d20 Modern
- Thread starter IronWolf
- Start date
Paragon Badger
First Post
[Edit- added bold to key terms to allow for easy skimming]
This review is divided into 3 sections, my opinion of the individual sections (what I like and don’t like), my opinion of the layout/art, and my overall view of the system with rating.
Content
The first thing you notice upon jumping into this book will be the basic class section. The general scheme is this there are 6 classes one keyed to each of the ability scores that heroes start their careers in. Some people won’t like this. They are going to look and say “Why can’t I start as a Gunslinger?” I, personally, like this system however. The absolute generality of the basic classes provide a great amount of flexibility. You could stat almost anything just on basis of the basic classes. Want a street tough gang leader? Smack down a couple levels in Strong Hero and a couple levels in Charismatic. Want an urban ranger? Fast Hero / Dedicated Hero combo in that case.
Another thing I like that provides greater flexibility are the Talent trees. Here’s an example. At 1st and every 2 levels thereafter a Fast Hero picks a Talent. They pick from 2 different trees. One has the rogue abilities like Uncanny Dodge and Defensive Roll. The other tree has increased speed bonuses. This almost guarantees you can make two 5th lvl Fast heroes that are totally different. Added to the massive amounts of feats you get and your PC can be customized to precise detail without even touching the Advanced Classes.
Another thing you’ll notice in making your character are action points. These nice little bonuses are non-regenerating points you get on level up that allow you to add to d20 rolls or power certain class abilities. I like the fact this allows PCs to dictate when they absolutely don’t want to miss. How many great PC stands are ruined when your final bullet misses the archvillian but 1 point to hit? However, I would have liked to see some additional uses for the AP. How about a heroic stand use that allows the PC to heal 1d6 hit points 1/day. Or maybe an adrenaline rush use that cost 3 AP to allow the hero an extra partial action. (Though this use is replicating the Heroic Surge feat).
Next you come to the Starting Occupation section. This is a list of professions that your PC has. It allows certain skills as permanent class skills, some bonus feats, and a wealth bonus (I’ll get to that next). I like this idea in theory. It helps backstory and character development. The problem is you have to make sure if you add further occupations you keep them balanced. Occupations could easily be as broken as some 2e kits if the DM isn’t careful. If a PCs want to create a Green Beret starting occupation that gives a +3 wealth bonus Hide, Move Silently, and Spot class skills, and Personal Fire Prof and Adv. Personal Firearm Prof. think “Bladesinger” and say no. I haven’t played with the occupations in the core book so I’ll assume that WotC was on the ball enough to make sure they are balanced.
Now onto Wealth bonus and Purchase DCs. The idea behind this is instead of tracking dollars and cents your PC has a bonus to Wealth much like a bonus to hit. To buy something you just have to beat the purchase DC. Buying very expensive items drops your wealth bonus. Nice, simple, and abstract. The good thing is this is easy to use and eliminates the hassle of tracking credit and loans prevalent in the modern world. The bad is the random chance involved in buying something. However WotC shows forethought and allows for Taking 10 and Taking 20 on a Wealth roll. All in all I like this abstraction. However, for those that hate abstraction in all its forms there is a Purchase DC to $ conversion table.
Now that your PC is coming along you’ll want to pick your Alignment. Guess what. They killed that sacred cow and installed the allegiance system. The allegiance system is merely a list of groups or ideas (like good or evil) that your character feels a connection to. The good part of this is flexibility provided by allowing connections to people and organizations rather than strict philosophies. The bad is two fold. First, with no real list of example allegiances PCs may be unsure exactly what they are allied to. Second, newer players may lose the character direction provided by alignments. No longer can you say “I’m Lawful Good, so I should be offended.”
Reputation is a system taken from the WoT system (among others). It is generally a measure of how well known you are. It can delineate how easy it is to get a favor. Some people may love this. I’m sort of neutral to it. If I feel I can use it in an important junction I will, otherwise I’ll ignore in favor of character interaction with NPCs.
With all these nice classes you may wonder how to fit them all in and not snag an XP penalty for multiclassing. Well in d20 Modern there is no penalty for multiclassing. This means future writers for d20 Modern have to make sure they don’t front load a class or power gaming could result. The general flexibility of the basic classes doesn’t seem to lend itself to overt powergaming though.
Skills in d20 Modern are very nice. The entries for some of them are far beyond the typical “here’s the 2 or 3 uses, have fun.” For example Craft (chemical) provides craft rules for explosives, acids, and poisons in its entry with more available in the web enhancement. The skills are well laid out and everything you need for a modern era game is there, like Computer Use, Drive, Demolitions, Gamble, Pilot, Research, and many more. Nothing I saw in here struck as overpowered. However, I will say Craft (chemical) is very useful to the right kind of character.
Feats the pride and joy of any d20 system ;-) You’ll find an array of give +2 bonuses to two related skills in this chapter. This is good since Skill Focus isn’t a feat but a Dedicated talent in d20 Modern. You find a wide variety of useful firearms and melee feats along with many general feats. Nothing here seems too broken, just don’t let a D&D character take Agile Riposte (if a character you Dodge misses you, you get a free melee attack.)
The equipment section start with several useful tidbits like buying items on the black market, concealing weapons and armor, requisitioning equipment, and selling stuff. Then you get to the good part, the weapons. Of course they start with firearms. There is a decent selection of around 40 guns with most split between handguns and longarms and only 4 heavies like HMGs and rocket launchers are found. The guns are set up with a 2 dice of damage system. This means the gun damage ranges from 2d4 to 2d12. Also the crit range is a 20 threat and x2 crit. At first I thought, “Wait a second. If I hit somebody I want to drop somebody!” Then it hit me, if guns were made that lethal, what chance would the PCs have? So I’ve come to accept the damage range. With abilities like Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap the guns do enough damage to put the fear of God in most people. However, one thing does bother me, the shotguns and rifles seem almost identical except for range increrment. I don’t think this accurately reflects the amount of sheer damage you’d take from an up close shotgun blast. I think my personal house rule to remedy that will be as follows; Within 1 range increment add 1 dice of damage to the shotgun (2d6 becomes 3d6). Further than 3 range increments subtract 1 dice of damage (2d6 becomes 1d6).
Now I just mentioned Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap. These are special attack options you gain through feats. Autofire (Adv. Personal Firearms Feat) allows an area attack over a 10’ by 10’ box (20’ by 5’ with Strafe feat). Burst Fire (feat of same name) adds an extra die of damage for a neg to hit. Double Tap (same name feat) allows two shots with a semiautomatic weapon which coverts into an extra die of damage for a neg to hit.
Several explosive weapons with appropriate splash damage are found next, though Claymores (a personal favorite) are left to the web enhancement. Then melee weapons follow up. Unless you are focusing on a melee character you probably won’t care much about these, but rest assured that several modern favorites (stun gun, brass knuckles, tonfa, and bayonet) are found. After that is a lovely little improvised weapon table with damage based on size. 2d8 damage if you get hit by a swung stoplight! (Worry more about the Str modifier of the thing doing the swinging!)
Next we come to what will likely be most people’s biggest grudge, armor. Unlike the Shadow Chasers mini-game, armor in d20 Modern adds to Defense not damage reduction. Some people will want to see the DR style but it isn’t hard to convert. The way I see it since classes get a Defense bonus ala Star Wars d20 and the fact you’ll have to buy armor proficiency with feats most PCs will ignore armor entirely and the problem isn’t that large YMMV. Armor ranges from leather jackets to forced entry unit.
This reminds me of something I forgot to mention before, d20 Modern uses HP not WP/VP. You may not like this or you may love it depending in which camp you fall. As for me I really didn’t care either way. Of note is the Massive Damage rule. You have massive damage threshold equal to your Con score (more with a feat). If you take more damage than that in one hit you need to make a Fort save or drop to -1. This adds to the lethality of the guns.
Let me add here one of my biggest gripes with the system. Subdual damage has been replaced with non-lethal damage. The idea is you can choose to do non-lethal damage by taking a -4 to hit. If you beat your opponent's Con score in one attack, with non-lethal damage, he must make a Fort DC 15 or be knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds, otherwise the damage just disappears. This leads to an absurd idea that you can punch an NPC 50 times in a row and do no damage! I much prefered the subdual system. There are feats that aid your knockout abilities, like Knockout Punch where an unarmed strike is an auto x3 crit. I'll play with this system a bit more before I abandon it in favor of subdual again.
Next in equipment is general equipment. Nothing too outstanding that I noticed. Everything you really need is there from clothes to suppressors. After that comes Carrying Capacity then Lifestyle items (movies etc.), and Services (doctors etc.).
Finally, you get to the vehicles. You get a nice spread of aircraft, cars, bikes, water vehicles and military vehicles. The stats are effective and concise. You don’t end up with a book of stats for each vehicle, which is fine by me. The actual vehicle rules are covered later. I do want to note that school buses are in the web enhancement. I was looking for them when I bought the book and was disappointed not to see them.
Combat is next with no big differences from the d20 standard. However in this chapter are the vehicle rules. Vehicles rules maintain a fair consistency with d20 combat while allowing for facing, slower turns and higher speeds found in vehicles. The vehicle combat seems focused on land vehicles, however they are easily adaptable to air and water. One thing I liked is the dual scales that are mentioned. When you are dealing with character both in and out of vehicles you use the “5 foot a square” character scale. When you are fighting amid vehicles you can switch to the larger “50 foot a square” chase scale. The system runs smoothly, with special maneuvers like hard braking, bootleg turns, and jumping all covered by a Drive or Pilot check. Also of great use is a section on how to use Bluff and Hide in a vehicle for those times when you want to ditch the fuzz. Furthermore, there are sidebars for taking out tires, windows and windshields.
