Planning a new 5e campaign

Taking stuff away and making the ability to transform a campaign disadvantage sounds really shitty and dumb

So in this case, what kind of story did OP want to tell? We can change that to suit a Super Sentai campaign.

Everyone takes a Barbarian hybrid class

The 3.PF OGL. With a few notable exceptions, every attempt D&D has made to leave the 'heroic fantasy' niche has been a complete and total clusterfuck. Just look at the pile of shit that d20 modern/future was.

>Just look at the pile of shit that d20 modern/future was.

In what way? It was a perfectly functional system for what it was trying to emulate, which is action movies with a touch of magic/fantasy tech. It's not trying to be Black Hawk Down or Saving Private Ryan, it's trying to be Commando or John Wick.

The d20 System is not a Real Life Simulator and has never claimed to be.

Well if they are playing a power rangers game, you need a mechanic to balance the power ranger and civilian identity.
You can persuade people as the ranger but it'll be more along the lines of telling them to get to safety while people you know will respond better to your civ form
I was thinking of everyone getting the mage armor invocation.

Some other ideas suggested were:
>Multiplanar universe where its common for planes to interact
>Mafia in the cities
>Rescue the Princess
>Underworld series (Lycans vs Vampires)
>Dwemer-like technology (Elder Scrolls)

We've done the standard "Goblins are in the caves threatening the village, go save the day" plot. I want to come up with something that makes the players think NEVABINDUNBEFAW

> It was a perfectly functional system

Did you ever play it? It was a barely coherent garbage fire of nonsensical mechanics, bizarre design choices and internal contradictions. I had the misfortune to experience it once, and... Fuck. Never again.

>Well if they are playing a power rangers game, you need a mechanic to balance the power ranger and civilian identity.

Why? Can't you trust your players?

If people want to play a sentai campaign, it's pretty reasonable to assume that they're on board to follow the genre conventions, so you don't need hamfisted and crappy mechanics to try and force them into it.

I think you just had a shit DM. Nothing went poorly for me.

Watch Gosei Sentai Dairanger for research material.

Have them all sign a contract with a demigod that will let them take control of giant beasts to fight other giant beasts.

Also flavor because then power rangers are weaker out of their armor and throwing up armor could be a bonus action or something.
Starts out modern times and make the tiers of play into different seasons.
1st is basic high schoolers shanghai'd into a war against an evil space wizard
2nd is expanding the scope from their hometown, new bbeg
Etc
Etc

I like both of these ideas.
Maybe base the Morpin' Time ability on a Barbarian's Rage. Certain number of uses per day, when Morphed bonus to STR and checks, DEX ST, extra attack, faster movement, etc. Maybe an ability based on their Zord.
Players gain these abilities at certain levels.

I still want them to play their own classes though, so Morphin Time will be its own ability regardless of class.
I'll probably double enemy HP or something to compensate so players don't end up steamrolling everything I throw at them.

Dont just add HP. That makes things into slugg fests that drag out. Give the enemies crazy abilities of their own. That will challenge your players and keep things interesting.

Everyone wanted to play an Iron-man ripoff?

Go steal from Phoenix Dawn Command. A lot of how parties operate in that game is very Power Rangers - players operate from a central hub and teleport to disaster areas

HAve them make one extra character that is five levels higher.

That character is the Big Guy, the one who can only be called on when fighting Giant enemies.

Also, and this is important, have the big bad constantly heckling the players. Part of rangers appeal was seeing the badguys act like dorks. Your party cant do that so instead have the bad guys come to them.

Randomly spam scry magic to monologue in their head.

"SO RANGERS YOU THINK YOU ARE VERY TOUGH BUT CAN YOU DEFEAT MY ARMY WITHOUT ANY PANTS?

GO PANTS SNATCHER!"

scrap 5e and just go with Mutants and Masterminds.

So do you want a modern setting for Power Rangers or a fantasy setting

Fantasy

Fuck no and that's a bad advice.
Use Valor instead.

Then I'd say give them the wildshape ability with the new shape being a version of their class at a higher level. So starting off at 1 the multiple mooks are cr1 or 2 and their morphing time boosts them to a lvl 5 equivalent
Eventually they can handle the starting mooks and even the mini bosses in their normal forms then they get more powerful morphs.

