TwinBahamut said:
I really would like to see a revised "4E" version of D20 Modern. The D20 Modern Core Book was one of the greatest things ever made by WotC in the 3E era. However, I hope they do a few things to improve the game next time around.
1) Get rid of the emphasis on Urban Arcana. I know D20 Modern started development as an Urban Arcana supplement for D&D, but that doesn't justify putting so much effort into a setting that doesn't really have much precedent or widespread popularity. They would have been better off giving Shadow Chasers, Agents of Psi, and Genetech a bigger role, or putting more effort into futuristic or historical settings earlier.
2) No more books like d20 Future. D20 future tried to do too much with too little space, and really suffered as a result (especially since there was no integration between chapters and some chapters were just terrible). The more focused books, like D20 Apocalypse and D20 future Tech, worked a lot better.
3) Tech levels, as they were used in D20 future, simply don't work. They are too simplistic to even be applicable in campaign design, and are a terrible balancing mechanism.
4) Vehicle/spaceship rules just need to work better next time, particularly from the perspective of how they will actually be used by characters in an adventure or campaign.
5) Next time WotC wants to make a Mecha Crusade project, they really need to hire someone who actually knows more about the mecha genre. The D20 Future mecha chapter was terrible...
1) Urban Arcana was probably a bit ahead of its time, I think. Nowadays, with Dresden Files + Laurell K. Hamilton's stuff and other 'dark urban modern fantasy' out there, I think it's more doable as a campaign setting. It'd need more focus though, and some of the elements changed or removed. Definitely shouldn't focus too much on it though, when there's a lot of settings you could build around.
2 through 5) totally agreed. Particularly: I partially think that there should not be vehicle-specific operation feats. I don't mind it if there's a feat that says something like "Vehicle Savant" which negates all of your penalties for unfamiliarity with vehicle operation, but I think the default should be "if you bought it, you're familiar with it. If you don't, and it's your first time in that type of vehicle, then assume unfamiliarity until you can get someone trained to teach you how to operate it or you've had it in your possession a certain amount of time, but after that, you are good to go, no additional expenditure required." (There should be a basic cost for training, so people who don't want to quest just to find training don't have to.) Also, tech levels can work, but they should generally be assumed to be for determining item cost and who can instantly work what types of technology without an unfamiliarity trial period, and not much else. Beyond that, pointless for determining almost anything.
As for myself, I'd have the basic game be like the advanced classes of d20 Modern core are now, for the most part, in that they're pretty nicely setting-agnostic, though with more abilities that are broadly useful and fewer narrow range activated abilities. Some of the abilities just seem too narrow.
After that, it should be a couple of major genre categories (like d20 Sci-Fi, d20 Apoc, and d20 Horror that cover general things that a lot of the sub-genres will have. Eras shouldn't really be a focus, except maybe where the era pretty much defines the general genre (Wild West would be an era sourcebook that's also a genre sourcebook, for example). As appropriate, I'd like to see settings that showcase 1 or 2 different genres and go into them in depth. (So the post-Singularity setting showcases the Sci-Fi setting, while a Bughunters setting might be Sci-Fi + Apoc.) Redos of settings done for the current incarnation would be welcome.
Also, while Wealth levels are good, I'd like to see wealth level maybe be a measure of basic cash income per unit time, (basically, your average income after bills) while the game on the whole runs on 'real cash on hand' for purchases while wealth level being your "credit rating," as in your supply of credit to obtain more cash (at a cost of future income/credit). so that spending too much too quickly is possible, but it also makes it so that in general, you can't lose your house and home to spending too easily either. Ideally, it would allow players to interconvert some amount of cash and wealth level and remain balanced, no matter how the transaction goes. The amount of min-maxing and the number of rediculous wealth loopholes is pretty bothersome, and well done, I think a re-jiggered money system would fix many of the problems people have with the gp system as well as the current wealth level system.
