D20 Future

[IronWolf]

D20 Future is a future-setting expansion for D20 Modern, designed to handle genres such as Bladerunner, Minority Report and Aliens.

Provides new rules and campaign modules for running a futuristic d20 Modern campaign. This new rules supplement provides everything players and gamemasters need to participate in a futuristic adventure with d20 Modern rules. The wealth of information in this volume covers new character traits, feats, advanced classes, starting occupations, gear, vehicles, starships, aliens, monsters, and different types of futuristic travel. Also included is extensive discussion of different types of furturistic science, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, xenobiology, and even a section on mutations. As this title ties directly to the d20 Modern rules system, it includes new psionic magic rules which influence everything from psionic power to item creation.

 

[trancejeremy]

Introduction and Characters

What I really like about d20 Modern, is that it covers a whole lot of ground - while it might not be the best at what it does, it can handle just about any sort of modern day game out of the box (er, book).

d20 Future largely tries to do the same thing for future games (other than being just a sourcebook for d20 Modern, not a stand alone book), actually being even more ambitious, trying to cover just about every future topic possible: Starships, Mecha, Cybernetics, Mutants, Space Monkeys, Robots, Genetic Engineering, Time and Dimensional Travel. But I think this is also it's fault. Because while it's ambitious, it's hard to cover all these subjects in just 224 pages. Heck, each of those subjects could get its own 224 page and still not fill it up. But for the most part, D20 Future does a decent job in giving you at least the basics on each subject.

It starts off with about 25 pages on characters. You'll need d20 Modern for this, so if you don't have it, it won't make much sense. Basically, more starting occupations, feats, and expanded skill descriptions for technological and futuristic purposes.

Possibly one of the most controversial (sort of) things in this section are a series of feats that lets a character take 2 talents from a classes talent tree. In s20 Modern, I think of talents are sort of "super-feats" so it's odd that if you take a feat, you get two talents. On the flip side, you don't get to pick any talent, the list of picks you can take is generally restricted to the more lame talents. There are also some feats for people from high gravity and low gravity worlds - the former provides a +2 bonus to Strength, the latter a +2 bonus to Dexterity. Some might find that a bit much.

Also interesting is the "Nerve Pinch" feat, so you can now have your character emulate Spock from Star Trek. (No "Play Space Lute" or "Sing about Hobbits" feat, mercifully)

There are 12 new Advanced classes in the opening section, plus several more scattered throughout the book. For those not familiar with d20 Modern, they are sort of like Prestige Classes, but available at lower levels (usually 4th). d20 Modern does have Prestige Classes, but there are none in this book (they are mostly in Urban Arcana, I think).

Most of the Advanced classes are sort of just like jobs: Ambassador, Dogfighter, Engineer, Explorer, Field Officer, Space Monkey (basically, someone who works on starships), Swindler, Tracer (like a Bounty Hunter). Some are kind of weird, like the "Helix Warrior", which is a genetically enhanced fighter (seems more suitable for a template, I think) or "Xenophile", basically someone who really really likes aliens.

To a certain extent, I think most of the Advanced Classes in this book are a bit more powerful than the ones found in d20 Modern. At least, many have better base attack bonuses - several have the best progression, and none seem to have the worst.


Campaigns


It then tries to describe 8 different campaigns in 20 pages. Obviously, the net result is that each setting only gets glossed over. There's a combination of past TSR/WOTC games and new ones.

"Bughunters", which was originally for the Amazing Engine system. I used to own the book for it, and it was pretty neat. Basically, it's an Aliens clone, except while the PCs are basically Space Marines (or Bughunters), they were clones of people on earth.

"Star Law", which is sort of a take on Star Frontiers. Basically, it's based on the premise of the original boxed set, that the PCs are Star Law officers. Most of the modules for Star Frontiers didn't follow this premise, so it's a bit different feel than I was expecting.

"Star*Drive", which used to be an Alternity setting. Didn't like it then, don't like it now. Seems sort of in the galactic empires vein, like Traveller or Star Wars or Foundation, but with really bad art (everything has lines in it, like the art in Oathbound.)

There's "Genetech", which is about human-animal crossbreeds and their problems. Eh. "Dimension X", which is somewhat like that awful Jet Li movie, "The One", someone is destroying parallel dimensions, and it's up to Li to stop it. Or the PCs, in this case.

"The Dark Heart of Space" seems to be Cthulhu in Space at first glance, but the sample Advanced Class for this is sort of a religious exorcist type, sort of odd. "Mecha Crusade" appears to be something of a Jovian Chronicles clone - basically, mecha in space, but confined to the solar system.

Lastly, "The Wasteland", which is suspiciously similar to the computer game "Wasteland". Basically, a post nuclear war game. No "Snake Squeezins" in the equipment section, though.

Some of these seem interesting, but the trouble is, at 2-3 pages each, it's simply not enough to really do anything with. If you want to run a game based on these, you'll either need the original book for additional background material, or do all the work yourself. The latter is the only option for the settings new to this book.

There's a section on "Environments", but it's very small (6 pages) and can easily miss it. But basically, it's rules for high, low and zero gravity, radiation, etc, and has a very very brief section on stars. Very very brief. No tables for generating planets or anything like that.


Gear/Weapons

D20 Future uses "Progress Levels" (PL), which are essentially Technology Levels with a different name. 0 is Stone Age, we're 5 (Information Age), 6 is Fusion Age, 7 Gravity Age, 8 is Energy Age, and 9 is "And Higher" (Stoned Age? Heh).

The gear section is kinda sparse. Each progress level only has a handful of weapons and maybe 1 or 2 pieces of armor.

For our PL, 5, there are stats for the new fangled OICW that is coming out. But in D20 terms, it's pretty much exactly like any other assault rifle, though the description says how deadly and great it is. Sort of a dichotomy there, but not really unexpected given the way d20 Modern handles guns. This is about as high tech as projectile weapons (at least firearms) get in d20 Future, unfortunately.

