Convince me to buy Urban Arcana!
- Thread starter Biohazard
- Start date
Are rules for bicycles worth $40 to you? How about Incantations and Bicycles? That's gotta be $40 worth of stuff right there.
I liked Urban Arcana as a toolbox. But I couldn't bring my self to read it from cover to cover it was like a Player's Handbook of poor-cousin rules. It's sort of like the D&D Miniatures Handbook in that no almost one will like the entire book, but everyone will like a different 40 pages. High-quality, but unsatisfying.
Cheers
I liked Urban Arcana as a toolbox. But I couldn't bring my self to read it from cover to cover it was like a Player's Handbook of poor-cousin rules. It's sort of like the D&D Miniatures Handbook in that no almost one will like the entire book, but everyone will like a different 40 pages. High-quality, but unsatisfying.
Cheers
Wraith Form
Explorer
So, Bio, did we convince you?!?!?!?!?
Did we? Hunh? Did we? Pleasepleasepleaseplease tell us!
Did we? Hunh? Did we? Pleasepleasepleaseplease tell us!
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Old Fezziwig
this is a low-flying panic attack
I just received it in the mail today (bought it for $18.55 plus shipping on e-Bay). For what I spent on it, I'm very happy with it, but I'm not sure it'd be worth $40 to me—it's cool, but not that cool (very few gaming books are that cool AFAIC, and I still have a hard time justifying buying the ones that are). Of course, it's not very useful to me right now as I'm still waiting for my copies of the core rules and the Menace Manual to arrive (also picked them up on e-Bay).
Best,
tKL
Best,
tKL
Biohazard said:
Well, as others have pointed out, it IS just a re-tread of D&D for the most part.
I like the advanced classes. I wish they weren't all so geared towards magical abilities, but you can always import the AC's from the D20M book as well.
I like the Incantations system as a means of allowing spells above fifth level. This is my favorite part of the book.
There's lots of useful info on real-world equipment and vehicles.
Now, the way that UA addresses monstrous races really leaves me cold. I think the idea of a race having more hit dice than its level adjustment is pretty ridiculous (for whatever reason, racial level adjustments are handled differently than in the D20 SRD).
TheCrazyFinn
First Post
Well, I find it to be one of the more useful sourcebooks, even in a fairly low-magic setting.
The Equipment section is useful, much more fleshed-out than D20Modern, the non-magical advanced classes are quite-nice (If heavily combat oriented) and the rest of it is mildly useful. The big failure IMHO is the Prestige Classes, which are really just retreads of High-level D&D classes (Especially the Paladin). There is some cross-over with Green Ronin's Modern Players Companion (Not surprising, they shared Authors).
Grab the Web Enhancement for some actually useful Prestige Classes).
I'd rate it a necessary book for any campaign with moderate amounts of magic or non-human species (Unless you're doing Aliens, for which Menace Manual will be more useful). As a world setting, I'm not so fond of it, you'd get a better world by just stealing from Buffy or Mercedes Lackey's Serrated Edge stuff.
Urban Arcana is to a great extent the PHB as a D20Modern Sourcebook, just as Menace Manual is Dark*Matter as a D20 Modern Sourcebook.
The Equipment section is useful, much more fleshed-out than D20Modern, the non-magical advanced classes are quite-nice (If heavily combat oriented) and the rest of it is mildly useful. The big failure IMHO is the Prestige Classes, which are really just retreads of High-level D&D classes (Especially the Paladin). There is some cross-over with Green Ronin's Modern Players Companion (Not surprising, they shared Authors).
Grab the Web Enhancement for some actually useful Prestige Classes).
I'd rate it a necessary book for any campaign with moderate amounts of magic or non-human species (Unless you're doing Aliens, for which Menace Manual will be more useful). As a world setting, I'm not so fond of it, you'd get a better world by just stealing from Buffy or Mercedes Lackey's Serrated Edge stuff.
Urban Arcana is to a great extent the PHB as a D20Modern Sourcebook, just as Menace Manual is Dark*Matter as a D20 Modern Sourcebook.
After playing in a campaign for about 5 sessions now, my impressions are:
+ Looking things up is a pain. I find myself constantly flipping between books (UA or D20 Modern) for the info I want. I should really start recording page numbers next to abilities / feats.
+ Melee combat dominates ranged combat with guns. As does our archer. This is largely because of the strength bonus to damage, the fact that few characters get Personal Firearms Proficiency without spending a feat, and that the non-Strong heroes generally did not start out well-armed. This is becoming less pronounced with levels, as we obtain better guns, pick up proficiencies, and increase our BAB.
+ The premise of normal people being unable to see Shadow feels very flimsy to me. It needs more explanation. (Example: 10' ogre has to duck through a 9' doorway, following a normal 6' human. What does Joe Average see?)
+ Spellcasters are nerfed. This may be a good or bad thing, but it's the standard problem with multiclassing a spellcasting class, while classes like Strong Hero continue to build naturally. (Obviously, at 3rd level, this is not from first-hand experience.)
+ The art is nice.
+ There's plenty of potential for a good GM to work with, but it requires a bit more work to make that potential shine than I generally prefer from supplements.
. . . . . . . -- Eric
+ Looking things up is a pain. I find myself constantly flipping between books (UA or D20 Modern) for the info I want. I should really start recording page numbers next to abilities / feats.
+ Melee combat dominates ranged combat with guns. As does our archer. This is largely because of the strength bonus to damage, the fact that few characters get Personal Firearms Proficiency without spending a feat, and that the non-Strong heroes generally did not start out well-armed. This is becoming less pronounced with levels, as we obtain better guns, pick up proficiencies, and increase our BAB.
+ The premise of normal people being unable to see Shadow feels very flimsy to me. It needs more explanation. (Example: 10' ogre has to duck through a 9' doorway, following a normal 6' human. What does Joe Average see?)
+ Spellcasters are nerfed. This may be a good or bad thing, but it's the standard problem with multiclassing a spellcasting class, while classes like Strong Hero continue to build naturally. (Obviously, at 3rd level, this is not from first-hand experience.)
+ The art is nice.
+ There's plenty of potential for a good GM to work with, but it requires a bit more work to make that potential shine than I generally prefer from supplements.
. . . . . . . -- Eric
Convinced Yet?
If you've made a decision as to whether purchasing it or not, I just thought I'd let you know I'm selling my copy for $20. You can get more details on the sale of this book and many others in my collection by going here.
If you've made a decision as to whether purchasing it or not, I just thought I'd let you know I'm selling my copy for $20. You can get more details on the sale of this book and many others in my collection by going here.
Kesh said:
When you have only 2 psionic AdCs, any new class adds variety. LOL!
Green Ronin's "Psychic" Master Class book supposedly has d20M conversion rules in it. The impression I get is that this Master Class book will bring in a feats and skills psionic system (like d20 Star Wars Force, or Spycraft psionics) to standard d20 and d20M.
It's either that or wait until d20 Future comes out.
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