D20 Modern is out!

[sawbones]

The Nov. 8 date might just be the day when d20 Modern gets released to the SRD and third party publishers can release d20 modern material. Still, WotC did seem to indicate that d20 Modern would be added to the SRD the day of release and more than a few stores break official street dates...

WOTC for the most part does not use Do Not Sell Before street dates.

When I was a wizard premiere store we could sell product when we received it EXCEPT for new CCG releases.

Unlike the movie industry where DNSB dates are common, the book industry saves DNSB dates only for really big important releases.

GK

 

[JPL]

Caveat – All my info is from a playtest version of these rules. Some of it has probably changed. I’ve also tried to summarize the details of things (other than titles), rather than state them directly, since I don’t want to piss folks off at WOTC. Buy the product!

Damn right I'm buying the product. Thanks for the info.

I think the Profession skills might have been dropped since they related mainly to earning capacity (along with the occasional synergy bonus), which is now of course measured by wealth.

Hmm. Buy.com had better hurry up and send me my book...

 

[Danzilla]

This was the response by Charles Ryan to this news...

Apparently, one or two copies of d20 Modern have hit the street. You can read about it on enworld (http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s= 5eaa46a66cca7e6b771e359a9b207536&threadid=29275). Don't go rushing out to your local store just yet, however--the game hasn't been officially released, and most stores shouldn't even have it yet.

The game will be out, officially, some time next week. Until then, feel free to read the reviews on enworld (or wherever), and post your questions or comments here!

[BTW, if you're jealous of the guy who got his copy already, so am I. A few copies have made it from the printer to the WotC offices, but we here in R&D haven't received ours yet!]

If someone would like to post this info on enworld or elsewhere, please feel free. I'd do it myself, but for some wierd reason I have trouble posting on enworld.
--------------------
Charles Ryan
Editor, RPG R&D
Wizards of the Coast

BTW...our Anti-Charles Ryan virus is working... [jk]

 

[Jim DelRosso]

skills might have been dropped since they related mainly to earning capacity (along with the occasional synergy bonus), which is now of course measured by wealth.

Last I'd heard, the Profession skills were still in, and used as a method for bumping up your Wealth score when you gained a level.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

What I want to know is, how convertable are D&D monsters? And how compatible is it with a High Renaissance setting? (Good tech, low magic.)

I'll have to check out the Unofficial d20 Modern webpage.

 

[Jeph]

I suppose that I'll have to find out where MeepoTheMighty lives and kidnap him in order to get the position of Meepo with a Shotgun in the first d20 Modern Iconics Adventure that pops up . . . *sigh*

YES! They made Meepo a real character! with a SHOTGUN! and a GNOLL PIMP! I am soooooo buying–wait, I already pre-ordered it. *sighs again* I guess I'll have to wait for Amazon . . . *sighs for the third time in a single post, takes an asprin*

 

[JPL]

1. Don't forget: "GeneTech", the mysterious lost campaign setting from d20 Modern, is in the next issue of Polyhedron.

Genetically altered supersoldiers. What's not to like, people?

2. Somebody better have a really tricked-out steampunk supplement in print by March.

 

[Paragon Badger]

Working on questions...

D&D monsters are easy to convert. The only real conversion work to do is to assign them modern equipment.

High Reainaissance would be doable. Nothing for that subject is covered in the core book though.

Overall, this is a great boon for d20 when it hits SRD. D20 Modern provides a much more general framework for new settings/systems then D&D. The basic class idea really allows for great flexibility.

Most skills and such have been updated for modern uses. Craft has a very detailed such described also sorts of things including poisons. What to make Sarin nerve gas? That's a Craft (chemical) check DC 30. Some concentrated acid that can deal 3d6 damage? DC 30 again. An Improvised explosive with 1d6 damage and 5 ft blast is Dc 10 with a purchase DC of 6.

Professionm are still in there and you make a Profession check at level up to gain Wealth bonus along with a bonus to wealth you get from Profession at 1st level.

Action points can be spent to alter a d20 roll (attack, skill check, ability check, level check, or saving throws. You add 1d6 to the total of the roll. At higher levels you roll more d6 and take the best result.
Also, some class talents are powered by using action points.

 

[Paragon Badger]

Creature Weaknesses are interesting quirks you give to a monster for dramatic purpose. There is a table of sample weakness (from Alcohol to Amber to Bunnies to Elvis Presley memorabilia to gold to TV infomercials to X-rays and alot more.) Also there are rules for the effect of the weakness.
Addiction
Attraction
Aversion
Fascination
Fear
Harm

So for example you make a medusa to throw at a low level party and say it have a weakness to ::rolls dice:: mathematical equations. You decide it is a Strong Attraction. So in battle in a school your PC's flee into a math class room. The medusa wanders in an sees the equations on the board and fails a Will save. It moves to finish the equations as if possed leaving itself open to attack. No CR modifer is give, I think it is more a method to modify hard battles and encourage roleplaying by giving the monster a quirk.

 

[Paragon Badger]

Never played Dark Matter so I can't tell you if a setting is like it.

The setting I haven't mentioned is Agents of Psi. More or less what you have is Alias / James Bond with a psionic twist. Imagine Bond breaking into a building by attacking a guard unaware with a blade of mental force and you understand what is going on.
Then imagine Bond finds out the whole evil plot is an illithid overlord with a legion of brainwashed public officials.