Of great interest to all will be the Advanced Classes. More or less these are prestige classes designed to be entered by level 4. Most are designed to compliment a particular basic class, for example Strong Heroes make good Soldiers. The classes in here are nice and cover a wide range of modern day heroes. Soldier is the typical well trained fighting machine. Martial Artist is a monk without mystic mumbo jumbo. Gunslinger is a dead eye with his chosen firearm. Infiltrator is the thief for a modern era (no sneak attacks focus on sneaking in and out). Daredevil is a thrill junkie that loves risking his life. Bodyguard is tough fellow that guards his charge with his life. Field Scientist is a scientist that doesn’t shy from battle to claim a discovery. Techie is a tech master than can soup up guns and cars and create robots or mastercraft items. Field Medic is a modern day cleric that heals with technology. Investigator is your CSI / private investigator class. Personality is the celebrity you see on TV. And Negotiator is the fellow you can talk you down from a ledge right into a trap ;-).
Gamemastering is next and has some useful information. It first deals with the typical “Here’s how to roleplay” information found in most core rulebooks. Then we get to the good parts. A table provides an outline of how Purchase DC convert to real money. Wealth bonus by level is laid out, as is a typical Wealth bonus adventure reward. Then comes the CR section with info useful to all like assigning CRs to skill checks and CR adjustment for multiple obstacles. Also there are modifiers if the actual encounter is a low or no threat to the PCs. Then we get to the Campaign section with useful tables galore. You have falling damage, diseases (real life stuff like Anthrax, Small Pox, Necrotizing faciitis, etc.), acid damage, and electricity damage from many sources (like power lines).
Then we come to Friends and Foes or the Monster section. The general layout of this section is a Creature Factory with more detailed rules how to put together a custom creature. However, don’t fear there is a large section of creatures including brand new creations and modernized D&D favorites. A personal favorite is the Tooth Fairy an evil fey that torments mortals. Also there are several types of animal-human hybrids called Moreaus. These all have 3 levels of appearance from covert to moderate to overt. There are mentions of making Moreau characters but I’m unsure if they are ECL 0 creatures. After the monsters comes a table of monster weaknesses. This allows for serious to humorous weakness to be added to monsters. Want a Tooth Fairy damaged by Country Music or maybe a Medusa that can’t get enough ice cream. Good concept that makes the monsters more unique, however no mention is made of how to modify the CR when adding a weakness. Further on, you have rules for ordinaries (NPCs that don’t get all the frills a PC does) and rules for children. Next you get a section that will please many people (me included). You have a series of archetypes that are Ordinary NPCs made at 3 different power levels for each of the combinations of the basic classes. You have Strong/Fast all the way to Deidicated/Chrasmatic. This will be of great use to anyone when they need a quick NPC for a game session.
The next chapter contains the 3 campaign models with 2 advanced classes a piece. The campaign models are all campaign settings that are fleshed out somewhat. First is Shadow Chasers, the modern world as evil mythical creatures begin to invade. Think Buffy. The advanced classes are Shadow Slayer a ranger-ish monster slayer and Occultist a mage-ish monster slayer. Overall these classes seem least likely to find their ways into other campaigns since they are somewhat setting specific. Second is Agents of Psi, where PCs are secret agents that can have psionic power. Think James Bond or Sydney Bristow with a psionic twist. The Advanced classes are Telepath a psion with up to 5th level powers and Battlemind a Psionic Warrior with some neat abilities like making a blade and shield of mental force. These classes are easy to transfer. Finally, there is Urban Arcana, the modern world as creatures from your typical D&D world begin showing up. The advanced classes here are most likely to show up elsewhere. You have Mage, a wizard of up to 5th level spells and Acolyte, a cleric (no domains) of up to 5th level spells. Some people may complain that you can’t make it pass the 5th level of powers/spells but when you consider that magic is rare in the settings put forth you realize magic can be very useful (especially if you snag the web enhancement for the extra 10 or so modern spells.)
The final chapter is FX abilities the catch all chapter for magic and powers. Most of your favorite spells and powers are found here. Some like Flaming Projectile have been altered for modern uses. And some like Power Device are whole new spells that only make sense in the modern world. One very powerful adjustment is the Enhance Ability spell. Take all the ability buffing spells, maximize them, cut the duration down to a minute per level and you have Enhance Ability. I’m not sure if this is too powerful because of the flexibility or too weak because of the limited duration. You’ll notice that combat modes for psionics are gone. I say good riddance. I never used then anyway so I don’t really miss them YMMV. A new feat hidden in this section is Wild Talent that allows 3 free uses of a 0-level power. The book ends with a small section of magic items. If you expected a list like the DMG you’ll have to wait for the Urban Arcana campaign sourcebook. However, all the bases are covered and rules for making +1, +2, and +3 items are present.
Then you have the character sheet (modeled after the standard WotC PHB sheet) and the index and index of tables.
Art / Layout
You’ll pick this book up and say cool! It is thick at 384 pages and it looks very nice. The cover has a brushed metal file folder look that is very attractive. Interior art varies in quality. Some of it is very good, some of it is good modern comic style, and some will not suit you. However, I didn’t see anything cringe worthy on my look through. You’ll find several pieces of art to point out to your friends in this book. Some favorites include a Gnoll Pimp, an Army version of Meepo the kobold, and a mutilated Santa crime scene. The art in the monster section alone is worth the price of admission for the laughs alone (I won’t spoil them all.) The layout is very clean and effective. Tables are well presented and easy to read. The text flows well and sidebars are not jarring. The monster section felt somewhat cramped to me but not to the point of effecting readability.
Compatibility with D&D
Many will be happy to know that d20 Modern is easily compatible with standard D&D. The prestige classes from standard D&D could be plugged in if desired. You can make a Fast Hero/Deepwood Sniper if you want to. More so using the basic class idea combined with advanced class versions of the standard classes could make for a interesting low magic campaign.
Overall
Overall, I really like this book. When this hits the SRD it will be a massive boon to the community. The flexibility of the system surpasses that of the generic D&D. I imagine many people will make great use of the system and to create Sci-Fi, High Renaissance, Steampunk, Low Fantasy and other genres I can’t name. The system is fun to play. It isn’t lethally overpowered or pitifully underpowered. You can easily do a Car Wars vehicle battle to a Quake 3 Arena combat to a Grand Theft Auto campaign. If I honestly compared this to a 5 rated product like Manual of the Planes I’d given it a 4/5 for some questionable calls. However MotP did relatively nothing for the d20 community. When d20 Modern hits SRD it will benefit and stimulate the d20 community so it deserves a 5/5, warts and all.
Rules 4/5
Art 4/5
Layout 5/5
Compatibility with D&D 5/5
OGC 5/5
Overall 5/5
This review is divided into 3 sections, my opinion of the individual sections (what I like and don’t like), my opinion of the layout/art, and my overall view of the system with rating.
Content
The first thing you notice upon jumping into this book will be the basic class section. The general scheme is this there are 6 classes one keyed to each of the ability scores that heroes start their careers in. Some people won’t like this. They are going to look and say “Why can’t I start as a Gunslinger?” I, personally, like this system however. The absolute generality of the basic classes provide a great amount of flexibility. You could stat almost anything just on basis of the basic classes. Want a street tough gang leader? Smack down a couple levels in Strong Hero and a couple levels in Charismatic. Want an urban ranger? Fast Hero / Dedicated Hero combo in that case.
Another thing I like that provides greater flexibility are the Talent trees. Here’s an example. At 1st and every 2 levels thereafter a Fast Hero picks a Talent. They pick from 2 different trees. One has the rogue abilities like Uncanny Dodge and Defensive Roll. The other tree has increased speed bonuses. This almost guarantees you can make two 5th lvl Fast heroes that are totally different. Added to the massive amounts of feats you get and your PC can be customized to precise detail without even touching the Advanced Classes.
Another thing you’ll notice in making your character are action points. These nice little bonuses are non-regenerating points you get on level up that allow you to add to d20 rolls or power certain class abilities. I like the fact this allows PCs to dictate when they absolutely don’t want to miss. How many great PC stands are ruined when your final bullet misses the archvillian but 1 point to hit? However, I would have liked to see some additional uses for the AP. How about a heroic stand use that allows the PC to heal 1d6 hit points 1/day. Or maybe an adrenaline rush use that cost 3 AP to allow the hero an extra partial action. (Though this use is replicating the Heroic Surge feat).
Next you come to the Starting Occupation section. This is a list of professions that your PC has. It allows certain skills as permanent class skills, some bonus feats, and a wealth bonus (I’ll get to that next). I like this idea in theory. It helps backstory and character development. The problem is you have to make sure if you add further occupations you keep them balanced. Occupations could easily be as broken as some 2e kits if the DM isn’t careful. If a PCs want to create a Green Beret starting occupation that gives a +3 wealth bonus Hide, Move Silently, and Spot class skills, and Personal Fire Prof and Adv. Personal Firearm Prof. think “Bladesinger” and say no. I haven’t played with the occupations in the core book so I’ll assume that WotC was on the ball enough to make sure they are balanced.
