go (see House Rules for notes on the Fast), but Advanced and Prestige selections would likely be limited based on campaign/scenario specifics. Indeed, as a general thing, I don't remember being particularly enthused by most of them, and many may not be campaign appropriate (all depends who and where the group starts).
Occupations
Generally speaking most of the options across the various books in play should be valid, so long as the player comes up with a good reason for it, though a few are very unlikely (such as Astronaut Trainee from Future). Certain examples would be a case-by-case basis for approval, but a comprehensive list could certainly be created if anyone felt like it was necessary. Common sense should prevail in selections - most people under Combine control, especially the younger population, are probably some kind of menial, industrial, or other blue-collar job type since that's probably what the Combine uses them for - though there are doubtlessly various more technical and some white collar workers as well. Outside of Combine controlled areas, "Rural", "Tribal" or "Scavenger" seem like good default options for characters - but by no means the only choices.
Naturally, there is most certainly a "shadow society" going on that may support more Occupations that you otherwise wouldn't think to still exist - another example of selection depending on campaign location. Even under Combine control, I'm certain there's a variety of "social" Occupations such as the Creative types - someone's making propaganda comics and posters out there - and alien domination of course by no means eliminates the criminal types.
Wealth and Money
The rather controversial Wealth system is (fortunately) completely out, as it doesn't seem to fit into the setting at all. Citizens under Combine controlled cities all seem to survive on a ration-based system, wherein there is no real wealth to track outside of perhaps coupons for certain supplies - though it appears at least the Civil Protection use some kind of "credits" system for certain privileges. Rebels and survivors out in the wilderness or hiding away in what's left of non-Combined controlled cities probably have a barter system more suited to the Trade Value system presented in Apocalypse - but some groups may have an economy that doesn't drive around resource exchange at all. An informal economy under the Combine, between Citizens, likely has a similar mechanic.
Weapons and Equipment
Though ostensibly taking place not far from the modern day, a fair degree of equipment is much more primitive or high-tech than assumptions would meet. Location would be the main driver, as would the composition and intent of the player party - scavengers trying to avoid the Combine in some woodland region would have wildly different arms and equipment from those close to Combine points of force concentration, themselves different from Combine-employed teams themselves.
As a general thing, there are a number of well known items in the setting that should be handled before gameplay begins - some of these are listed here and may turn up in follow-up articles as I refine my conceptualization of them. The rest should probably evolve organically to meet player needs, requests, or the needs of a scenario. Some general ideas for myself and those who may be curious:
Weapons
Arms control is certainly a thing in Combine-held locations, so resistance within them - if any - is offered is with whatever one can get - from crowbars and kitchen knives to stolen human small-arms and Combine weaponry. It's unlikely that the Combine were able to seize all weapons across the globe, though in 20 years access to them has likely been greatly reduced to those still outside of Combine control - attrition, ammunition, and Overwatch raids will inevitably take their toll (not to mention a lack of mobility to transport them from areas of concentration to areas of need if they can even be found). This would partly explain City 17's Resistance carrying almost exclusively Combine-issue weapons - though they're willing to improvise if they have to, if the use of crossbows is any indication.
Most of the human weapons seen in the video game are covered in d20 Modern well enough between the Core book and the Weapons Locker. This includes the Pistol (USP), Shotgun (SPAS-12), Revolver (Colt Python), and the SMG (MP7). These are all very real world weapons so we are covered - though we're dropping the MP7 grenade launcher aspect because that never made any sense at all (and is really just a holdover from when Combine were using different small arms). While there may be more human weapons in Combine use, I will continue to base my assumptions around what we definitely see in game.
Combine-issue grenades are a little unusual (using human M83 smoke grenade casings, apparently) but can probably just use the regular hand grenade profile in Core, with the beeping noise and blinking light they're famous for having just being a narrative device rather than a mechanical one - perhaps +4 to Spot, if we need one. Pipe bombs and other improvised explosive devices pad the variety out and provide more isolated Resistance cells with thrown explosives I'd imagine.
The Resistance Crossbow would probably just be a take on the Crossbow seen in Core, dropping the idea of long-range, super-heated rebar as the projectile - but the "electric cocking mechanism" it has implies that it may have higher poundage (thus being a higher damage value) than the regular example - d12 perhaps. Indeed, all manner of primitive ranged weapons (and modernized variants thereof) are probably fairly common - if nothing else, arrows and bolts preserve precious bullets for foes of real importance.
