Thinking about D20 Modern

[Crow]

Hi, I was taking a look at the D20 Modern SRD and thinking about giving a try. It seems to favor a cinematic "John Woo" style of game, which isn't a problem for our group. (We play games to get out of the reality, not immerse ourselves in it) The system looks fairly solid, but I was wondering if anyone had any gameplay experience with it, and how it holds up for actual gaming? Also, if anyone has played any D20 future, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well.

When you play it, does it "feel" just like D&D with different fluff? Or does it feel like a whole new game? Was your experience with the system good or bad, and why? What can the players expect from the game that is different than D&D (aside from fluff).

p.s. We were also thinking about using the "vitality point" variant. Any thoughts or recommendations?

[Crow]

Well ok then.

Thanks for the help! =)

[Orak]

I am going to start DMing a game tomorrow. Will be my first time playing modern. I will let you know how it goes.

[Hurlbut]

Well ok then.

Thanks for the help! =)

Dude, wait a day, then cide us for not saying anything :P

[Matthew]

Heh; I think that's a fair indication of the number of people who play D20 Modern on this Forum. I know a few who definitely do, but they must be elsewhere today! Things move so quickly on this board, it's hard for niche subjects.

I have only the most fleeting of experiences with D20 Modern/Future, though I have access to a few of the Books. It feels a bit too much like D&D to me on the whole and I think that I would opt for True20 if I was looking for a similar system to run this sort of thing (or, I might just abandon it in favour of Savage Worlds).

The most grating problem I have with D20 Modern are the Guns and the related Feats. I really don't like the way that they work and it's something that they really ought to have gotten right. The biggest problems I have with the system, though, are the same ones as I have with D&D; way too many Rules and the 'Classes for everyone' approach leads to annoyingly lengthy and involved NPC generation.

That said, I really like the ideas that I found in many of the documents. I would love to get a Mecha Campaign going, but I'm not sure what I would do with it. I would probably start it and then realise that I would rather be playing Mech Warrior. I have more or less the same problem with every 'cool' idea presented. Somewhere out there it has been done before, is supported better with supplements and probably has a better rules system.

If I was going to play D20 Modern/Past/Future, I would be looking to play it as a 'pick up' game. I would find a Third Party Company with a reasonable reputation and buy some of their stuff. In short, I wouldn't want the hassel of developing the setting and adventures myself.

[Edit] Actually, come to think of it, there are a number of Free D20 Modern Adventures on the Wizards Site.

[Crow]

I am going to start DMing a game tomorrow. Will be my first time playing modern. I will let you know how it goes.

Awesome! Please do =)

[Zavia/GenX]

Ive been also thinking about it.
But im wanting to run a full normal non-fantasy d20modern unlike the settings i hear that has magic or creatures in it. non-fantasy as in assassins, robbers, police investigations, etc.

[Dhavaer]

It's more lethal than D&D, equipment is less important, and classes aren't as straight-jacketed. Multiclassing is also more useful.

[Logic]

It's more lethal than D&D, equipment is less important, and classes aren't as straight-jacketed. Multiclassing is also more useful.

What he said.

Prestige/Advanced classes are pretty usefull as well. Most people start out with one in mind from the very beginning, and attempt to get to them as fast as possible. I recommend it with full gusto.

[Dhavaer]

I recommend dipping. Strong/Smart/Soldier/Field Scientist is fun. There's no multiclassing penalty, so take full advantage. Aim for a minimum of 3 classes at 20. Finishing a non-caster class is not generally a good idea.

[manda_babylon]

My group really only plays D20 Modern right now. We're running four games on and off - one is a potluck game using the D20 Modern template [meaning it has WoD characters, D&D characters, etc - all translated into the D20M system], one is D20 Past, and the other two are Urban Arcana [one is Lvl 10, the other is Lvl 20]

My group found Modern to be a little less complicated than D&D - the classes are pretty straightforward, and, as it has been said, there is no penalty for muliticlassing. The one drawback is that there are less Advanced/Prestige classes than in D&D, since there are less books out for it. However, that means that you stand a chance of actually having them all. [We have the Core book, D20 Past, D20 Future, Urban Arcana, and Dark Matter, everything but D20 Apocalypse, I think.] If you're creative in your character construction, it's fine, but some of our players who are less adept at character creation have had problems making sure their characters don't get stale.