Now onto Wealth bonus and Purchase DCs. The idea behind this is instead of tracking dollars and cents your PC has a bonus to Wealth much like a bonus to hit. To buy something you just have to beat the purchase DC. Buying very expensive items drops your wealth bonus. Nice, simple, and abstract. The good thing is this is easy to use and eliminates the hassle of tracking credit and loans prevalent in the modern world. The bad is the random chance involved in buying something. However WotC shows forethought and allows for Taking 10 and Taking 20 on a Wealth roll. All in all I like this abstraction. However, for those that hate abstraction in all its forms there is a Purchase DC to $ conversion table.
Now that your PC is coming along you’ll want to pick your Alignment. Guess what. They killed that sacred cow and installed the allegiance system. The allegiance system is merely a list of groups or ideas (like good or evil) that your character feels a connection to. The good part of this is flexibility provided by allowing connections to people and organizations rather than strict philosophies. The bad is two fold. First, with no real list of example allegiances PCs may be unsure exactly what they are allied to. Second, newer players may lose the character direction provided by alignments. No longer can you say “I’m Lawful Good, so I should be offended.”
Reputation is a system taken from the WoT system (among others). It is generally a measure of how well known you are. It can delineate how easy it is to get a favor. Some people may love this. I’m sort of neutral to it. If I feel I can use it in an important junction I will, otherwise I’ll ignore in favor of character interaction with NPCs.
With all these nice classes you may wonder how to fit them all in and not snag an XP penalty for multiclassing. Well in d20 Modern there is no penalty for multiclassing. This means future writers for d20 Modern have to make sure they don’t front load a class or power gaming could result. The general flexibility of the basic classes doesn’t seem to lend itself to overt powergaming though.
Skills in d20 Modern are very nice. The entries for some of them are far beyond the typical “here’s the 2 or 3 uses, have fun.” For example Craft (chemical) provides craft rules for explosives, acids, and poisons in its entry with more available in the web enhancement. The skills are well laid out and everything you need for a modern era game is there, like Computer Use, Drive, Demolitions, Gamble, Pilot, Research, and many more. Nothing I saw in here struck as overpowered. However, I will say Craft (chemical) is very useful to the right kind of character.
Feats the pride and joy of any d20 system ;-) You’ll find an array of give +2 bonuses to two related skills in this chapter. This is good since Skill Focus isn’t a feat but a Dedicated talent in d20 Modern. You find a wide variety of useful firearms and melee feats along with many general feats. Nothing here seems too broken, just don’t let a D&D character take Agile Riposte (if a character you Dodge misses you, you get a free melee attack.)
The equipment section start with several useful tidbits like buying items on the black market, concealing weapons and armor, requisitioning equipment, and selling stuff. Then you get to the good part, the weapons. Of course they start with firearms. There is a decent selection of around 40 guns with most split between handguns and longarms and only 4 heavies like HMGs and rocket launchers are found. The guns are set up with a 2 dice of damage system. This means the gun damage ranges from 2d4 to 2d12. Also the crit range is a 20 threat and x2 crit. At first I thought, “Wait a second. If I hit somebody I want to drop somebody!” Then it hit me, if guns were made that lethal, what chance would the PCs have? So I’ve come to accept the damage range. With abilities like Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap the guns do enough damage to put the fear of God in most people. However, one thing does bother me, the shotguns and rifles seem almost identical except for range increrment. I don’t think this accurately reflects the amount of sheer damage you’d take from an up close shotgun blast. I think my personal house rule to remedy that will be as follows; Within 1 range increment add 1 dice of damage to the shotgun (2d6 becomes 3d6). Further than 3 range increments subtract 1 dice of damage (2d6 becomes 1d6).
Now I just mentioned Autofire, Burst Fire, and Double Tap. These are special attack options you gain through feats. Autofire (Adv. Personal Firearms Feat) allows an area attack over a 10’ by 10’ box (20’ by 5’ with Strafe feat). Burst Fire (feat of same name) adds an extra die of damage for a neg to hit. Double Tap (same name feat) allows two shots with a semiautomatic weapon which coverts into an extra die of damage for a neg to hit.
Several explosive weapons with appropriate splash damage are found next, though Claymores (a personal favorite) are left to the web enhancement. Then melee weapons follow up. Unless you are focusing on a melee character you probably won’t care much about these, but rest assured that several modern favorites (stun gun, brass knuckles, tonfa, and bayonet) are found. After that is a lovely little improvised weapon table with damage based on size. 2d8 damage if you get hit by a swung stoplight! (Worry more about the Str modifier of the thing doing the swinging!)
Next we come to what will likely be most people’s biggest grudge, armor. Unlike the Shadow Chasers mini-game, armor in d20 Modern adds to Defense not damage reduction. Some people will want to see the DR style but it isn’t hard to convert. The way I see it since classes get a Defense bonus ala Star Wars d20 and the fact you’ll have to buy armor proficiency with feats most PCs will ignore armor entirely and the problem isn’t that large YMMV. Armor ranges from leather jackets to forced entry unit.
This reminds me of something I forgot to mention before, d20 Modern uses HP not WP/VP. You may not like this or you may love it depending in which camp you fall. As for me I really didn’t care either way. Of note is the Massive Damage rule. You have massive damage threshold equal to your Con score (more with a feat). If you take more damage than that in one hit you need to make a Fort save or drop to -1. This adds to the lethality of the guns.
Let me add here one of my biggest gripes with the system. Subdual damage has been replaced with non-lethal damage. The idea is you can choose to do non-lethal damage by taking a -4 to hit. If you beat your opponent's Con score in one attack, with non-lethal damage, he must make a Fort DC 15 or be knocked unconscious for 1d4+1 rounds, otherwise the damage just disappears. This leads to an absurd idea that you can punch an NPC 50 times in a row and do no damage! I much prefered the subdual system. There are feats that aid your knockout abilities, like Knockout Punch where an unarmed strike is an auto x3 crit. I'll play with this system a bit more before I abandon it in favor of subdual again.
Next in equipment is general equipment. Nothing too outstanding that I noticed. Everything you really need is there from clothes to suppressors. After that comes Carrying Capacity then Lifestyle items (movies etc.), and Services (doctors etc.).
Finally, you get to the vehicles. You get a nice spread of aircraft, cars, bikes, water vehicles and military vehicles. The stats are effective and concise. You don’t end up with a book of stats for each vehicle, which is fine by me. The actual vehicle rules are covered later. I do want to note that school buses are in the web enhancement. I was looking for them when I bought the book and was disappointed not to see them.
Combat is next with no big differences from the d20 standard. However in this chapter are the vehicle rules. Vehicles rules maintain a fair consistency with d20 combat while allowing for facing, slower turns and higher speeds found in vehicles. The vehicle combat seems focused on land vehicles, however they are easily adaptable to air and water. One thing I liked is the dual scales that are mentioned. When you are dealing with character both in and out of vehicles you use the “5 foot a square” character scale. When you are fighting amid vehicles you can switch to the larger “50 foot a square” chase scale. The system runs smoothly, with special maneuvers like hard braking, bootleg turns, and jumping all covered by a Drive or Pilot check. Also of great use is a section on how to use Bluff and Hide in a vehicle for those times when you want to ditch the fuzz. Furthermore, there are sidebars for taking out tires, windows and windshields.
Of great interest to all will be the Advanced Classes. More or less these are prestige classes designed to be entered by level 4. Most are designed to compliment a particular basic class, for example Strong Heroes make good Soldiers. The classes in here are nice and cover a wide range of modern day heroes. Soldier is the typical well trained fighting machine. Martial Artist is a monk without mystic mumbo jumbo. Gunslinger is a dead eye with his chosen firearm. Infiltrator is the thief for a modern era (no sneak attacks focus on sneaking in and out). Daredevil is a thrill junkie that loves risking his life. Bodyguard is tough fellow that guards his charge with his life. Field Scientist is a scientist that doesn’t shy from battle to claim a discovery. Techie is a tech master than can soup up guns and cars and create robots or mastercraft items. Field Medic is a modern day cleric that heals with technology. Investigator is your CSI / private investigator class. Personality is the celebrity you see on TV. And Negotiator is the fellow you can talk you down from a ledge right into a trap ;-).
Gamemastering is next and has some useful information. It first deals with the typical “Here’s how to roleplay” information found in most core rulebooks. Then we get to the good parts. A table provides an outline of how Purchase DC convert to real money. Wealth bonus by level is laid out, as is a typical Wealth bonus adventure reward. Then comes the CR section with info useful to all like assigning CRs to skill checks and CR adjustment for multiple obstacles. Also there are modifiers if the actual encounter is a low or no threat to the PCs. Then we get to the Campaign section with useful tables galore. You have falling damage, diseases (real life stuff like Anthrax, Small Pox, Necrotizing faciitis, etc.), acid damage, and electricity damage from many sources (like power lines).
Then we come to Friends and Foes or the Monster section. The general layout of this section is a Creature Factory with more detailed rules how to put together a custom creature. However, don’t fear there is a large section of creatures including brand new creations and modernized D&D favorites. A personal favorite is the Tooth Fairy an evil fey that torments mortals. Also there are several types of animal-human hybrids called Moreaus. These all have 3 levels of appearance from covert to moderate to overt. There are mentions of making Moreau characters but I’m unsure if they are ECL 0 creatures. After the monsters comes a table of monster weaknesses. This allows for serious to humorous weakness to be added to monsters. Want a Tooth Fairy damaged by Country Music or maybe a Medusa that can’t get enough ice cream. Good concept that makes the monsters more unique, however no mention is made of how to modify the CR when adding a weakness. Further on, you have rules for ordinaries (NPCs that don’t get all the frills a PC does) and rules for children. Next you get a section that will please many people (me included). You have a series of archetypes that are Ordinary NPCs made at 3 different power levels for each of the combinations of the basic classes. You have Strong/Fast all the way to Deidicated/Chrasmatic. This will be of great use to anyone when they need a quick NPC for a game session.
