With the sourcebook for Mundus Novit soon to be available, I thought I’d mention some thoughts about systems and how they apply to Mundus Novit.
Originally, Mundus Novit was designed as a d20 Modern supplement. The sourcebook and the system supplement were designed together, to be complementary. This was before official support seemed to drop, leaving RPG Objects as pretty much the de facto d20 Modern caretaker. Then Modern20 came along, and even that disappeared.
It is my assumption–ready to be proven false–that there are still players of d20 Modern. I really hope so. The plan now is to have the Mundus Novit setting released systemless, then have system supplements as required or requested. Being as Mundus Novit was designed as a d20 Modern setting, the d20 Modern supplement will definitely be released. I’m working on a True20 supplement, so that is almost a certainty.
What about other systems and other supplements?
I might be able to do a Savage Worlds supplement, if I thought it were worth my time. I am less conversant with Savage Worlds than with True20, so there would be a greater effort (and likely a result with lower quality mechanics). This is one thing stopping me. Luckily, in my local group I have people interested in playing Savage Worlds, so this is something I could certainly work on.
The system I am using for my Mundus Novit campaign is Mutants & Masterminds 2E. Now, in my opinion, M&M is good for some uses of Mundus Novit, but not all. Mundus Novit was always seen as a toolkit, as a foundation on which to build all kinds of things. Dark Horizons provides one example, a conspiracy and thriller setting with subtle but important SFX. I think the Modern supplement for Mundus Novit is the best choice. Possibly the True 20 supplement would work, but not having finished that, I can’t say that for certain.
My use of Mundus Novit is in the vein of Warren Ellis and John Casaday’s Planetary. That is a super-hero story within a conspiracy and secret history background. I don’t think my Osiris campaign could intersect with my Dark Horizons story very well. These are two different worlds, but both were envisioned using Mundus Novit.
For Osiris, M&M 2E could be used with little or no additions. I’m not absolutely certain that nothing needs to be added. Possibly some feats might be adapted from the True20 supplement to better replicate stuff like a DRIFT operative, but I don’t know if this is absolutely necessary.
If you see an M&M Superlink product, you’ll know I had to include additions to make M&M fit better into Mundus Novit. Right now, though, superhero action in Mundus Novit, I think can move forward with M&M.
I’m excited about some of the opportunities Mundus Novit represents. I’m happy that two different genres can exist in the same setting equally well (at least for me), and I have envisioned a few others, including a kind of monster hunters campaign (seeking out the Others from beyond the Hedge), and, of course, a spec ops campaign (opposing a drug empire in the Golden Triangle, led by a powerful shaman and selling a drug distilled using the brain tissue of parapsychs).
Just wait until you see what you can do with Mundus Novit.