atanakar
Hero
NPC creation was a chore in d20 OGL games. I ended up just winging it and reusing old NPC with new names or dead PC sheets. The players never knew.
An Urban Arcana 5e book would be AWESOME!
D&D 3E/3.5 D20 Modern: Edition Experience - Did/Do You Play d20 Modern? How Was/Is it?
NPC creation was a chore in d20 OGL games. I ended up just winging it and reusing old NPC with new names or dead PC sheets. The players never knew.
An Urban Arcana 5e book would be AWESOME!
teitan
Legend
That’s an awesome game and the Cypher System core book is an excellent generic system to craft modern fantasy games!
masshysteria
Explorer
I never really got to play d20 Modern despite owning a number of the books, testing some builds and encounters out on my own, and plotting out some one-shots.
d20 Modern was an interesting line that show how you could pound a d20 system square peg into a round hole. I say that lovingly, because as the supplements showed you really could use d20 for nearly everything. It may have been a bit flawed, but liking something despite the flaws is a good way to be happy.
It also arrived during the d20 boom. So any accomplished d20 player could easily pick it up and run all sorts of games. For me, that was pretty exciting. I was excited by the prospect of running one-shots in modern, historical, or sci-fi settings and not have to teach a new ruleset. Granted it was far from the first generic RPG, but coming from a gaming group that only really played D&D 3/3.5, it made pitching something different possible.
The trickling of Star Drive and Dark Matter material in the d20 Modern books ended up leading to my rediscovery of Alternity and eventually purchasing the entire line via eBay after it was out of print for a few years. I ended up selling off my d20 Modern books, but held onto the Alternity ones.
Mark me down as another person that would love to see an Urban Arcana 5e. Of course, I'd love to see it updated from its early 2000s vibe (which is fun to check out again, just for kicks).
Of course, probably the best thing about d20 Modern is that it layed the groundwork for my favorite iteration of the d20 rules in Star Wars Saga edition.
d20 Modern was an interesting line that show how you could pound a d20 system square peg into a round hole. I say that lovingly, because as the supplements showed you really could use d20 for nearly everything. It may have been a bit flawed, but liking something despite the flaws is a good way to be happy.
It also arrived during the d20 boom. So any accomplished d20 player could easily pick it up and run all sorts of games. For me, that was pretty exciting. I was excited by the prospect of running one-shots in modern, historical, or sci-fi settings and not have to teach a new ruleset. Granted it was far from the first generic RPG, but coming from a gaming group that only really played D&D 3/3.5, it made pitching something different possible.
The trickling of Star Drive and Dark Matter material in the d20 Modern books ended up leading to my rediscovery of Alternity and eventually purchasing the entire line via eBay after it was out of print for a few years. I ended up selling off my d20 Modern books, but held onto the Alternity ones.
Mark me down as another person that would love to see an Urban Arcana 5e. Of course, I'd love to see it updated from its early 2000s vibe (which is fun to check out again, just for kicks).
Of course, probably the best thing about d20 Modern is that it layed the groundwork for my favorite iteration of the d20 rules in Star Wars Saga edition.
The Crimson Binome
Hero
It sounded interesting to me, up until I actually found a copy of the book.
This isn't a game about playing in the modern day. It's a game about playing an action movie, that happens to be set in the modern day. Even if you're playing in a game that has spells or psychic powers, the game refers to those as special FX.
The thing that absolutely killed it for me was the action point economy. A lot of the prestige classes had powers that required you to spend an action point to use, and the only way to recover action points was by gaining a level. Managing your basic power resource - the equivalent of spell slots - meant you had to keep an accurate track of how close you were to gaining a level. And that's not something I could ever do in a game. It's no way for a person to go through life, constantly worrying about.
This isn't a game about playing in the modern day. It's a game about playing an action movie, that happens to be set in the modern day. Even if you're playing in a game that has spells or psychic powers, the game refers to those as special FX.
The thing that absolutely killed it for me was the action point economy. A lot of the prestige classes had powers that required you to spend an action point to use, and the only way to recover action points was by gaining a level. Managing your basic power resource - the equivalent of spell slots - meant you had to keep an accurate track of how close you were to gaining a level. And that's not something I could ever do in a game. It's no way for a person to go through life, constantly worrying about.
