Gencon, WOTC, and D20 Modern

[hobgoblin]

Pretty much.

Here's the deal though: Menace Manual set a high standard, and also set a certain tone. That's where my problem lay.

The book is a big book of guns. The problem is that is all it is. Every other d20 modern book to date has features some variety of magic, superscience, or alien technology, and Menace Manual took this and did wonders with it. Weapons Lockers comes out, I'm expecting a book that might have a strange array of weapons. Instead I am greeted with a rather straight laced expose on firearms.

As for comparisons with UMF... Weapons Lockers has more guns and packs em in. But I think that UMF makes a better gaming supplement, not just an extended weapons list for gunbunnies. UMF has things like listings of weapons used by forces around the world, and quick shopping lists for players who are not the ultimate gun bunnies. So even for the sort of book it is, I think Weapons Locker is outclassed by UMF.

well, the problem seems to be that anything more then a big list of guns would be a d20 future or something in the making. ok, so with a name like weapons locker they could have trown in some extended spell and psionics lists, but the magic bits coverd by urban arcana (did it allso extend the psionics? and if not, what book did, if any? or maybe the dark*matter one will?), and more high tech armor and so on is for d20 future and similar.

hmm. i can understand the shopping lists and so on tho, as it helps when setting stuff up in a hurry. but then i have neither book...

 

[Psion]

IIRC, didn't Weapon Locker material being peddled on this forum .... BEFORE WotC paid the author and published it?

It may have. Had I known that, it might have saved me a wasted purchase.

I was not what you would call an "early adopter" of d20 modern, so there's a good chance I was not active on this forum at the time.

 

[JPL]

That's funny, because when I got a good look at 3.5e back in 2003, it wasn't that big of a deal to be called a 3.5e revision. It's more like 3.11e. IOW, I wasn't in a rush to update my rulebooks. In fact, I'm still waiting for WotC to start rolling out the $30 Special Edition Printing of the Dungeon Master's Guide v.3.5e.

All I bought was the PHB 3.5.

Hmm...still trying to think of other dormant WOTC IP that might merit the d20 Modern treatment, a la Dark Matter. Nothing stands out to me as a really good business move.

Neither Boot Hill and nor Gangbusters have anything all that special about the setting.

Gamma World has been done (not all that successfully, AFAIK).

StarDrive would be interesting, but might suffer from having all the d20 Future stuff already spread out amongst several books.

 

[NSpicer]

Don't forget The Game Mechanics...

Be sure to keep a watchful eye on The Game Mechanics for new D20 Modern and D20 Future products. Comprised of many of the original WotC designers for the D20 Modern roleplaying game, TGM has been carrying that banner for quite some time now. Most of the guys have even freelanced to do a lot of the supplementary material released by WotC anyway.

Just my two-cents,
--Neil

 

[Ranger REG]

All I bought was the PHB 3.5.

Consider yourself lucky for not being disappointed as I am.

Hmm...still trying to think of other dormant WOTC IP that might merit the d20 Modern treatment, a la Dark Matter. Nothing stands out to me as a really good business move.

Neither Boot Hill and nor Gangbusters have anything all that special about the setting.

RE: Boot Hill. WotC could contend with Sidewinder: Recoiled with an expansive Shadow Chaser spin (see d20 Past).

RE: Gangbusters. So far no one has recently released a mob genre RPG. It could serve as an expansion volume for Pulp Heroes (see d20 Past).

Gamma World has been done (not all that successfully, AFAIK).

WotC got the license back, so they can do one setting book for d20 Modern/d20 Future.

StarDrive would be interesting, but might suffer from having all the d20 Future stuff already spread out amongst several books.

Considering the pattern I observed in some of the recent D&D products, I don't see a problem requiring those extra books. They could always compile them in summarized stats in the Star*Drive sourcebook, while it defers to the sources for more detail.

 

[NMC]

Hah. It's not a problem for Steve Jackson Games and his GURPS, nor HERO Games and their HERO System.

My point here is not that this makes it difficult to produce source material; your examples are good indications of that. I think it does make it difficult for WotC to offer adventures at Gen Con, though, since they'd need to settle on one specific type of Modern adventure to offer.

For adventures, I think it's easier for them to let the outside publishers cover those needs.

-Nate

 

[Vigilance]

My point here is not that this makes it difficult to produce source material; your examples are good indications of that. I think it does make it difficult for WotC to offer adventures at Gen Con, though, since they'd need to settle on one specific type of Modern adventure to offer.

For adventures, I think it's easier for them to let the outside publishers cover those needs.

-Nate

The wide range of modern campaigns makes it very difficult to publish adventures for the rules imo. There are many more flavors of Modern games and they are much more mutually exclusive than fantasy, which settled long ago on the Tolkien-Howard axis.

In other words, if you write a fantasy adventure that evokes a Tolkien feel or a RE Howard feel, you will hit about 60% of all fantasy campaigns with the former and 30% of all fantasy campaigns with the latter.

Nothing you can do for modern comes CLOSE to that level of universality.

I wrote two adventures for GenCon this year, a Blood and Relics and a Darwin's World and still left the vast majority of modern game types unattended.

Chuck

 

[kroh]

I wrote two adventures for GenCon this year, a Blood and Relics and a Darwin's World

Any chance of some of us Non-Gencon attending slobs seeing any of those?
Regards, Walt

 

[Vigilance]

Any chance of some of us Non-Gencon attending slobs seeing any of those?
Regards, Walt

They're both on sale!

The Darwin's World adventure was "Feeding Grounds", set in my home campaign of the Fertile Crescent (the Great Lakes region) and giving you a dawn of the dead-like Chicago.

The Blood and Relics adventure was "Nostradamus Gambit" and is a straight raiders/tomb raider-esque artifact hunt.

Both are available at RPGNow and are marked as "Gen Con adventures".

Chuck

 

[kroh]

Going to have to pick those up when I get back to the hoose!

We now return you to your regularly scheduled discussion...