The next chapter contains the 3 campaign models with 2 advanced classes a piece. The campaign models are all campaign settings that are fleshed out somewhat. First is Shadow Chasers, the modern world as evil mythical creatures begin to invade. Think Buffy. The advanced classes are Shadow Slayer a ranger-ish monster slayer and Occultist a mage-ish monster slayer. Overall these classes seem least likely to find their ways into other campaigns since they are somewhat setting specific. Second is Agents of Psi, where PCs are secret agents that can have psionic power. Think James Bond or Sydney Bristow with a psionic twist. The Advanced classes are Telepath a psion with up to 5th level powers and Battlemind a Psionic Warrior with some neat abilities like making a blade and shield of mental force. These classes are easy to transfer. Finally, there is Urban Arcana, the modern world as creatures from your typical D&D world begin showing up. The advanced classes here are most likely to show up elsewhere. You have Mage, a wizard of up to 5th level spells and Acolyte, a cleric (no domains) of up to 5th level spells. Some people may complain that you can’t make it pass the 5th level of powers/spells but when you consider that magic is rare in the settings put forth you realize magic can be very useful (especially if you snag the web enhancement for the extra 10 or so modern spells.)
The final chapter is FX abilities the catch all chapter for magic and powers. Most of your favorite spells and powers are found here. Some like Flaming Projectile have been altered for modern uses. And some like Power Device are whole new spells that only make sense in the modern world. One very powerful adjustment is the Enhance Ability spell. Take all the ability buffing spells, maximize them, cut the duration down to a minute per level and you have Enhance Ability. I’m not sure if this is too powerful because of the flexibility or too weak because of the limited duration. You’ll notice that combat modes for psionics are gone. I say good riddance. I never used then anyway so I don’t really miss them YMMV. A new feat hidden in this section is Wild Talent that allows 3 free uses of a 0-level power. The book ends with a small section of magic items. If you expected a list like the DMG you’ll have to wait for the Urban Arcana campaign sourcebook. However, all the bases are covered and rules for making +1, +2, and +3 items are present.
Then you have the character sheet (modeled after the standard WotC PHB sheet) and the index and index of tables.
Art / Layout
You’ll pick this book up and say cool! It is thick at 384 pages and it looks very nice. The cover has a brushed metal file folder look that is very attractive. Interior art varies in quality. Some of it is very good, some of it is good modern comic style, and some will not suit you. However, I didn’t see anything cringe worthy on my look through. You’ll find several pieces of art to point out to your friends in this book. Some favorites include a Gnoll Pimp, an Army version of Meepo the kobold, and a mutilated Santa crime scene. The art in the monster section alone is worth the price of admission for the laughs alone (I won’t spoil them all.) The layout is very clean and effective. Tables are well presented and easy to read. The text flows well and sidebars are not jarring. The monster section felt somewhat cramped to me but not to the point of effecting readability.
Compatibility with D&D
Many will be happy to know that d20 Modern is easily compatible with standard D&D. The prestige classes from standard D&D could be plugged in if desired. You can make a Fast Hero/Deepwood Sniper if you want to. More so using the basic class idea combined with advanced class versions of the standard classes could make for a interesting low magic campaign.
Overall
Overall, I really like this book. When this hits the SRD it will be a massive boon to the community. The flexibility of the system surpasses that of the generic D&D. I imagine many people will make great use of the system and to create Sci-Fi, High Renaissance, Steampunk, Low Fantasy and other genres I can’t name. The system is fun to play. It isn’t lethally overpowered or pitifully underpowered. You can easily do a Car Wars vehicle battle to a Quake 3 Arena combat to a Grand Theft Auto campaign. If I honestly compared this to a 5 rated product like Manual of the Planes I’d given it a 4/5 for some questionable calls. However MotP did relatively nothing for the d20 community. When d20 Modern hits SRD it will benefit and stimulate the d20 community so it deserves a 5/5, warts and all.
Rules 4/5
Art 4/5
Layout 5/5
Compatibility with D&D 5/5
OGC 5/5
Overall 5/5
Messageboard Golem
First Post
I remember lobbying passionatly against Armor as DR on the wizards message board when Shadow Chasers came out. I gave up, thinking the cause hopeless.
Aaron
Aaron
MadTinkerer
First Post
[EDIT: This is the last time I'm editing this review. The first time I wrote it, I was a little cranky and every time I edited it, I was up too late. Well I'm editing it one last time to get it right.]
Ahhhh... d20 Modern. It's not often that a game of any kind exceeds my expectations after getting my hopes up so high. This is a really sweet book.
I'm not going to go into it's contents too much. Paragon Badger did a pretty good summary of what's in the books, even if he made a few minor errors (The Allegiance system IS Alignment but without any kind of restriction.). Instead, I'm going to tell you what I really liked (Good), what bugged me (Bad) and how much errata Wizards will need to put out (Ugly).
Good:
Raving Flaven, there's so much good stuff about this book. The Skills and Feats are beyond compare: the BEST bunch of skills EVER created for a Modern-day RPG and the best bunch of Feats ever seen in a d20 book. In spite of a few nit-picks the Basic Classes are great and the Advanced Classes are good.
All of the "basic"(Action Movie sans visual effects) Advanced Classes are great, although I'm a little disappointed that while a Strong Hero with the Brawl Feats is a good option, Martial Artist A.C. renders the Brawl Feats less useful by virtue of the Living Weapon Class Features. Otherwise, all of them are excellent.
The Mage in the Urban Arcana Campaign Model(optional campaign template) is really neat: to compensate for having the same spell progression as a Wizard 3 levels later, Mages get 7(!) skill points per level and Class Features that emulate Craft Item & Metamagic feats at a faster rate than Wizards gain Bonus Feats AND d20 Modern Bonus Feats on top of that. The other "FX" Advanced Classes are similarly neat, especially the "Don't raed from the book!" Occultist.
The Gamemastering section is good, it reminded me of the Alternity Gamemaster Guide, but without the fluff. The guidelines for determining CR and EL is really nice, going way beyond the D&D DMG.
I love these Iconic Characters! Unlike the D&D PH Iconics which were merely okay and easily forgettable, these guys really stick out in your mind and make you want to be them. If only they would actually settle down and decide what character concept they want to be(see below). I also love the iconic villain (who only appears once on page 210, but that's enough) and the monster illustrations. The Vampire Clown, for example, is very reminiscent of Stephen King's "It". The new monsters are also pretty good: the Puppeteer reminded me of the Goa'uld from Stargate SG-1 and the Tooth Fairy is a very X Files version of the famous fey (although perhaps not as useful as the other monsters).
Bad:
There aren't enough Talents. It's pretty close to satisfying me, but I really think there should have been a few more talents added, especially for the Fast Hero(only 2 talent trees and no chance to improve initiative via talent?) and Smart Hero.
[EDIT: Quick note here: I did get used to the problems detailed in the next two paragraphs eventually, but it really was as confusing and distracting as I described at first. As such, I'm leaving them in, even though it seems a bit petty now.]
Some of the illustrations seem out of place or at odds with each other. I know that unlike the D&D iconics, these guys have several "alternate" versions of themselves (parallel universes?) depending on the campaign, but in a few pictures, it's actually hard to tell which Iconic you're looking at because the short-haired Martial Artist(Roxanne) suddenly has long frizzy hair and is sitting on a motorbike wielding two shotguns or the mild mannered Field Medic(Elliot) is suddenly holding a cross and holding onto the back of a black sedan for dear life as a skeleton is driving wildly (Lily is supposed to be the iconic Acolyte, though I suppose Elliot could also be an Acolyte in an Urban Arcana campaign). Another specific complaint about Roxanne's depictions is that Battle Mind Roxanne on page 306 and 50 is dressed differently and has completely different hair and makeup than Martial Artist Roxanne on page 167, which is fine, but on page 299 she is using a psionic power BUT LOOKS LIKE MARTIAL ARTIST ROXANNE! And what is up with Roxanne's skin on pages 128 and 216? Was she supposed to be the iconic vampire at one point?
Having one or two alternates for EACH iconic would have been sufficient, but having 3 or more for some, PLUS the inconsistencies is frankly disorienting. Sometimes even when the caption tells you the name of the character, I found myself flipping to the Advanced Classes section to check which Basic Class the iconic was supposed to represent. ("Oh... Stephanie the *Tough* Hero...") It would have been easier if the illustrations for the basic classes included both iconics of that class. At least Wizards provided the "desktop wallpaper"(really a reference guide to what the iconics look like). By the way, this isn't true for every iconic: Moondog and Troy are always instantly recognizable.
Ugly: Not much, but I did notice that the Fast Hero's Defense progression is messed up. In the Mecha Crusade mini-game in Polyhedron the Wing Commander's Reputation jumps from +3 to +34. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in the Wizards editing room?
The Martial Artist was a little confusing with regards to the Brawl Feat, but the official boards has cleared this up. Another nit-pick: As also pointed out on the boards, the Ignore Hardness Talent Tree is just plain wrong. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in one of the Wizards editing rooms.
