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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011853" data-attributes="member: 18387">By John Grigsby, Staff Reviewer d20 Magazine RackInitiative Roundd20 Future is a d20 Modern supplement from Wizards of the Coast. Brought to you by Christopher Perkins, Rodney Thompson, and JD Wiker, this 224-page full-color hardcover has cover art by Dave Johnson depicting three vaguely-familiar iconic heroes. Timothy Il, Kalman Andrasofszky, Daniel Falconer, Langdon Foss, Grafikismik, Matthew Hatton, Karl Kerschl, Stephan Martiniere, Warren Mahey, Christian Piccolo, Joel Thomas, Chris Trevas, Francis Tsai, and Ronald Wimberly contribute to the interior art. d20 Future retails for $34.95.This is it, the long anticipated companion volume to d20 Modern! Launch your heroes into the future, where urban sprawls, virtual cyberscapes and the deeps of endless space await. Truth be told, on thumbing through, my first impression was, “This is it?”d20 Future builds on d20 Modern. That is, you’ll need the latter to make use of the former. There are no core classes or rules for character generation here. That’s all covered in the d20 Modern book. That’s the bad news. The good news is that with all the extra space they saved, they’ve been given the opportunity to fill it up with all kinds of extra goodies. And I must say; it’s packed full.We begin with a look at Progress Levels. Anyone who is familiar with the Alternity system will immediately know this term, and it really hasn’t changed much. A Progress Level (PL) is an indication of the state of technology that exists in a particular society or civilization. D20 Future has 8 Progress Levels inherent to it; PL 0 (Stone Age), PL 1 (Bronze/Iron Age), PL 2 (Middle Ages), PL 3 (Age of Reason), PL 4 (Industrial Age), PL 5 (Information Age), PL 6 (Fusion Age), PL 7 (Gravity Age), and PL 8 (Energy Age). Anything higher than PL 8 is generally considered unfathomable by our standards. Though the titles are largely self-explanatory, d20 Future offers a few words about the highlights of each PL. Having different PLs provides the GM with three valuable tools. First, it sets a standard for purchasing specialized equipment. If you want to purchase a piece of equipment from an earlier PL, the Purchase DC is reduced by 2 for every PL lower than the current Progress Level (except in the case of valuable antiques). Adjusting the Purchase DC by +5 will permit characters to obtain technology from the next PL only, representing the cutting edge of technology. Second, it is entirely possible, even on modern-day Earth, to find wildly disparate Progress Levels (compare New York to a third-world country). Finally, this being science-fiction, time travel and space travel grant the possibility of finding oneself in a very different period.d20 Future offers up a few new character occupations, many of which are relevant even to strictly modern campaigns. The astronaut trainee is, well, an astronaut, for lack of a better term. A colonist is a wayfaring pioneer who helps build new worlds, while drifters are homeless jack-of-all-trades, and don’t change much between now and tomorrow. The gladiator is a fighter, and may be driven by several reasons, the heir stands to receive a potentially large sum of money, and the outcast is less an occupation and more a forced way of life. Finally, scavengers and transporters both exist even today and there is no reason to assume that they won’t be there tomorrow as well.There are no new skills, but there are a few new uses for old ones. Feats are another matter, and you’ll find quite a few that can serve both in the future and in the fast-paced world of today. Advanced classes abound, however, with the Ambassador, a highly skilled diplomat with a deep understanding of politics; the dogfighter, a fighter pilot who does what few would be crazy enough to do, and loves it; the dreadnought, a warrior trained to stand her ground against any foe; the engineer, always finding a better way to do something; the explorer, driven by an insatiable thirst for knowledge; the field officer, taking charge in time of crisis; the Helix warrior, a volunteer whose DNA has undergone forced evolution; the space monkey, doing the grunt work that keeps the wheel of the galaxy turning; the technosavant, combining natural genius with expert training to make machines do things you never imagined; the tracer, specializing in finding those who would rather not be found or things thought lost; and the xenophile, who probably knows more about alien life forms than you know about yourself.d20 Future presents several campaign options. Of course, it’s perfectly possible to just turn your heroes loose and see what happens, but some GMs want a little more structure. This section is for them. First up is Bughunters, in which we discover that not everything in space is friendly. In fact, not much is. This campaign introduces the bughunter advanced class. In Dimension