For Progress Level 6, you get the Laser pistol and Laser rifle, which do 2d8 and 3d8 damage, and have 50 shots. For PL7, there's the "Concussion Rifle", which does 2d10+knockdown, a Plasma Pistol that does 2d10, and a Plasma Rifle that does 3d10. Ooh, and a "Rail Gun" that does 3d12, though the thing is enormous (looks like a good 5 feet long, and 18 lbs.). PL8 has a Cryonic Rifle, a Disintegrator, a Lightning Gun, a Pulse Rifle (basically a laser rifle, not like the ones from Aliens, which shot bullets), and Sonic Beam.

Actually, other than the "Rail Gun" the list is mostly energy weapons. No needlers and no gyrojets, which were Star Frontiers mainstays.

Generally speaking, the pistols are all "S", while the rifles are all "A" (except the OICW, which has special rules).

While the weapons seem to improve from PL to PL, the armor seems to pretty much stay the same. Even at the highest level, it's no better than modern day armor. For instance, PL6 Light Combat Armor has the same stats as a modern day "Undercover Vest". Only until you hit "Powered Armor" does it actually get any better than the PL5 Modern Day "Land Warrior" armor, and even then, it's still on par as some of the armor in the D20 Modern book. Though the powered armor types give boosts to strength (thus the name).

Though there are personal force fields and such at high levels that provide damage reduction.

On interesting thing introduced is a "Gadget" system. There's a similar one in Spycraft, but basically, you can add gizmos or improve weapons and armor and other things. This ranges from the implausible (like being able to build in a whole other weapon) to the silly (LCD spray paint) to the somewhat useful (expanded magazine, giving you more ammo).

There is a feat required for the use of Powered Armor, but futuristic weapons (except ones by aliens) don't need any feat besides the regular firearms proficiency.


Genetic Engineering and Nanotech


There's a section on genetic engineering and such.

At Progress Level 6 and higher, characters can be improved by gene therapy. They can improve stats, add special abilities, or add templates. Basically, this works mechanically by a series of fortitude saves. If you make say, 20 to 30 of them, it finally works. Miss one, and you suffer some side effects. There doesn't seem to be any monetary costs for this, though.

There's a bit on cloning, but it's mostly just fluff.

There's also about 5 pages on nanotechnology. Some background on it, and some sample nanostuff. Nothing very exciting. Gray goo, which turns anything into more grey goo. Utility fog, which can be programmed to do take the shape of just about anything (I think Meatwad from Aqua Teen Hunger Force is one of these). Several nanoviruses and some helpful nanoaugmenters. The latter two items don't see to have any purchase cost listed.


Starships

Starships are essentially broken up into two different chapters. One on "Traveler Science", ie, basically on the how of futuristic travel (mostly spaceships but also time and dimensional) and a length chapter on Spaceships themselves.

This is probably the most confusing part of the book. Not so much the way it was written, but the way it was structured. It starts to describe some starship systems (engines) before starships are actually discussed.

The starship chapter starts off with starship combat, then when that is finished, we finally get into the basics of ships, almost like a Monster Manual for ships.

Starship combat essentially works like regular d20/D&D combat, complete with Attacks of Opportunity. Ships have hit points, etc. Weapons tend to do a lot of damage, so it helpfully suggests that you just take the average of the dice rolls. On the one hand, this method is actually pretty easy, because it's like the combat you normally use. But on the other hand, it really doesn't feel like starship combat.

It presents a fairly long catalog of ships, but it handles them in a manner that can only be described as odd. Or maybe bizarre. Essentially there is a long list of pre-made ships, sort of a catalog, complete with stats. (One oddity - ships have "weight". Not mass, not displacement, but "weight". Okay. Even though there is an explanation of the difference between mass and weight in the book, the book itself seems to ignore this. Though that is perhaps unavoidable, since this book uses Imperial units, and almost no one is familiar with the units of mass in that system - slugs - just like few people know the units of weight in the metric system - Newtons.)

It works fine, until you want to know the price of one, or you want to make one yourself. The price is tricky because no final price is given. You get a "Base Price", which is basically the ship's hull (and crew?), but without anything on it - no weapons/armor, no engines, no sensors, nothing. In order to get the final price, you have to convert the Base Price from a Wealth Check DC to an actual value, and do the the same for all the equipment. Then add it all up, and convert it back to a Wealth Check DC. It does helpfully say that in most cases, the Wealth Check DC only goes up by 1. But really, doesn't this whole thing defeat the whole purpose of pre-made ships? Would it have been that hard to include a price themselves? (Well, yes, as I mentioned it's not an easy process, but they are just passing the chore to the buyer of the book).

Now, as to designing a starship yourself, well, you are somewhat limited. Essentially, you have to pick one of the premade ships and add the various equipment options to it. There's often not a whole lot of choice in ship systems. For instance, at just about every PL level, the only difference in engines is not performance, but cost.

From what I can glean from various message boards, the designers simply used the starship building system someone wrote for Alternity, then converted the stats to D20. Unfortunately, they didn't include this system, or how to convert the stats. So, even if you track down that Alternity supplement (which I'm not going to do, as I loathe Alternity), you would have to figure out how they converted it.

There's also just one sort of faster than light travel suitable for interstellar distances. Basically, Babylon 5 style jump-gates. Some of the ship engines are capable of FTL speeds, but the fastest caps out at 25 times the speed of light, which while pretty fast compared to my car (which is fairly fast for a car, BTW, 300+ hp), would still take 2 months to get to the closest star system. At the highest progress level, PL9, there is a so called "Jump Drive", but again, it's like the Babylon 5 ability to open an entrance into Jumpspace. PL9 is also out of range of most of the equipment in the book. So, unless you plan on coming up with your own material, you can't really run much of a space game with this section. Maybe an Aliens style game, like Bughunters, where 2 months between close stars isn't out of line. But for things like say, Star Frontiers, or something like Traveller, it's not suitable.

