D20 Modern and/or Future -tell me your stories!

[Pheonix0114]

I ran a d20 Future game, space opera style, for almost a year until the small faults in the system had accrued enough to make it nigh unplayable without me doing a complete system overhall But before that point the players had went from a small group escaping their corporate owned world on a junker starship to the same group creating a confederacy that united fully one third of the human worlds in the galaxy, seemingly ushering in a golden age for humanity.

 

[Desdichado]

While an awesome idea, D20 modern itself isn't exactly known to be the most balanced of games.

I dunno. That thread was just the opinions of a few guys who were specifically asked to describe any percieved flaw or problem with the system that they could. My experiences with d20 Modern is that the system is fine. It mostly has the same issues that D&D from that era also had, and the same relatively simple fixes that made D&D work smoother apply to d20 Modern as well.

I don't think d20 Modern really had any unique issues that made it difficult to play that any other d20 derivative game didn't have too. I've found that by simply making some feats inherent in the classes, or consolidated to fewer feats (like making most of the proficiency feats unnecessary, for example), having some kind of better rounding on BAB and Base Saving Throw scores to not unduly get penalized for multiclassing, and avoiding high level play altogether it still works fairly well.

A lot of folks also take exception with the d20 era of games that they had too many rules, which bogged down play. In my games, they only bog down play if you let them. Tools, not rules. And rulings trump rules all the time anyway. But that philosophy isn't unique to d20 Modern.

Curiously, I think I'm the only person online (that I can find, anyway) who adapted d20 Past to be a fantasy system.

 

[Lwaxy]

My only d20 I am running right now is Give It a Shot. It is a time travel accident game, where the PCs found themselves preventing the assassination of Kennedy and all sorts of bad (and some good) developed from it.

There are no major flaws, I just need to be careful to tie it in with actual historic events.

The campaign is about to end in a few sessions, but I'm not sure if the group wants to do a modern/past game again or go back to fantasy.

 

[riotshieldnation]

I've found that by simply making some feats inherent in the classes, or consolidated to fewer feats (like making most of the proficiency feats unnecessary, for example), having some kind of better rounding on BAB and Base Saving Throw scores to not unduly get penalized for multiclassing, and avoiding high level play altogether it still works fairly well.

That's mostly what I was referring to. Guns are a little weak, too many "required" feats, and multiclassing BAB and high level play (undoubtedly going to mix with eachother) were problems in my mind. When you get good enough, cover doesn't really seem to matter as much anymore, and when you finally get powerful enough to get interesting, the game starts to come apart at the seams.

A lot of folks also take exception with the d20 era of games that they had too many rules, which bogged down play. In my games, they only bog down play if you let them. Tools, not rules. And rulings trump rules all the time anyway. But that philosophy isn't unique to d20 Modern.

True, but that doesn't make the system any better

EDIT: That came off a little harsh. I just wanted to make clear again that I do like d20 Modern, but I just think that there are better options out there now that have dealt with the aforementioned problems in various ways.

 

[Desdichado]

True, but that doesn't make the system any better

Heh. True enough. In another day and age, I'd have said those were fatal flaws that would cause me to completely reject the system and look for something else.

These days, though? I've mostly made my peace with d20, and I just avoid using the parts of it that are problematic.

 

[delericho]

I dunno. That thread was just the opinions of a few guys who were specifically asked to describe any percieved flaw or problem with the system that they could. My experiences with d20 Modern is that the system is fine. It mostly has the same issues that D&D from that era also had, and the same relatively simple fixes that made D&D work smoother apply to d20 Modern as well.

Yep. In our "Mecha Crusade" campaign we found that Evasion was too easy to acquire and was something of a must-have, but that was part of the nature of the campaign. Plus, the Mecha build rules were somewhat problematic, but that wasn't really an issue with "d20 Modern".

I do think "d20 Modern" could do with an update, whether just to bring it into line with 3.5e, to SWSE-ise it, or even to give it a full second edition. But all that's required (IMO) would be a bunch of fairly small incremental fixes - the core of the system is pretty solid.

