a 4E d20 Modern (Forked Thread: 2010: Is it Dragonlance? (hint))

Forked from: 2010: Is it Dragonlance? (hint)

Dire Bare said:

WotC doesn't have to "integrate" any setting into a points-of-light mode. The core setting is points-of-light, and the Realms was given a makeover to be more points-of-lighty . . . but Eberron has suffered extremely minor changes (mostly additive, like, "where do dragonborn and eladrin come from). Eberron has elements of, but is not, a points-of-light setting.

I don't think we'll see an redo of Urban Arcana anytime soon (but would love it), but if/when it happens, there is no need to make it more of a points-of-light setting. On the other hand, this is perfectly possible to do in a "real world" setting like this. Evil is everywhere, the majority of the populace is unaware, you are one of the few who know the truth, and there are precious few places where you can find refuge . . .

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What would translate easily from 4E D&D to a possible 4E version of d20 Modern?

Offhand I would guess classes like the fighter and rogue at the heroic level wouldn't be that much different. If magic is allowed, the wizard wouldn't look too drastically different at the heroic level.

In my current campaign, one of my players made an elite (SWAT-type) mercenary using the Druid and Warlock classes (I'm experimenting with quite a few weird ideas in this campaign, including gestalt).

His basic machine gun is his Eldritch Blast (rods have been reskinned as ammo clips). His other warlock powers are usually grenades. He's an infernal lock, so I don't have to concern myself with him porting all over the place, but if he had gone fey I would have explained the teleportation as extreme feats of athleticism and acrobatics (slides under his opponent's legs, runs up the wall and leaps the gap between the two buildings).

For druid, we reskinned Wild Shape as him holstering his gun and taking up a martial arts stance. The wild shape powers are (obviously) various kicks and such. Druid spells were mostly reskinned as grenades. Call of the Beast became a sonic generator that causes short-term psychosis.

Things of that nature. Even magical effects can be redone as mundane, depending on the power level of the campaign.

Actually, that reminds me, the aforementioned SWAT merc player just started his own 4e modern survival horror game.

He decided to play a little fast and loose with character creation (he's always enjoyed giving players as many options as possible) so he let us each pick two roles and "cherry-pick" powers from any classes belonging to those two roles (he liked my gestalt idea enough that he's using it himself). I had to rework the powers a little bit to bring them in line with the concept, but also nerfed them a bit (the DM didn't want us being excessively strong from the get go, what with this being survival horror). We received basic features that were core to our role (I got Healing Word, the defender/striker got Combat Challenge and Hunter's Quarry), but we don't have Daily powers.

I decided to make a teenage girl with a taser (leader/controller) who just hitchhiked cross-country to meet the father she's never gotten to know. All of her powers are either based off of the taser she has, her ability to scream, and her luck. It's a lot of fun, because I can roleplay her as extremely incompetent (with regards to combat) but she nevertheless contributes just as effectively as anyone else. For example, she has the Warlord's Commander's Strike power, but when she uses it I describe it as she's barely fending off the zombie coming after her and she's screaming for her dad to help her. Nonetheless, I give the Striker/Defender (that's her dad) a free basic attack with a bonus to damage (not too shabby). I also reflavored the Wizard's Thunderwave as an earsplitting scream that forces creatures around her to stagger away (changed to a burst 1 and damage was reduced to just Cha mod).

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that with a little effort even magical attacks can be altered to be relatively low-powered attacks. Also, it may be worthwhile to fiddle with the class set-up a little (regarding features and the like). It really depends on exactly what you're looking to do. (Also, I think the Warlord and Ranger could port over to modern, with minimal problems, as is).