That's about it. It really is worth 5 out of 5 in spite of my nitpicking in this review.
Currently I'm running a "scooby" or investigative adventure. I'm hoping to finish it up soon so that we can start a Mecha Crusade campaign. I love d20 Modern.
Ahhhh... d20 Modern. It's not often that a game of any kind exceeds my expectations after getting my hopes up so high. This is a really sweet book.
I'm not going to go into it's contents too much. Paragon Badger did a pretty good summary of what's in the books, even if he made a few minor errors (The Allegiance system IS Alignment but without any kind of restriction.). Instead, I'm going to tell you what I really liked (Good), what bugged me (Bad) and how much errata Wizards will need to put out (Ugly).
Good:
Raving Flaven, there's so much good stuff about this book. The Skills and Feats are beyond compare: the BEST bunch of skills EVER created for a Modern-day RPG and the best bunch of Feats ever seen in a d20 book. In spite of a few nit-picks the Basic Classes are great and the Advanced Classes are good.
All of the "basic"(Action Movie sans visual effects) Advanced Classes are great, although I'm a little disappointed that while a Strong Hero with the Brawl Feats is a good option, Martial Artist A.C. renders the Brawl Feats less useful by virtue of the Living Weapon Class Features. Otherwise, all of them are excellent.
The Mage in the Urban Arcana Campaign Model(optional campaign template) is really neat: to compensate for having the same spell progression as a Wizard 3 levels later, Mages get 7(!) skill points per level and Class Features that emulate Craft Item & Metamagic feats at a faster rate than Wizards gain Bonus Feats AND d20 Modern Bonus Feats on top of that. The other "FX" Advanced Classes are similarly neat, especially the "Don't raed from the book!" Occultist.
The Gamemastering section is good, it reminded me of the Alternity Gamemaster Guide, but without the fluff. The guidelines for determining CR and EL is really nice, going way beyond the D&D DMG.
I love these Iconic Characters! Unlike the D&D PH Iconics which were merely okay and easily forgettable, these guys really stick out in your mind and make you want to be them. If only they would actually settle down and decide what character concept they want to be(see below). I also love the iconic villain (who only appears once on page 210, but that's enough) and the monster illustrations. The Vampire Clown, for example, is very reminiscent of Stephen King's "It". The new monsters are also pretty good: the Puppeteer reminded me of the Goa'uld from Stargate SG-1 and the Tooth Fairy is a very X Files version of the famous fey (although perhaps not as useful as the other monsters).
Bad:
There aren't enough Talents. It's pretty close to satisfying me, but I really think there should have been a few more talents added, especially for the Fast Hero(only 2 talent trees and no chance to improve initiative via talent?) and Smart Hero.
[EDIT: Quick note here: I did get used to the problems detailed in the next two paragraphs eventually, but it really was as confusing and distracting as I described at first. As such, I'm leaving them in, even though it seems a bit petty now.]
Some of the illustrations seem out of place or at odds with each other. I know that unlike the D&D iconics, these guys have several "alternate" versions of themselves (parallel universes?) depending on the campaign, but in a few pictures, it's actually hard to tell which Iconic you're looking at because the short-haired Martial Artist(Roxanne) suddenly has long frizzy hair and is sitting on a motorbike wielding two shotguns or the mild mannered Field Medic(Elliot) is suddenly holding a cross and holding onto the back of a black sedan for dear life as a skeleton is driving wildly (Lily is supposed to be the iconic Acolyte, though I suppose Elliot could also be an Acolyte in an Urban Arcana campaign). Another specific complaint about Roxanne's depictions is that Battle Mind Roxanne on page 306 and 50 is dressed differently and has completely different hair and makeup than Martial Artist Roxanne on page 167, which is fine, but on page 299 she is using a psionic power BUT LOOKS LIKE MARTIAL ARTIST ROXANNE! And what is up with Roxanne's skin on pages 128 and 216? Was she supposed to be the iconic vampire at one point?
Having one or two alternates for EACH iconic would have been sufficient, but having 3 or more for some, PLUS the inconsistencies is frankly disorienting. Sometimes even when the caption tells you the name of the character, I found myself flipping to the Advanced Classes section to check which Basic Class the iconic was supposed to represent. ("Oh... Stephanie the *Tough* Hero...") It would have been easier if the illustrations for the basic classes included both iconics of that class. At least Wizards provided the "desktop wallpaper"(really a reference guide to what the iconics look like). By the way, this isn't true for every iconic: Moondog and Troy are always instantly recognizable.
Ugly: Not much, but I did notice that the Fast Hero's Defense progression is messed up. In the Mecha Crusade mini-game in Polyhedron the Wing Commander's Reputation jumps from +3 to +34. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in the Wizards editing room?
The Martial Artist was a little confusing with regards to the Brawl Feat, but the official boards has cleared this up. Another nit-pick: As also pointed out on the boards, the Ignore Hardness Talent Tree is just plain wrong. Maybe there's a nest of gremlins in one of the Wizards editing rooms.
That's about it. It really is worth 5 out of 5 in spite of my nitpicking in this review.
Currently I'm running a "scooby" or investigative adventure. I'm hoping to finish it up soon so that we can start a Mecha Crusade campaign. I love d20 Modern.
Khur
Sympathy for the Devil
Dragons, faeries, swordplay, and spellcraft are all well and good, but you long for cops and robbers, sinister conspiracies and espionage, guns and martial arts ala Hong Kong cinema. Moreover, while there are a decent number of modern or near-history d20 games out there, from Afghanistan: d20 to Forbidden Kingdoms, you want the official take on the subject. Well, those industrious few left at Wizards of the Coast have done it for us again with the release of the first edition of d20 Modern, a game of cinematic (as opposed to realistic) action.
This weighty tome is indeed impressive and imposing, weighing in at 384 jam-packed pages (and about 3 pounds). It's a gorgeous hardback with glossy pages, and a great cover crafted to look like brushed metal. The interior shows the extensive layout and illustration expertise of the Wizards art team. Gott im Himmel, this book is worth my money just on looks alone. Sleek.
More than a D&D (or even d20 Star Wars) refit, the appearance isn't the only polished part of d20 Modern. While wonderfully familiar and easy to assimilate into the d20 arena, d20 Modern changes the way some things are handled, sometimes to good result, and sometimes not. Best to start at the beginning.
Impressive is the way d20 Modern ushers in those who might be new to roleplaying. Everything is explained in general terms right off the gun, from what exactly a roleplaying game is and what you need to play, to themes, characters, and core mechanics. A concise sample of play greets the newcomer and veteran alike in the Introduction, so that by the time one's ready to create a character, there's a basic familiarity with the game as a whole. Character creation feels easier with the way d20 Modern is arranged. The promising beginning of the book is much better than the Third Edition Player's Handbook, which seemed to assume the potential player knew a lot already.
Yet, as the core classes show us, we're all in new territory. Fighters, rogues and sorcerers? Not here. Instead of classes that resemble occupations, d20 Modern presents hero types that emphasize a character's heroic abilities independent of vocational choices. A hero's employment history is taken care of by a new game feature called "Starting Occupations".
Your Strong hero might be a dockworker, and somebody else's is a professional hockey player. My Smart hero is a hacker turned narc, while my friend's is a crazy inventor. That Charismatic hero is a conman gone legit, but this one is a member of the idle rich. The occupations serve to solidify a character's background and to further individualize a PC by providing tangible benefits in the game such as bonus feats, skills, reputation, and/or wealth. Certainly, power gamers will choose a few of these options over any other, but the end result is only a character those type of players want, so where's the harm? Still, character creation feels less restrictive than that of D&D on a gut level.
Mechanics of the classes ensure that the hunch isn't wrong. Much like Sidewinder, by Citizen Games, each class has access not only to certain bonus feats, but also to a list of unique talents. The broad choices of talents for most of the classes serves further to produce characters that are unique, despite class similarity. One notes none of the classes have saving throw progressions falling into the "good" category from D&D (starting at +2), but instead have "middle" saving throws, like those found in Star Wars, in one or two categories. Coupled with the fact each core class only has 10 levels, these rules serve to encourage diversity, imagination, and multiclassing.
Mutliclassing is easy, necessary, and enjoyable. Gone are restrictions and experience point penalties enacted to prevent stacking of class bonuses to unmanageable levels. One reason for this is that the "middle save" design prevents unwieldy accumulation of bonuses to a single save, even when both classes have a high bonus in the same category (sic good game design). Another is to encourage players to give creative direction to their characters through multiclassing in base and advanced classes.
Advanced classes are optional like prestige classes in D&D. They serve, unlike the basic classes, to sharply define a character's career path within the campaign world. Advanced classes are easier to qualify for than prestige classes, thus a player might have his or her character enter one upon attaining 4th level, instead of around 5th or 6th. Sample classes, which appear in the core of d20 Modern, are useful as models, and many of them seem to have potential as a choice for character focus. A well-read D&D aficionado will recognize parts of core and prestige classes thrown into the advanced classes. A well-considered aspect of the classes is that all of them get a few bonus feats, allowing limited customization.