That's pointless paperwork and boredom when you simply can request the player to design the characters they want to play as when fighting and just imply they are transforming every time prior battling for less annoyance.
OP is probably playing with people at the table, not online so that much tolerance for autism is unneeded.

Sometimes the rangers get caught with their pants down or in a situation they can't morph.
Also it shows the characters becoming more badass without the morph and brings in the whole using their power only when they need to.

Whenever you roll initative you also roll for Morphin time.

What's the point when both DM and players know there is no way they are getting killed in the first turn no matter what and they will be transforming regardless before conducting any other action?

Times they can't transform for whatever reason

Welll, There have been pretty good stuff in power Rangers since Mighty Morphin.

In Lightspeed Rescue, The Power Rangers are a rescue team sponsored by the local governemnet to fight demons. The demons can't go in the water, so they have a undersea base, with hundreds of people working on it like a proper rescue effort. Among the rangers there were a fireman, a paramedic, a airshow pilot, etc.

In Time Force, the rangers were basically time cops sent into the past to capture a mutant tterrorist that fled with a cryogenic prison filled with different mutants. It had a well-developed romance between the red and pink ranger, some questions and even, at times, philosophical questions about how humans would deal with a whole new race like mutants and how they'd react to them. Also, had one of the BEST sixth rangers, the Quantum ranger.

In SPD Emergency, they are again cops, but now space cops and the show focus on the B-squad, with the show starting by "killing off" the A-Team rangers and introducing the "newbies". It extended the social commentary, since this series takes place in the future filled with aliens and 2 of the rangers were pretty much street thieves that had to make a living on the streets. Also the Blue Ranger had some issues with being the blue rangers, since he was the most properly trained one amongst them and he was demoted to blue, with his father previously being a red ranger before him.

And lastly, Power Rangers in space, that pretty much was the final story and closed the plot for the show since mighty morphin. It also introduced the Psycho Rangers and they had a crossover episode with the TMNT.

Pretty cool stories.

I liked the samurai rangers.

>Everybody plays monks

This actually super important. Part of what makes Power Rangers fun is the campiness. Let the player know ahead of time that its going to a bit light-hearted. And having villians with weird powers helps off set morphing. It means the players should think in boss encounter, instead of punching through them like they can with mooks

Don't forget Power Rangers RPM, which was post-apocalyptic Mad Max power rangers.

Of course it has a plot.

>AAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!
>After 10,000 years I'm finally free!
>It's time to conquer earth!

OP here, this is what I've come up with so far.

In the first couple of sessions, the players will start off like any other campaign. Any class. As they play, they discover the legend of the [Ancient Warriors] who saved the world from demons and all that jazz.

While exploring a dungeon/ruin, they find the tombs of the warriors. The players don't know the importance yet. All that is left are suits of seemingly normal armor. (Maybe the players can only start with leather armor, so they have an incentive to swap for this new kind?)

Players start having weird visions, seeing through the lives of past warriors. Eventually boss showdown. Something triggers the armor to activate, and it morphs into full bodied badass armor. It has the same AC as plate mail when Morphed.

Players get their Morphin Time benefits, kick some ass, feel awesome.
The armor being awakened also awakens notZordon, a spirit/god who explains the purpose of the warriors.

Unfortunately, it also awoke the BBEG, and his worshippers/followers feel the rejuvenated connection.

I'm thinking along the campaign, players will uncover secrets of the Zords, which are basically spirit animals/creatures.
When faced with giant monsters, the players can embody their Zord, turning them into a spectral wolf/bear/triceratops/frog (whatever the player chose). It is has its own stats, and can only be used in certain plot-driven circumstances.

Mechanics:
Morphin Time
>(Ability, based on Barbarian Rage. Use twice per long rest).
>Armor envelops entire body of the player, giving them an AC of 18
>Advantage on STR checks and saving throws
>Advantage on DEX checks and saving throws
>+2 to damage
>Resistance to element of individual armor/color (fire, ice, lightening, bludgeoning, etc)
>Extra attack per round
>Speed increases by 10'
I'll probably spread these out, maybe every 3 levels.

Also, I loved Wild Force as a kid.

Idk why the fuck it spoiler'd everything

Don't forget about Ranger weapons.

Maybe that's another part of the storyline, uncovering artifacts lost to time that were used by past Rangers

No, make it so they can't morph unless they're doing a group pose.

