Grade the Modiphius 2d20 System

[CleverNickName]

Have you used the Modiphius 2d20 System? If you're not familiar, it was the system developed by Modiphius Entertainment, and has been used in a few newer game titles like Fallout the Roleplaying Game, Conan: Adventures in an Age Undreamed Of, Star Trek Adventures Tabletop RPG, and a handful of others. It's a fairly new system, but it's gaining traction in the gaming scene because of its narrative focus and flexible, player-facing dice decisions. The publisher has the following to say about it:

The 2d20 system is a dynamic, narrative system, designed to produce varied and interesting results from dramatic and action-packed situations. Characters roll two d20s, attempting to roll as low as possible on each one – the more dice that roll low, the more successes the character scores.​

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Tasks will require one or more successes to be successful, and any successes scored beyond that minimum become Momentum, which can be spent to achieve a variety of advantageous effects. However, this can come at a cost: characters who wish to succeed can push their luck, rolling extra d20s to boost their chances of success and the Momentum they generate. However, each extra d20 comes from the character’s resources – such as stocks of arrows – or adds to a pool of Doom that represents all the things that can go wrong in an adventure, which the GM can spend to complicate adventures and scenarios and make the characters’ lives interesting.​

As I've said before in the other threads, the D20 System is the undeniable favorite for tabletop RPGs today, but there are plenty of options out there for those who don't like D20 or might be looking for something different. My goal in these little surveys is to highlight the different systems and options available to tabletop fans...not bash on anyone's favorites. So! If you've played the Modiphius 2d20 System, I'd really like to hear about it. What did you like/dislike about it? What games did you play? And if you've never played it, what's keeping you from giving it a spin? I'll collect everyone's votes and give the system a "grade" from A+ to F, just for fun.

Grade: C+
Of those who voted, 95% have heard of it and 55% have played it.
Of those who have played it: 17% love it, 25% like it, 33% are lukewarm, 19% dislike it, and 6% hate it.

Spoiler: Grading

The "grade" is calculated as follows:

• Votes from people who have not played it will not affect the grade.
• "I love it" votes are worth 4 points. The highest score, comparable to an "A" vote.
• "It's pretty good" votes are worth 3 points. The equivalent of a "B" vote.
• "It's alright I guess" votes are worth 2 points. This is your basic "C" vote.
• "It's pretty bad" votes are worth 1 point. This is considered a "D" vote.
• "I hate it" votes are worth 0 points. The lowest score, considered an "F" vote.

The grading formula:
GPA = Σ(P_iV_i)

where:

GPA = "grade-point average," the grading score used in the Key below.​

V_i = percentage of votes in each category (Love, Like, Meh, Dislike, or Hate)​

P_i = corresponding score for that category (4, 3, 2, 1, or 0)​

Key
Over 3.75 = A+
3.51 to 3.75 = A
3.26 to 3.50 = A-
3.01 to 3.25 = B+
2.76 to 3.00 = B
2.51 to 2.75 = B-
2.26 to 2.50 = C+
1.76 to 2.25 = C
1.51 to 1.75 = C-
1.26 to 1.50 = D+
1.01 to 1.25 = D
0.75 to 1.00 = D-
Under 0.75 = F

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[CleverNickName]

Alright, confession time: I hadn't even heard of this system before I started researching it last night. I don't know how I missed it; I like to think I'm pretty well informed on these things! So I'm going to have to educate myself on this topic a bit.

For those of you who have played this system and enjoyed it: what game/product would you recommend to a complete noob, that would showcase the system and "sell" me on it? And if you played this system and didn't enjoy it: what game/product did you use, and why did it fall flat for you?

 

[Parmandur]

Alright, confession time: I hadn't even heard of this system before I started researching it last night. I don't know how I missed it; I like to think I'm pretty well informed on these things! So I'm going to have to educate myself on this topic a bit.

For those of you who have played this system and enjoyed it: what game/product would you recommend to a complete noob, that would showcase the system and "sell" me on it? And if you played this system and didn't enjoy it: what game/product did you use, and why did it fall flat for you?

I would point towards Star Trek Adventures, particularly since it seems to have a pretty active Actual Play video scene so you can watch some people play.