Also, while the selection of ships is fairly large, it does seem lacking some types that I like. For instance, if I were a future space guy, I would really like to have a small-ish space liner. A lot of people like the idea of a Free Trader game, but I always found the idea of a smallish space liner (that is, carrying people) to be more interesting. (I probably watched too much Love Boat as a child.) But there isn't one. There are medium and huge space liners, but no small ones. So I would be out of luck. Definitely a thumbs down on the starship section. It's almost really unusable.


Mecha

Mecha are handled fairly simply, but for the most part, I like how they handled them. Basically, Mecha are rated mostly on size - Large, Huge, Gargantuan and Colossal. Each size has a fixed amount of hit points (100, then double the previous size) and a fixed number of "slots". You build a mecha by adding various items to the slots. (Doom Striders, a fantasy d20 mecha supplement, uses a similar method of slots).

There's a decent amount of choices, overall, but generally only a few items per Progress Level. For instance, there's 6 types of stuff a Mecha can be made out of, but only 1 for PL5 and PL8, and 2 each for PL6 and PL7. Similarly, there are 8 different versions of sensors, but what you use mostly depends on Progress Level.

Weapons are somewhat more plentiful. About 5-6 per Progress level (except PL8), usually a variety of rockets, missiles, melee weapons and guns. Though oddly, at Progress Level 8, 2 of the 3 are melee weapons.

One thing that some might find odd is that Mecha don't have their own built in strength score, but add a certain amount of strength to the pilot's own. In the grand scheme of things, it probably doesn't matter much, since the bonuses are quite large, but a strong person in a Large Mecha (which is smallest) would have a strength equal (or maybe greater) than a weak person in a Huge Mecha (the 2nd smallest)

Characters need a variety of feats to operate a Mecha effectively. One to pilot it, one for it's weapons, plus about 10 or so for various cool special maneuvers. There's a Mecha Jockey advanced class which will also help a lot.



In the future, there are Robots

Robots are handled simply, too. They are mostly based on two things - size and frame. Size is the standard d20 size system, and frame is a choice between "Armature", like a walking TV Tray; "Biomorph", vaguely animal shaped; "Biodroid", somewhat human like, like C3PO or Ted Koppel; "Bioreplica", virtually identical to human (the asian schoolgirl with the katana on the cover is one of these - Yorikobot); and "Liquid Metal", which is sort of like Robert Patrick from Terminator 2, except it cannot have any sort of color except metal color, so it would be like a silver Robert Patrick.

Basically, to make a robot, you cross reference the size with the sort of robot frame you want to get the basic stats, then spend money on improving it with various gizmos. Again, it's a bit of a pain, because of d20 Modern's Wealth System - you have to convert the base price to a monetary value from a Wealth Check DC, and all the equipment as well, then add up the money values, and convert back. I don't know why they couldn't put the monetary value in parentheses (there's room, and it would make things much easier. I'll probably end up writing them in myself).

Robots can either be characters, and gain skills and feats (and talents) via a character class, or they can go the software route, and add them that way. It's either one way or the other, not both.

Only 3 sample robots are given. A security robot, a police robot (unfortunately, not an ED 209 clone), and presumably the robot that is on the cover of the book, a "Nuyu" Doppleganger robot.

One thing that irked me, is that a sidebar takes a cheap shot at Isaac Asimov's 3 laws of robotics. It says they are simplistic and not realistic, maybe so, but it doesn't provide any evidence to back that assertion up. Plus, it fails to mention that they were essentially a literary device - pretty much all of his robot stories are either based on them, either being experiments in logic (figuring out just how his robots would obey this laws) or actually pointing out the problems in the laws (by robots acting weird). The ideas it suggests are even sillier - giving robots a sense of morality. I think it would be far easier to simply imprint 3 basic rules that a robot has to follow at all times (Asimov's Laws) than to teach a robot morality. Especially since morality can be subjective - do you really want Nietzchean robots running around? I'm not saying that can't be done, but it would probably take more effort.


Cybernetics

Cybernetics gets a scant 8 pages. Basically, characters can have a number of implants/gizmos equal to 1 plus their constitution bonus. They can also improve this by 1 if they take a special feat. So, it's unlikely that characters will end up too cybered, since the average person will only have 1 or 2, and at most, 5-6.

There are about 30 enhancements (that is, gizmos) and about 10 replacement (that is, standard prosthetics, no improvements).

They are handled the way D20 Modern handles stuff - wealth checks. The better something is, the higher the check. For instance, a fortified skeleton, which gives a 4/- damage resistance, is a DC of 32. OTOH, Luminous skin has a DC of 4. The selection is pretty standard, the luminous skin is about the only really unusual thing. Frankly, I liked the cyberware in OGL Cybernet better.

The section on Mutants is pretty short, about 10 pages. Basically it uses a very simple point buy system. A character takes so many points of negative mutations, and they can take an equal amount of points of good mutations. There are also many "cosmetic" mutations, like oddly colored hair or fins, which basically don't do anything, and cost no points. Good if you want to make a character that looks like a 50s Chevy, though.

There's not a huge amount of mutations, maybe 50 positive ones and 20 negative ones, but you can make some interesting mutants, like pseudo-vampires, who have fangs and drink blood. I really like how this section was done, but I think I would liked to have seen some stock mutant types.

The powers aren't all that overpowering. The most expensive ones (in terms of point cost) are X-Ray vision, wings, extra arms, tenatacles, enlarged form, and Pheromone attraction. The latter gives the character a +4 bonus to relevent checks - Diplomacy, Bluff, Handle Animal (?) and Intimidate, which would be about double the power of two feats.

