Cutter XXIII said:
How is this book related to d20 Modern? Do you need d20 Modern to play it? If you don't need d20 Modern, then what's the OGL about? Is it similar-but-different to d20?
It's not related to d20 Modern except insofar as they're both d20 games set in the modern milieu, and you don't need d20M to play it.
"OGL" is a somewhat inaccurate and misleading* term that companies and people (including myself) apply to those games that use mechanics derived from the d20 system but don't adhere to the d20 System Trademark License agreement (which among other things, forbids the inclusion of mechanics for stat generation and level advancement, and necessitates a statement to the effect that the d20 STL-compliant product requires the use of the D&D 3.x PHB for play). Thus, OGL games are complete games while true d20 games are technically incomplete. Some of the more notable d20-based OGL games include Mutants & Masterminds, Blue Rose, Conan, and all those OGL-branded games from Mongoose (OGL Horror, OGL Cybernet, OGL Steampunk, etc.). Some of these games, like OGL Horror and its brethren, don't deviate from "standard" d20 too much; others, like M&M and Blue Rose, deviate a lot.
(* It's inaccurate and misleading because games completely unrelated to d20 can be and are published under the Open Gaming License -- Fudge is an example. However, enough publishers have used "OGL" as a synonym for "non-compliant d20-based mechanics" that it's now common parlance.)
Spycraft 1.0 was a true d20 game -- it didn't include rules for stat generation or the XP levelling table, but was otherwise complete. It adhered to the SRD standards for the most part but used the VP/WP system from Star Wars in lieu of standard D&D HP; dispensed with attacks of opportunity and multiclassing penalties; organized its many,
many feats into trees by type (e.g. melee combat feats, ranged combat feats, stealth feats, driving feats, etc.); and really cleaned up the D&D 3.0 action system in general. For a lot of people, Spycraft was their preferred generic modern-era d20 ruleset rather than d20 Modern but personally I didn't think it was nearly generic enough to compete with d20M on that basis. Frex, the base classes in the corebook were entirely oriented towards playing various types of action-movie spies -- big shock in a game called "Spycraft," I know -- and weren't really useful for character types like scientists or cops or Joe Average who gets caught up in weird events (e.g. your average Call of Cthulhu investigator), all character types that d20M handles at least passably well.
Spycraft 2.0, among other refinements and improvements, seems to be aimed directly at capturing d20 Modern's place as the premier generic modern-era d20 ruleset. It has a lot (!) more base classes covering a lot more ground, and features useful advice in the book for adapting the game to a number of non-espionage genres (like western, near-future, "chop-sockey" and the like). Given the preference many people express for Spycraft's archetypal character classes and its mechanical handling of things like firearms, unarmed/non-lethal combat and damage, and action dice/points, I think it has the potential to displace d20 Modern at least somewhat.
KoOS
