D20 Future (SRD) what's (not so) good and what can be improved (and how)?

[aurance]

Trust me, buddy, I was being calm. ,-)

I just have a low tolerance for whiners.

You really need to calm down.

Especially on the internet, there's an impetus to to call other people whiners, while one's own complaints seem much more legitimate.

You pose this question:

"Who cares if it's scientifically viable, follows Newton and Einstien and Sagan's laws? IS IT FRACKING FUN?"

To you, and actually to me, the rules are good enough. But some people need more realism and less abstraction to have fun, where as other people less realism and more abstraction. It's not your place or mine to decide, indignantly, at what point something becomes fun or acceptable.

 

[C. Baize]

You really need to calm down.

Dude... you need to speed up...
That was yesterday morning... I'll bet he's calm by now.

 

[Ralts Bloodthorne]

Copacetic dude...

 

[woodelf]

Personally I'd love to see a well thought out starship combat system. Not that the one in D20 Future wasnt well thought out, its just that "Lets keep it simple so that it meshes well with everything else" isnt the line of thinking I want to get into.

I wonder--could the chase system from Spycraft be used as the basis (at least in basic paradigm) for a good ship-to-ship combat system?

 

[woodelf]

Was anyone else amazed by the following:

1 Megaton Nuke...16d8 Damage.

I just don't think WotC have a good handle on how to integrate modern (and future) weapons into d20.

It's a matter of playstyle, not accuracy. Really, is a full-conversion cyborg withstanding a nuclear blast any more ridiculous than a high-level fighter surviving dragon breath (or a direct blow from a giant's club)? D20 System is, by default, about larger-than-life heroes. And i'm pretty certain there's been at least one action movie in the last few years that had "normal" humans outrunning and/or riding the shockwave from a tactical nuke. Realistic? Hell no. Appropriate? Maybe.

If you want realistic, in any genre/era, D20 System ain't what you want (or at least not D&D3E/D20M). Try CORPS or HarnMaster or Millenium's End.

 

[woodelf]

From my initial skim through the rules I was appalled at the space combat rules - it seems as if they haven't bothered to really think things through and merely used a variation of the melee combat rules. I'd rather they hadn't bothered at all than come up with this silliness. Are there no good OGL rules they could have used instead, or as a base?

WotC doesn't use others' rules, for the most part. I agree, there's probably something better out there (what's T20 got?). But, so far, D20M is just like D&D in that way--not participating in the feedback loop, and thus holding the whole thing back (because there's a powerful incentive to stay close to the WotC baseline). On the upside, i think they've learned that if they want to stay the center of the D20 System universe, they have to release things--holding back a component doesn't force people to go to WotC for it, it causes a different version that is reusable to become the de facto standard. So, however crappy it may be (haven't looked at it myself), at least they've made it open so others can build on/change it, rather than having to carefully step around it when building their own.

 

[woodelf]

In a way, you know who is to blame for the ship combat rules, the ship and mecha construction rules?

YOU ARE! YOU TOO! AND YOU!

"The rules need to interlock!"
"Why can't X be like Y?"
"Why do I have to learn another ruleset?"
"Can't this be simpler?"

Well, you got your way.

Quit whining and live it up.

Hear, hear!
The logical conclusion of "learning new stuff is hard" is "no new stuff". If you don't care if it's "the same" why do you even care what's in D20 Future? Go grab GURPS! And if you do want it the same, then why are you complaining when it's the same? I understand why game publishers, especially D20 System publishers get frustrated: make it different, and everyone complains that it's too different; make it the same, and everyone complains that it's not different enough. [I'm still disappointed that WotC selected Eberron, i.e. "the same only different" rather than something really radically different for their new setting. But it's probably because they did what they think will best attract the fans.]

 

[woodelf]

I think the rules for spaceships were kept very simple by design not "lack of knowledge or effort". d20 Modern is a *role* playing game 1st and everything else second. Detailed ship, vehicle, space vehicle rules become game dominating. At this point it's not a RPG anymore and more of a tabletop combat game.

Funny, that's what i would've said about the combat rules in D&D3[.5]E/D20M. But most people seem to disagree with me.

Point is, i think within the D20 System market, fairly detailed mechanics for things--and that includes ship combat--are desireable. Look at the books full of firearms, or just new weapons. Or the books full of new systems for whatever (magic systems, steamtech, chaos, mutations, etc.).

 

[Kesh]

Hi all!

Was anyone else amazed by the following:

1 Megaton Nuke...16d8 Damage.

I just don't think WotC have a good handle on how to integrate modern (and future) weapons into d20.

It was a typo. Someone on the Wizards boards posted that a zero got dropped.

 

[Kesh]

My only complaint is that the SRD still doesn't include Moreaus. C'mon Wizards! You'd be opening up a whole world of d20 Furry goodness!