 

[Reynard]

I would point towards Star Trek Adventures, particularly since it seems to have a pretty active Actual Play video scene so you can watch some people play.

Star Trek Adventurers is my favorite implementation of 2d20: it embraces the source material with medium crunch and great writing and excellent trade dress.

Conan is pretty crunchy and may be more complex than some folks want. John Carter. Is the opposite end of the 2d20 spectrum: light and fast and cinematic.

 

[schneeland]

I gave it an "It's pretty bad", but things are a bit complicated here. The one system that I looked at the most is Conan, and that felt overly fiddly, poorly explained, and uses too many meta currencies for my taste. And while I love this most famous barbarian's stories greatly, the system repelled me. So if I look at Conan 2d20 alone, that would qualify for "I hate it".
But if I look at Star Trek Adventures, Dune or Achtung Cthulhu 2d20, the picture is less clear (I have admittedly only skimmed through the PDFs so far). I am still not enamoured with the system, but it already looks better and it gets to a level of "It's alright I guess", because they often do seem to capture a number of features of the respective franchises decently.
But all in all, the chance that 2d20 will grow on me seems rather low. Among all the franchises that Modiphius has supplied with its house system, probably Achtung Cthulhu has the best chances that I will try again to do a deep dive (but then, I might just use the adventures with Savage Worlds).
And though it's not necessarily a feature of the system, Modiphius' PDFs are pretty terrible for viewing on a tablet, and that's quite annoying.

 

[Crusadius]

I think it's pretty good. Each game using it has a different implementation that caters to the game's genre.

The earliest versions such as Conan are the most clunkiest, but even then Conan is a pretty good "Conan/Sword and Sorcery" game.

 

[Reynard]

I get unreasonably frustrated when people pair "it's bad" with "I haven't played it." I know that's a me problem, but it still rankles.

 

[CleverNickName]

I get unreasonably frustrated when people pair "it's bad" with "I haven't played it." I know that's a me problem, but it still rankles.

Same here. These polls assume that if someone hasn't played a particular system, they would vote accordingly and then explain why they haven't played it in the comments. But nooooooo, it's always the strongest reactions with some folks.

 

[Campbell]

My home group has played Conan, Infinity and Dune. The iteration in Dune is by far my favorite, but Infinity and Conan do an excellent job of capturing their source material. My only real issue with Infinity was character creation wherein characters could end up wildly better or worse depending on the career paths and you did not have much ability to dictate the character you ended up with. Conan felt much better because it results in characters with a fairly consistent level of prowess and works pretty well if you just let players make choices in character generation.

The core play loop with Momentum, Heat and Reactions feels very compelling and provides a way for GMs to fairly frame situations where the world actively goes against the characters. In terms of style of play it reminded me of Classic Deadlands which is a game we really enjoyed. I'd put Numenera/Cypher and Cortex in a similar space (with Dune being closer to Cortex and Infinity being kissing cousins to Deadlands).

One thing I think cannot be overstated enough is just how different the Conan/Infinity/Mutant Chronicles branch is from Dishonored and Dune. The Infinity/Conan branch is very complex with discrete mechanics all over the place. It feels very tactical, but in a way I personally enjoy. Dune and Dishonored feel much less tactical and a lot more focused on the characters as people.

 

[thullgrim]

I gave it a run for four sessions or so of Achtung! Cthulhu and was a player in the Falliut playtest. I found the system in an awkward spot between narrative games and crunchy ones. I prefer a traditional combat system generally though I don’t hate zones per se.

I found it awkward trying to implement some of the narrative meta-currency on the gm’s side of screen. It’s almost like I’m asking permission to do the things I’d normally do in a more traditional game.

I find Free League games in the same, not quite traditional and not full blown narrative, sphere. Of the two I’d rather play a Free Leagues game. I have the same problems with Darkness Points in Coriolis as I do with Threat in 2d20.

I’m gonna be that guy, and say SWADE would handle most of Mophidius’s catalog better for me, than the 2d20 system does. That said I would absolutely try the 2d20 system again at some point. I didn’t hate it. There are just other games I like more right now.

Mophidius has fantastic licenses though, and they make an absolutely beautiful book which means they will continue to get money from me.