Well, the infamous product from Holistic has finally reached the shores of sunny Austria tLDU. I saw it at the game shop, and more out of morbid fascination than anything else, I picked up a copy.
At first glance, it actually looks okay. There isn't much chest-thumping editorialising about the war on terror or anything related, thank ghu. It doesn't try to assign alignments to different factions, or say that you can only play western characters. It doesn't paint Islam as being a bloodthirsty religion that brainwashes people into wanting to destroy the west. It tries to play fair to both sides: US and allies, and Taliban (and allies). Overall I think it succeeds, which is commendable, given the nature of the subject matter.
On the rules-crunch side of things, there are a few quirks and warts here and there, but I haven't given it a thorough going-over yet. There's a big list of guns, which should be nice for the gun nuts out there.
The stats for these don't seem right, though -- should a 9mm pistol really do 2d6 damage, which is more than a heavy crossbow? Still, there's other sources of firearm stats for d20 out there, and it shouldn't be hard to pick and choose the crunchy bits you want.
The prestige classes look interesting, although again I haven't gone over them in detail. The sniper looks extremely cool, and is something that could easily be fitted into a fantasy campaign, if the one-shot-one-kill thing is something you're after.
Finally, there's some discussion on where the situation in Afghanistan could lead, with plot seeds for an ongoing campaign. This section is pretty cursory, amounting to little more than a few paragraphs on various scenarios, and notes for how a DM could get their players into trouble. Useful, but nothing that you couldn't get out of the daily news or current affairs shows.
Overall, it seems like an interesting product. The question, I guess, is whether the situation in Afghanistan will continue to hold an interest for gamers. The scope of the product is very narrow, containing almost no mention of Iraq (for instance) or other locations where the "war on terror" might be fought. Still, it could be worth picking up if you're thinking of running a d20 Modern campaign that focuses on military ops.
At first glance, it actually looks okay. There isn't much chest-thumping editorialising about the war on terror or anything related, thank ghu. It doesn't try to assign alignments to different factions, or say that you can only play western characters. It doesn't paint Islam as being a bloodthirsty religion that brainwashes people into wanting to destroy the west. It tries to play fair to both sides: US and allies, and Taliban (and allies). Overall I think it succeeds, which is commendable, given the nature of the subject matter.
On the rules-crunch side of things, there are a few quirks and warts here and there, but I haven't given it a thorough going-over yet. There's a big list of guns, which should be nice for the gun nuts out there.
The stats for these don't seem right, though -- should a 9mm pistol really do 2d6 damage, which is more than a heavy crossbow? Still, there's other sources of firearm stats for d20 out there, and it shouldn't be hard to pick and choose the crunchy bits you want.The prestige classes look interesting, although again I haven't gone over them in detail. The sniper looks extremely cool, and is something that could easily be fitted into a fantasy campaign, if the one-shot-one-kill thing is something you're after.
Finally, there's some discussion on where the situation in Afghanistan could lead, with plot seeds for an ongoing campaign. This section is pretty cursory, amounting to little more than a few paragraphs on various scenarios, and notes for how a DM could get their players into trouble. Useful, but nothing that you couldn't get out of the daily news or current affairs shows.
Overall, it seems like an interesting product. The question, I guess, is whether the situation in Afghanistan will continue to hold an interest for gamers. The scope of the product is very narrow, containing almost no mention of Iraq (for instance) or other locations where the "war on terror" might be fought. Still, it could be worth picking up if you're thinking of running a d20 Modern campaign that focuses on military ops.
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