Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions, OSR, & D&D Variants
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
d20 modern or Spycraft 2.0
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="King of Old School" data-source="post: 2558076" data-attributes="member: 8789"><p>I really like d20 Modern and preferred it to Spycraft 1.0 by a long way. I think Spycraft 2.0 not only fixes 99% of what I didn't like about SC1.0, it fixes some of the things that bug me about d20M.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 has a much better, broader and deeper selection of feats and special abilities than d20M.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 has enough different classes that you can make pretty much any character appropriate to a cinematic action-oriented RPG with little to no multiclassing involved (but multiclassing is supported). d20M <em>requires</em> multiclassing to at least some extent, and for many characters the shopping list of classes can get pretty ridiculous. IMO any character with more than 3 different classes (including advanced/prestige classes) is too unwieldy to be worth the effort, and you're a lot more likely to see such characters in d20M.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 (also SC1.0) has much better unarmed combat and non-lethal damage rules than d20M, and a much better handling of cinematic firearms combat as well. YMMV here.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 (also SC1.0) has infinitely better rules for vehicles and chases than d20M, and the extension of the chase system from SC1.0 to all sorts of dramatic conflicts in SC2.0 is brilliant.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 allows for much quicker and cleaner generation of NPCs than d20M.</p><p></p><p>* SC2.0 has a system of "Campaign Qualities" which provide structure for GMs to modify the rules of the game to achieve a certain feel... frex, a game where it's easier or harder for PCs to survive combat or drop NPCs like tenpins, or a game where the PCs have much easier or more difficult access to the weapons and gear they want, or a game where the PCs advance in level faster or slower than the gameplay would normally indicate. Moreover, there are writeups for a number of game genres (e.g. post-apoc, cyberpunk, western) which explains which Campaign Qualities and other rules tweaks might be genre-appropriate. d20M doesn't have anything like this structure in the corebook, so while the GM is free to modify the game it's without any kind of guidance.</p><p></p><p>Ultimately my POV is this: I still think d20M is a good game and I'd still happily play it if someone wanted to run it. However, if I were running a game I'd use SC2.0 for almost any game with a cinematic mood and/or lots of combat; and frankly, for pretty much any game where d20M would be the better choice (i.e. low-combat, lower-cinematics, "Joe Average" characters) I wouldn't use a d20 system anyways -- I'd use the Storytelling System from the new World of Darkness corebook. The only instance I could see myself running d20M now is if I wanted to play one of the better minigames from Polyhedron (either Iron Lords of Jupiter or Pulp Heroes) and wasn't going to run a long enough campaign to justify converting it to SC2.0.</p><p></p><p>KoOS</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="King of Old School, post: 2558076, member: 8789"] I really like d20 Modern and preferred it to Spycraft 1.0 by a long way. I think Spycraft 2.0 not only fixes 99% of what I didn't like about SC1.0, it fixes some of the things that bug me about d20M. * SC2.0 has a much better, broader and deeper selection of feats and special abilities than d20M. * SC2.0 has enough different classes that you can make pretty much any character appropriate to a cinematic action-oriented RPG with little to no multiclassing involved (but multiclassing is supported). d20M [i]requires[/i] multiclassing to at least some extent, and for many characters the shopping list of classes can get pretty ridiculous. IMO any character with more than 3 different classes (including advanced/prestige classes) is too unwieldy to be worth the effort, and you're a lot more likely to see such characters in d20M. * SC2.0 (also SC1.0) has much better unarmed combat and non-lethal damage rules than d20M, and a much better handling of cinematic firearms combat as well. YMMV here. * SC2.0 (also SC1.0) has infinitely better rules for vehicles and chases than d20M, and the extension of the chase system from SC1.0 to all sorts of dramatic conflicts in SC2.0 is brilliant. * SC2.0 allows for much quicker and cleaner generation of NPCs than d20M. * SC2.0 has a system of "Campaign Qualities" which provide structure for GMs to modify the rules of the game to achieve a certain feel... frex, a game where it's easier or harder for PCs to survive combat or drop NPCs like tenpins, or a game where the PCs have much easier or more difficult access to the weapons and gear they want, or a game where the PCs advance in level faster or slower than the gameplay would normally indicate. Moreover, there are writeups for a number of game genres (e.g. post-apoc, cyberpunk, western) which explains which Campaign Qualities and other rules tweaks might be genre-appropriate. d20M doesn't have anything like this structure in the corebook, so while the GM is free to modify the game it's without any kind of guidance. Ultimately my POV is this: I still think d20M is a good game and I'd still happily play it if someone wanted to run it. However, if I were running a game I'd use SC2.0 for almost any game with a cinematic mood and/or lots of combat; and frankly, for pretty much any game where d20M would be the better choice (i.e. low-combat, lower-cinematics, "Joe Average" characters) I wouldn't use a d20 system anyways -- I'd use the Storytelling System from the new World of Darkness corebook. The only instance I could see myself running d20M now is if I wanted to play one of the better minigames from Polyhedron (either Iron Lords of Jupiter or Pulp Heroes) and wasn't going to run a long enough campaign to justify converting it to SC2.0. KoOS [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
d20 modern or Spycraft 2.0
Top