Is anyone actually playing Modern?

[Viktyr Gehrig]

Currently, one-half of the big, ambitious campaign I'm running is d20 Modern. (I modified the rules slightly to use it as a system base for Star*Drive.)

My next planned campaign is going to be d20 Modern as well, using the Four Color to Fantasy rules to play a superhero game, about halfway between Four Color idealism and the bleak deconstructionism of the Eighties and Nineties. (With a little bit of espionage and intrigue, plus some bits of surreal insanity to make a well-rounded superhero world.)

In general, I vastly prefer the d20 Modern system to either version of d20 D&D-- though, some of the 3.5 changes have drifted into my game, like the Damage Reduction rules. The more generic class system is a big improvement in my eyes, with the base classes allowing a very fluid, organic development and the advanced classes providing the focus and direction that is more familiar to devotees of level-and-class games. The Massive Damage Threshold is both more exciting, and, in my opinion more exciting than either classic hit points or "death spiral" systems. Also, because every character gains a new special ability or feat each level, there's not as much boredom in waiting for cool new abilities.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Our group has 3 D20 Modern campaigns, though to of them are halted for other campaigns.
Probably end of this or beginning of next year, we will once again play in our "Special Unit 2" Campaign.

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Henry]

HERE IS THE SECRET TO GETTING ANY GROUP TO TRY SOMETHING ONCE:

Do 80% of the work yourself.

Prepare it like a convention Demo game. Make the scenario, make the NPC's, Make the pregenerated PC's, and make the handouts (keep all handouts small).

Tha fact that it's d20 means that 75% of all rules are learned for your players (assuming they've played 3E). All you have to do is put them in the wheelchair, wheel them up to the door, and open it.

Now, one caveat - If they can't take the effort to at least stand up and take ONE STEP through the door, they aren't worth the time to game - they probably wouldn't be playing something as rules-intensive as 3E in the first place.

But the point is to remove all barriers, including the barrier of digging through a rulebook and learning all the character options.

Do that for them. Make X number of characters with cool backgrounds and focusing on some of the neater points of the system. (For instance, make a modern party of one gunslinger, one martial artist, one daredevil, and one medic). The other players will see, for instance, how the gunslinger can fire at people 5 feet away without getting bonked, the gunslinger will marvel at just how much punishment the daredevil can take, and the cool stunts the martial artist can do, and everyone will be looking at the field medic like he's god the first time he brings back the first PC or NPC who got criticalled.

If you have a player who wants to dig in and create their own, GREAT! Don't discourage it, and help them in the process. Ask them what kind of hero they want, and help them create it. Make sure all PC's have a paragraph of background and a "hook" to give them some life.

Then, play! Focus on what they CAN do, and don't immediately tell them "no" to any action.

Sell them the system as if you were a used car salesman selling a flashy car. Check out those reclining bucket seats! Just look at that auto-emptying ashtray! What about those rear window wipers! OOooo!

Once they see what middle to high level PC's can do, they may very well get the bug to play more. But making it as fun and exciting as possible gets their motor going and opens their eyes to the possiblities of the system.

I've introduced people to d20 modern and to Mutants and Masterminds at Gamedays, and have always had at least one person tell me they planned to go buy the book as soon as they had the chance. I've seen our own Piratecat take a person who had not played before, and somewhat unsure about RPG's, and turn them into an eager player, wanting to know when she could play again! d20 by extension is built so that players have few barriers to trying new things, so see how you can put that to its best advantage!

 

[ledded]

Old Drew, as usual. We came up with a system where he picked a random monster from the 3.5 MM. He'd then do a quick WP/VP conversion and we'd be set to go. While he was converting the rest of us threw together terrain for the encounter location. There was much shooting from the hip.

And a tactical vest does pretty much nothin' against lightning strikes.

Man, that was brutal. It was fun playing the lieutenant though, because I got to take off running before giving the others the word to. Now if only I could get Eyas to understand that a machine gunner is supposed to start laying down suppressive fire AS SOON AS POSSIBLE so the others can manuver... (instead of running around taking pot-shots on single fire)

We also had some of our best dense jungle/ruined towers terrain setups to date; sometimes the amount of terrain we have scares me.