Unfortunately, some of the advanced classes suffer from ill treatment, such as the unrealistic (and uncinematic) prerequisites for becoming a Soldier or the monk-reduce/redux Martial Artist. The Field Scientist class has the ability to manufacture useful items with amazing speed (including a gun useful for a single shot), yet the same ability cannot be used to produce explosives, which can be made by cleaver teenagers with household chemicals. Similar classes in the "Campaign Models" section of the book are much better, probably due to the narrower focus and more specific identity each has. Due to the poorly organized way the Campaign Models were written, however, many of these classes contain the same new skill(s), such as Concentration or Spellcraft, with the exact text duplicated each time, which is a waste of space.
d20 Modern doesn't waste space, though, with its list of core skills that remain much the same as those in earlier Wizards products (with associated shortcomings). These skills are tweaked to fit the genre, modified, renamed for realism or clarity of scope, and complimented with some worthy additions. Welcome indeed are changes to the mechanics of the Perform skill, in which each broad type of performance is a separate skill. This keeps with the theme in d20 games that each skill is a range of ability, as the changes to the Craft and Knowledge skills aptly show. Such broadness still creates an abstraction that's hard to swallow where a character is just as skilled with a banjo as he is with a violin with the Perform (stringed instruments), another character is just as able to do masonry work as she is carpentry with Craft (structural), while a master of botany is also a master of forensics with Knowledge (earth sciences). Weirder still is the fact that a persona with Craft (mechanical) can build an airplane engine, but can't repair one--that takes the Repair skill.
Another wrong-headed change is the idea of mastercraft items (masterwork in D&D) and how the construction of such an item pans out in the game. Players of d20 games are used to the idea that a person with a Craft skill can create masterwork items, and mastercraft items are similar in idea. The new version of the Craft skill(s) doesn't allow just anyone to create mastercraft items however. In fact, the only thing in the rules allowing the creation of such high-quality items is the supposedly optional Techie advanced class. "So what?" I hear you ask. Well, the point is, taking the Techie advanced class at 4th level means a character is 8th level before he or she can make even +1 mastercraft items. Further, most NPCs (read "Ordinaries") can't take advanced classes at all, so the non-heroic master craftsperson cannot exist. This is an unnecessary restriction that could have been alleviated by requiring a feat to make mastercraft items.
Feats are things of which d20 Modern has no shortage. This is actually a nice feature of the game, and probably related to the fact that heroes get so many. Old standbys from D&D are accounted for, while some others are improved, such as the Sunder feat. (Some of these feats have excellent crossover potential for your D&D campaign.) Also excellent are some feats related to skills and skill application. It makes perfect sense, for example, that a person with the Pilot skill still has to get a feat to take the driver's seat in a jet fighter or helicopter. Having some familiarity with what it takes to be a pilot (second-hand), such vehicles require specialized training. So the application of a feat in such an instance really works.
Where feat application doesn't work is in some aspects of combat. With firearms there are a number of feats that are just plain goofy, mostly because the rules they allow a character to modify are bad. Burst Fire allows a hero to fire a five- or three-round burst (with weapons that have such a setting), but only if he or she has a 13 Wisdom. The benefit is the weapon's user only suffers a -4 penalty to the attack roll and deals +2 dice of damage to a single target. Normally a character must use autofire rules, or simply wastes the extra ammo fired in a burst, as a particularly poor option. Similarly, the feat Strafe allows autofire to attack a 20 ft. line of 5 ft. squares, instead of a 10 ft. by 10 ft. area. Why couldn't these things be normal maneuvers in gunplay, which could be further modified by feats? Why does a burst only have +2 damage dice, the equivalent of only one more bullet hitting the target? Why does the system diverge form every official d20 game that came before it, yet fail to improve those systems? d20 Modern is selling us firearms rules that may work, but other companies have done better, and these rules don't come close to feeling right.
Equally as disturbing is non-lethal damage. Replacing subdual damage, this system is bad enough to make one wonder if it was playtested. The way it works is you hit with a non-lethal attack (like a punch), and unless you do more damage in one blow than the victim's Constitution score, there is no effect. No player I know of will use choose to do non-lethal damage, even with all of the feats, such as Brawl, that increase the amount of damage done with one's unarmed attacks. Why? A character that has maximized brawling feats (this doesn't count Melee Smash talents and Street Fighting) and a 20 Strength can do a maximum of 13 points of damage without a critical strike. That means anyone with a Con of 13 or less must make a Fortitude saving throw or be knocked out. Those with 14 or higher Con are unaffected. So, why would players choose to try non-lethal damage? The answer is they won't, and that's shoddy design.
Not so with the vehicle rules, which for the most part are simple enough to be easily playable. While you're left on your own when it comes to aerial and waterborne vehicles, on the ground the chase is on. Most stunts seen in our favorite action movies can be pulled off using what's given, or extrapolated from the rules. However, the rules fail badly when dealing with crashes and the damage applied to vehicle occupants.
Any vehicle that provides three-quarters or more cover allows occupants to avoid all damage from a collision. Normal passenger cars offer three-quarters cover, yet I knew personally a few persons who are now dead due to a collision in a car. A desire to depict cinematic reality is not a defense for such a slipshod rule. Why the designers didn't say, "Subtract the amount of cover a vehicle offers from 1. Passengers take that much damage in a collision, Reflex save (DC 15) for half," is lost on me. That simple statement has the additional virtue of actually making sense. The system also begs the question, "What happens when a plane crashes, since it offers nine-tenths cover to its passengers?" Ostensibly it explodes, according to rules explosion rules that apply to any vehicle disabled by taking damage greater than or equal to half of it's full hit points. That does 10d6 to anyone caught in the blast (Reflex save DC 20 for half). Taken with the firearms combat, it feels like we've been sold the beta release of a video game. We need the release version.
Not in need of a patch are some other new aspects of d20 created for the modern setting. Action Points are a heroic trait that allows players a resource with which to modify die rolls in the game. At each level, a limited number of these goodies (5, or 6 from an advanced class, plus on-half the character's level) are allocated to the hero, in addition to keeping the ones left over from a previous level. In a tight spot, one can burn a single action point to gain a modifier to a critical die roll. Further, action points must be used to activate some talents. This latter point has me wary, since not being able to use a class feature due to lack of action points is a frustrating predicament. The jury's still out, however, because that has yet to some up in play, and it might be a great balancing factor.
Balancing a character's accounts of actual currency, assets, and investments is something one won't have to do, because d20 Modern offers us the Wealth mechanic. Upon analysis, this simple system is a heck of a lot easier to handle than the complexities of modern finance, yet it's still quite effective. Getting equipment is easy, just make a d20 roll and add your Wealth bonus. If you succeed, the goodies are in the bag, but if the item is too far beyond your Wealth score, that score could go down. Luckily, adventures sometimes offer Wealth increases as "treasure", and while some of the equipment purchase DCs seem a bit high, but at least paying rent is a non-issue.
A hero's fame is an issue, though. Reputation, a great idea from d20 Star Wars, can make or break a situation when it's relevant. In light of what the Reputation attribute means, at least two of the three modifiers to a reputation check don't make sense. A character gets +10 to his reputation check if he's known far and wide, yet isn't that what the reputation modifier from a character's class is for? This modifier makes less sense when one considers the feat Renown, which adds +3 to one's reputation modifier each time it is selected. Perhaps reputation bonuses could have been engineered as some type of reward for adventures that might gain someone notoriety. Still, the system works, and has merit as a possible addition to D&D as well.
Another such possibility for addition to D&D, as many have argued in the past, was the wound point and vitality system from d20 Star Wars. Yet that didn't make the cut for d20 Modern. Instead, hit points are maintained as the method of adjudicating injury with one twist: the massive damage threshold (MDT). Each character's MDT is equal to his or her Constitution score (like wound points are in Star Wars). Whenever this score is exceeded, the character must make a Fortitude saving throw, or immediately begin dying. This has a similar feel to the wound point system, in that a character might die from a single, horrible blow, but it's simpler and less deadly, which has value as well.
More valuable is the Gamemastering section. Such a trove of valuable information, so well arranged and presented, has rarely been found anywhere, including the venerable DMG. So to player and GM is d20 Modern user friendly. Herein is great advice for adventure structure and running the game. Cinematic and episodic techniques are expounded beautifully, along with fabulous advice on villains. Rules for challenge ratings and encounter levels are vastly improved from their D&D counterparts, with ample examples to help out. Finally, the dangers of the modern world are clearly spelled out in a way familiar to those running D&D campaigns.
The section, and related rules found elsewhere in the book, only fell short in two ways. First, the real-world diseases did not have their effects explained at all, making storytelling of symptoms impossible without additional research. Secondly, and more telling, the poisons are so much weaker than their real-world counterparts. While the poison chart is found with the Craft (chemical) skill, and odd choice in organization to be sure, it's the content of that chart that's really bad. Once again, the designers have shown us they're afraid of poison and the way it effects play, this time with the defense that liberties were taken to enhance the cinematic aspect of the game. Yet, every cinematic display of poison I remember was a deadly one. At least in modern times the defense that many of these substances are illegal is valid. Such complaints are small when compared with the overarching positive value of the GMing rules.
