D20 Modern help

[Gnoman]

I'm planning a zero-magic D20 Modern game in a few months, once I table my 3.5 D&D campaign for a while. I'll be starting at level 1 due to lack of familiarity with the system. Because of high-damage weapons (especially with the caliber-based damage chart I'll be using) I kind of expect a relatively high mortality rate. Do you think it's a good idea to require each player to prepare multiple characters (so that when one dies, we don't have to wait while another gets rolled up) or would that seem "unfair".

[Miscast_Mage]

Yeah, it is a good idea, and good practice in my opinion. Spare PCs don't exactly go stale. Plus you're saving everyone some hassle if the mortality rate is as high as you think it will be.

A few things to consider are how many spare characters you ask them to make. A spare or two? Even three? They'll see it as a high risk campaign, but not decidedly lethal. Any more and it'll come across that this will be a meat grinder campaign and they'll die to any and everything, which with no magic for things like raise dead, they'll be to paranoid to put any RP investment into their characters.

Another is how you get the 'make back-ups' notion across them. Their reactions can vary from "huh, that sounds actually pretty handy to have" to "Oh gods this campaign is gonna be a meat grinder".