The RPG seems to be a Resistance-only device in the actual game, though early versions had it in the hands of the Combine as well. It doesn't really follow a real world weapon (looking rather like a mashup). Laser guidance is its hallmark, which is a mechanic not really present in any of the d20 Modern supplements; it may well just be a simple +2 or +4 to attack rolls, for our purposes here. It would likely get its own entry if it was ever relevant in a game session, and for simplicity may have much the same game stats as the M72 entry in Core.
The Stun Baton is actually already a thing in d20 Future.
Other human weapons I suspect would make an appearance, again as scenario might indicate is believable - weapons beyond just the handful in the video game player's inventory have been seen (such as Grigori's Winchester or whatever Alyx was using). Something's bound to replace the MP7's grenade launcher, at least. Given 20-odd years of resistances, field-expediency, and supply shuffling, there's no telling what can be had these days - even katana aren't out of the question if a player really wants to wield one. The goal isn't to be super restrictive, just somewhat plausible.
Several Combine weapons can be modified readily enough from what's in d20 Future - where Combine appear to be some variation of PL8. There's only a few player-scale Combine-designed weapons seen in the game - just one sniper rifle, one assault rifle, an energy-grenade, and one heavy machine gun. Overwatch also seem to have missiles on their ground transports but that'll probably use the same damage profile as the rocket launcher for ease.
The "Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle" (OSIPR) is probably best modeled as the Pulse Rifle from d20 Future, with a modification of a 30-round energy cell, three of which are held in the weapon at any given time. Damage type would likely just become "Energy". The associated Dark Energy Ball grenade would seem a lot like d20 Future's "Singularity Grenade", except the bouncing mechanic and unreliable target-blow-through aren't modeled in that one. Such a thing wouldn't be easy to track in-game, I'd imagine - I'd try and use a "scatter die" to perhaps simplify that a bit. This weapon will get a little more attention, along with other pulse weapons, in a later article.
The Overwatch sniper rifle and emplacement gun both seem to use fixed power supplies and are thus the more powerful small arms of the Overwatch armory. The emplacement gun is nearly twice as powerful per shot as the pulse rifle (in the original game anyways it's nearly twice as strong) so would probably be 5d10 or so - with seemingly infinite ammunition, too. The sniper rifle may be even higher, with a bonus to hit due to the laser sight. These are pretty specialist pieces of kit that can't really be carried and used without setting up, however, so likely wouldn't feature much in the hands of players (but players being players, who can tell!). More information in a later article.
Overwatch mines - such as Hoppers and Rollers - are probably best thought of as Traps rather than Weapons per se. They, too, might end up getting their own focused article.
The weapons Synths carry may be better modeled as innate attacks of some sort, built into the creature's profile. These are liable to be of considerable power and rarely encountered (and basically unusable by players, thus not needing a full profile to describe them). They probably can't really be fired if you rip them out of the creature, anyways - weapons on Combine mechanicals, however, are a different story.
The elephant in the room here is the Gravity Gun - this is a Gordon-only thing, probably, and seems like it would be a narrative device besides. The Tau canon - seen only on the scout car Gordon uses, probably falls into a special category as well since that was a Black Mesa thing - but who knows what other sorts of Super Science weapons exist?
Armor
Non-Combine access to body armor is probably very limited, as it isn't exactly sold in stores anymore. However, even the Resistance afield gets their hands on some examples, so they are available. The core rule for d20 Modern do support the broad idea of Improvised (and Archaic) armor, however, so crafty players and NPCs might be able to close the gap there somewhat. A little more on that in a bit.
Combine "Civil Protection" agents use some kind of ballistic vest, which also shows up among some members of the Resistance. In d20 Modern terms it's probably a "Light Duty Vest", as there doesn't seem to be anything special about it in particular.
Combine "Overwatch Soldiers" are more heavily armored, probably using a "Special Response Vest" - while hefty, there doesn't seem to be anything special about it, either. Overwatch Elites break from the Core book, and probably wear a variation of d20 Future's "Unisoldier Combat Armor" - the specialized looking helmet would seem to indicate something a little more advanced than just heavier armor with more coverage. That they seem to have monocular vision (to us, anyways) leads me to suspect that the helmet may feature some kind of HUD and/or all manner of advanced sensors that perhaps go a bit beyond ordinary sight capability.
