Giving d20 Modern a Try...Anything I Should Know?

[CleverNickName]

I am thinking about starting up a d20 Modern sandbox game for a couple of friends. I think a little bit of zombie-apocalypse* role playing would be just the ticket for the holidays.

Or so I think. The thing is, I've never really played it before. I've seen the core rulebook at Powell's, and I've flipped through its pages a few times, but I never got around to buying it until last night. I play 3.5E and BECM D&D almost exclusively...this is a huge step for me.

I know that d20 Modern has a healthy following here on ENWorld, so I was wondering...do any of you veterans have some advice, resources, or tips for a newbie like myself? Are there any really awesome websites I should be checking out? Any must-have splatbooks or 3PP goodies?

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* I'm not sold on the zombie thing...it could just as easily be aliens, sentient machines, or even Nazis. Doom, Wolfenstein, Resident Evil...I'm open to all options.

 

[CleverNickName]

Wow, I just noticed that there are a lot of sci-fi RPG threads in the General RPG forum all of a sudden.

Weird.

 

[Greg K]

1. Blood and Fists (RPGObjects) is awesome for expanding martial arts
2. Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin) is an excellent replacement for the default mental power fx rules
3. If you want a different fx magic system, check out Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth (EN Publishing)
4. Hot Pursuit and Hot Pursuit: On Foot (Adamant) are both great rules for d20 chases
5. Foe Factory: Modern (Adamant) is great for NPC generation
6. Modern Player's Companion (The Game Mechanics) has some good additions for character generation and equipment. It also had good insight into the multiclass rules that should have been in the core d20Modern rules and some other options. If you like the d20 Modern fx rules, there are some fx stuff you will probably like.
7. For Genre books, check out Adamant Entertainment, RPGObjects, and, for Western, Sidewinder: Recoiled
8. The automatic weapon rules can use some houserules
9. I, personally, like ditching negative hit points, and using the death and dying rules from Unearthed Arcana for DND 3.x
10. Stay away from most of WOTC's supplements (d20 Apocalypse is, from what I have heard, one of the exceptions)

 

[ValhallaGH]

1. ... 4.

Agreed. Not necessary but fantastic supplements that really enhance the system if you're willing to make the investment.

5.

Yes and no. The system generates appropriate NPCs quickly and easily. Once you get over the learning curve. There's about five charts to memorize before the system starts to make sense. Once you get past that point it's great (and if you've played spycraft in the last 8 years you've passed that point) but until then it's just a confusing collection of letters and numbers.

6. & 7.

Pretty much spot-on. Useful but not as universal as 1-4 (or 5 if you can figure it out).

8. & 9.

Matters of taste and what you want out of the system. I disagree on both points but that's immaterial.
Note: I did see a nice option for Double Tap / Burst Fire. Anyone can do it, and it works as written in the feat; if you take the feat then the attack penalty goes away. (Any weapon that had reduced penalties instead provided a bonus to-hit due to putting out multiple bullets accurately.) DT / BF was my one complaint about automatic fire.

10.

Eh. D20 Future is alright. Weapons Locker is good (Green Ronin's Ultramodern Firearms is better). D20 Apocalypse is pretty good in places and okay in others. D20 Past is crap; the designers copy/pasted from the 3.5 SRD instead of the Modern SRD, so there is no consistency or balance with the d20 Modern core rules. The expansions on each sub-line are pretty much par for their parent.

Newbie tips:
1. Massive Damage is a lot more common. Study and remember.
2. Talk to your players to make sure the campaign you're doing is the one they want to use.
3. Increasing skill points is a good thing. I (obviously) recommend using skill groups, but the simple problem is that there aren't enough skill points to be an action hero when there are over 50 skills.
4. Change concealment from a miss chance to an attack penalty. It makes the 20 / 20 / Miss not happen (and 20 / 20 / Miss was really lame). It also makes cover as good as concealment, instead of grossly inferior (RL: Cover is better).
5. Don't get too fiddly. 70% of the things that matter in the real world don't matter in the game system. So don't get too caught up in the small things.
6. Shotguns are not super. They work, and well, but they aren't "I Win" Cannons. Players are often surprised by this. You have been warned.

I've had a lot of success with d20 Modern and loved the system for many years with almost no house rules, so it can work. Have fun. Good luck.

 

[Ahnehnois]

By all means, buy the book, but also know that Modern (and Future and several other supplements) are SRDed and available online for free (SRD).

I played a Modern zombie game once that was pretty fun. Definitely can work.

Adventure design is very different from D&D; the classes are not remotely balanced for combat, so you have to really plan to use everyone's abilities outside of battles. Complex skill checks from UA port over well. I'd also suggest a vp/wp-type or other alternate health system to make medical skill more relevant.

Also, if you end up having any kind of functioning marketplace, watch out for Wealth System abuse. I'm a big fan of the system, but beginners frequently just run off and try to buy infinite stuff and otherwise take advantage. Enforce the time requirements or availability if this gets to be a problem.

 

[talien]

I write a column that's full of free d20 goodness, a lot of it skewed for d20 Modern because that's what I play these days: RPG Examiner

I'm also the author of four d20 modern "action horror" accessories for D20 Modern, published by RPG Objects: one on zombies, one on ghosts, one on movie slashers, and one about aliens.

See my site for details: http://michael.tresca.net.

 

[CleverNickName]

So just to get a feel for the game system, I pretended I was a player and rolled up a character. I chose a Tough, Blue-Collar named Jed, with the damage reduction talent tree. I outfitted him with a 12-ga shotgun, and put him in a room with two zombies.

Some initial thoughts:

1. I like the Wealth system. A LOT.
2. I miss alignment.
3. The different weapons are impressive, but there seems to be a lot of overlap
4. Combat feels more or less the same as 3.5E D&D
5. I worry that the lack of magic will be boring to my players
6. Zombies aren't as cool as they are in the movies.
7. Neither are shotguns (good call, ValhallaGH)

I don't really know what kind of game my players want me to run at the moment. They are leaning toward a zombie-themed game, but there has also been talk about vampires. (I think everyone is so sick of Twilight, that they are looking forward to chainsawing some sparkly, anemic-looking emo bloodsuckers. Or they just miss Buffy.)

 

[pawsplay]

I'll go ahead and recommend d20 Apocalypse. Parts of it aren't great, so you'll notice those parts and throw them out. Unearthed Arcana offers some nice options you can use.

As far as making zombies cooler... steal the Pathfinder stats for undead and port them over.

 

[NMC]

The biggest change I'd recommend is using the rules for subdual damage from the D&D rules instead of the ones from Modern. Other than that, I think it's a very sound and amazingly flexible system.

As far as books go, I'd strongly recommend the Critical Locations book from WotC, since it has beautiful, full-color maps of most of the places you might need for whichever game you decide to run.

-Nate

 

[pawsplay]

The biggest change I'd recommend is using the rules for subdual damage from the D&D rules instead of the ones from Modern.

I forgot about that. The rules for subdual damage are ludicrous.