I can't compare it with the system for Gamma World or the 2nd edition of d20 Modern, not having them. I used to have most the Darwin's World print stuff, but I traded it away a while ago, so I don't remember it clearly, but I think it used a similar system, of "mutant points", though I think it went from 1 to 3 points.


Aliens

Lastly, there's a short section on aliens.

I am mostly familiar with the aliens from Star Frontiers. 3 of them get statted up - Vrusk (a giant bug), Dralasite (sort of a blob thingie), and Yazirian (basically a gliding monkey). The stats for the Vrusk and Yazirians don't really match up with the original descriptions or stat modifiers in Star Frontiers. For instance, the Yazirians were a race of fairly smart, but touchy flying monkeys (their gliding ability largely implied they evolved on a low-g world, and this was also reflected in their low strength in Star Frontiers). In this, they are like stereotypical monkeys, strong but stupid.

There's a handful of other aliens, some (most?) apparently from Star Drive and other Alternity settings. Honestly, the non-Star Frontiers aliens are pretty lame. There's the Fraal, which are a really uninspired version of the "Grey" sort of alien from UFO lore (but no other aliens from UFO lore show up); T'Sa, which looks like something a cat coughed up (okay, actually they look more like a cartoon cat without any skin, like Scratchy on the Simpsons); Sesheyan, sort of an imp like race, but with 8 little eyes; Aleerin, sort of a non-evil cybernetic people who humans supposedly nickname "Mechalus", but in reality wouldn't, since that's an incredibly awkward name; and Weren, which seem to be a cross between a Bigfoot/Sasquatch and a walrus. What, no Loch Ness monster/penguin hybrid as a counterpart? I want my Nessguins!

So, I really really didn't like the alien section. I would have liked more Science-Fictiony aliens, like things from James White's Sector General series.

I also think it would have been cool to have a design section for aliens. Something like the mutant section. Where an alien power would cost so much "alien points", while alien disadvantages would have negative cost, to help you build aliens that were balanced. I think Bulldogs! uses a system like that. (That's a d20 SF RPG that I was going to buy, but had to pass on when I had to replace my TV, which exploded.)



Appearance and Layout

It's a pretty nice looking book. The art is excellent. I wasn't crazy about some of the art in d20 Modern, especially how many people didn't seem to have noses, but the art in this is much better and nose-filled. I especially like the pictures of the starships. They look like starships, they're big, blocky things, as opposed to the overly stylistic stuff you often find (Ikea in space).

Still, some of the outfits for the women are pretty silly. Basically, just about every female in this has a bare midriff, apparently Britney Spears has a big influence on future style. In most cases, I don't mind, but in some cases, like for the iconic "Dreadnought", Stephanie, it's silly to see basically a powered armor bikini. (Okay, not quite a bikini, but kind of silly looking, most of her encased in really heavy armor, but her mid-section exposed. At the very least, people would have the urge to poke her in the belly, like the Pilsbury Dough Boy)

The layout is generally pretty good, but on the down side, there is no index. A nice table of contents helps a bit, but the background used on the table of contents page makes it very hard to use.


Final Thoughts

All in all, though, kind of a disappointing book, the more I read, the less I liked it (you can sort of tell by comparing my opening section to this part, actually). I generally like the way they did things, but they just didn't cover each subject well enough. I think I would have liked to have seen the ground in this book covered by 2 or more similarly sized books. Say, "d20 Space", with rules for starships, planets, space, aliens, etc. Then something like "d20 Cyber" or "d20 Near Future", with cybernetics, mutants, mecha, etc.

The starships chapter is also just maddening. It's hard to figure out and somewhat incomplete. Plus, for just about everything you can design, you have to convert from the d20 Wealth Check system to a cash value, then add them up, then convert back. Why couldn't they simply also give you the cash value of items? Would have taken almost no extra space (since following the Wealth Check DC is a large blank area, enough room to put a price in) and not that much effort, but it would save the user a lot of time.

Also, while the price to page ratio isn't that unreasonable (considering there are $30 144 page books and $25 96 page books), it's not a bargain either.

So, call it a C-. I don't feel ripped off, but I don't feel satisfied, either. It's like a toolkit, but a toolkit just a few sockets and a wrench, maybe one type of screwdriver. In order to actually build something with it, not only will you have to do a lot of work yourself, you'll need to buy or make more tools.

From what I've read, many of the problems I had with the book were not the authors fault, but cropped up when the book was edited, presumably to bring the size down to 224 pages ( I think they also much have cut out the psionic and magic rules mentioned in the blurb here) and possibly to make it more politically correct. On the plus side, for those of us with internet connections (which is probably everyone reading this), some of the authors might post the stuff that didn't make it into the book. Not an ideal solution, but something. They've also left a lot of room for 3rd party companies to fill the void, in expanding the various sections and publishing settings.

But I'm not sure how many companies will be supporting d20 Future. RPGObjects should be updating Blood & Space and Prometheus (sort of a realistic near future, solar system based setting) for d20 Future, Blue Devil Games has a setting called "Dawning Star" coming out in September, I think, and down the road, one of the authors of d20 Future, Rodney Thompson, has a Firefly-esque Sci-Fi/Western setting in the works.

James Maliszewski (a top notch freelance author and actually the guy I traded my Darwin's World stuff to), has something called the 4th Imperium in the works and the Louis Porter people have something in the works, too, a combination (in feel) of Babylon 5, Aliens, and Space Above & Beyond. And Star Ace, bought by Phil Reed some time ago, will finally be put out as a d20 Future product, written by a number of well known freelancers (you might remember it was originally going to use the first version of Blood & Space, but was eaten in a hard drive crash.) I think the last few are probably going to be PDF only, though I'm not sure.

But as near as I can tell, nothing from WOTC themselves, the next d20 Modern release is d20 Past, and that's in 2005, so at the earliest, we might see a d20 Future supplement from them in a year or so..