X, dimensional explorers face Armageddon as a rogue dimension remakes other dimensions in its own image. This setting introduces the dimension ranger advanced class. From the Dark Heart of Space, supernatural horrors pursue humanity across the breadth of the universe. If you enjoy the thought of Cthulhu in space, this one is for you. It’s here that we meet the purifier prestige class. Genetech is a campaign setting that was supposed to be in d20 Modern but got cut for space. Genetically-enhanced soldiers try to find acceptance in a world that considers them expendable freaks. In Mecha Crusade, anime comes to life as giant robots driven by human pilots clash in titanic battles. Stardrive picks up where the old Alternity game left off, presenting a civilized area of space threatened with war from a races of beings known as the klicks. The Concord administrator is a new advanced class for this setting. The Star Law setting offers characters the chance to become galactic police officers, including the Star Law officer advanced class. In The Wasteland however, the law means nothing. Might makes right, and you’ll need every ounce of strength and wits you have to back up your claim. The nuclear nomad advanced class might be of help in that regard. Of course, you can combine any or all of these settings to create you own fantastic future adventures as well.Naturally, d20 Future offers a plethora of new gear. From gadgets to guns, you’ll find everything that the best-dressed heroes of tomorrow are wearing (and even some things that aren’t as fashionable, but might save your life). As the PL goes up, the gear gets cooler and the guns get more deadly. The new gadget rules allow characters to customize weapons, armor, and other equipment to better fit their needs or nature. The way it works is, the character simply chooses a modification from the list of those available and applies a modifier to the Purchase DC of the item. Want to booby-trap your weapon so that it delivers an electric shock if anyone but you tries to use it? No problem. Select the Booby Trapped gadget and add +6 to the Purchase DC.With the possibility of campaigns moving into space, new environments need to be defined. d20 Future defines not only high- and low-gravity environments, but also different types of atmospheres (such as corrosive or thick), but also factors like radiation and decompression (you don’t explode, implode, or instantly freeze-dry in vacuum, by the way). And what would a futuristic campaign be without some notes on star systems?The chapter on scientific engineering introduces everything from cloning to gene modification. Through the use of gene therapy templates, your character can be something more than human. Nanotechnology not only offers new advances in medicine and warfare, but also allows the development of some pretty nasty viruses. Grey goo spreads incredibly fast and if you’ve got it, you’ll soon know, as your flesh melts away over the course of the next several hours. Oh, and there is no cure. Think about that for a while.For some, the future is all about exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and new civilizations. The chapter on traveler science is for them. Space travel is examined from both a realistic standpoint (in which the edge of the solar system is about as far as you’re going to go in your lifetime), and from the pseudo-scientific viewpoints, in which nearly anything is possible. Jumpgates, faster-than-light drives, teleporters, and more exotic means of travel become possible (in theory, anyway) as PLs go upward, and the sky need not be the limit any longer. If the GM is open to it, even time travel may be just a step away.If you’re going to have spaceships, you’ll need rules for such, and you can find them here. Starship combat is remarkably simple. In fact, it’s just like a typical d20 System combat round. Everyone starts a battle flat-footed. Th GM determines who is aware of whom, initiative is rolled for those that can act, and the surprise round is played out. Initiative is rolled for everyone else and the battle commences. After everyone has had a turn, go back to the top of the initiative and carry on. As in d20 Modern, a vehicle is not destroyed a 0 hit points; it is disabled. It takes more effort (often considerably more) to destroy a vehicle. Also as in d20 Modern, starships can be repaired by those skilled in doing so, but once a ship drops to negative hit points, it is breaking up and the best thing you can do is head for the escape pods!Vehicles themselves are similar to d20 Modern, save that most have autopilot systems, targeting systems that provide bonuses to gunners, and most have a grappling system of some kind (either grapples or a tractor beam). The “base” stats can be further modified by swapping out components. Adding an improved autopilot system to a stock vessel will grant a Defense bonus when the system is engaged, plasma cannons do considerably more damage than a laser, and a tractor beam