I have d20 Past

[Unseelie]

There's a lot of Nazi stat-blocks in the book. If you remove the allegiances to evil and Naziism, could they make interesting villains for other settings?

But yet, no weapons from Nazi Germany...

 

[Bobitron]

But yet, no weapons from Nazi Germany...

The only one I noticed was the MG 34/42.

 

[jaerdaph]

There's a P08 Luger too.

 

[jaerdaph]

I think the first step in writing a good d20 Modern supplement is to hire authors who know how to play d20 Modern.

:\

Mistakes so egregious are inexcusable.

While I'm happy with d20 Past for the most part, I have to agree - not knowing that d20 Modern uses a completely different set of rules for nonlethal damage does not speak very highly for the design team at WotC - on a myriad of levels. Does WotC even playtest (even just in-house) anymore? *Somebody* involved in the process really should have caught that.

As for my minor nitpick:

"Mrs. Hudson, call me a cab!" - Sherlock Holmes
"Oh yes the Wells-Fargo Wagon is a comin' down the street, oh please let it be for me!" - The Music Man

Where are the rules for carriages, hansom cabs, covered wagons, that sort of thing? Apparently nobody in the period covered by d20 Past ever conceived of the notion of putting the horse before the cart, so to speak.

 

[The Shaman]

Where are the rules for carriages, hansom cabs, covered wagons, that sort of thing? Apparently nobody in the period covered by d20 Past ever conceived of the notion of putting the horse before the cart, so to speak.

I noted the same thing in a post on the WotC boards...

First, there are glaring errors and omissions in the equipment section of d20 Past, as well as a couple of questionable choices for inclusion. The omissions are mind-boggling. There are pages of sailing ships and trains and cars and aircraft but not a single animal-drawn vehicle. None. No carriages, no stagecoaches, no hansom cabs, no buckboards, no prairie schooners, no caissons. There’s also no howdah, no dog sled, no ox-cart, and no travois, for that matter. It’s as if everyone prior to the late nineteenth-century walked or sailed everywhere.

There's also no new adventuring gear, and the unnecessary duplication of weapons already in the core rules - if you know you're pressed for space, why on earth would you reprint material from the CORE RULEBOOK?

 

[takyris]

To a point, I totally agree with you. If you've got cars in d20 Modern, you need carriages and hansom cabs in d20 Past. Duh.

Some of that, though, I'd say might possibly have gotten cut in favor of other stuff under the "Most GMs will handwave this" clause. If you want to do Oratio Orcslayer, and gosh, isn't that an image, yeah, you'll want a whole lot of rules involving tactical ship combat. But for most folks, you get on the ship, you go from one place to another, and if the GM is feeling wacky, you have some on-the-ship roleplaying time and maybe a pirate attack, and the GM handwaves the ship movement and just calls for a lot of Balance checks. Same for carriages. Most of the time, carriages are a way to get from one place to another. They're a plot event. Most of the time, the speed of a carriage is important only with respect to the speed of a horse, so that the GM will know whether the horses how quickly the horses will catch up with the carriage as the heroine tries to control the carriage horses and parry the attacks of Duke Rastigan's hired swordsmen simultaneously. Again, probably handwaved, with some Balance checks.

I can understand the reasons that people who want the stuff would want it -- it's useful for tactical games. But I can also understand leaving that information out, if they had to cut something, under the theory that it might be more information than needed.

 

[qstor]

I flipped throught it at the FLGS. It looked pretty good.

I'm thinking of running a Solomon Kane type one shot with it. Haunted ruins and faries in England around 1600 type of thing..

Mike

 

[qstor]

The only one I noticed was the MG 34/42.

I was hoping they'd have an M3 Nazi SMG.

Maybe theres some more stuff in a Web Enchancement.

Mike

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Complete with the references to D&D-style nonlethal damage that does hit points of damage....

Sigh. :\

Yikes. Hadn't caught that on my initial reading.

I still think the book is cool, but the errors pointed out are troubling, especially considering how slender the book is.

 

[jaerdaph]

I noted the same thing in a post on the WotC boards...

Great minds think alike!