Brad Hindman said:
Warning!!! Shameless pitch.
Since, the only major difference between D&D and d20 Modern is the class structure, my guess is that you don't like the base classes. (Am I correct? Of course d20 Modern also uses a modified Massive Damage Threshhold and nonlethal damage system; however, those changes are somewhat cosmetic and easily removed or replaced.) If my guess is correct, might I suggest removing the base classes and running the advanced classes as core classes? Of course the class prerequisites would need to be yanked and the classes would only have 10 levels ...
Well, I read the d20M SRD and had the book for a while. Overall, I just didn't get it. I thought its precursor, Shadow Chasers, was a neat mini-game; but the idea of d20M lost me somehwere. So, I sold it as well as my copy of Sidewinder. It's better if they go to other gamers who may acutally use them. I just realized that I was not going to use either product, even though I enjoyed reading them both (especially Sidewinder). Part of this realization was that d20 D&D does what I need the game to do. If I want other genres, I want them "bolted-onto" the d20 D&D game. For me, the best of these alternate-genre d20 games are Omega World, Judge Dredd and Star Wars (really its own game, but I like it). I find that these games present just enough change to allow me to play games in non-sword-&-sorcery-fantasy genres without learning too many new rules. And the alternate rules that are there make sense for play in the different era. It's a subjective standard that I have difficulty quantifying, but there it is.
Another issue for me is that my players are intolerant of non-D&D games to varying degrees. A couple members of our group even quit because we weren't playing their brand of D&D exclusively. A few weeks of Spellslinger is probably the only western gaming I will be able to do with this group. I'd love to get them back to DragonStar for Raw Recruits, but I just don't think it's ever going to happen. The ones who are left love my Shackled City D&D game with mutants, jedi, judges & aasimar paladins added, though; and I could probably even entice the departed two back to the table with a standard D&D game. Sidewinder would be a hard sell even if I wanted to do all the conversion work.
If I could get another western game together, I would want pre-printed adventures. I know the original Sidewinder had a few adventures in the back of the book, but I would want a mini-campaign's worth: either one big module or a few smaller, connected adventures. I'll revisit the DHR web site to see if you have anything like this availabe or in the works.
To get this reply somewhat back on-topic, I would definitely use my Spellslinger technique of converting D&D adventures to run in my western D&D game. I used some short ones from Dungeon before. If I had it to do again, I would take any modules that had good western-sounding themes and cut out all the magic to make them suitable for a historical game with adventurers on the wild western frontier. Also, I would put emphasis on Craft (Sundry), Knowledge (The West) and Profession (Cowboy) to make non-combat skills attainable and useful. These skills are of my own devising just now, but I have used similar one-skill-fits-all options to good effect in other campaigns to encourage and reward players who took them.
I did a one-night Buffy-Western game with it, and people seemed to like it. I didn't use a lot of the more complex d20 Modern rules, since we were not going to be playing it but for just a little while.
