ParanoydStyle
Peace Among Worlds
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On d20 Modern:
First off, when I say something is "one of the worst RPGs I have ever seen" I probably mean to imply the qualifier "amongst reasonably mainstream RPGs with budgets of some kind". I am not comparing anything put out by WotC with, well, FATAL and friends.
Secondly, I am actually kind of still in love with the 3E engine, specifically 3.5.
Thirdly: I did not like d20 Modern's implied setting. There are so many cool and valid ways to combine modern urban action with magic and monsters to make a cool urban fantasy setting, and d20 Modern goes with none of them. Instead we got dumb crap like idk, rhino men playing hockey? That's the one piece of art I can specifically remember cringing at back in the 00s. The setting-or-lack-thereof implied in the art was just so infuriatingly stupid. The implication seemed to be that everything that could possibly be a thing in D&D into the modern world and then change the implicit assumptions about our modern world not at all. Next to no effort was made to explain how magic and monsters co-existed had altered our history. Compared to the amount of thought and detail put into the future/alternate history of Shadowrun, I think it's outright embarassing. Later on (I don't know if it was later on in the core rulebook or later on in a supplement) I saw they introduced three different quasi-settings (call them campaign ideas, maybe) and one or two of those were actually pretty cool (naturally, I liked the darker, vaguely Lovecraftian one). If they had picked one of those campaign ideas and developed the game (including, yes, the presentation and art) around its assumptions
Fourth: I was not a fan of the BS non-classes that served as base classes. "Strong Hero" or "Smart Hero" is not a class concept. It just tells you what your best stat is, which you already knew, and builds a very lame class framework around one. The fact that you couldn't have a class name that told people either what your character did for a living OR told people what your character contributed to the party until reaching 6th level and taking a Prestige Class was a serious flaw with the game. I can't recall anyone ever expressing any enthusiasm for playing a "Fast Hero" or a "Wise Hero" or whatever, before, during, or after. Say what you will for having lots of freedom with these character archetypes/pseudo-classes, but I think if that's what they were going for then they simply should have every single character start as the same "class", "Action Hero" or whatever. Thus class features would not define low level characters at all.
Finally: the firearm rules (the one sourcebook I had was the big books of guns in d20 modern). As a firearm afficionado, I appreciated their attention to detail and realism, but as a game designer, nothing excuses giving the player the choice of like 50-something semi-auto handguns that all do the exact same damage. I don't think that the 3E engine lacks the detail to have appropriate granularity for firearm calibers, either, differentiating more than difference. But d20 modern just didn't.
As mentioned, d20 Modern had classes. They were just lame ones (Charismatic Hero, Strong Hero, Fast Hero). But they were still technically "classes". It's very difficult to sever D&D from classes. I've decided not to attempt to swim up that waterfall (also, every class I make is still a class I can made that could theoretically be inserted into someone's D&D game, even if Dragonrun doesn't take off and become a thing). But there are aspects of Dragonrun that allow for greater character customization (loadout matters more, everyone gets to pick some skill proficiencies irrespective of their class) and there will be even more (things like burnt out mage or aspected mage seem perfect for feats) so stay tuned!
@Pregily: Thanks, welcome aboard!
I'm not sure why I didn't reply to this post when it was first made...I'm embarrassed to admit I might not have seen it at all. Anyway I know I could probably Google answers to all the following but half of the point of having a community is learning things direct from other people, right?
* Well first off, what the heck is The Dark Eye? How did it get to four editions without my having ever heard of it?
* Is the Dark Eye a CGL (Catalyst Game Labs, makes Shadowrun)/In Media Res (owns CGL, largely the same people as CGL also) property? If so, licensed or original? If not, who does make it, and what is CGL's position on it using mechanics from an obsolete edition of their (Topps') IP? (You can't trademark/copyright/whatever game mechanics so I doubt there was any real drama but I am curious how this came to be if The Dark Eye is not proprietary to CGL.
* You say it uses the same "chargen" system as SR4. That would seem to imply it is also the same 'game engine'? Because the one really must line up with the other.
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