LuisCarlos17f
Legend
Urban Arcana is easier to be adapted to an action-live production, but for gameplay to add firearms and modern technology is harder to find the right power balance when are different playables factions and with different levels of supernatural powers or technologic level, for example a story of barbarian dinosaur-folk fighint against the neighbour tribe ruled by amazon shamans, and both suffering an invasion of goblins with steampunk mechas.
With the right firearm only one shot is enough to kill a wolf, a bear, or even an elephat (using special ammo). Broken power level. I could bet the videogame studios will notice soon if they try a d20 future videogame.
Some d20 modern stories are only unnarmed civiliations investigating about Lovecraftian cults, other about surviving a zombie-postapocalypse where they try to save ammo for the worst menaces, and others is a group of space marines in a alien-bug hunt with lot of heavy weapons.
3PPs are using 5th Ed rules to create their own d20 Modern setting, and this is good, but we need a lot of work to create the ultimate d20 Modern. What if Hasbro wants a videogame adaptation of M.A.S.K ( maybe version Mad Max, road warrior), Transformers or G.I.Joe (version panzer-punk in a fictional world with WWII look).
With the right firearm only one shot is enough to kill a wolf, a bear, or even an elephat (using special ammo). Broken power level. I could bet the videogame studios will notice soon if they try a d20 future videogame.
Some d20 modern stories are only unnarmed civiliations investigating about Lovecraftian cults, other about surviving a zombie-postapocalypse where they try to save ammo for the worst menaces, and others is a group of space marines in a alien-bug hunt with lot of heavy weapons.
3PPs are using 5th Ed rules to create their own d20 Modern setting, and this is good, but we need a lot of work to create the ultimate d20 Modern. What if Hasbro wants a videogame adaptation of M.A.S.K ( maybe version Mad Max, road warrior), Transformers or G.I.Joe (version panzer-punk in a fictional world with WWII look).
atanakar
Hero
Yes. Modern was 3.25. SAGA is 3.75. Really like SAGA too.
Henry
Autoexreginated
I enjoyed d20 modern, but I was more a fan of the Grim Tales variant from Bad Axe Games; it had a bit more variety in the feats and talents, and the magic was a bit more... punishing, to put it lightly.
An old gaming acquaintance of mine used Grim Tales, alongside the product True Sorcery from Green Ronin, and I absolutely loved the feel that the two had together, but unfortunately True Sorcery could be horrifically abused by the right power gamer...
An old gaming acquaintance of mine used Grim Tales, alongside the product True Sorcery from Green Ronin, and I absolutely loved the feel that the two had together, but unfortunately True Sorcery could be horrifically abused by the right power gamer...
R_J_K75
Legend
I don't remember the game system being anything special by either being great or terrible, but we ran some great adventures. Both me and my friend ran the same d20 Modern campaign for awhile. It was set in our neighborhood in the early 2000's. It was a lot of fun because there wasn't a whole lot of thought put into it or taken too seriously. A few years later I ran a pseudo-continuation set about in a post-apocalyptic future where Donald Rumsfeld took over the United States and started a nuclear war. The first adventure lasted a whole 15 minutes and 1 or 2 die rolls. The adventure started when the group had to take a glider plane from point A to point B, and it didn't end well. When they were coming in for a landing the pilot, (who didn't have the piloting skill) rolled a natural 1 and they crashed, failed their saving throws and died. We all had a good laugh, got drunk and picked up the campaign a few days later with new PC's.
Speaking of great adventures... I threatened my friends for years that I was going to run an Adult Invader ZIm campaign using d20 Modern/Future. Pregenerated mid-level characters banding together to defend their (adopted) home planet from the greatest threat in the universe-- Tallest Scooge.
atanakar
Hero
29 votes. Not bad but still not enough. I'm sure more people than that played d20 Modern.
My second favorite book after Urban Arcana was d20 Future. Liked the Alternity and Star Frontiers references and races. Always wanted to do a Moreau campaign but never had time.
What are your first and second favorite books other than the core book?
My second favorite book after Urban Arcana was d20 Future. Liked the Alternity and Star Frontiers references and races. Always wanted to do a Moreau campaign but never had time.
What are your first and second favorite books other than the core book?