Equally positive is a huge section on NPCs, both antagonistic and helpful. Rules for creating monsters, dubbed the "Creature Factory", are so clear and handy, they put the Monster Manual to shame. Many of the sample creatures are useful only to fantasy games, but some have a place in horror settings, or X-files emulations featuring mutants, aliens, and the rare golem. (This fact isn't surprising considering the presence of some Dark Matter authors on the staff.) New creatures are really nice from mutant animals to the alien puppeteer, and random tables for fiends make demonic encounters a whole new threat. The shambling dead (skeletons and zombies, so essential to survival horror) appear as templates--a wonderful gift to GMs. Amongst all of this fine work, the monster weakness rules stand out as the best of class. Noting that many creatures cannot be taken out by mundane means, rules on how to work in weaknesses a hero can exploit was a brilliant piece of design from a mechanics as well as tale-weaving standpoint. As if that weren't enough, the section is rounded out by twelve pages of sample NPCs. The only thing found wanting was the shallow treatment of children, yet that the rules for little ones arethere at all is a plus.
The staff didn't forget to give us some settings in which to set our modern adventures. This section is the most poorly organized and edited of the book, but that doesn't ruin it. Perhaps to leave space for AEG's fine Spycraft, there's no "realistic" setting, as all three campaign models have some aspect of the supernatural thrown in. Two of them are so similar (Shadowchasers and Urban Arcana--monsters and magic in the modern world), that they should have been combined as alternate ways to play the same idea. The fact that these settings require the inclusion of psionics and magic in the rulebook means that those persons keen to play their own settings with such features have tools to do so. With the SRD already released to open the door for open gaming products, support and new campaign ideas are sure to be forthcoming.
That's what makes d20 Modern a strong product, despite its failures. Options. Choices at every turn. It's familiar yet new, and many of the flaws of older systems have been done away with, especially in the character creation arena. Whether you want to run a gritty campaign inspired by movies like Leon: The Professional and Reservoir Dogs, a Last Action Hero or James Bond sort of romp, the romantic horror of Interview with the Vampire, or you want to combine your swords and sorcery, orcs and elves, with machine guns and car chases, with d20 Modern on your shelf there's nothing to stop you besides the limits of your own imagination (and a few rules oversights). Me, I'm all about Big Trouble in Little China. The utility of this book extends beyond it's implicit intent into the realm of altering the way we play all of our d20 games. There's nothing stopping anyone from using this rulebook to play low-powered fantasy or realistic history, on to post-apocalyptic nightmares or a cybernetic future. Get d20 Modern, tweak it, add the good stuff from third party products to replace anything you don't like, then share. Everyone needs options, and maybe yours are just the ideas we need.
(Original score 4.5, nudged to 5 for its innovation, "A" material)
This review was originally written for Gaming Frontiers on 12/30/02.
This weighty tome is indeed impressive and imposing, weighing in at 384 jam-packed pages (and about 3 pounds). It's a gorgeous hardback with glossy pages, and a great cover crafted to look like brushed metal. The interior shows the extensive layout and illustration expertise of the Wizards art team. Gott im Himmel, this book is worth my money just on looks alone. Sleek.
More than a D&D (or even d20 Star Wars) refit, the appearance isn't the only polished part of d20 Modern. While wonderfully familiar and easy to assimilate into the d20 arena, d20 Modern changes the way some things are handled, sometimes to good result, and sometimes not. Best to start at the beginning.
Impressive is the way d20 Modern ushers in those who might be new to roleplaying. Everything is explained in general terms right off the gun, from what exactly a roleplaying game is and what you need to play, to themes, characters, and core mechanics. A concise sample of play greets the newcomer and veteran alike in the Introduction, so that by the time one's ready to create a character, there's a basic familiarity with the game as a whole. Character creation feels easier with the way d20 Modern is arranged. The promising beginning of the book is much better than the Third Edition Player's Handbook, which seemed to assume the potential player knew a lot already.
Yet, as the core classes show us, we're all in new territory. Fighters, rogues and sorcerers? Not here. Instead of classes that resemble occupations, d20 Modern presents hero types that emphasize a character's heroic abilities independent of vocational choices. A hero's employment history is taken care of by a new game feature called "Starting Occupations".
Your Strong hero might be a dockworker, and somebody else's is a professional hockey player. My Smart hero is a hacker turned narc, while my friend's is a crazy inventor. That Charismatic hero is a conman gone legit, but this one is a member of the idle rich. The occupations serve to solidify a character's background and to further individualize a PC by providing tangible benefits in the game such as bonus feats, skills, reputation, and/or wealth. Certainly, power gamers will choose a few of these options over any other, but the end result is only a character those type of players want, so where's the harm? Still, character creation feels less restrictive than that of D&D on a gut level.
Mechanics of the classes ensure that the hunch isn't wrong. Much like Sidewinder, by Citizen Games, each class has access not only to certain bonus feats, but also to a list of unique talents. The broad choices of talents for most of the classes serves further to produce characters that are unique, despite class similarity. One notes none of the classes have saving throw progressions falling into the "good" category from D&D (starting at +2), but instead have "middle" saving throws, like those found in Star Wars, in one or two categories. Coupled with the fact each core class only has 10 levels, these rules serve to encourage diversity, imagination, and multiclassing.
Mutliclassing is easy, necessary, and enjoyable. Gone are restrictions and experience point penalties enacted to prevent stacking of class bonuses to unmanageable levels. One reason for this is that the "middle save" design prevents unwieldy accumulation of bonuses to a single save, even when both classes have a high bonus in the same category (sic good game design). Another is to encourage players to give creative direction to their characters through multiclassing in base and advanced classes.
Advanced classes are optional like prestige classes in D&D. They serve, unlike the basic classes, to sharply define a character's career path within the campaign world. Advanced classes are easier to qualify for than prestige classes, thus a player might have his or her character enter one upon attaining 4th level, instead of around 5th or 6th. Sample classes, which appear in the core of d20 Modern, are useful as models, and many of them seem to have potential as a choice for character focus. A well-read D&D aficionado will recognize parts of core and prestige classes thrown into the advanced classes. A well-considered aspect of the classes is that all of them get a few bonus feats, allowing limited customization.
Unfortunately, some of the advanced classes suffer from ill treatment, such as the unrealistic (and uncinematic) prerequisites for becoming a Soldier or the monk-reduce/redux Martial Artist. The Field Scientist class has the ability to manufacture useful items with amazing speed (including a gun useful for a single shot), yet the same ability cannot be used to produce explosives, which can be made by cleaver teenagers with household chemicals. Similar classes in the "Campaign Models" section of the book are much better, probably due to the narrower focus and more specific identity each has. Due to the poorly organized way the Campaign Models were written, however, many of these classes contain the same new skill(s), such as Concentration or Spellcraft, with the exact text duplicated each time, which is a waste of space.
d20 Modern doesn't waste space, though, with its list of core skills that remain much the same as those in earlier Wizards products (with associated shortcomings). These skills are tweaked to fit the genre, modified, renamed for realism or clarity of scope, and complimented with some worthy additions. Welcome indeed are changes to the mechanics of the Perform skill, in which each broad type of performance is a separate skill. This keeps with the theme in d20 games that each skill is a range of ability, as the changes to the Craft and Knowledge skills aptly show. Such broadness still creates an abstraction that's hard to swallow where a character is just as skilled with a banjo as he is with a violin with the Perform (stringed instruments), another character is just as able to do masonry work as she is carpentry with Craft (structural), while a master of botany is also a master of forensics with Knowledge (earth sciences). Weirder still is the fact that a persona with Craft (mechanical) can build an airplane engine, but can't repair one--that takes the Repair skill.
Another wrong-headed change is the idea of mastercraft items (masterwork in D&D) and how the construction of such an item pans out in the game. Players of d20 games are used to the idea that a person with a Craft skill can create masterwork items, and mastercraft items are similar in idea. The new version of the Craft skill(s) doesn't allow just anyone to create mastercraft items however. In fact, the only thing in the rules allowing the creation of such high-quality items is the supposedly optional Techie advanced class. "So what?" I hear you ask. Well, the point is, taking the Techie advanced class at 4th level means a character is 8th level before he or she can make even +1 mastercraft items. Further, most NPCs (read "Ordinaries") can't take advanced classes at all, so the non-heroic master craftsperson cannot exist. This is an unnecessary restriction that could have been alleviated by requiring a feat to make mastercraft items.
Feats are things of which d20 Modern has no shortage. This is actually a nice feature of the game, and probably related to the fact that heroes get so many. Old standbys from D&D are accounted for, while some others are improved, such as the Sunder feat. (Some of these feats have excellent crossover potential for your D&D campaign.) Also excellent are some feats related to skills and skill application. It makes perfect sense, for example, that a person with the Pilot skill still has to get a feat to take the driver's seat in a jet fighter or helicopter. Having some familiarity with what it takes to be a pilot (second-hand), such vehicles require specialized training. So the application of a feat in such an instance really works.
Where feat application doesn't work is in some aspects of combat. With firearms there are a number of feats that are just plain goofy, mostly because the rules they allow a character to modify are bad. Burst Fire allows a hero to fire a five- or three-round burst (with weapons that have such a setting), but only if he or she has a 13 Wisdom. The benefit is the weapon's user only suffers a -4 penalty to the attack roll and deals +2 dice of damage to a single target. Normally a character must use autofire rules, or simply wastes the extra ammo fired in a burst, as a particularly poor option. Similarly, the feat Strafe allows autofire to attack a 20 ft. line of 5 ft. squares, instead of a 10 ft. by 10 ft. area. Why couldn't these things be normal maneuvers in gunplay, which could be further modified by feats? Why does a burst only have +2 damage dice, the equivalent of only one more bullet hitting the target? Why does the system diverge form every official d20 game that came before it, yet fail to improve those systems? d20 Modern is selling us firearms rules that may work, but other companies have done better, and these rules don't come close to feeling right.