Third Party Links:


4th Milenium (I know, it's a yahoo group)
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/fourth-millennium/

Dawning Star

http://www.bluedevilgames.com/dawningstar.htm

I don't think any of the others have even gotten past the announcement stage, even to just having a web site. You can get the free version of Prometheus from RPGNow, just go to the RPGObjects section. It's more like an outline, but pretty neat.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

<a href="http://www.fourth-millennium.com"><i>Fourth Millennium</i></a> will be produced through Phil Reed's <a href="http://www.creationcrash.com">Ronin Arts</a>, with the first product, <i>Fourth Millennium Player's Guide</i> becoming available in PDF form as soon as the <b>D20 Future</b> OGC is added to the SRD. It's an overview of the setting (of which more can be found on Phil's site), along with some new game mechanics to tweak <b>D20 Future</b> to the transhuman space opera of <i>Fourth Millennium</i>. Subsequent releases in the series will include a mix of setting and rules material, with the intention that every release will contain enough new rules to satisfy even those uninterested in the setting.

Print release will occur sometime next year in all likelihood.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Good review, detailed and very balanced. Each section's covered in just enough detail: not too much or too little. This review expressed my opinion of the book almost verbatim. After I read through d20 Future, I had the exact same reaction to it that Jeremy did, and I'm convinced that every person who reads this review that's already read through a copy of d20 Future will too. D20 Future gives you a bare minimum of material on every section it covers. With what you get, you can slowly start crawling your way towards making your own future-themed campaign, but it will NOT be easy.

The starship section is poorly organized and confusing, but other sections, like the gear and vehicles sections, aren't exactly stellar either. The selection of higher PL armor was extremely underwhelming. There was almost no selection of futurstic armors at all! Nowhere is there mention of how armor technology evolved over the years to compensate for advances in weapons technology, at what few armors were there were so underpowered that they weren't much better than the armors in d20 modern! I was shocked to see that there wasn't even a simple sidebar with rules on how to convert ballistic (tactical) armor from d20 modern to laser/plasma/sonic/etc. resistant armor in d20 future! They could've at least had a section that said that energy-resistant armor had the exact same characteristics as ballistic armor in d20 modern, except with a different listing in the "type" category, but they didn't even have that! I was personally confused by why they didn't cover the potential interactions between weapons and armor of different PL's. Weapons of much higher PL's should probably be able to blow right through lower PL armors as if it wasn't there, and weapons of lower PL's might not even be able to penetrate higher PL armors at all. And even if the differences weren't so dramatic, surely there should be some decrease or increase in effectiveness in interactions between higher and lower PL weapons and armor. These aren't my only complaints, but they're the big ones. To sum it up: the d20 Future team pretty much dropped the ball when it came to the entire 'gear' section.

As for the vehicle section: not very well explained/narrated at all. Is there any real reason why ground vehicles are still availible in the PL 8 energy age at all? And if so, are they hover-vehicles like groundspeeders in Star Wars, or advanced wheeled vehicles with tires made out of some super polymer or what? And why aren't there any PL8 hover-vehicles? Surely there should've been advancements in hover-technology by then. I just don't get it. The authors really should've given a through overview of what every PL covered in the book was like: with all the equipment, advances, and even a description of what everyday society/life included. It sure would've been helpful.

I honestly believe that the book should've been at least 300 pages (although 400+ would've been better) in order to cover the topics it did even slightly more than half-decently. This book isn't even close to being as detailed or consistent as it should be. I'm just hoping (actually, pretty much expecting) that there are going to be multiple, long web-enhancements with tons of details filling in the gaps that should've been filled in this book in the first place. If they ever release a Revised or 3.5 or Expanded (or whatnot) d20 future (and I DO hope they will) I hope that they'll let me at least turn in my old book for a discount, because I'm not all that satisfied.

 

[Turanil]

Nice and long review, thanks.

I read in this review about starships: "...So, even if you track down that Alternity supplement ..." Well, this must be the suplement available here:

http://dcrouzet.chez.tiscali.fr/downloads/alternity_starships.zip

 

[Messageboard Golem]

By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine Rack

Initiative Round
d20 Future is a d20 Modern supplement from Wizards of the Coast. Brought to you by Christopher Perkins, Rodney Thompson, and JD Wiker, this 224-page full-color hardcover has cover art by Dave Johnson depicting three vaguely-familiar iconic heroes. Timothy Il, Kalman Andrasofszky, Daniel Falconer, Langdon Foss, Grafikismik, Matthew Hatton, Karl Kerschl, Stephan Martiniere, Warren Mahey, Christian Piccolo, Joel Thomas, Chris Trevas, Francis Tsai, and Ronald Wimberly contribute to the interior art. d20 Future retails for $34.95.

This is it, the long anticipated companion volume to d20 Modern! Launch your heroes into the future, where urban sprawls, virtual cyberscapes and the deeps of endless space await. Truth be told, on thumbing through, my first impression was, “This is it?”

d20 Future builds on d20 Modern. That is, you’ll need the latter to make use of the former. There are no core classes or rules for character generation here. That’s all covered in the d20 Modern book. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with all the extra space they saved, they’ve been given the opportunity to fill it up with all kinds of extra goodies. And I must say; it’s packed full.

We begin with a look at Progress Levels. Anyone who is familiar with the Alternity system will immediately know this term, and it really hasn’t changed much. A Progress Level (PL) is an indication of the state of technology that exists in a particular society or civilization. D20 Future has 8 Progress Levels inherent to it; PL 0 (Stone Age), PL 1 (Bronze/Iron Age), PL 2 (Middle Ages), PL 3 (Age of Reason), PL 4 (Industrial Age), PL 5 (Information Age), PL 6 (Fusion Age), PL 7 (Gravity Age), and PL 8 (Energy Age). Anything higher than PL 8 is generally considered unfathomable by our standards. Though the titles are largely self-explanatory, d20 Future offers a few words about the highlights of each PL.

