What would you change for d20 Modern 2.0

[Moon_Goddess]

Inspired by another thread, as the thread title says what would you do if you were making d20 Modern 2.0

I'd put in optional rules for VP/WP, and different magic and psionic systems and get away from the DND focus in the monsters.


How about you?

 

[C. Baize]

Non-lethal damage to be the same as D&D 3.5.
Auto-fire reflex save would equal the modified roll of the attacker.
Damage Reduction would follow suit with D&D 3.5
Diminishing effect of grenades and other explosives the further away from ground zero you are.

And yeah... optional VP/WP (I don't use 'em, but a lot of people would like it).
And they should crawl on their hands and knees and kiss Charles Rice's feet and ply him with piles of money to write a Mana based magic system for D20 Modern. Possibly even a power points type system for psionics, as well.
As far as the D&D focus for monsters... *shrug* They should put MORE creatures in, and they should make Moreaus OGC so 3rd party publishers could expand upon them.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Alot of the above. Incorporate some of the 3.5 changes that didn't make it to Modern, such as DR. Go back to the 3.5 NL damage method.

Basically, my house rules.

I'd, of course, also scrap the D&D magic rules and adopt something like GR's Psychic's Handbook for psionics ... and magic. Hrrrmmmmmmmmmm.

--fje

 

[Moon_Goddess]

Oh I'd forgot about 3.5 style DR, I'd house ruled that so long ago I'd forgotten it wasn't that way.

 

[wingsandsword]

I love d20 Modern, a lot. But even I could come up with a lot of things I'd want to do to improve it (most of which I already use as house-rules):

WP/VP as optional rules.

Subdual Damage as per D&D 3.5 (existing Subdual Damage is incredibly broken/not working!)

Damage Reduction as per D&D 3.5 (additional +'s require to pierce DR is extra-rough in d20M, where magic is ultra-rare, very expensive, and Enhancement bonuses don't go above +3)

Psionics updated to be similar to D&D 3.5

Incantations in the Core rules.

New Craft categories to reflect things like cooking, sewing, and non-adventuring tasks (funny how in D&D Profession and Craft are incredibly open-ended catchalls where you can create new skills to fit your character or campaign., but d20M has a fixed and inflexible skill list)

In fact, get rid of "fixed" Craft/Knowledge skills, keep the normal categories which are used as examples and for official requirements ect (like in D&D), but not explicitly saying you can't create new categories.

Much clearer explanation of the Wealth system, probably the most misinterpreted part of d20M after the Subdual rules.

Some of the elements from Future/Past integrated into the core, like Progress Levels. A little more core support for d20M being used to run games in recent history or near future. WotC treats d20M as the core book for every type of RPG but medieval fantasy, being the de facto Universal d20 System WotC book, so put a little more support for that in the core.

Personally, I'd scale down the details on guns. I know some d20 Modern fans are big gun enthusiasts who want exacting stats for each and every gun. Just like D&D doesn't have separate stats for Claymores, No-Dachis and Zwiehanders, they're all Greatswords, d20 Modern shouldn't have nothing but mostly similar guns (or obscure gear rarely used in the real world, like pull-up armored pouch-vests, as core gear).

Remove most of the D&D monsters from the core, and put in more of the Menace Manual creatures. Grey Aliens, Sasquatch and Men In Black seem much more appropriate "modern" foes than Orcs, Dragons and Ogres. In fact, tone down the "D&D in the Modern Day" motif for d20 Modern, which they were real heavy with early on.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Inspired by another thread, as the thread title says what would you do if you were making d20 Modern 2.0

Buy 2 million copies of Grim Tales and slap a 'D20 Modern Revised' sticker on the cover.

 

[Aussiegamer]

Some of the above things are not "modern" bt UA.

So for modern,

scrap autofire, system for grenades and timing of explosions, better armour rules, tables for designing stuff and not just making it up with no base lines, dump hardness, better vehicle combat rules, make the feats either 3.0 or 3.5 D&D (not both!), include the erratas and BP in the book , dump the wealth system. Well thats all so far off the top of my head.

 

[takyris]

Well, I'd probably change nonlethal, since I'm evidently the only person who can use it. If it must accrue, so be it, but I'd also keep the massive damage threshold rules as they stand and introduce weapons that did more damage when used nonlethally -- like have a sap do 1d4 lethal or 2d6 nonlethal, something that stands an actual chance of knocking someone out even if the attacker doesn't have any feats. That'd make things like Brawl and Streetfighting and Power Attack mean that your character could knock folks out without weapons, instead of having those feats be the only realistic way of knocking people out.

(Although, as apparent defender of d20 Modern nonlethal, I can knock PCs out left and right by the core rules. Either I'm one heck of a minmaxer, or people here are complaining about not being good at something they didn't put any feats into... which is pretty much the basis of d20 Modern.)

Beyond that, I'd make fractional BAB progression the official rule, so that the encouraged multiclassing didn't kill people's BABs by the core rules. I'd also look hard at the Fast Hero, whose +3-Defense-even-when-flat-footed looks a bit too attractive. The fix could be dinging it down to +2 or making class-based Defense a dodge bonus or something along those lines.

 

[Ranger REG]

scrap autofire,...

I disagree, for the simple fact that I do not want to replace it with the Star Wars version.

With the exception of nonlethal damage, I do not want to change the standard rules. FX rules, I would prefer a whole different model for psionic powers, but then that'll piss off the PsiHB owners/fans.

P.S. d20 Modern 2nd Edition should release no earlier than 2008.

 

[Plane Sailing]

I'm actually with Tacky on the nonlethal damage issue - go Tacky!

I'd like to see replaced rules for Autofire.

I'd like to see no D&D monsters but Menace Manual monsters instead

I'd like to see Damage Save included as an optional mechanic alongside hit points and WP/Vitality (but not the Unearthed Arcana version!!)

I'd like to see an end to masses of bland +2/+2 feats and instead plenty of flavourful feats like Spycraft.

I'd like to see better support for Dramatic Conflicts ala Spycraft 2.0

I'd like to see better support for creating and using organisations ala Spycraft 2.0

Those are the things that I think would be top of my agenda, although I could probably think of others (and this is assuming that I didn't want to do a wholesale revision!)

Cheers