d20 Dark*Matter: ongoing review

[Ranger REG]

If I have that edition, and the Polyhedron Dark*Matter mini-game, is the new Dark*Matter book worth picking up?

For me, yeah. I don't know about you, though.

 

[arscott]

A hell of a lot of the book is reprinted material (to the extent that the author credits go to Wolfgang Baur and Monte Cook despite the fact that they didn't work on this edition). Still there's some new stuff. And it definately saves wear and tear on your copy of dungeon.

Here's a breakdown, as best I can tell:

Intro etc. (5 pages, including title page and TOC)
New art on covers and title page (andthe coversglow in the dark). as best I can tell, this is the only original art in the book. The intro is new, but not insightful.

Chapter 1: The Hoffmann Institute (10 pages)
New, but it's largely a rehash of chapter 2 of the Alternity version. The only new bit is the addition of a new department in the intelligence division--Paranormal Investigations. It's a shift from the original book, where the heroes had 'day jobs' in different departments of the institute and got pulled out of normal duty to go on field assignments. Now they spend there entire time working for Department 7.

Chapter 2: Heroic Options (30 pages)
3 occupations--There's a Psychic, but it's different than the psychic from Urban Arcana. The other two are entirely new.

3 races--Fraal is reprinted but is slightly different from MM version, Sand Slave Outcast is new, Sasquatch may be new, or may be the same as the Weren from d20F (I don't have my copy with me). Also, there's a pointer to the Moreau rules in the core book, and tables for height, weight, and age for all races (including moreau).

19 feats--2 Alien Proficiency Feats from MM, Spell Focus and Penetration from UA. The others are new to d20 Modern, though a few look to be reprinted from D&D sources (losts of psionic stuff in particular).

2 AdCs and 3 PrCs--All reprinted from the Dungeon Magazine article

26 spells--5 or so from the d20 Modern Web enhancement, the rest about 50% new and 50% non-PHB D&D spells

25 powers--All new to d20 Modern (no clue whether any of them are from D&D). There's a power called Mindwipe, but it's entirely different from the UA version (except for PP cost, and that's a typo in D•M's case)

6 special ammo types--2 new, 4 from UA

3 grenades--All from d20 Future

3 kits & holy water--Fiend huter's kit similar to UA, others new, holy water from UA

7 exotic drugs--All new

Chapter 3: The true history (24 pages)
Reprinted from chapter 5 of the Alternity version, slightly edited. Timeline now extends through 2006

Chapter 4: The Illuminati (36 pages)
Reprinted from chapter 6 of the Alternity version, slightly edited. Also included are the conspiracy hunters guides from the Dungeon Article. Nakami's stats are reprinted from the MM, but with minor changes and in the new statblock format. Small writups on Opus Dei and NeoScientologists.

Chapter 5: Places of Power (24 pages)
Reprinted from chapter 7 of the Alternity version, with minor edits

Chapter 6: Running the Campaign (16 pages)
Partly reprinted from chapter 9 of the alternity version, partly from the dungeon article.

Chapter 7: Exit 23 (11 pages)
Reprinted from chapter 1 of the alternity version, and updated to d20. The Pregenerated characters from the alternity version aren't included.

Index etc: (4 pages including recommended reading and order form)
As mentioned in previous posts, this book has an index. Woot! Also, the Recommended reading and viewing list is printed from the back of the Alternity version. No new stuff, but the websight list is gone.

 

[jaerdaph]

I ordered it sight unseen because I knew I'd want it, even if most of the material was just reprinted from prior sources. It looks like there is a fairly decent amount of new crunch material for d20 Modern though so I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[w_earle_wheeler]

Thanks for that, arscott. That's just the info I was looking for!

It looks like I could easily run a d20 Dark*Matter game with the stuff I have... then again... new book... new Dark*Matter book. Such arbitrary decisions for me to make!

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I bought the new D*Md20 book today.

And ... well ...

I knew what I was getting into, anyway. 99% of the useful stuff is reprinted material from the original text ... up to and including the good art. (There are some other pieces of good art in there, and I'm not sure if any of them are new or I'm just not recalling them from D*M stuff I didn't read a thousand times)

The "new" stuff is largely stuff that I'm not going to use. I don't like vancian magic with my D*M (or my Modern in general, but thats another thing). I don't like the good stuff from various traditions in D*M becoming oddly static X/Day Class Abilities for prestige classes.

