Stormborn said:
there is no reason a DM with just the core book couldn't do anything in the world he wanted with a few house rules
If I have to house rule a game to cover other genres or time-periods, then it
isn't arguably generic - it's specifically period and genre specific. That said, I have always felt that it was the closest thing to a generic reitteration of d20 that exists.
plus I don't really see the diff between buying d20 M supplements and buying GURPS supplements
The primary difference is that GURPS covers pretty much all time periods and genres to some extent in the core book - if you want extended genre coverage, you
can buy supplements, but don't
have to. d20 Modern, OTOH, covers only the modern time period and a handful of genres in the core book - if you want extended genre coverage, you
must buy supplements (Past, Future, Apocalypse, Future, Grim Tales, etc).
Ultimately, it comes back to GURPS being a generic system, and d20 Modern not being a generic system - the difference between 'generic' and 'genre-focused' is readily apparent when you start looking at what you
must buy to cover multiple genres in one system (d20 Modern), compared to what is contained in the core books of the other (GURPS).
Grim Tales? It is pretty generic, all in one, and very adaptable.
It's a d20 Modern supplement, by definition, so no. I do like it, have owned, it but - no. It doesn't meet my criteria as defined in the first post.