Having different PLs provides the GM with three valuable tools. First, it sets a standard for purchasing specialized equipment. If you want to purchase a piece of equipment from an earlier PL, the Purchase DC is reduced by 2 for every PL lower than the current Progress Level (except in the case of valuable antiques). Adjusting the Purchase DC by +5 will permit characters to obtain technology from the next PL only, representing the cutting edge of technology. Second, it is entirely possible, even on modern-day Earth, to find wildly disparate Progress Levels (compare New York to a third-world country). Finally, this being science-fiction, time travel and space travel grant the possibility of finding oneself in a very different period.

d20 Future offers up a few new character occupations, many of which are relevant even to strictly modern campaigns. The astronaut trainee is, well, an astronaut, for lack of a better term. A colonist is a wayfaring pioneer who helps build new worlds, while drifters are homeless jack-of-all-trades, and don’t change much between now and tomorrow. The gladiator is a fighter, and may be driven by several reasons, the heir stands to receive a potentially large sum of money, and the outcast is less an occupation and more a forced way of life. Finally, scavengers and transporters both exist even today and there is no reason to assume that they won’t be there tomorrow as well.

There are no new skills, but there are a few new uses for old ones. Feats are another matter, and you’ll find quite a few that can serve both in the future and in the fast-paced world of today. Advanced classes abound, however, with the Ambassador, a highly skilled diplomat with a deep understanding of politics; the dogfighter, a fighter pilot who does what few would be crazy enough to do, and loves it; the dreadnought, a warrior trained to stand her ground against any foe; the engineer, always finding a better way to do something; the explorer, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge; the field officer, taking charge in time of crisis; the Helix warrior, a volunteer whose DNA has undergone forced evolution; the space monkey, doing the grunt work that keeps the wheel of the galaxy turning; the technosavant, combining natural genius with expert training to make machines do things you never imagined; the tracer, specializing in finding those who would rather not be found or things thought lost; and the xenophile, who probably knows more about alien life forms than you know about yourself.

d20 Future presents several campaign options. Of course, it’s perfectly possible to just turn your heroes loose and see what happens, but some GMs want a little more structure. This section is for them. First up is Bughunters, in which we discover that not everything in space is friendly. In fact, not much is. This campaign introduces the bughunter advanced class. In Dimension X, dimensional explorers face Armageddon as a rogue dimension remakes other dimensions in its own image. This setting introduces the dimension ranger advanced class. From the Dark Heart of Space, supernatural horrors pursue humanity across the breadth of the universe. If you enjoy the thought of Cthulhu in space, this one is for you. It’s here that we meet the purifier prestige class. Genetech is a campaign setting that was supposed to be in d20 Modern but got cut for space. Genetically-enhanced soldiers try to find acceptance in a world that considers them expendable freaks. In Mecha Crusade, anime comes to life as giant robots driven by human pilots clash in titanic battles. Stardrive picks up where the old Alternity game left off, presenting a civilized area of space threatened with war from a races of beings known as the klicks. The Concord administrator is a new advanced class for this setting. The Star Law setting offers characters the chance to become galactic police officers, including the Star Law officer advanced class. In The Wasteland however, the law means nothing. Might makes right, and you’ll need every ounce of strength and wits you have to back up your claim. The nuclear nomad advanced class might be of help in that regard. Of course, you can combine any or all of these settings to create you own fantastic future adventures as well.

Naturally, d20 Future offers a plethora of new gear. From gadgets to guns, you’ll find everything that the best-dressed heroes of tomorrow are wearing (and even some things that aren’t as fashionable, but might save your life). As the PL goes up, the gear gets cooler and the guns get more deadly. The new gadget rules allow characters to customize weapons, armor, and other equipment to better fit their needs or nature. The way it works is, the character simply chooses a modification from the list of those available and applies a modifier to the Purchase DC of the item. Want to booby-trap your weapon so that it delivers an electric shock if anyone but you tries to use it? No problem. Select the Booby Trapped gadget and add +6 to the Purchase DC.

With the possibility of campaigns moving into space, new environments need to be defined. d20 Future defines not only high- and low-gravity environments, but also different types of atmospheres (such as corrosive or thick), but also factors like radiation and decompression (you don’t explode, implode, or instantly freeze-dry in vacuum, by the way). And what would a futuristic campaign be without some notes on star systems?

The chapter on scientific engineering introduces everything from cloning to gene modification. Through the use of gene therapy templates, your character can be something more than human. Nanotechnology not only offers new advances in medicine and warfare, but also allows the development of some pretty nasty viruses. Grey goo spreads incredibly fast and if you’ve got it, you’ll soon know, as your flesh melts away over the course of the next several hours. Oh, and there is no cure. Think about that for a while.

For some, the future is all about exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations. The chapter on traveler science is for them. Space travel is examined from both a realistic standpoint (in which the edge of the solar system is about as far as you’re going to go in your lifetime), and from the pseudo-scientific viewpoints, in which nearly anything is possible. Jumpgates, faster-than-light drives, teleporters, and more exotic means of travel become possible (in theory, anyway) as PLs go upward, and the sky need not be the limit any longer. If the GM is open to it, even time travel may be just a step away.

If you’re going to have spaceships, you’ll need rules for such, and you can find them here. Starship combat is remarkably simple. In fact, it’s just like a typical d20 System combat round. Everyone starts a battle flat-footed. Th GM determines who is aware of whom, initiative is rolled for those that can act, and the surprise round is played out. Initiative is rolled for everyone else and the battle commences. After everyone has had a turn, go back to the top of the initiative and carry on. As in d20 Modern, a vehicle is not destroyed a 0 hit points; it is disabled. It takes more effort (often considerably more) to destroy a vehicle. Also as in d20 Modern, starships can be repaired by those skilled in doing so, but once a ship drops to negative hit points, it is breaking up and the best thing you can do is head for the escape pods!

