Help me like D20 Modern/D20 Future/D20 Past

Posted this on RPG.net, but thought I might get a better response here:

Okay, here's the deal. My wife got me these three books. I've been playing and GMing other things so I've only skimmed through, not really read them. So, I'm in the midst of planning a Star Wars campaign (gonna use Buring Wheel for it). I figure, hey, here's D20 Future, maybe give me ideas. But, I figure I ought to read Modern first, since they're kinda joined, yeah?

A bit of background. I ran D+D 3.0 the first week it came out. Ran 12 sessions of it before giving up - at the time I found it complex and I just wasn't up on the feat thing. Haven't played it since.

So, here I am. I have these three books. I'm thinking, after my Star Wars BW, I might want something different, and maybe d20 is the system (we've already played GURPS and BESM this year, and now this new campaign).

Help me like them. Tell me what's good. Tell me tweaks you used to make the parts that don't work flow smoothly (for example, I've heard several house rules for the massive damage thing to make it more meaningful, which I like). Tell me more!

I think the thing I have come to like most about d20 Modern, over time, is the interaction between the base and advanced classes.

One thing that this allows is for a great deal of variation within popular advanced classes, such as the soldier.

A Fast/Soldier will have higher Defense, a Strong/Soldier better Base Attack Bonus and melee skills, a Strong/Soldier more hit points and so forth. It allows for an entire party to be built around a single class without every character feeling similar.

Of course this helps with NPCs as well.

On the subject of Massive Damage, it's still pretty meaningful, even at high levels. Keep in mind, though the save is easy at high levels, a single failed save and you're in a world of hurt, hurt which, depending on the level of healing available, could last a *long* time.

So while I've played with grittier options in the past, I usually choose to leave the rules as is. One thing to realize is that even if you only fail on a 5 or less, that's still one failure for every 4 MDT saves, and given the amount of combat in most campaigns, that's significant.

And of course in campaigns without a lot of combat, characters might not worry about a high Con score, which makes saves more frequent when there *IS* combat.

It's a very elegant, infinitely adaptable system, in the hands of a GM who plays to its strengths.

Chuck

Vigilance said:

IIt's a very elegant, infinitely adaptable system, in the hands of a GM who plays to its strengths.

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Quoted For Truth.

When I first purchased d20 Modern, I had a lot of reservations about it. Then I started playing around designing characters and I saw just how adaptable the system is. By combining base classes with talents and feats, d20 Modern offers unparalleled character variation.

Mencelus said:

at the time I found it complex and I just wasn't up on the feat thing. Haven't played it since.

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Hmmm. Not really selling it here, but D20 modern characters have either a feat or a talent every single level. This is also what makes it so adaptable. Of course, this makes character building more "complex" (because of the many choices). If you do not like the strength of the system, I wonder whether you'll ever be able to appreciate it in its entirety.

Rav

Ravellion said:

Hmmm. Not really selling it here, but D20 modern characters have either a feat or a talent every single level. This is also what makes it so adaptable. Of course, this makes character building more "complex" (because of the many choices). If you do not like the strength of the system, I wonder whether you'll ever be able to appreciate it in its entirety.

Rav

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Well, that was a time in my life when I shied away from complex systems. Nowadays, I just finished running GURPS and reading HERO before deciding on BW for my Star Wars game (and BW, with all its forge-ie aspects is a crunchy game). With my love of crunch renewed, I'm sort of hoping I'll dig D20 again.

Yeah, you don't get much crunchier than Hero and GURPs.