DragonStar/Traveller/ D20Modern/COC/Spycraft

[Albert_Fish]

Of these books which do you prefer and why?
Dragon Star
D20 modern
D20 COC
Spycraft
D20 traveller

( all chosen becasue of their more or less modern day bent)

I am curious as to which one uses the rules the best, which one is worht the money, are they good conversions? easy to play? readily transferable to other d20 games, etc. basically any criteria you can think of..compare contrast or just a quickie review

 

[Kamard]

Of these books which do you prefer and why?
Dragon Star
D20 COC

Well, I have only seen two of these, Dragon Star and D20 CoC. So let me talk about those.

Call of Cthulhu was well worth its money. I like the way it handled the magic system, I like the lack of classes (there are only two) and I like the setting's feel. It seemed well worth its price to me.

Dragonstar, I don't like as much. It is a very cool idea. In feel, it reminds me a lot of Fading Suns, Star Wars, and D&D duct-taped together. Its heavy feeling on the Star Wars side. When I read it, I thought that this was how Star Wars d20 should be. Its very swashbuckling-y. Fantasy space isn't usually something that interests me (unless its Spelljammer ), but I feel this book was a good buy.

As for what I have heard/seen briefly of the other games....

D20 Modern seems like its a good solid rules set, and I plan on buying it if only to see if I can cobble together a good fantasy setting using the six classes given. Spycraft I wouldn't buy, its not my thing (spy genre) and even if it was, I could do it with d20 Modern.

So of those five, if I were to put them in order of how I feel about them...

1. Call of Cthulhu- I would buy this again.
2. D20 Modern
3. Dragonstar
Wouldn't buy, but I would look through and possibly use ideas from if someone else had the book:
4. d20 Traveller (I hope its more sane than the original Traveller rules)
5. Spycraft

 

[Piratecat]

Out of those books, Spycraft is my favorite. Holy crap on a stick, they did a phenomenal feel of capturing the superspy genre in a rules set that I'm dying to get a chance to use. Solid rules implementation, inspired design, well worth the money, moderately transferable.

I intend to use d20 Modern for everything that isn't spies. I haven't bought the book yet, but I have read the SRD, and I'm impressed. Solid rules implementation, well worth the money, not as inspirational to me as Spycraft or CoC but extremely transferable.

If you like the horror genre, CoC is also superbly done. I love this kind of game, and the d20 book carried it off and inspires you in the process. Solid rules implementation, well worth the money, moderately transferable.

I haven't read T20 or Dragonstar, as space games aren't my genre of choice. I hear good stuff about Dragonstar, though.

 

[Psion]

Of these books which do you prefer and why?
Dragon Star
D20 modern
D20 COC
Spycraft
D20 traveller

Whoa... touch call. Three of those books are all time favorites of mine. Dragonstar, Spycraft, and D20 Traveller all rated 5's from me. It's almost too close to call, but I would put them in the order of:

Spycraft
D20 Traveller
Dragonstar

Followed by D20 Modern and D20 CoC (both "4's")

Spycraft and D20 Traveller are both great books that capture the subject matter well and make great resources for their target genre. I'm letting spycraft edge out d20 Traveller only because I can think of one thing that sort of bugs me about spycraft (departments) but two things that bug me about T20 (stamina/lifeblood and animals). Those points don't bug me enough that I would change them, but I had to make the call on something.

Spycraft streamlines the d20 system rules a bit and adds some of its own highlights like action dice. The gadget point system does a nice job of mapping how neat your superspy toys are to your level. Overall the book is well considered and well written.

D20 Traveller is a "one stop shopping" compendium for science fiction gaming. The career path system adds a certain realism and depth to normal leveled chargen, and the classes fit the genre well. The huge book has tools for almost everything you need in a far future sf game, including starships, vehicles, world generation, encounters, and so on, and the whole is setting-light, permitting you to use it for your own spacefaring setting.