Vehicles themselves are similar to d20 Modern, save that most have autopilot systems, targeting systems that provide bonuses to gunners, and most have a grappling system of some kind (either grapples or a tractor beam). The “base” stats can be further modified by swapping out components. Adding an improved autopilot system to a stock vessel will grant a Defense bonus when the system is engaged, plasma cannons do considerably more damage than a laser, and a tractor beam is stronger and a lot easier to use than a conventional grapple.

Needless to say, starships are not the only vehicles in the future. Hover cruiser technology comes into its own in the Gravity Age (PL 7) and all kinds of hover-vehicles become widely available. Real men (and women) prefer something with a bit more class, however, and as soon as mecha become available (as early as PL 6), you can be sure that they’ll be in high demand. Mecha are treated as a combination of character and vehicle. Each mecha has a number of equipment slots, based on its size. Each piece of equipment takes up space in one or more slots. Some pieces take up a slot anywhere on the mecha, while others are delegated to a certain position (jet boots must always fill a boot slot, obviously). Mecha open up several new feats and a new advanced class, the mecha jockey.

“In the future, there will be robots.” Yep, and they can both serve man and fight against him. The biodroid and the bioreplica are presented as playable robots for player characters, but plenty of non-heroic robots are described as well. Robots are designed from the ground up, to suit the needs of the purchaser, and a lot of options are available for those with the money.

So maybe you don’t want to be fully robotized, but a replacement for the hand that you lost to your father last week during a suitably dramatic moment in the campaign would be in order. Cybernetics are for you! Even as early as PL 5, primitive cybernetics are possible, and by PL 7, most of the bugs have been worked out and a cybernetic replacement is often better than the real thing.

Some GMs may want to add the prospect of mutations to their games. That idea if fulfilled here too. Mutation Points provide a simple method of selecting mutations while providing a modicum of game balance. If a character wants to play a mutant, and the GM is willing, the character must earn a few MPs by taking a drawback or three. You can get some really interesting and powerful mutations, such as wings, if you don’t mind being saddled with brittle bones and rapid aging.

Finally, we come to the chapter on xenobiology. Here, aliens of all stripes abound! There are two forms of xenobiological hazards (endothermic mold and space slime) and a whole list of creatures from the Monster Manual, d20 Modern, the d20 Menace Manual, and Urban Arcana that make perfect xenoforms. If it doesn’t look alien enough for you, try spicing it up with the extraterrestrial or space creature templates.

The last part of this chapter describes some new options for characters in the form of heroic aliens. Instead of being a human, you can play a synthetic aleerin, a protomorphic dralasite, a spindly fraal, a winged sesheyan, a reptilian t’sa, an insectoid vrusk, a giant weren, or a raging yazarian. Fans of Alternity and Star Frontiers will find their favorite aliens here, which should make for some happy gamers.

Critical Hit
All in all, this book makes the leap from modern to future nicely. A few things I felt were missing, but on the whole, there’s enough here to keep players and GMs busy for a long time to come. Speaking for myself, the critical hit was seeing the old Star Frontiers races revived once more. I’ve missed playing a vrusk, and now I have the opportunity.

Critical Fumble
Okay, first off, the books ends rather abruptly. If it weren’t for the ad on the last page, I’d think that I was missing a few pages. If you don’t want to include an index, that’s fine. The table of contents is more than detailed enough to suffice. However, just ending a paragraph and then having a full page ad is not closure! Spare me the ad and instead, give me a few parting words!

Second, I was deeply disappointed with the lack of real information on space exploration. I understand that there was a lot of material to cover, but I wouldn’t have minded paying extra for several pages detailing exploration of new worlds, perhaps even a default campaign setting that placed the homeworlds of the heroic xenos. Alternity had a system for generating entire solar systems, and I’d like to have seen something similar here. What about the unique aspects of mapping in a three-dimensional environment? I feel that for those of us whose campaigns are star-spanning, this was a critical fumble.

Finally, a nitpick. Where are the sathar? You put the klicks in there, why not the sathar? They were such a cool enemy; would it have really cost that much space to put a blurb about them?

Coup de Grace
If you’ve been contemplating picking this book up, hoping for some solid rules to handle futuristic adventures, consider this a green light. There is no Open Gaming Content specified here, but that may change if WotC decides to put any in the System Resource Document (which they now have). What is here is a solid set of rules that works well with the d20 System, bringing it full circle and making it truly universal. You won’t regret buying this one.

Final Grade: A-

 

[Jannica Thales]

Seems I posted this in the wrong place the first time... So here it is, moved to where it should be!
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Reviews - D20 Future
I’ll give WotC this, their books are pretty!

D20 Future is an expansion to d20 Modern and is not a stand-alone book. That would be just perfect, except that d20 Future doesn’t even stand by itself. What do I mean? Read on, read on...

Weighing in at 223 pages and 13 chapters, d20 Future attempts to tackle ALL sci-fi genres. That is completely impossible. It’s a fool’s errand. The writers do a good job of trying to tackle the subject, but it’s too much.

The book starts out promisingly enough. The Progress Levels are defined, which essentially chunk technology up into different eras. Modern Earth is PL 5 and the scale goes up to 8, with 9 essentially being insanely advanced and simply not covered. Chapter one kicks in with new character starting occupations, which I liked. New feats, which I didn’t like. New uses for skills, again good. And new prestige classes … more about those later.

The feats step on territory covered by the d20 Modern base classes. So instead of advancing a rank in Tough Hero, you could take a feat and get two picks from the Tough Hero talent tree. So, what little reason there once was to stick to the base classes is now completely removed in d20 Future.

