Poll over but... keep recommending d20 Modern books! (It's all good.)

Okay, so I'm going to be shoping at a couple of my FLGSs tomorrow and I'm thinking that I want to pick up a new d20 Modern sourcebook. Therefore, I'm looking for some quick advice on which of the listed books in the poll ("that I don't already own") I should seriously consider.

I've limited the list to official d20 Modern books that I don't own but feel free to mention any third-party d20 Modern books that you recommend. (Those might be hard to find in Edmonton, since a lot of 33P stuff doesn't get much love here. That's why I didn't list them.)

I added an Other option.

D20 Apocalypse, dude.

I love me some books... but out of any of the books you have listed I would go for Cyberscape. Yeah, it got a lot of flak in some circles of Modern players but I feel it got that flak undeservedly.

Cybernetics can be used as magic items, fancy pulp tech, futuristic enhancements... I've had players who had spirits they could send out as his eyes and hands, a player who carried around a fancy Mr. Fix-It gadget which could plug into his wrist communicator to give him special skills and talents, and rough-running street samurai with full transdermal body armor. The rules for the Matrix (and let's be honest, it's what it is) can be used for a Lakota shaman traveling to meet with his spiritualist brethren deep in the Dreamtime while battling the spirits of the white man's sleepless victims , holo-clones traveling into Ivan's deepest sanctums to take down the Red Menace, or a decker fighting it out with the blackest ice he's seen trying to fry his brain.

Past doesn't provide a lot and brings in more issues than it helps, Urban Arcana is pretty much a joke (Greyhawk: American Style . . . though the Enemy section is decent), The other books are all sort of... ehh. But Cyberscape provides a lot of crunch for your buck which is generously generic and can be fit (with a little imagination) into a lot of campaigns.

3PP-wise... I would suggest ENWorld's Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth (pick it up off RPGNow if you can) for a better FX system, and the Blood & (blank) books. The best 3PP materials for Modern are PDFs, and some of them are far better than their WotC counterparts.

Slainte,

-Loonook.

Darrin Drader said:

D20 Apocalypse, dude.

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Dude, I have that one already.

Knightfall1972 said:

Dude, I have that one already.

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It's the only one you need.

Seriously though, Dark Matter is awesome, though it reprints a lot of fluffy stuff from the Alternity book.

Darrin Drader said:

It's the only one you need.

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Heh.

Darrin Drader said:

Seriously though, Dark Matter is awesome, though it reprints a lot of fluffy stuff from the Alternity book.

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I've been considering that one for some time. One of my FLGSs is selling off D&D v.3.5 and d20 Modern stuff at 15% off. They have both d20 Cyberscape and d20 Dark*Matter. However, I'm still really interested in getting d20 Future Tech.

Decisions, Decisions!

I choose other. There are lots of great third party supplements.

The following seven books are, imo, musts for any d20M library
1) Blood and Fists: Master Edition (RPGObjects): For martial arts goodness.

2) Elements of Magic Mythic Earth (EN Publishing): a great alternative magic system supplement. I think this might only be available in pdf.

3) Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin): Imo, a better take on mental power fx. It can be used for DND or d20Modern

4) Foe Factory: Modern (Adamant Entertainment): Quick NPC generation. Pdf only and it is $1 at RPGNow (and soon will no longer be available)

5) Hot Pursuit (Adamant Entertainment): Great chase rules for d20 and d20M. The Pdf is available from RPGNow for $1 (and soon will no longer be available)

6) Hot Purusit: On Foot (Adamant Entertainment) a companion to Hot Pursuit. The pdf is available for $1 at RPGNow (and soon will no longer be available)

7) Modern Player's Companion (Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics): good sourcebook with new occupations, advanced classes, new equipment, optional rules and good insight into the design philosophy for d20M



If you are looking for genre supplements, I would recommend the following (plus also just checking out anything else for d20M from Adamant or RPGObjects):

Blood and Blades: A Profiler's Guide to Slashers (RPGObjects): A pdf for running slasher horror game and a sourcebook for many Hollywood Slashers and monsters with the serial numbers filed off.

Darwin's World 2 (RPGObjects): Post Apocalyptic goodness

Modern High (RPGObjects): a pdf supplement for modifying d20M to run a game where the PCs are high school students

Solid (Wingnut): a supplement for running Blaxploitation campaigns.

Sidewinder: Recoiled (Green Ronin/Dog House): Guide to running Wild West Adventures. There was a print edition. The print edition was discounted to $5 at Green Ronin and Paizo

Thrilling Tales Omnibus (Adamant Entertainment): Great guide to running pulp adventures. There was a print edition

Greg K said:

Modern Player's Companion (Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics): good sourcebook with new occupations, advanced classes, new equipment, optional rules and good insight into the design philosophy for d20M.

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I've considered that one. If I could find a copy of the print version then I might pick it up. (I'm not really into buying PDFs.)

What's your opinion of the Future Player's Companion?

Greg K said:

Darwin's World 2 (RPGObjects): Post Apocalyptic goodness.

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I've been trying to get a copy of the Survivor's Handbook for months now. None of my FLGSs can seem to get the damn thing. Hopefully that will change now that RPGObjects has a deal with Amazon to have their books printed. (Note: I'm in Canada. Trying to get 3PP books here is painful sometimes.)

Greg K said:

Modern High (RPGObjects): a pdf supplement for modifying d20M to run a game where the PCs are high school students.

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Hmm, fascinating. Sort of like Hero High but for d20 Modern instead of M&M.

FYI... it's almost 2 a.m. where I am. Time to sleep. Be back tomorrow (or later today, depending on your point of view).

Hearty seconding of Darwin's World 2.0, Hot Pursuit (& HP:OF), Psychic's Handbook, and Blood & Fists.

I know all of those are (or were, and might again be) in print, too. The complete DW 2.0 might be difficult to find, and/or a bit expensive, but dayumn - if you do find one, snap it up quick smart.

From your original list, in the poll, I'd go with Future Tech. If you're going to be doing d20 sci-fi, that is. There's some nice crunchiness I've found useful, in that one.

Modern Player's Companion (Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics); New class talents, new occupation, advanced classes, prestige classes, feats, ammo loads, its shiney.

Future Player's Comapion (Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics); Same as above, but add to that mutations, cybernetics (and cyborg template), shiney power armor rules, and detailed rules to make or modify your own alien race (with that alone is worth the price of the book).

Martial Arts Mayhem (Green Ronin/The Game Mechanics); Adds the ability to make any character a decent martial arts master (even acolytes, mages, and psychics), and make certian other classes even sweeter (allowing the gunslinger to get gun fu abilities, and the martial artist class becomes the pinicle of unarmed combat if he masters a style), all that w/o adding a single class or a crap load of feats.

Urban Arcana (Wizards of the Coast) & Dark*Matter (Wizards of the Coast); aside from there setting info these books add so much classes. equipment, a smatering of feats, spells and powers. But what really makes these books shiney is that they become indespensible to playing FX campaigns.

d20 Menace Manual (Wizards of the Coast); Lots of Modern Monsters and the list of NPCs in the back is also very usefull.

some other d20 books that have become fully intergrated into my d20 Modern games;

Call of Cthulhu (Wizards of the Coast)

Monte Cook's World of Darkness (White Wolf)

Monster Manuals 1-5 & Fiend Folio (Wizards of the Coast)

Expedition to Castle Ravenloft (Wizards of the Coast)