Equally as disturbing is non-lethal damage. Replacing subdual damage, this system is bad enough to make one wonder if it was playtested. The way it works is you hit with a non-lethal attack (like a punch), and unless you do more damage in one blow than the victim's Constitution score, there is no effect. No player I know of will use choose to do non-lethal damage, even with all of the feats, such as Brawl, that increase the amount of damage done with one's unarmed attacks. Why? A character that has maximized brawling feats (this doesn't count Melee Smash talents and Street Fighting) and a 20 Strength can do a maximum of 13 points of damage without a critical strike. That means anyone with a Con of 13 or less must make a Fortitude saving throw or be knocked out. Those with 14 or higher Con are unaffected. So, why would players choose to try non-lethal damage? The answer is they won't, and that's shoddy design.
Not so with the vehicle rules, which for the most part are simple enough to be easily playable. While you're left on your own when it comes to aerial and waterborne vehicles, on the ground the chase is on. Most stunts seen in our favorite action movies can be pulled off using what's given, or extrapolated from the rules. However, the rules fail badly when dealing with crashes and the damage applied to vehicle occupants.
Any vehicle that provides three-quarters or more cover allows occupants to avoid all damage from a collision. Normal passenger cars offer three-quarters cover, yet I knew personally a few persons who are now dead due to a collision in a car. A desire to depict cinematic reality is not a defense for such a slipshod rule. Why the designers didn't say, "Subtract the amount of cover a vehicle offers from 1. Passengers take that much damage in a collision, Reflex save (DC 15) for half," is lost on me. That simple statement has the additional virtue of actually making sense. The system also begs the question, "What happens when a plane crashes, since it offers nine-tenths cover to its passengers?" Ostensibly it explodes, according to rules explosion rules that apply to any vehicle disabled by taking damage greater than or equal to half of it's full hit points. That does 10d6 to anyone caught in the blast (Reflex save DC 20 for half). Taken with the firearms combat, it feels like we've been sold the beta release of a video game. We need the release version.
Not in need of a patch are some other new aspects of d20 created for the modern setting. Action Points are a heroic trait that allows players a resource with which to modify die rolls in the game. At each level, a limited number of these goodies (5, or 6 from an advanced class, plus on-half the character's level) are allocated to the hero, in addition to keeping the ones left over from a previous level. In a tight spot, one can burn a single action point to gain a modifier to a critical die roll. Further, action points must be used to activate some talents. This latter point has me wary, since not being able to use a class feature due to lack of action points is a frustrating predicament. The jury's still out, however, because that has yet to some up in play, and it might be a great balancing factor.
Balancing a character's accounts of actual currency, assets, and investments is something one won't have to do, because d20 Modern offers us the Wealth mechanic. Upon analysis, this simple system is a heck of a lot easier to handle than the complexities of modern finance, yet it's still quite effective. Getting equipment is easy, just make a d20 roll and add your Wealth bonus. If you succeed, the goodies are in the bag, but if the item is too far beyond your Wealth score, that score could go down. Luckily, adventures sometimes offer Wealth increases as "treasure", and while some of the equipment purchase DCs seem a bit high, but at least paying rent is a non-issue.
A hero's fame is an issue, though. Reputation, a great idea from d20 Star Wars, can make or break a situation when it's relevant. In light of what the Reputation attribute means, at least two of the three modifiers to a reputation check don't make sense. A character gets +10 to his reputation check if he's known far and wide, yet isn't that what the reputation modifier from a character's class is for? This modifier makes less sense when one considers the feat Renown, which adds +3 to one's reputation modifier each time it is selected. Perhaps reputation bonuses could have been engineered as some type of reward for adventures that might gain someone notoriety. Still, the system works, and has merit as a possible addition to D&D as well.
Another such possibility for addition to D&D, as many have argued in the past, was the wound point and vitality system from d20 Star Wars. Yet that didn't make the cut for d20 Modern. Instead, hit points are maintained as the method of adjudicating injury with one twist: the massive damage threshold (MDT). Each character's MDT is equal to his or her Constitution score (like wound points are in Star Wars). Whenever this score is exceeded, the character must make a Fortitude saving throw, or immediately begin dying. This has a similar feel to the wound point system, in that a character might die from a single, horrible blow, but it's simpler and less deadly, which has value as well.
More valuable is the Gamemastering section. Such a trove of valuable information, so well arranged and presented, has rarely been found anywhere, including the venerable DMG. So to player and GM is d20 Modern user friendly. Herein is great advice for adventure structure and running the game. Cinematic and episodic techniques are expounded beautifully, along with fabulous advice on villains. Rules for challenge ratings and encounter levels are vastly improved from their D&D counterparts, with ample examples to help out. Finally, the dangers of the modern world are clearly spelled out in a way familiar to those running D&D campaigns.
The section, and related rules found elsewhere in the book, only fell short in two ways. First, the real-world diseases did not have their effects explained at all, making storytelling of symptoms impossible without additional research. Secondly, and more telling, the poisons are so much weaker than their real-world counterparts. While the poison chart is found with the Craft (chemical) skill, and odd choice in organization to be sure, it's the content of that chart that's really bad. Once again, the designers have shown us they're afraid of poison and the way it effects play, this time with the defense that liberties were taken to enhance the cinematic aspect of the game. Yet, every cinematic display of poison I remember was a deadly one. At least in modern times the defense that many of these substances are illegal is valid. Such complaints are small when compared with the overarching positive value of the GMing rules.
Equally positive is a huge section on NPCs, both antagonistic and helpful. Rules for creating monsters, dubbed the "Creature Factory", are so clear and handy, they put the Monster Manual to shame. Many of the sample creatures are useful only to fantasy games, but some have a place in horror settings, or X-files emulations featuring mutants, aliens, and the rare golem. (This fact isn't surprising considering the presence of some Dark Matter authors on the staff.) New creatures are really nice from mutant animals to the alien puppeteer, and random tables for fiends make demonic encounters a whole new threat. The shambling dead (skeletons and zombies, so essential to survival horror) appear as templates--a wonderful gift to GMs. Amongst all of this fine work, the monster weakness rules stand out as the best of class. Noting that many creatures cannot be taken out by mundane means, rules on how to work in weaknesses a hero can exploit was a brilliant piece of design from a mechanics as well as tale-weaving standpoint. As if that weren't enough, the section is rounded out by twelve pages of sample NPCs. The only thing found wanting was the shallow treatment of children, yet that the rules for little ones arethere at all is a plus.
The staff didn't forget to give us some settings in which to set our modern adventures. This section is the most poorly organized and edited of the book, but that doesn't ruin it. Perhaps to leave space for AEG's fine Spycraft, there's no "realistic" setting, as all three campaign models have some aspect of the supernatural thrown in. Two of them are so similar (Shadowchasers and Urban Arcana--monsters and magic in the modern world), that they should have been combined as alternate ways to play the same idea. The fact that these settings require the inclusion of psionics and magic in the rulebook means that those persons keen to play their own settings with such features have tools to do so. With the SRD already released to open the door for open gaming products, support and new campaign ideas are sure to be forthcoming.
That's what makes d20 Modern a strong product, despite its failures. Options. Choices at every turn. It's familiar yet new, and many of the flaws of older systems have been done away with, especially in the character creation arena. Whether you want to run a gritty campaign inspired by movies like Leon: The Professional and Reservoir Dogs, a Last Action Hero or James Bond sort of romp, the romantic horror of Interview with the Vampire, or you want to combine your swords and sorcery, orcs and elves, with machine guns and car chases, with d20 Modern on your shelf there's nothing to stop you besides the limits of your own imagination (and a few rules oversights). Me, I'm all about Big Trouble in Little China. The utility of this book extends beyond it's implicit intent into the realm of altering the way we play all of our d20 games. There's nothing stopping anyone from using this rulebook to play low-powered fantasy or realistic history, on to post-apocalyptic nightmares or a cybernetic future. Get d20 Modern, tweak it, add the good stuff from third party products to replace anything you don't like, then share. Everyone needs options, and maybe yours are just the ideas we need.
(Original score 4.5, nudged to 5 for its innovation, "A" material)
This review was originally written for Gaming Frontiers on 12/30/02.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
> However, I would have liked to see some additional uses
> for the AP.
As the GM, you can do that.
Oh, and as far as I know (it's really late right now, I barely remember my own name) Modern doesn't use armor for DR. That's ridiculous. I don't think they do it, and that (and many other things) are actually quite wrong on the product details page.
> for the AP.
As the GM, you can do that.
Oh, and as far as I know (it's really late right now, I barely remember my own name) Modern doesn't use armor for DR. That's ridiculous. I don't think they do it, and that (and many other things) are actually quite wrong on the product details page.
Messageboard Golem
First Post
Good review.
I'd just like to chip in that the Brawl feats make a much different feel/concept than the Living Weapon features... Vin Diesel fighting versus Steven Segall (sp?) for instance.
The GM'ing chapter has got to be the best chapter on GM'ing ever. I'd put quite a bit of money on it.
Oh, and you forgot the best thing about the iconic characters: one of them is both female and Asian
I'd just like to chip in that the Brawl feats make a much different feel/concept than the Living Weapon features... Vin Diesel fighting versus Steven Segall (sp?) for instance.
The GM'ing chapter has got to be the best chapter on GM'ing ever. I'd put quite a bit of money on it.
Oh, and you forgot the best thing about the iconic characters: one of them is both female and Asian
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