This is a nice segue into the new advanced classes. They are fairly generic. The Ambassador, Explorer, Swindler, and Engineer could all pretty much fit into any sci-fi game. I’m not so sure about the Dogfighter, Space Monkey, Helix Warrior, or Xenophile. The classes themselves seem fairly balanced and there’s a total of twelve of them. 12 new advanced classes. Hold that thought.

Chapter Two introduces us to eight possible future campaigns. The big sci-fi tropes are covered, but not in the detail I’d like them if they were going to tackle so many genres at once. Bughunters (think Starship Troopers) and Dimension X (think Sliders) are nicely set up with a possible campaign progression. The rest of them essentially amount to some background and a new advanced class. Six new advanced classes are added on to the bunch and I have to say, they’re not that strong. Do we really need a Bughunter advanced class? What happened to Tough Hero? Oh yeah, we just bough all the Tough Hero talent tree picks with the new feats. It’s not that any of these possible campaigns are bad. It’s just that you have things like the Wasteland (think Mad Max) which is presented as a post-apocalyptic future with an advanced class called the nuclear nomad. The Wasteland’s entry for “campaign in brief” is longer than “campaign traits” or “power groups”, if that tells you anything.

So, now we’re up to page 58 and it’s time for Chapter 3, Gear. I’m going to give d20 Future a pass here. The chapter is a little uninspired, but they have four of their Progress Levels to cover (5-8) and it would have been easy to get bogged down. They hit weapons, armor, and some doo-dads. Then the book moves on. I wasn’t jazzed by this chapter (though the gadget mechanic is nice), but it was obviously a case of either keeping the section short or letting it dominate the book.

Chapter Four is environments and covers what happens when your character unexpectedly runs out of atmosphere. It isn’t that long and the text is sound.

Chapter Five and Six cover various sci-fi technical topics and space travel. The book touches on “real” science and stretches out into what is clearly impossible but fun to have in a game. They’re solid chapters and good additions.

And then we have chapter seven which is about the game mechanics for starships and the book gets bogged down. Space combat is essentially handled like “regular” combat only with spaceships. There’s more to it than that, but not much. The problem is that the authors, for whatever reason provide us with over 30 starships, some templates, and then go into the kinds of armor, weapons, communication systems, and other such things. Remember how I said early that too much equipment could have dominated the book? The starships dominate the book. But wait, we’re not done.

Chapters eight and nine cover vehicles and mecha (giant robots). Between starships, vechicles, and mecha, we’re at 70 pages of little space cars. Remember how many pages the different campaigns took up? About 20. Oh, but don’t worry, the mecha chapter gets broken up a bit with … a new advanced class! Why the Mecha Jockey isn’t back on page 46 with the Mecha Crusade campaign setting is a bit of a mystery, but here it is.

Chapter ten is robotics and it’s a perfectly fine chapter that covers robotics and robot characters. Nothing wrong with it. It’s grand. The problem is that building a robot works a lot like building a starship, vehicle, or mecha and by now my brain is getting a little fried.

Chapter eleven is cybernetics and it’s a welcome change. The pros and cons of cyberware are detailed and nothing jumped out at me as being bad or weird. It’s a small self-contained equipment chapter basically.

Chapter twelve is mutations. The more mutations you get the more drawbacks you receive so you don’t want to be hanging out at the old nuclear power plant waiting for your super abilities. It’s a solid chapter with the artwork reflecting the cons as well as the pros of being a mutant.

Chapter thirteen is basically a monster chapter. It starts out by giving suggestions on how to work in D&D monsters into a d20 Future game and then goes into the aliens. I was pleased to see some old favorites from Star Frontiers! All the aliens have a small write up and the artwork is, I would say, the most evocative in the book. Then – WOAH! The book ended!

No index, no credits, no nothing. I read another review of d20 Future and I have to agree – if I hadn’t seen the advertisement at the back of the book, I’d have thought I bought a misprint.

Conclusion

If I could give one suggestion to the d20 Future team it would be to pick one of the bulkier topics and drop it. In this case the mecha. D20 Mecha is a perfectly fine topic for a separate book and the space was desperately needed in just about every other section.


D20 Future was a good and well meaning attempt at covering all sci-fi topics. However, the format of the book was simply too small. The authors did not have room to develop their ideas and frankly I would have rather seen some material cut (did we need all those spaceships and mecha?) and have the campaigns rounded out. The book is visually excellent and brings what would be a 3/5 book up to a 4/5.

 

[explorer]

Excellent review.

Objective, critical, thorough, pleasant to read.

 

[nobodez]

yes, we did!

I have to disagree with the reviewer. I liked that there was a large section on Starships and Mecha, since both are new and different extensions on the d20 Modern framework. Also, the reason why there wasn't an Index or Credits (much as I would have liked) is because the book was full of other stuff.

Also, as to the X Plus feats, I think they add a great dimension to the game, allowing characters to develop the basics while still working on the Advanced or Prestige classes.

Also, I'm surprised the reviewer has not yet figured out that is something by WotC has the term "d20" in it's title, it's almost universally a D20 Modern based book.

And yes, I do have all the d20 Modern books (including d20 Apocalypse).

Nobodez Out.

 

[Psion]

Thanks for the review. One comment:

Weighing in at 223 pages and 13 chapters, d20 Future attempts to tackle ALL sci-fi genres. That is completely impossible. It’s a fool’s errand.

This is what I consider to be a false dichotomy. Nobody said the book had to cover every nook and cranny of the genre. What it is a jumping off point, a basis for branching d20 Modern out into futuristic SF. WotC just put out a specific book for post apocalypse, and have a cyberpunk book in the queue, so obviously they aren't pretending this is an exhaustive resource on every aspect of sci-fi.

That said, I would agree as such books go, GURPS Space does a better job (and I am not a big GURPS fan).