Of course, the elephant in the room: the HEV suit. This seems to be basically unique to Freeman, so is outside the scope of these adventures - but it might get its own stand-alone article at some point because why not?
In the video game title, the player's armor used some kind of electrical charge - basically a mechanism to allow a player to restock their armor as they do health. This is true in HL1 for Freeman as well as the HECU, apparently, though can probably be hand-waved as more of a game mechanic than anything. While the Combine have chargers, they certainly don't seem to use them for their armor (and we don't have an Episode where we play as someone wearing any Combine armor to verify). So hand-waved away it may well be.
General Equipment
Most modern (i.e. as given by d20 Modern but up to PL5 in Future) versions of non-electronic human equipment (and more field expedient equivalences) are probably available to players in some form or another. These will either be Resistance or Citizen made, Combine manufactured, or salvage from unoccupied locations, so as to possibly run a gamut of quality variation. This is also true of electrical equipment such as fans, flashlights, etc - i.e. nothing "computerized".
Most forms of actual electronic devices are probably much more rarely in use outside of Combine hands. We know televisions are widely available for Citizens, but there seems to be very little besides. The Combine seem to use a limited amount of native human electronics - CCTV, for instance - but otherwise mostly use their own designs. The Resistance makes use of both Human and Combine equipment, but it seems that anything more advanced than two-way radios tends to concentrate at Resistance bases or secret laboratories if they're even available at all - especially computerized equipment. Many of these are, for all intents and purposes, artifacts from a bygone age. The same applies to the more advanced "super science" style equipment, many of which appear to be one-off projects highly unique to the area in question.
Medical equipment is produced by the Combine and issued to Civil Protection and Soldiers for use in the field, and is probably available for Citizens as well. These are famously typified by the small Health Vial and larger Health Kit seen throughout the game, as well as Health Chargers. These all probably function similar to the First Aid Kit and Medical Kit, allowing a user to Stabilize, Revive, and Restore the patient, but providing nothing for the likes of Surgery or long-term care (that's for other mechanisms). Their advanced nature provides bonuses to the Treat Injury skill and probably increased HP recovery. Outside of Combine controlled territory, however, injured and ill people are pretty bad off and must rely on far less advanced healing methods - and whatever medkits make their way out to them must go for an absolute premium. These may get more attention later on.
Combine advanced technologies are largely all either covered by things in Future, or do not need hard statistical elements - serving more as a plot or story device than a group of numbers. They may turn up in their own article at some point, so that there's a central reference for me to refer to when I draw up adventures.
What About Aliens?
The Half Life 2 setting features a variety of alien races. Most - like Bullsquid or Headcrabs - are bestial and probably fit into most games, though they'd need stats either pulled from existing d20 foes or custom created. Headcrab zombies are basically just variations of ordinary zombies with different descriptions ("undead" not having any meaning in a setting without magic), so are the easiest to have ready for a scenario. Headcrabs themselves will get attention later, as some kind of rule mechanism might need to be written up for "coupling", let alone all the varieties that I suppose the Combine have engineered.
Sentient aliens that would feature in games are basically limited entirely to the Vortigaunts. No others appear to be around on Earth at the time of HL2. Vortigaunts could even be a player race, with enough prep work. As they feature innate attacks - especially their "lightning" - and the ability to communicate over long distances, it would take a bit of work to figure out how to do it. Level adjusts may be in order, and overall might not be a good choice for the beginning phases of a group's campaign (depending on the group and scenario). Certainly, their ability to communicate over large distances telepathically is useful, and it would rather greatly mitigate one of life's great problems - availability of information.
What About the Combine Themselves?
The Combine is (or are) a varied organization, mixing human, alien, and former humans together into one conglomerate. We don't get much insight into the Combine themselves - seeing only little of their "Advisors" (presuming that's not what the master race of the Combine is, anyways). While there's some hard-and-fast lore to work with, most of what I write would be speculation on my part (though I still intend to keep the "true" race or races of the Combine a mystery).One of the general, over-arching ideas of the Combine I have is that they are somewhat like the Goa'uld of Stargate fame. The Combine have a lot of high technology, but may actually not have the greatest actual understanding of it. Their engineers certainly appear capable of adapting and applying what technologies they have (however imperfectly) to things they acquire, but creating wholly new technologies or making real improvements on what they already have may be somewhat beyond their capability.
