Modern d20 RPG

[Ranger REG]

Classes are a PURELY metagame consideration, multiclassing is NOT munchkin, and d20 Modern does it's poor, lonely best to tell people this. Sadly, it fails in more cases than it succeeds.

Perhaps because we are so used to the standard norms of class by archetypes, not by RAW abilities. I admit, I have had some misgivings in the beginning, when I saw a preview of the d20 Modern classes in the Shadow Chaser mini-game in Poly magazine.

Then I look at the complicated modern world. Can we truly define ourselves by just one archetype? Perhaps the basic Hero classes are our "experimental" phase in the beginning of our [adult] lives. Although there are those who would argue that a hero doesn't "dabble" in the fictional modern world. He knows what he wants to do.

Anyhoo, I like the idea of Occupation for those who are definite in their PC's career path. After all, you can have Smart Soldiers as well as Dedicated Soldiers for an all-Soldier military campaign.

 

[takyris]

The great genius of d20 Modern was that it seems to have been designed from the ground up to slap the d20 community upside the head and scream in its collective ear:
"Your class is just a package of abilities! It's not your job, your identity or, God forbid, your personality!"

Ha! That's awesome. And that's also what I love about it. But for somebody who wasn't into that kind of system, d20 Modern's generic classes would be hugely annoying.

 

[Trainz]

Regarding different archetypes: I think d20 Modern occupations are good enough to describe everyone with regards to their occupations, but I really want single classes so... I'll start house ruling. I'll create basic classes, on which you add an occupation. For example (top of my head):

Warrior: basically your D&D fighter, very few skills.
Expert: basically your D&D rogue, minus sneak attacks, a bunch of player choosen skills.
Academician: as expert, even weaker at fighting, but great at skills.

On these I'll mix and match talents according to levels. Given those 3 basic classes, you then choose an occupation to define your character:

Warrior: Soldier, Martial Artist, Thug, Cop, Mercenary...
Expert: Detective, Spy, Thief, Journalist...
Academician: Physicist, Doctor, Chemist, Politician...

The occupations will give you a set of feats and/or skills that will define more your character in his choosen occupation. Of course it will be possible to be an Expert Doctor or Warrior Politician.

That will certainly make things simple, but I have a lot of writing in front of me.

 

[Turanil]

Regarding different archetypes: I think d20 Modern occupations are good enough to describe everyone with regards to their occupations, but I really want single classes so... I'll start house ruling. I'll create basic classes, on which you add an occupation. For example (top of my head):

Warrior: basically your D&D fighter, very few skills.
Expert: basically your D&D rogue, minus sneak attacks, a bunch of player choosen skills.
Academician: as expert, even weaker at fighting, but great at skills.

On these I'll mix and match talents according to levels. Given those 3 basic classes, you then choose an occupation to define your character:

Warrior: Soldier, Martial Artist, Thug, Cop, Mercenary...
Expert: Detective, Spy, Thief, Journalist...
Academician: Physicist, Doctor, Chemist, Politician...

The occupations will give you a set of feats and/or skills that will define more your character in his choosen occupation. Of course it will be possible to be an Expert Doctor or Warrior Politician.

That will certainly make things simple, but I have a lot of writing in front of me.

May I suggest you get a look at Call of Cthulhu d20? It would be really useful to get inspiration from it to design your modern character classes. I could even help if need be...

 

[broghammerj]

I think the wealth system is easily done away with for D20 modern. I have a job and know how much I make. I can easily find the salary for other jobs. The cost of anything can be found on the internet. Just dole out cash like you would expect for jobs, missions, etc and there goes the problem with the wealth system

 

[nobodez]

Adaptablity

First off, it's your campaign, and you can do whatever you want with it, but when you posted to the board, well, you've got to expect at least some people trying to convince you to do it another way. I'm one of them.

You don't like the "ability" classes, and prefer "professional" classes. well, from what you just posted, you've got classes that are basically the Strong/Fast/Tough, the Smart/Dedicated/Charismatic, and the Smart Heroic classes from d20M.

It seems to me that you are beginning to see the beauty of universal classes, and you might just want to re-name the d20M base classes to fit your tastes rather then redo them.

Strong - Warrior (High bab, talents that accentuate fighting)
Fast - Scout (Mid bab, talents that accentuate stealth)
Tough - Tank (Mid bab, lots of hp, talents that allow shrugging off of damage)
Smart - Academician (Low bab, tons of skill points, talents that accentuate brains over brawn)
Dedicated - Expert (Mid bab, talents for focusing on skills)
Charismatic - Leader (low bab, talents for leading and NPC interaction)

there, you've now got six new professional classes that are already written up and supported.

 

[Trainz]

Wow.

I just got off the phone with my player(s), and it turns out they're not interested in playing a modern game again.

I really appreciate all the input you guys have given me. But it seems I won't be using it anytime soon.

I hope this thread will be useful to someone else on the boards, one way or the other.

 

[woodelf]

Hmmm... Spycraft ?

Isn't that a James Bondy RPG ?

I want something generic modern, would Spycraft allow for your typical d20 3.5 modern game? Let's say you want to have a party of soldiers, with some experts and medics in it ?

I'm not sure I really need points for gadgets...

It may be nominally espionage-specific. But, mechanically, it's for frome it. Short version: yes, it'll work just fine for modern of most flavors--more than D20 Modern does "out of the box", IMHO. Long version: search for my point-by-point comparison of the two systems, in a previous thread on a similar topic.

 

[bubbalin]

It may be nominally espionage-specific. But, mechanically, it's for frome it. Short version: yes, it'll work just fine for modern of most flavors--more than D20 Modern does "out of the box", IMHO. Long version: search for my point-by-point comparison of the two systems, in a previous thread on a similar topic.

Noooo! Please no comparison.
It jstu leads to violence and much hatred...

Somebody call for the mods to lock the thread!!!

But seriously, maybe we should stop here...

 

[Christopher Lambert]

I'm running D20 Modern right now and I have to say I like the way the classes were done.

Not everyone is going to take an advanced class - the base classes are quite fun. Not every soldier is going to take the Soldier AdC.

I'd rather run or play D20 Modern than Spycraft or some other system where you have to invent a new class to do anything new. *rolleyes*

But to each his own, I guess.