I'm going to read through the Sandmen stuff a little more (I refuse to bow to the Sand Slave change!), but it seemed good, if a little ... nothing I'd use on the PC end. The Sandmen as traitors to the Etoile just doesn't jive with me. If you're filled to the brim with alien nano machines that control pretty much all aspects of your physiology ...

The Kinori and Mothmen were my top two biggest things I never liked about D*M. And yet ... they still appear in the text, if not in the stats ... which made me go "Hrmmm".

I like my Mothmen obscure phantasms, as opposed to native american fraal with wings.

But, on the good side, the cover kicks butt. And, it seems, has glow in the dark paint!

On the bad side, it's a 25$-sized hardback with a 30$ price tag. So, mostly, I spent 25$ for mostly-reprinted information I already had and 5$ for glow-in-the-dark paint.



Then, on the bright side, I'll be gifting it to my gaming group to keep at The Game Haus ... that way my precious original printing of the Alternity book will never leave my possession!

And, maybe, if it's lying around for others to read they'll get psyched up and I'll get a chance to run more D*M. As it is, I'm the newest member of a very creative gaming group and everybody wants to run SOMETHING, and has been wanting to for a year or more.

--fje

 

[Ranger REG]

Still waiting on Roudi's second impression.

 

[Ranger REG]

On the bad side, it's a 25$-sized hardback with a 30$ price tag.

So's Heroes of Battle, Complete Warrior, Complete Adventurer, etc. Welcome to 2006 A.D.

 

[Roudi]

Actually, the others are doing a very fine job.

I'm very glad those with previous experience with Dark*Matter have chimed in. If I wasn't new to the setting, I might not have picked it up.

By the way, Heap... I've got something I wanted to perhaps run by you. Something about the snowglobe from Exit 23 adventure and its place in SFX Skills mechanics; hit me up at my email if this is something you'd like to discuss.

 

[reanjr]

Thanks for the WTC text.

Hermeticism, Diabolism, and Monotheism all have their dedicated prestige classes from the Polyhedron minigame. Voodoo gets quite a bit of love in the new spells section. Shamanism and Enochiansim, though, are left out in the cold.

A bit disappointing, but I never really used Magic FX in DM anyway. I just winged it when a supernatural thing needed to happen.

The Sand Slave has been stripped down to a +0 LA race. You get to choose from a list of special abilites (and can get extra abilites by taking a feat). They look pretty balanced, from what I can see.

New name? They used to be Sandmen. I think the old name was better as a human-assigned name. Most people encountering them would not necessarily know that they are a servitor race to the Elohim Etoile.

The Sasquatch has been stripped down to a +1 LA race (not sure how this compares with the Weren from d20 Future, because my copy of future is in storage with my copy of Urban Arcana). They're large (and have reach) but still have a 5x5 space--don't see why they don't just have powerful build.

I am happy to see Wizard use the rules already in place, rather than use some new feature that is entirely unneccessary in my opinion (powerful build).

The Fraal (and unfortunately they still call them the fraal), are in here as well. They still have the absurdly high bonuses to mental stats, and the absurdly powerful Psi-like abilities. But now they have -4 con instead of -2 con.

Just like with the Sand Slaves/Sandmen, I think Grey is a better name, but I always envisioned PL 7 Alternity to be a followup to Dark*Matter during a lower-tide era, so this works for me as well.

The Moreau are in here too, replacing the Kinori and the Mothmen. Given the role that Kinori and Mothmen usually play in Dark•Matter, that doesn't bother me too much, but I wish that they would've but more stuff in the book about moreaus.

That disappoints me. I never had players use non-human races in DM, but dropping the focus on Kinori and replacing it with Moreau is saddening. I liked Kinori AND Mothmen alot.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Kinori are practically my favorite enemies. And I don't like the MM version of them. However, if people ask, I could post kinori stats at the D20 NPC wiki. I've got one posted there, and am thinking about three or four more.