ENWorld, what is best in d20 modern?

[solomoncane]

1. Grim Tales (makes Modern truly multi-genre)
2. EoM: Mythic Earth (FX for all occaisions)
3. Blood & Circuits (design stuff)
4. Future (tech levels/SF)
5. BESM d20 revised (mecha, powers, options)

With these & Core Modern, you can do it all.

 

[jezter6]

In no order really:

Sidewinder: Recoiled
Blood and Relics
Year of the Zombie
Etherscope
Blood and Vigilance

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Okay, we've had this thread before, but as the question has been mentioned in another thread, let's have it again.

The rules:

1. List 5 or less products.
2. These are d20 modern products. For this purpose, let's say it has to have the "requires use of d20 modern by wizards of the coast" blurb on the cover.
3. A few publishers hang around here, but in addition to pimping, it'd be nice to hear what you think about your peers' products. So say, do at least half (2-3) of your nominations on something you didn't contribute to yourself (or your company, if you aren't a freelancer.)
4. WotC puts out some nice stuff, but it would be nice to hear about the lesser known parties. Say no more that 3 of your 5 may be wotc votes. And no votes for the d20 modern core book - we can assume that one.

Sound good? Okay, go!

I don't have that many products, so I might be missing some really cool stuff.

0) D20 Modern
1) D20 Colombia. Real-life campaign setting with dozens and dozens of plot hooks.
2) Khorforjan Gambit. Very cool military adventure.
3) D20 Menace Manual - for already-stated reasons. The NPCs, especially the heroic ones, are generally well done. I'm not so keen on the monsters.
4) D20 Critical Locations. The maps are good ... but there's more than just maps.
4) Modern Player's Companion (I and II combined). Director's cut is a good way of putting it. I like the new talents and many of the new classes.
5)

 

[jaerdaph]

FYI, our new d20 Modern campaign setting, Damnation Decade, should be in stores next week. You can read about it here:

http://www.greenronin.com/catalog/grr1411

You can find some designer's journals here:
http://www.greenronin.com/damnation_decade_devlog.php

We'll also be posting a PDF excerpt soon, so watch our frontpage for that. There aren't many d20 Modern campaign settings that come out, well, ever, so I thought it'd be of interest.

I bought the PDF version this week and finally had some time to give it a good look - absolutely amazing tribute to the full gamut of 1970s pop culture!

 

[Vigilance]

This is a very good list, Psion. For me, special mention goes out to blood and fists. This was the first D20 modern add on I ever saw, and also the first PDF product I bought as well. I would compare this to having Cowboy Bebop be the first anime you ever saw: it ruins a lot of other series because it's so darn good! For me Blood and Fists is the product I judge all PDFs by.

--Steve

Wow. Thanks man

Chuck

 

[C. Baize]

4) D20 Critical Locations. The maps are good ... but there's more than just maps.

Damn. Was hoping to see another plug for Modern Backdrops.

Then again... I'm kinda always hoping to see a plug for Modern Backdrops that I didn't put up.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Damn. Was hoping to see another plug for Modern Backdrops.

Then again... I'm kinda always hoping to see a plug for Modern Backdrops that I didn't put up.

I gave you a plug for Modern Backdrops in an older map thread, from about a month ago. (The thread probably died when ENWorld ran into problems.)

MD has plot hooks and more NPCs, but a lot of the plot hooks were FX (that's a negative for me) and a lot of the NPCs were running around with stats like 17 13 17 12 16 12 (another negative). Some of the maps were also less detailed (no furniture - believe it or not, that's actually important to me; I suck at designing indoor maps, as I'm always forgetting things like desks, TVs and bathrooms!)

I guess I'm saying that Critical Locations is slightly more useful to me, being an FX-phobe who likes 25 point buy NPCs.

 

[mcrow]

Man, the d20 Modern stuff from RPGobjects look really good.

I might have to play d20 Modern just to give some of their stuff a go:

Blood & Fists and the other Blood stuff looks good
Darwins World, I'm gonna be playing that soon

The NPC generator is nice too.

 

[C. Baize]

I gave you a plug for Modern Backdrops in an older map thread, from about a month ago. (The thread probably died when ENWorld ran into problems.)

MD has plot hooks and more NPCs, but a lot of the plot hooks were FX (that's a negative for me) and a lot of the NPCs were running around with stats like 17 13 17 12 16 12 (another negative). Some of the maps were also less detailed (no furniture - believe it or not, that's actually important to me; I suck at designing indoor maps, as I'm always forgetting things like desks, TVs and bathrooms!)

I guess I'm saying that Critical Locations is slightly more useful to me, being an FX-phobe who likes 25 point buy NPCs.

Yeah. I remember the plug.
Made me smile.

For the NPCs... believe it or not, we actually went kinda old school and ROLLED every one of their stats rather than building on a template, or a standard set of stats.
I know... crazy... But, we weren't really going for "same block different order" types. Those are so..... standard.....

Plus... I hate point buy with an unholy passion. It's just ... really an unholy and unreasoning hatred.
I figure we've got dice for a reason.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

I'm probably taking the thread off-topic, but I have to make two comments about point buy vs rolled.

First, it's easier to boost stats than drop them (especially Int! - I find skill points to take up the largest amount of time when making NPCs). If I'm presented with an NPC with low stats, I can top them up easily enough. Removing stats is more work.

Two, for actual gaming, you only roll stats once, whereas you roll attack rolls, saving throws, even hit points multiple times. Over time, they average out. Since you only roll stats once, you get stuck with what you get, which can be really good, really bad, average, spread all over the place, etc. That makes GMing more difficult - should I give my NPCs high stats? Based on average or on highest? Etc.