D20 Weapons Locker
- Thread starter IronWolf
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JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Looking for a few guns for your D20 Modern campaign? The Weapons Locker by Wizards of the Coast provides you with a lot of options. Ironically enough, it builds upon the strength of a previous arsenal book, Ultramodern Firearms and includes open game content.
Broken up into eight chapters, Weapons Locker covers just about all you need. Chapters include the following: Pistols, Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Antimaterial Rifles, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Machine Guns and Grenade Launchers. Each chapter starts with background information about the weapon in question. This isn’t an in-depth analysis of the weapon and its uses, but rather an introduction. Its followed by a brief section on d20 rules. These rules include information on what proficiency is required as well as specialty rules. For example, under chapter eight, grenade launchers, information on how to attack a square and what bonus a folding stock provides the user, are listed. After that, the statistics start.
The information starts with background on the specific weapon in question. For example, the Sterling L2 was developed by the British in the late 1940s and has variants. D20 Modern Rules follow the background and include standard firearm info including damage, critical, damage type, range increment, rate of fire, magazine, size, weight, purchase DC and restrictions. The illustrations of the weapons are almost CAD like in their preciseness. Shading and highlighting aren’t used.
One of my favorite weapons has got to be the OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon), a weapon of high cost and high power that probably won’t see wide use until oh, say 2010. It can be used as a rifle or use a burst weapon feature that can be activated to explode on impact or in the air. Truly a dangerous weapon for the ages and perfect for those players who want to be on the cutting edge of everything.
Opposed to Ultramodern Firearms, the book is a latecomer. It focuses only on weapons. It borrows from that book and doesn’t include anything new to do with the weapons. For example, there are no new feats, NPCs or organizations that the players can use. On the other hand, the book is bigger and only slightly more expensive and includes a lot of variety. Some GMs will prefer the method of illustration that Ultramodern used where it looks like a photograph of the weapon as opposed to a clean ink drawing.
Looking over the two books, there are some differences but that’s to be expected. Most of these show up in the game mechanics like DC to purchase or when multiple versions are presented in one book, they seem to be averaged in on the other book. I imagine that for ‘official’ play, most will prefer the Weapons Locker. One thing I liked about Ultramodern Firearms though is that it covered some goods that I haven’t seen in Weapons locker yet like IMI MTAR Micro, a miniaturized version of the TAR-21 Tavor assault rifle. That’s another split in organization. Ultramodern has a section for Assault Rifles, Weapons locker has Rifles. Similar material but the differentiation in Ultramodern Firearms helps keep things distinct.
If you can only afford one book, because Weapons Locker incorporates material from Ultramodern Firearms, it has the edge. Because it’s an official product, it has the edge. Because it covers more weapons, it has the edge.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t a few tricks that Wizards couldn’t have employed to make this book better but for a black and white weapon book, it has supplanted Ultramodern Firearms at my game table for most uses.
Broken up into eight chapters, Weapons Locker covers just about all you need. Chapters include the following: Pistols, Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Antimaterial Rifles, Submachine Guns, Shotguns, Machine Guns and Grenade Launchers. Each chapter starts with background information about the weapon in question. This isn’t an in-depth analysis of the weapon and its uses, but rather an introduction. Its followed by a brief section on d20 rules. These rules include information on what proficiency is required as well as specialty rules. For example, under chapter eight, grenade launchers, information on how to attack a square and what bonus a folding stock provides the user, are listed. After that, the statistics start.
The information starts with background on the specific weapon in question. For example, the Sterling L2 was developed by the British in the late 1940s and has variants. D20 Modern Rules follow the background and include standard firearm info including damage, critical, damage type, range increment, rate of fire, magazine, size, weight, purchase DC and restrictions. The illustrations of the weapons are almost CAD like in their preciseness. Shading and highlighting aren’t used.
One of my favorite weapons has got to be the OICW (Objective Individual Combat Weapon), a weapon of high cost and high power that probably won’t see wide use until oh, say 2010. It can be used as a rifle or use a burst weapon feature that can be activated to explode on impact or in the air. Truly a dangerous weapon for the ages and perfect for those players who want to be on the cutting edge of everything.
Opposed to Ultramodern Firearms, the book is a latecomer. It focuses only on weapons. It borrows from that book and doesn’t include anything new to do with the weapons. For example, there are no new feats, NPCs or organizations that the players can use. On the other hand, the book is bigger and only slightly more expensive and includes a lot of variety. Some GMs will prefer the method of illustration that Ultramodern used where it looks like a photograph of the weapon as opposed to a clean ink drawing.
Looking over the two books, there are some differences but that’s to be expected. Most of these show up in the game mechanics like DC to purchase or when multiple versions are presented in one book, they seem to be averaged in on the other book. I imagine that for ‘official’ play, most will prefer the Weapons Locker. One thing I liked about Ultramodern Firearms though is that it covered some goods that I haven’t seen in Weapons locker yet like IMI MTAR Micro, a miniaturized version of the TAR-21 Tavor assault rifle. That’s another split in organization. Ultramodern has a section for Assault Rifles, Weapons locker has Rifles. Similar material but the differentiation in Ultramodern Firearms helps keep things distinct.
If you can only afford one book, because Weapons Locker incorporates material from Ultramodern Firearms, it has the edge. Because it’s an official product, it has the edge. Because it covers more weapons, it has the edge.
That isn’t to say that there aren’t a few tricks that Wizards couldn’t have employed to make this book better but for a black and white weapon book, it has supplanted Ultramodern Firearms at my game table for most uses.
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