D20 Modern vs. Spycraft: Tell me which one you like better

[TheAuldGrump]

Those options can turn your game from much less lethal than D20 Modern to nearly a one shot, one kill lethality.

A very tweakable system, with a fair number of those tweaks right in the book.

The Auld Grump

 

[Gundark]

wow this thread is still going? I wonder if the OP has made his choice yet? Well if it wasn't SC 2.0 he's missing out.

 

[Matchstick]

Well I just came up here to ask about a specific setting, and what would be most appropriate for that setting, so I'll try appending to this thread looking for that advice.

I'm thinking about running a one shot starring a group from Bureau 13 (remember them?). I'm looking at high modern firepower (grenades, automatic weapons, LAW rockets, satchel charges, Urban Assault Vehicles, etc), magic (in setting and in characters), and more archaic weapons (swords, axes, cleaving, etc.).

The setting would be modern day (adding the magic). Since it's a one shot I'd like a system that will be easy for players to pick up (with preparation on my end of course, including pre-gen characters) and easy to run both high firepower and archaic combats.

D20 Modern lept to mind of course, but reading this it sounds like Spycraft 2 might fit the bill as well. I have really NO experience with either of those two settings.

Thanks for any recommendations!

 

[Masada]

If you are rock-solid in your understanding of d20 (either DnD or Modern), then Spycraft 2.0 will be exciting to you for its improvements on that system.

Magic (i.e. spells) are not really defined in Spycraft yet. There are several magic system options available to d20 Modern that would all port pretty efficiently over to SC. I would encourage you to look over the magic systems in Modern Magic (by The Game Mechanics) or Blood & Relics (by RPGO) or Legends of Excalibur (also by RPGO) prior to defaulting to the WotC heavy magic standard.

If immediate, out of the box playablity is more important, then d20 Modern with Urban Arcana (or just the MSRD of Urban Arcana) is your short term solution.

If this is going to be your long term campaign, you have a fair amount of d20 experience and you're going to put some planning behind your world design, then SC.

You can review the d20 MSRD for free of course, but SC is $50 for the book or $25 for the PDF. You can easily spend the same on the d20 Modern books and supporting material.

 

[Insight]

wow this thread is still going? I wonder if the OP has made his choice yet? Well if it wasn't SC 2.0 he's missing out.

Yeah, I started running Spycraft 2.0. It's pretty cool. Too bad I couldn't really get my group too excited about it.

 

[Matchstick]

If immediate, out of the box playablity is more important, then d20 Modern with Urban Arcana (or just the MSRD of Urban Arcana) is your short term solution.

If this is going to be your long term campaign, you have a fair amount of d20 experience and you're going to put some planning behind your world design, then SC.

This would be a one shot convention type adventure. There's really not a way I can see that it would grow into a campaign.

Your recommendation would be D20M with Urban Arcana if I'm understanding you correctly. Thanks for the thoughts, hopefully others will chime in.

 

[Pbartender]

This would be a one shot convention type adventure. There's really not a way I can see that it would grow into a campaign.

If you already had SC 2.0, I'd say use it. As much as I like the new Spycraft rules, buying the book and learning the rules well enough to teach others to play them during the short time at a convention game is worth neither the time nor the money... Unless you fully intend to use the system for a campaign at some later date.

Otherwise, download the D20 Modern & D20 Future SRDs for free and use them.

 

[ValhallaGH]

This would be a one shot convention type adventure. There's really not a way I can see that it would grow into a campaign.

Your recommendation would be D20M with Urban Arcana if I'm understanding you correctly. Thanks for the thoughts, hopefully others will chime in.

D20 Modern utilizing either a variant magic system (True Sorcery, Legends of Sorcery, an Unearthed Arcana variant, Elements of Magic or whatever else you have) or the standard 'fire and forget' magic of the Urban Arcana casters. The only real disadvantage to the Urban Arcana method is that you need to be at least 4th level to use any spells at all, making it a higher-level game. The magic itself is straight out of d20 Fantasy, so it will be familiar to just about everyone.

If you do choose d20 Modern then remember Massive Damage. It makes a huge difference in both the length and deadliness of combats and is the priciple factor in keeping firearms deadly at all levels.

Good luck.

 

[SteveC]

Well I just came up here to ask about a specific setting, and what would be most appropriate for that setting, so I'll try appending to this thread looking for that advice.

I'm thinking about running a one shot starring a group from Bureau 13 (remember them?). I'm looking at high modern firepower (grenades, automatic weapons, LAW rockets, satchel charges, Urban Assault Vehicles, etc), magic (in setting and in characters), and more archaic weapons (swords, axes, cleaving, etc.).

The setting would be modern day (adding the magic). Since it's a one shot I'd like a system that will be easy for players to pick up (with preparation on my end of course, including pre-gen characters) and easy to run both high firepower and archaic combats.

D20 Modern lept to mind of course, but reading this it sounds like Spycraft 2 might fit the bill as well. I have really NO experience with either of those two settings.

Thanks for any recommendations!

For what it's worth, I'm a HUGE B13 fan, and there was supposed to be a new edition of the rules out using D20 Modern for the engine. I had heard it would be at Gen Con, but no luck (believe me, I looked!)

That said, outside of official support, I'd suggest pairing Spycraft 2.0 with Elements of Magic Mythic Earth. I did a brief campaign using those rules, and it worked like a charm! Check out the Crafty Web Site for some rules notes...I didn't use them, but my own notes aren't in any shape to post to the web. I think they're two great tastes that taste great together.

--Steve

 

[Matchstick]

Would that be this?

http://www.amazon.com/-Bureau-13-So...o_k2_dp_k2a_3_txt/104-5584637-7706366?ie=UTF8

I had no idea they were talking about releasing rules again. Heck, there's a couple B13 books up there I haven't read, and that I'm going to order right away. The release date seems to be December 1, but I can't find any more information on it, including on their site. I'd really like to know whether it's D20.

You guys are giving great advice, and I really appreciate it. For right now I'm trying to flesh out the story, and then I'll be heading toward putting it in game terms. Right now I'm leaning more toward D20 Modern just because of the familiarity (as Pbartender says above) but really I'm still pretty open.

Oh, and there's Psionics in B13 too. Any thoughts on that?