And Fludogg *finally* got to use a chainsaw in combat. A man's gotta have his dreams.

Ya, in our fantasy campaign (currently on hold), we created our own world. Actually sketched it out literally on a cocktail napkin over beers years ago. Played it for three years, filling in lots of details. We keep threatening each other to write it up and publish a PDF, but it's hard enough to keep all our other crap going.

Yeah, it only took Drew a few *months* to come up with the 40-some odd page word document of the "short guide to Mord". Each of us contributed somehow by writing up one of more "countries", along with legends, mythology, etc.

Playing Modern in our hometown really does make it easier, tho. You've already got a set history, geography, political and societal arenas. In a previous episode, the sewer and power grids were fairly important components of the adventure. Ledded happened across a big plat of the region's power grid system and smuggled it to me before gametime (I was GMing that episode). The looks on the other players' faces was priceless when they went to talk to a contact at the power company.

P1: So where do the main power lines sit?
Me: Well, let's see (pulls huge 3'x4' plat of region power grid out from under table and unrolls it)...
P1,2&3: Holy CRAP!
Me & Ledded:

Of course, Drew Id is the best at that....

Heh heh... working for the power company does have it's advantages

Nothing like being able to accurately display the entire power grid system to the southeast *in game*. Now *that's* making your research check

Actually, 4 out of 5 of us in our game have GM'd a session of modern, and every one was a masterwork of creativity and research. With the internet and the public library, it's not very hard to throw together a world, especially when you base it off the city you live in... you are already familiar with the place. Plus you end up learning all kinds of interesting things about the place you live, which endears it to you even more. I know more now about the history of our city than I probably would have ever known, thanks to OldDrewId (who is the unparalleled master of rat-bastardly GM's who research, make props, and set up incredibly engaging stories). Trust me, his kung fu is better than most peoples kung fu.

As far as the modern vs D&D argument and people looking down on each other; to me that's just silly. Both have their places, and I have loved both (and Star Wars, my personal pet project with our group). However, I've gotten to like the system for Modern so much that I'm having a problem wanting to ever go back to D&D. The whole "occupation" based class system, no class-based defense bonuses, and cliche'd formulaic feel to D&D has just put a sour taste in my mouth for months now and I cant make myself want to go back and play. I love D&D, but I think for me to truly be happy going back to play fantasy D&D we are going to have to make it more like Modern. Which is a shame, since we have characters and a world that we spent 3 years building, and I can't seem to get even the remotest desire to put down my modern (or star wars) ideas and go back to it. Of course, the Star Wars is mostly me, but occasionally I coax/cajole/pummel the others into playing it by doing what another poster said... doing a bunch of work with props and fun stuff and just letting the players jump in and play.

 

[Valiantheart]

As difficult as it is to get a d20 modern game started it just get more difficult with different rule systems.

You should try finding a Mutants and Masterminds game.

 

[C. Baize]

However, I've gotten to like the system for Modern so much that I'm having a problem wanting to ever go back to D&D. The whole "occupation" based class system, no class-based defense bonuses, and cliche'd formulaic feel to D&D has just put a sour taste in my mouth for months now and I cant make myself want to go back and play. I love D&D, but I think for me to truly be happy going back to play fantasy D&D we are going to have to make it more like Modern.

Oh man... I know EXACTLY what you're saying. We've been playing Modern for about a year, now, and I've just started my own campaign (my wife runs our original Modern campaign), and I've been very seriously considering doing up feat trees, and starting occupations for D&D. I just love the flow of D20 Modern (except for a couple of tweaks we've had to make... and I don't care for the non-lethal rules). I'm having difficulty getting hyped up for another D&D game, and I've been gaming since '78...

 

[Desdichado]

Guys, I'm interested in hearing your experiences in finding a group to play d20 Modern. The current gaming group I'm in is playing D&D, but they're interested in trying out Gamma World (d20) in the new year. But next summer my wife and I are moving and I'm wondering if I should just dust off my D&D books or if it's realistic to think I can get some Modern action. Even comparing the traffic on this board to the D&D groups, it seems like there are FAAAAR fewer Modernites out there than D&Ders.

