Dark*Matter in Dungeon

[Ranger REG]

...namely that the authors...

You mean authors like Andy_Collins posted earlier?

 

[Felon]

You mean authors like Andy_Collins posted earlier?

Well, I wasn't getting into name-dropping. Don't think he wrote the D20M pulp stuff, though I could be mistaken.

 

[Ranger REG]

No, that would be Dave Noonan, who wrote the original and the d20 Modern conversion, which I happened to like, because it is a bit toned down, even though there are key differences between d20 Modern and D&D magic system.

But I believe Andy_Collins wrote the D*M mini-game/setting.

 

[rowport]

Ranger-
The article is excellent- you should buy the magazine. If you want more detail, I am happy to try to respond. My only critique- or observation, really- is that you should have "Menace Manual" as well as the d20 Modern Core Book to get the most out of it. But, you could easily substitute your own versions of the critters, or even just use Monster Manual (D&D) versions.

Thanks to everybody else for the suggestions/feedback about the original Dark*Matter book; I just bought it from Amazon's used bookseller listings. (There are several copies still out there if others are interested, but some listings are very pricey.)

 

[Ranger REG]

The Menace Manual? No worry, mon. Me got'em cover.

 

[herald]

I was a bit surprized at the Scientology referance. I kinda made my jaw drop.

(And I don't think that I can go into it here as to why without going into details that might offend a certain person's grandmother. Lets just say I'm not a Scientologist, but I'm not trying to praise or denagrate that faith.)

 

[Katowice]

The article was well-written, but like most of the mini-game articles, it left me wanting more. I never had the Dark*Matter book, but I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to own a copy. Incidentally, JD Wiker put together a conversion document for Alternity/Dark*Matter to d20 Modern. You can find it at http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20modern/article/20031007a

 

[morrolan]

I agree with Katowice. It really needs some followup articles to do the setting justice. As it stands, the mini-game really amounts to a nice background article with a few campaign suggestions. The Advanced/Prestige classes are neat, but ultimately not essential to playing a D*M game.
Note that these aren't gripes... I'm happy to see D*M material in any form, and inevitably you need to get the broad setting stuff established for those new to the setting. It also seems to me that the original D*M informed the creation of D20 Modern, to the extent that it's sort of implicit in the core book itself. Hence you don't need a lot of crunchy stuff to play it.
Does that make sense?

 

[Alzrius]

I agree with Katowice. It really needs some followup articles to do the setting justice. As it stands, the mini-game really amounts to a nice background article with a few campaign suggestions. The Advanced/Prestige classes are neat, but ultimately not essential to playing a D*M game.
Note that these aren't gripes... I'm happy to see D*M material in any form, and inevitably you need to get the broad setting stuff established for those new to the setting. It also seems to me that the original D*M informed the creation of D20 Modern, to the extent that it's sort of implicit in the core book itself. Hence you don't need a lot of crunchy stuff to play it.
Does that make sense?

Completely. I don't even own any d20 Modern products and I've been able to see the strong shadow cast by Dark*Matter. The one thing I really liked is that the recent d20 Modern stuff has clearly spelled out was Alternity implied: that Star Drive and Dark Matter are the same campaign universe at different times. Hence why the fraal are the Greys, sasquatch are degenerate weren, etc.

You don't really need more crunchy material to play Dark*Matter in d20 Modern, in that I agree. The article was good in providing flavor and background (though sheer space limitations prevented it from holding a candle to the older book). The one thing I really wanted to see in the article that it didn't have was one of those campaign sidebars about Department 7. I know DP7 hasn't been fleshed out, but I'd love to see something comparing the Hoffmann Institute to Department 7 (or anything about what DP7 is like in Dark*Matter).

 

[Dismas]

You don't really need more crunchy material to play Dark*Matter in d20 Modern, in that I agree. The article was good in providing flavor and background (though sheer space limitations prevented it from holding a candle to the older book). The one thing I really wanted to see in the article that it didn't have was one of those campaign sidebars about Department 7. I know DP7 hasn't been fleshed out, but I'd love to see something comparing the Hoffmann Institute to Department 7 (or anything about what DP7 is like in Dark*Matter).

I had always thought that D7 was just the generic brand name for the Hoffmann Institute in d20 Modern. They wanted to give a reason why the characters were together, they wanted to make it 'open' so that other game companies could build on it and they didn't want to give away their IP. The institute could have fitted quite well into any of the campaign settings in the book.