Nah, just have a mentor character randomly tell them during some battle "use your Power Thingums!" and they all realise they can just materialise magic weapons in their hands.

>bayrangers
>not power rangers

Trash it.

>Not going on quests to find new power thingums
Trash taste aside, what about executing team attacks?

>That Guy that appears 10 sessions later with a Kamen Rider ripoff

I got you, OP. I actually ran a short-lived PR homebrew.
Zords should be clumsy for anything less than a size under. Have it make sense to use against larger enemies.
In Jungle Fury, there is only one actual physical Zord (the Rhino Zord, which was basically a giant monster on the side of good). Everything else is a spectral manifestation of the Rangers' kung fu (which was the theme of the season).
Weapons are important. Individual Rangers almost always have three avenues of attack:
>Unarmed Attack
>sidearms
Sometimes it's a gun. Sometimes it's a short sword. Sometimes it's one in each hand. Sometimes it's a gun that becomes a short sword.
>individualized weapons
In my scifi story, the individualizedweapons were a hilt that created a plasma blade, a futuristic carbine modeled after Captain Cold's gun, a pair of rock-em-sock-em electrified gauntlet-shields, and anti-grav boots. A "utility" weapon is a good switchup, encourages creativity.
And of course you have the battle-ending group finisher.
More like Terminator Bad Future.

>He only lasts a few sessions before being dismissed

Now I want to run a Beetleborgs campaign trying to rip you off.

To be fair, the Power Rangers/Masked Rider crossover was a fun way to set up the new show, back in the day.

Nah, there's incentive.
In RPM, the Rangers are defined as covert operatives. Not because brightly-colored self-assembling nanofibers (not spandex) are subtle, but because if the morpher is concealed (either in a pocket or under a sleeve) then you have no way of picking the Ranger out of a lineup, let alone a crowd.
You and the rest of the standard mooks roll into town, proceed to fuck shit up. Then someone stabs you in the back with a flaming greatsword. As you lay burning to death, the last thing you see before oblivion is your armored killer transforming into the baker's son you thought ran away in fear. Too bad you'll never live to tell anyone, that's some pretty good intel...

>utility weapon
Definitely will prove interesting.

What kinds of baddies did your Power Rangers face?

kek I actually thought about Beetleborgs too. I thought I was the only one who remembered that show

I had the blue action figure and the gold one. They were shiny at least and who doesn't love a wish gone wrong scenario to give the heroes just a little more incentive to hero?

Standard mooks - turned out to be regular joes with evil knockoff morphers fused to their chests, turning them into shambling kung fu zombies. As far as they had known, morphing tech was restricted to their employers, so what was this shit?
Monsters: Pollux, a blue strongfat devil man who threw fireballs, and Castor, a blue auschwitz-mode devil man who used bursts of fire to enhance his entirely kick-oriented fighting (coming up with new moves on the fly was super fun), fought as a pair
So instead of going to bed and waiting for the next mission, they decided to get drunk and laid. I gave them a barn nightclub/rave, with a bunch of women for them to flirt with and guys to posture against. Three of the women were actually spies.
Evil Rangers: a trio of women in white suits way better than the PCs had. Each had color-coded accents, all modeled after big cats, complete with energy claws. Had a cute mid-20s girl as leader, a punky asian chick barely out of her teens, and a MILF way too old to be clubbing. I had to roleplay the flirty villainess with one of my players, and it was fucking hilarious. All the cliches just flowed out from me like water from a stone.
The boss would have been post-In Space Zedd, who had been waiting for his chance to go evil again. I had a whole setpiece for him and everything
BIIIIIIG
BAAAAAAD
BEEEETLEEEBORGS

Look up Gonzo 2, it's for PF but you can likely adapt the literal power ranger class to 5e with a teeny bit of effort. Comes with a pile of themed power packages and archetypes for slightly ifferent ranger types.

Don't forget that Time Force started off with THE VILLAIN KILLING THE ACTUAL RED RANGER TO FUCKING DEATH

Black Cowboy Pilot was rad.

