d20 Future - Buying?

[3catcircus]

Why Bother?

I've got plenty of Sci-Fi/Future gaming goodness now (both original versions or d20) or shortly on the way...

Sci-Fi? Traveller and T20 are available now, as is Stargate SG-1.
Muties/Post-Armageddon? Gamma World is available now (in many versions).
Tongue-in-Cheek Sci-Fi/Post-Armageddon? Paranoia XP is gonna be available shortly.
Pulp/Sci-Fantasy? I hear TORG 2.0 will be a future release and WEG has already released d6 Adventure, and d6 Space, with d6 Fantasy to follow shortly.
"Modern D&D"/Technomagic? Shadowrun is already on its 3rd version.

There are just too many really cool games that are available or will be available that "do" their genre quite well - I don't know if a generic d20 Future can do it better - especially in the case of those games that already have adapted d20 rules to fit the genre, rather than fit the genre into the existing rules, as was done for d20 Modern and no doubt will be done for d20 Future.

Granted, I'm a bit jaded and a bit fed up with the d20 craze - all of that glut of bad product from 3rd parties at the very beginning of D&D 3.0 and the fact that WotC can't seem to do a decent job of configuration management of their D&D product (all of the multiple iterations of errata between multiple documents, causing me to need a database to determine which product has the latest revision of a spell, feat, etc.) has soured me on the notion of ever picking up d20 Modern or d20 Future.

For a look at how a company should do configuration management of their d20 product, take a look at AEG's Spycraft. They've got a single pdf document that takes care of all of the errata for every single Spycraft and SFA product - it is a living document, rather than republish "updated/corrected" information in follow-on product releases.

I dunno - maybe I'm just a bit too soured on WotC to give d20 Modern and Future a try.

 

[Ranger REG]

While that may work for Spycraft/Shadowforce Archer, I doubt a FR gamer would want to know the errata for DL or WoT. That large document would have been a waste of bandwidth to download.

 

[derelictjay]

I don't really need it, but arrg, I wanna run a future campaign......Yeah I'm gonna buy it.

 

[3catcircus]

Hmm - that's all I would expect: one single errata file with traceable history (track changes or something like that) for each of the main areas: 1 file each for Core books (3.0), for Core books (3.5), for FR Books, and for WoT. Since WoTC didn't do DL, it would be up to the DL developer (Sovereign, IIRC?) to maintain a master errata file for all of the DL works.

 

[EricNoah]

I won't unless someone volunteers to GM a campaign and then of course I would get the book. But as I've said many times, I'm not cut out to GM modern or futuristic games; I'm just no good at it!

 

[Len]

New Tribes - our personal look at the dystopian future - classic cyberpunk with a millennial edge (vancomycin-resistant diseases, frankenfood gone wrong, etc).

Don't forget to re-read your Brunner novels.
And let me know if you're short a player.

 

[Chaos Drake]

Yes, definitely will be getting this. Might even inspire a setting or two.

 

[ChainsawJoe]

Must be getting old

Can it be true? Am I the only person who bought D20 Future for the possibility of revitalizing an old Star Frontiers campaign? I was not planning on buying the book, but when I saw the pictures of Dralasites and Yazirians, I couldn't stop myself.

My old gaming group (from 20 years ago) got back together a couple of years ago to start up a 3rd Edition D&D game. Our favorite game from back in the day, however, has always been Star Frontiers. Now that we're more or less up to speed on the D20 system, I can't wait to convert all that sci-fi, space opera-y goodness.

 

[Shemeska]

Another 'why bother' here.

I'm already playing in an alternity game, which despite being a bit clunky on the mechanics is working out fine for us at the moment, and we refuse to switch systems mid game. And if I want to play anything cyberpunk, frag it, I've got enough Shadowrun to last me (at least till I buy the next SR book, heh).

 

[pogre]

I was going to get it, but on reflection will pass. The simple truth is I do not have time for another game. I run D&D once a week and enjoy it. Picking up something else and running it would mean abandoning my D&D campaign. Not going to happen. I still want to buy it, but I'm letting common sense win this time.