It is a pain to try to generate some high level characters, especially if you're multiclassing them, so I recommend what we use: http://www.pathguy.com/d20modern.htm

This site lets you generate characters in less than five minutes if you know what you're going to do with them. Even if you're still having to reference the books in order to figure out what you need/want, it still does all of the number crunching for you, which saves literally hours for me.

I haven't really dipped into Future much, so I can't tell you much about it, but if Magic/Energy/etc. is something you're interested in, Urban Arcana is pretty diverse.

I'm not sure what the vitality thing, though. We roll our stats out by hand, and then level based on the book's charts. [Although we level arbitrarily, once whoever is GMing feels we've crossed a milestone] Our HP is generated based on rolling the appropriate die for whatever our current class is at the level up.

...Having just looked up the vitality point system, I would recommend against using it. It doesn't seem like it fits the "feel" of D20 Modern. Most of the weapons in this system are guns or magic, and these are not the sort of attacks one can just "shrug" off. When we play, we tend to use real-time damages, meaning that if someone gets shot in the head, it does more damage than, say, a shot in the arm. While we use magical healing and "time-skips" to account for healing, we also tend to play in ways that either avoid making ourselves super vulnerable during combat, or we try to overwhelm our opponents so they can't damage us as severely.

Modern is more deadly, in that these are real world, powerful, penetrating weapons, not swords, clubs, and arrows. This makes the system more reliant on story telling, because if you fight constantly, someone is going to be killed, and there is little to no resurrection in Modern.

If you have more specific questions, I'll be happy to answer them as best I can. I've been playing Modern for about three years now, and I was beginning to think I was the only person on these boards who did...

[Rigel Cyrosea]

I've been DMing a Warhammer 40K game based off of D20 Future (link to the conversion rules in my sig). It's been working out pretty well. Because it's based off of WH40K, there are alot of really high damage weapons and pyschic powers. However, there's also a lot of really good armour, and the conversion rules use the "armour as damage reduction" varient, so people don't take as much damage. The mutations system is pretty cool too.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Hi, I was taking a look at the D20 Modern SRD and thinking about giving a try. It seems to favor a cinematic "John Woo" style of game, which isn't a problem for our group. (We play games to get out of the reality, not immerse ourselves in it) The system looks fairly solid, but I was wondering if anyone had any gameplay experience with it, and how it holds up for actual gaming? Also, if anyone has played any D20 future, I'd love to hear about your experiences as well.

When you play it, does it "feel" just like D&D with different fluff? Or does it feel like a whole new game? Was your experience with the system good or bad, and why? What can the players expect from the game that is different than D&D (aside from fluff).

p.s. We were also thinking about using the "vitality point" variant. Any thoughts or recommendations?

I've played regular Modern, Future, and Future/Apocalypse. Everytime, it was a blast. Especially at low levels, combat is quick and dangerous. Weapons typically deal 2d6 to 2d10 at range, enough to possibly drop most characters in one hit. Makes everything more exciting, though
Once you start getting advanced classes (level 4-5), the game really opens up. There's good reason to stay with the base class or try out an advanced class so you get a very diverse possibility of characters. My main point of contention is the 'Purchase DC' system. It's somewhat odd, and a few bad rolls can really bankrupt your character, though the lower your current wealth, the easier it is to increase it. Conversely, I liked d20 Apocalypse's 'Trade Units' system more (and converted Call of Cthulhu d20's money system to Modern, at the behest of my players).

My Future game didn't progress too far, so we didn't get to try out some of the neater gadgets, though the game in itself was still fun.

I haven't played in a game that required the vehicle 'Chase Scale' yet, so I'm not sure how well it works. The vitality point system may work to make the game slightly less dangerous.

Helpful tool/Online SRD in easy to navigate format:
http://ca.geocities.com/spike_fightw...d/srdhome.html

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions unanswered.