Dragonstar acheives it's objectives well, namely to adapt D&D to high tech vice inventing a new d20 system from scratch. If you want high tech in D&D, this is the book. FWIW, I feel as if it does a better job with some modern weapon rules than d20 modern or spycraft, but the armor thing bugs me a little and it is not quite as stand alone as the two foregoing books.

d20 modern is a flexible, adaptable system. It has a bit of a generic flavor to it, too generic for my tastes. Generally, if what you are looking for is well handled by another system (like say d20 Traveller or Spycraft) you are better off with the more specific system, but lacking that. d20 modern is pretty good. One of its major downfalls, IMO, is discarding the innovations of d20 Star Wars RCRB. The VP/WP system, armor, and NPC classes of star wars has it all over d20 modern when it comes to representing modern/ultramodern characters AFAIAC. Further, the books primary support is contemporary fantasy, so it is less well supported if you are looking for something else.

d20 Call of Cthulhu is a great book -- sort of. That is to say it is a much better supplement than a game, IMO. The mythos creatures, GMing chapters, and special rules (magic, sanity, etc.) are pretty decent. But the base chargen is pretty bad IMO. Characters select a profession that defines their skills, but they also select either offense or defense option which is parallel to class. The problem is that the options do not cover the gamut of characters -- I can easily think of characters who would be good at both offense and defense, and characters who are good at neither. I recommend if you want to play CoC using the d20 system, using the mythos material, magic rules, and sanity rules (which are pretty adaptable) from d20 CoC, but use another d20 system game such as d20 modern or spycraft for chargen.

 

[Shadowdancer]

I have T20, and it's a great book. Very versatile. Many of the rules in the book can be used for other games, such as vehicle design, starship design, star system design.

I also like the prior history addition to the character creation phase. That was one of the things I always liked about the original Traveller, and I'm glad they kept it.

The combat system -- hell, most of the rules -- can easily be used for a modern day setting game since it covers so many tech levels.

Of the others, I have D20 Modern on order, haven't received it yet. I like the concept of Dragsonstar, but don't know if I could get anyone else in our gaming group to play it. I've looked through Spycraft and CoC, wasn't interested enough to buy either.

 

[Neowolf]

Spycraft and COC are my two favorites from that list, mostly because I love Spycraft's style-based over-the-top James Bond-esque gameplay, and the pure creepiness of COC. You can even mix the two for an interesting Delta Green type game.

Mechanically, both have quite a bit to offer. COC gives you a pretty good classless character creation system, as well as a TON of information on various forms of insanity. Spycraft has action dice, some awesome vehicle rules, a chase system (which works for cars, boats, planes, or even foot chases). Both have quite a few modern day weapons and feats.

Good luck and happy gaming.

 

[Katerek]

Of these books which do you prefer and why?
Dragon Star
D20 modern
D20 COC
Spycraft
D20 traveller

Well for my dollar the vote has to go to CoC.

I am currently doing the foundation work for a modern-esqu campaign. The recipe I am using is CoC with about half of D20 Mod and a splash of Spycraft.

The feel I am going for is modern twisted horror, newer Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Dan Simmons, Robert McKammon type stuff.

 

[Gary N. Mengle]

I'd rank them the order of desirability thus:


D20 Traveller (Everything you need for D20 sci-fi)
D20 Modern (Solid and very generic)
D20 COC (more flexible than it looks - it'd make a great Buffy game)
Spycraft (Well done, but the genre seems limited to me)
Dragon Star (blech... just not interested)

 

[Buttercup]

I only own three of the books on the list: Traveller, DragonStar and CoC. (My local gaming store STILL doesn't have D20 Modern! ) I have no interest in Spycraft, since the genre isn't my thing.

Of the three I have, Traveller is my favorite, because I think it's the most versatile. It's a complete toolkit for playing or DMing in a far future, science fictional setting. DragonStar is interesting, and well done, but I'm not keen on the mixture of standard D&D races w/ high tech. Nonetheless, it is filled with good ideas that can be ported to a homebrew, so I am happy I bought it. CoC also isn't my cup of tea, but the book is beautifully done, & has some useful ideas, such as the magic and sanity stuff. I agree w/ Psion that it's more a supplement than a game.

 

[Apok]

Hi, my name is Apok and I'm a Spycraft junky.

Of all those mentioned, I like Spycraft the best. As P-Kitty and Psion have already mentioned, AEG took the d20 system and streamlined it into a smooth running machine. It's awesome for Superspy genre games but it can be adapted to just about any modern-era play style as well. I intend to use the Spycraft setup in place of d20 Modern, which I feel is redundant for my needs.

Other than that, I've gotta say that I love Dragonstar. Sure, it's a tad campy (it's basically D&D Space Opera) but it's also scads of fun. One of the best campaigns I've ever played in for 3e was Dragonstar, though the game ended prematurely due to certain RL issues for the DM.

As for the rest on the list, Traveller looks very promising and I'll likely pick it up one of these days. d20 Modern, as I've said before, just seems redundant when you consider what Spycraft can do if you think outside the box, and I was never a huge fan of CoC.