Ninja Storm had an entire ninja academy get kidnapped by the villain, who hired alien mercenaries to fight the Rangers. Turns out he had a great plan. Dead monsters take up space in the Underworld, and when it's completely full, it bursts open. Either one random merc kills the Rangers, or they all do when All Hell Breaks Loose. Meanwhile, the morphers weren't even a part of this: the academy's tech guy whipped up some morphers on his own from directions he got from a guy who knows a guy.

RPM had 99% of humanity being slaughtered when Skynet came online and the War Against the Machines started.

Operation Overdrive (as bad as it was) had a treasure hunt between the Rangers and like 3 different villain factions. The mentor paid someone to make the team morphers from directions he got from a guy who knows a guy.

Jungle Fury had KUNG FU SPIRIT ANIMALS WATAAW also Totally Not Jack Sparrow gives them morphers he got from a guy who knows a guy.

He was so fucking thirsty

Could you blame him?

Wasn't it implied that the "guy" the guy knew was the lady from Dino Thunder?

kek
I'd play in your game, user

Heavily

Dino Thunder

Dino thunder best ranger

Wtf computer?

Reminder that Lost Galaxy was just an operation conducted by the Mobile Infantry.

I enjoyed the story to In Space, how the Red Ranger was from another planet and it turns out the BBEG was his sister who was redeemed in the end.

Also enjoyed the "Gotta catch 'em all" story from Wild Force. I always wanted my own zord armada marble collection.

At least d20 Modern called magazines "magazines". Even Shadowrun can't claim that.

Was LG the one where the villainess trained to become stronger after the heroes kept beating her? That blew my mind as a kid. Bad guys actually putting in work instead of just trying the same shit over and over.

Jungle Fury was that, up to 11. The villain had his own entire subplot of finding new masters to train under.

in 5 e? no idea.

ran a heroes unlimited game where everyone was a mystically bestowed character, they all gained the same basic boosts and all had a unique power.

in 5e? No not so much. 5e is a hyper-specialized system, not a broad catch-all system.

While a out doing teenage shenanigans, the group comes across a badass battle scarred red ranger who lost his team years ago in some badass battle. Wounded and having lost the fight the red ranger and teens barley escape with there lives. Knowing he is outgunned and outmatched, he trains the new team in a secret underground base as the earth above wages a desperate war with the bad guys.

Your players wanted to play a soulless cash grab movie with terrible redesigns?

Damn, those suits look like shit

It makes suprise rounds more important.

You can even have something similar for the big bad so his Mook squad doesnt show up if you jump him till he gets his turn, meaning he'll be easier to surrond and dogpile or something.

Contrawise if you get ambushed the suprise round they get bonuses to layin the hurt.

Whaaaat? But Rita cleaned up her act post space what about that? Did their marriage break down or something?

This
Also provides a sense of drama when their morphers get stolen and sense of accomplishment when they are able to defeat the goldar equivalent on their own.

Can you be more specific? What did they request? Was it just "Power Rangers"? And what do they like about it?

so almost run it like Gatchaman Crowds? which also definitely has a team of different classes instead of 5 punch-em-up dudes?

>extraplanar entities a common occurance with sentai heros
>team of varied powers instead of singular cohesive unit, avoiding all these "give everybody X / remove X" suggestions

Look to Gatchaman Crowds for inspiration, imo.

that's hw you raise the stakes for late campaign levels.

after all, power rangers didn't start with zords, they had to earn them over like 4 seasons.

variant multiclassing is a thing, right? replace feats get class stuff like rage?

In fact, this guy actually has a really good idea to come up with suggestions for the things you tack onto enemies to keep pace with the rage you're giving players. Much, much better solution than "more health.

youtube.com/watch?v=QoELQ7px9ws

yeah, if anything "use your thingums" should be reserved for team attacks, you quest for the artifacts, but you could have technically teamworked at any time.

It was a good show. I remember having some of there toys lol

I really liked the story of In Space, between the Red Ranger and Andromeda. SO glad when she finally got a chance to be a power ranger too. They teased us as a kid with that brief "gone good" bit in the middle (I saw her in the uniform and a purple shirt and TOTALLY thought she was gonna be a purple ranger.)

I meant how they needed to hide their identities in mighty morphin even though Rita clearly knew who they were

Rita did. We have nothing on Zedd since Space

Play a super system instead.

I refuse to believe that their relationship would break apart into "Big good" and "evil emperor." That ship was the most solid thing in the series.

Purest of loves.