Using the trans-dimensional technologies they have at their command, the Combine seem to careen from dimension to dimension in search of resources to exploit and races to acquire, but the Combine are incapable of traveling very easily within a given dimension - they do not appear to have any real ability to travel space, for instance, and cannot teleport between two spots on the same planet let alone between two different ones in the same universe (which is actually part of the HL2 PC game plot - the Combine were hunting down Vance, Kleiner, and their associates specifically to take their teleportation technology). Indeed, based on the events in Half Life 2, it appears that even hopping between the two dimensions is an enormous undertaking, and potentially extremely destructive when it happens.
Additionally, the Combine are extremely powerful but possibly very fragile. While the Xen race was fleeing the Combine, it's entirely possible that the Combine itself is contending with a greater threat that seeks to wipe it out - and they may well be losing. I have some vague notion of whatever is actually behind the formation of the Combine originally being a slave race (or collection of slave races) that saw an opportunity to overthrow their masters, and now hurries between dimensions seeking some advantage to keep up their defense - which includes stealing technologies, exhausting resources, and enslaving races. Or perhaps the reverse, where there are mass uprisings across the Combine multi-verse - the so-called "Universal Union".
Either way, while the Combine have a hideously powerful military might on paper, they can't actually deploy it at full or near-full strength in one place for very long. Their invasion of Earth famously lasted Seven Hours - but it was an Earth already divided against itself and further wracked by the ongoing Resonance Cascade. It's entirely possible it was nearly everything they had thrown at us during the Seven Hour War in a desperate gamble to obtain resources and "manpower" they desperately needed to fight somewhere else. It could be that Eli is wrong - maybe a second invasion wouldn't be possible at all, and they wouldn't be able to conquer us in "seven minutes" as he said.
But, obtain our resources and manpower they did, and now they have to keep it. Even with the Suppression Field preventing human reproduction and likely hundreds of millions of humans in Combine captivity (and hundreds of millions more dead by this point), there's quite possibly a substantial number of "Free" humans that the Combine can't quite simply wipe out. They may win every engagement, but lack the force projection to completely wipe everyone out - relying instead on propaganda and other manipulations to keep the captive Citizens doing whatever they do (which may well be creating resources for the Combine war machine off world). Actual Combine forces on Earth are fearsome and powerful, but stretched thin.
The Combine seem incapable of (or unwilling to) producing enough of their cyborg Soldiers and clearly do not have enough Synths at their command - otherwise they wouldn't need the still-human Metrocops to keep the Citizenry in line. They (Collective individual Combine big-wigs) could, like the Goa'uld mentioned before, also be paranoid about any one ranking member gaining considerable military advantage - thus further driving them to keep forces on their various occupied worlds as light as they believe they can get away with. There may well be a long history of plotting, scheming, and backstabbing between those in charge, even if the Union itself holds together. The last thing the Combine needs is an "Advisor" or planetary overlord with an unchecked delusion of grandeur and similarly enormous military force at his beck and call. This may also further drive separation between different Combine-aligned forces on Earth, to be spoken on later.
Thus, the Combine are fallible, approachable, combatable - and perhaps beatable.
That's the vague notion, anyways. I could well be completely wrong.
As for their forces on Earth, here's a brief overview:
Overwatch Civil Protection are Ordinaries with some equipment and a cruel streak, so readily enough created with the system's own mechanics. Also viable for player characters (either as oppressors or covert Resistance operatives), as they are still people with their own minds. Details will show in future articles.
Overwatch Soldier units are Ordinaries with Cybernetic enhancements and heavier equipment. The precise nature of Overwatch "transhumanism" isn't known in full, but largely seems to revolve around brain manipulation and some organ replacement. These fighters are more like drone soldiers, unquestioning and without personhood - not great for player characters. Overwatch operatives may also have Skill or Feat implants (as designated by Future) to improve their combat abilities (letting them be made in assembly-line nature rather than spending time on training) and may have an artificial digestive system to allow direct feeding without downtime. Similarly, they may not need (much or any) sleep, and may be of an enhanced strength or endurance. Overwatch units may also default to a higher "Class level" after undergoing transhuman procedures. Creation steps are straight forward, as Future and Core handle all of the elements I have in mind. More details in future articles.Combine "Synth" units are large, dangerous creatures that will probably need the most work of any Combine combat unit. Hunters are less "boss fight" in nature, and will scale down in threat better than the others, but they're all their own projects. These aren't usually "Random Encounter" monsters, other than maybe Hunters, so they are likely to be "bosses" in scenarios featuring them - especially considering they have all be presented as particularly dangerous foes. Various Synths will show up in more detail across other articles as I get to them.