How few of us are there?

Yep, I've played a Dark*Matter game recently, and we're about to start another Dark*Matter/X-files type game over the holidays (I hope we start it then, anyway. The GM is ready to go as long as the rest of us can all hook up.) You're not moving to Detroit by any chance, are you?

 

[ledded]

Oh man... I know EXACTLY what you're saying. We've been playing Modern for about a year, now, and I've just started my own campaign (my wife runs our original Modern campaign), and I've been very seriously considering doing up feat trees, and starting occupations for D&D. I just love the flow of D20 Modern (except for a couple of tweaks we've had to make... and I don't care for the non-lethal rules). I'm having difficulty getting hyped up for another D&D game, and I've been gaming since '78...

Yeah, we really tweaked modern a good bit for our use... we have WP/VP and all the minor changes that go along (though non-lethal/subdual is pretty simple with VP). But we found that it's easier to tweak because it's easier to balance.

And getting your character concept is so much easier; in modern if 2 guys have a 3rd level Fast / 3rd level Charismatic hero, they could (and probably would) easily be *completely* different guys. In D&D, 2 6th level rogues or 2 3rd level rogues/3rd level bards would be way too similar, and totally pidgeon-holed by the class system in D&D. Plus, the addition of occupation helps you even further to add a little customization.

Plus, I cant stand the idea anymore than my 12th level fighter (samurai type) in D&D can only get AC by putting on bigger, better armor. So a 1st level rogue normally will have better AC than me in the same armor? I'm sorry, but I've used a japanese sword before, and while I'm no expert, it's not that easy to hit me when I'm holding my boku-toh in my hands through a combination of experience, techinique, and footwork. It's just become assanine to me. No offense to anyone who feels different, but it does bug the crap out of me.

Because of stuff like that, D&D games too often seem to break down into guys going after bigger and better stuff so that they can get bigger and better, sometimes for good reasons, but it always seems to break down to "find monster(s) that local ecologies couldnt possibly support. Kill it. Take it's unusually nice pile of scoop. Next monster" in some way or another.

Modern, for us, is totally different, and refreshing. We dont worry about "scoop" other than to buy houses and cars; we dont have much in the way of magic stuff and nobody is military so what's the point. We focus on the story and the characters. Heck, we dont even keep up with our own XP... OldDrewId keeps up with it and tells us when we level, so we dont ever get caught up worrying about that either.

Modern just feels more like a good evolution of an outdated system we've had since the 70's.

Yeah, I games in the late 70's/early 80's, took a long haitus, and started back a few years ago some time before 3rd edition came out.

 

[Stormborn]

Guys, I'm interested in hearing your experiences in finding a group to play d20 Modern. The current gaming group I'm in is playing D&D, but they're interested in trying out Gamma World (d20) in the new year. But next summer my wife and I are moving and I'm wondering if I should just dust off my D&D books or if it's realistic to think I can get some Modern action. Even comparing the traffic on this board to the D&D groups, it seems like there are FAAAAR fewer Modernites out there than D&Ders.

How few of us are there?

I DM'd a d20 Modern campaign for a few weeks, I liked and most of my players liked it. One person didn't, because he doesn't like ANY modern setting. We eventualyl moved on. The players who liked it did so becasue of the whole "our world, but with something extra added" feel I generated (playing a somewhat modified Urban Arcana game). Whereas the one who didn't care for it felt like there was no need to investigate the disapperance of a friend in mysterious circumstances (for example) you just call the police.

Personally, I would love to PLAY a d20 Modern game, but that is not likely to happen.

 

[Biohazard]

Yep, I've played a Dark*Matter game recently, and we're about to start another Dark*Matter/X-files type game over the holidays (I hope we start it then, anyway. The GM is ready to go as long as the rest of us can all hook up.) You're not moving to Detroit by any chance, are you?

Nope, sorry. Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada. But hey, same continent, at least...