is stronger and a lot easier to use than a conventional grapple.Needless to say, starships are not the only vehicles in the future. Hover cruiser technology comes into its own in the Gravity Age (PL 7) and all kinds of hover-vehicles become widely available. Real men (and women) prefer something with a bit more class, however, and as soon as mecha become available (as early as PL 6), you can be sure that they’ll be in high demand. Mecha are treated as a combination of character and vehicle. Each mecha has a number of equipment slots, based on its size. Each piece of equipment takes up space in one or more slots. Some pieces take up a slot anywhere on the mecha, while others are delegated to a certain position (jet boots must always fill a boot slot, obviously). Mecha open up several new feats and a new advanced class, the mecha jockey. “In the future, there will be robots.” Yep, and they can both serve man and fight against him. The biodroid and the bioreplica are presented as playable robots for player characters, but plenty of non-heroic robots are described as well. Robots are designed from the ground up, to suit the needs of the purchaser, and a lot of options are available for those with the money.So maybe you don’t want to be fully robotized, but a replacement for the hand that you lost to your father last week during a suitably dramatic moment in the campaign would be in order. Cybernetics are for you! Even as early as PL 5, primitive cybernetics are possible, and by PL 7, most of the bugs have been worked out and a cybernetic replacement is often better than the real thing.Some GMs may want to add the prospect of mutations to their games. That idea if fulfilled here too. Mutation Points provide a simple method of selecting mutations while providing a modicum of game balance. If a character wants to play a mutant, and the GM is willing, the character must earn a few MPs by taking a drawback or three. You can get some really interesting and powerful mutations, such as wings, if you don’t mind being saddled with brittle bones and rapid aging.Finally, we come to the chapter on xenobiology. Here, aliens of all stripes abound! There are two forms of xenobiological hazards (endothermic mold and space slime) and a whole list of creatures from the Monster Manual, d20 Modern, the d20 Menace Manual, and Urban Arcana that make perfect xenoforms. If it doesn’t look alien enough for you, try spicing it up with the extraterrestrial or space creature templates.The last part of this chapter describes some new options for characters in the form of heroic aliens. Instead of being a human, you can play a synthetic aleerin, a protomorphic dralasite, a spindly fraal, a winged sesheyan, a reptilian t’sa, an insectoid vrusk, a giant weren, or a raging yazarian. Fans of Alternity and Star Frontiers will find their favorite aliens here, which should make for some happy gamers.Critical HitAll in all, this book makes the leap from modern to future nicely. A few things I felt were missing, but on the whole, there’s enough here to keep players and GMs busy for a long time to come. Speaking for myself, the critical hit was seeing the old Star Frontiers races revived once more. I’ve missed playing a vrusk, and now I have the opportunity.Critical FumbleOkay, first off, the books ends rather abruptly. If it weren’t for the ad on the last page, I’d think that I was missing a few pages. If you don’t want to include an index, that’s fine. The table of contents is more than detailed enough to suffice. However, just ending a paragraph and then having a full page ad is not closure! Spare me the ad and instead, give me a few parting words!Second, I was deeply disappointed with the lack of real information on space exploration. I understand that there was a lot of material to cover, but I wouldn’t have minded paying extra for several pages detailing exploration of new worlds, perhaps even a default campaign setting that placed the homeworlds of the heroic xenos. Alternity had a system for generating entire solar systems, and I’d like to have seen something similar here. What about the unique aspects of mapping in a three-dimensional environment? I feel that for those of us whose campaigns are star-spanning, this was a critical fumble.Finally, a nitpick. Where are the sathar? You put the klicks in there, why not the sathar? They were such a cool enemy; would it have really cost that much space to put a blurb about them?Coup de GraceIf you’ve been contemplating picking this book up, hoping for some solid rules to handle futuristic adventures, consider this a green light. There is no Open Gaming Content specified here, but that may change if WotC decides to put any in the System Resource Document (which they now have). What is here is a solid set of rules that works well with the d20 System, bringing it full circle and making it truly universal. You won’t regret buying this one.Final Grade: A-</blockquote>

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