 

[zepherusbane]

Thanks everyone for your contributions so far. I really appreciate all your input, it's really helping me get my creative juices flowing.

To summarize, this is the list of alternate systems I pulled out of suggestions from earlier posts for me to check out.

• Savage Worlds
• World of Darkness
• e20
• Ultramodern
• NexusD20
• True20
• Modern20
• d20 Modern PF
• Some homebrews

I'll check these all out in time.

Today however, I do plan to move forward with a D20 Modern/Future campaign. I've also decided that I want to go with the near future campaign I mentioned in an earlier thread. I plan to base the campaign setting on the world portrayed in the book "Snow Crash" by Neil Stephenson. See the wiki if you haven't read it but are curious (Snow Crash - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia).

I just love the setting that Stephenson created in his novel. I have been searching all over the web looking to find if someone has already created a game world that is based on Snow Crash and was actually quite surprised that I didn't find one. I did find a thread on a different RPG board where people were talking about doing this, but I didn't get the impression anyone has actually gone forward with doing it.

I also determined that I will not require the character based rules (classes, professions, feats, etc.) from D20 Future for this campaign because much of that content is space related; space adventures won't be part of the "flavor" of this campaign setting.

I do expect to adapt the Mecha and Cybernetics rules from D20 for certain aspects from the novel (such as the "rat things").

I expect not to allow the FX abilities that are provided in D20 Modern since magic is not part of the flavor of the campaign setting.

Most of the classes, feats, skills, etc. that I will need will come directly from D20 Modern. My players will be able to find quite a bit of what they would need to duplicate characters similar to the ones in the novel. For example, when I look at the primary character in Snow Crash (Hiro Protagonist) I can easily see him fitting in to the current rules without even needing to create a new character class.

Hiro would have levels in the base classes of both Fast and Smart Hero. For his advanced classes, I would expect levels in Martial Artist, Investigator, and Techie. For his starting profession, I would expect "Technician". Feats might be a different story, he would use some standard ones, but some things would need to come from Snow Crash specific feats.

Instead of Techie from the D20 Modern book, Shadowjack levels from the Urban Arcana Campaign Setting book would be even better for Hiro.

As with the magic related items from D20 Modern, I plan to restrict any magic related classes, professions, feats from Urban Arcana and any other source books I do end up using.

I plan to create the things that go along with this specific campaign setting that don't already exist to ensure the flavor of the campaign world is what I want it to be.

Examples:

Starting occupations:

• Franchise Operator
• Security Guard
• Heavy Metal Band Member
• Corporate Computer Programmer
• Hacker

Base Character Classes:

• Raft Refus

Advanced Classes:

• Pizza Deliverator
• CIC Stringer
• RadisKS Kourier

Who else has read this book and can offer suggestions for items that should be in the setting? I'm interested in any classes, professions, skills, feats, weapons, etc. you think I should have.

 

[Desdichado]

I actually suggest you start a new thread titled "Adapting Snow Crash to d20" or something like that. You're not likely to get very many people looking at this thread who know Snow Crash or are invested in seeing it converted to an RPG setting unless they can tell that the thread's actually about that. This thread looks like a generic d20 Modern thread, so it'll draw a completely different crowd.

 

[zepherusbane]

I actually suggest you start a new thread titled "Adapting Snow Crash to d20" or something like that. You're not likely to get very many people looking at this thread who know Snow Crash or are invested in seeing it converted to an RPG setting unless they can tell that the thread's actually about that. This thread looks like a generic d20 Modern thread, so it'll draw a completely different crowd.

Good idea. I will do just that.

 

[exile]

I'm a little late to the party, but I am currently playing in a far-future D20M/F game. The characters (with the exception of my own) are all baseline humans and soldiers (or military pilots). I play a human who has been genetically modified for transport to and life on an agricultural world (in short, a space halfling) who oversees the ship's hydroponics bay and greenhouses.

So far, the game is rules light and role-play heavy. It can be found at DnDOG Home under the title of Binary Messiah.