Same principal applies to the Combine Mechanical units - though a majority of these are more common-tier foes, with the exception of the Hunter-Chopper. This includes the "manhack", the City Scanner, APC, and so forth. Some of those will get their own articles, but the minor ones are liable to get bundled together.
Conscripts are a maybe, as well, and could make for their own campaign type. These were a major part of the earlier beta versions of the HL2 game, but were ultimately cut - but there isn't anything to say that they are completely removed from the realm of possibility. Certainly if Civil Protection can hire on regular people, some kind of "normal soldier" force can be reasoned.
What Kind of Campaign is Planned?
None of the material coming out ahead has been generated with a specific campaign in mind. As of right now, I do not have a regular gaming group nor do I actually know any active role play gamers in person - and I'm not too enthused with online tools, either. This is mostly for the fun of creation.
Given the setting, Campaigns would put players either as as part of the Combine (Civil Protection, mostly, or perhaps Conscripts or some unknown support element), a Combine Citizen of some description (loyal or otherwise), or some anti-Combine Resistance member (living under Combine rule or surviving outside of their cities). There's a fair bit of variety of campaign styles to work with across that spectrum as well, from the highly social to the extremely violent, intensively technical to incredibly clandestine.
Tangentially to the general setting material I am putting up here, I am intending to work on a few specific campaign primers in the event I have an opportunity to run a game - and also for the fun of it. Indeed, since dusting this piece off and starting work on the whole of HL2 d20 again, I have already lain out the groundwork for a Resistance campaign taking place in the "wasteland" and "outland" around "City 26". I have opted to generate this as a Google Doc rather than a blog post, since those are easier to edit and keep a history on, but it will appear here at some point, once I've got a HL2 d20 Hub page put together.
This campaign orientation will be pretty basic, aimed at people who may have never played d20 Modern or any d20 games at all before, with limited actual campaign adventures outlined beyond the first handful of adventures I have in mind - which run the gamut from simple survivalist skill challenges to trade and diplomacy missions to direct action, all centered around a new Resistance base the players and their (NPC) allies are attempting to set up.
Once I'm happy with that, I might put together another, maybe taking place inside a Combine City, perhaps focusing on a group of Citizens scraping by under Combine rule.
What House Rules are in Use?
Scenarios gamed out in this setting should be fairly light on house rules, but as is tradition it will rarely be free of them. An adjustment of the Fast class is likely to be the only real change to the base game materials itself. I had considered using a variant of "d20 Armor as Damage Reduction" but it is unlikely I will do so on account of player ease-of-learning. I've also considered splitting armor ACs into two values - one that's used against ballistic weapons, and the other against non-ballistic weapons. This had its own (lengthy) diatribe that I ultimately did not (or have not yet) posted up here, alongside another house rule that made Archaic armor not count against Ballistic weapons (i.e. Ballistic Weapons do a Ranged Touch Attack against Improvised and Archaic Armor).Specific equipment modifications - such as those for Combine weapons - could be considered house rules. These will show up in various places as some of what the Half Life 2 game itself does isn't represented at all in any of the written rules.
Closing
There will be some follow-up to this article, as I lay out essential profiles and statistics for various entity types, equipment, and the like. In lieu of a comprehensive, top-down approach to a campaign, a small number of scenarios will be written up with the goal of making them either isolated, one-session adventures or part of a very short (two-to-three scenario) story arc. If enough is generated, I may put together a Hub page in order to provide a little organization and perhaps some utility to those who stumble across it and want to run games of their own.Note, this project started back in 2018, before Half Life: Alex came out, or I was even aware it was in development. I still have not played it but some of my later articles, written after it was published, make references to it from things I can pull off of fan Wiki's.
I had intended to have every "core" article written up before beginning to roll these out for reading, but it is now June 2020 and I haven't had time to dedicate to everything I wanted to get done. Rather than let it sit for who knows how much longer, I figure it's best I start pushing out what I have, and get around to the rest when I can. Indeed, this is actually even later than intended - it was scheduled to post on 1 June, but evidently Blogger had other ideas.
As for me actually running this with players - who knows? Maybe someone else can get some use out of all this, if nothing else. There's existing HL1/HL2 d20 fan material out there already, as well, so this is a little redundant - but I suppose variety is half the spice of life.
Thanks for reading!
Cheers!
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