[Rant] I can't wait for d20 Modern!

[Bran Blackbyrd]

So you want to play yourself, but as an action hero.

Well that's not exactly what I meant, but since I'm too lazy to explain it any better, I'll leave it at that. If you really wanted to put roleplaying games under a microscope, I'd bet that is what most people are doing.

Originally posted by Barendd Nobeard
So after you run it for a while, all the players will love it and clamor to run a d20 Modern game. Then you play.

If only it were that simple. Sadly, the only person in the group qualified to run a halfway decent campaign of any kind is "burnt out". He DMed the last campaign and quit part way through due to disillusionment, burn-out, and a general lack of sleep, so he's not going to start another anytime soon. Also, he wouldn't buy the book unless he was totally and completely religiously blown away by D20 Modern, and I'm not about to let him touch my books.

Originally posted by bwgwl
and i'm equally sure a clever and thrifty gamer will buy just the one book that would work best for him, instead of spending money for two.

for me, it looks like that one book will be d20 Modern.

Absolutely.
Having said that;
A lot of people love Spycraft and it seems to be a high quality product. So I would recommend that anyone interested in a modern campaign setting check it out (or one of the other similair settings). However, if you don't think it suits you, wait for D20 Modern, don't spend more money just because you have to wait a few months. If the wait won't kill me, I guarantee you'll live as well.

 

[chatdemon]

Umm, as far as I'm aware, WotC haven't done any modern games yet (unless you count Star Wars, which IMO is pretty good).

Try Dark Matter.
Great game, great concept, decent mechanics, amazing setting source material. The problem is, for whatever reason, they didn't hype it the way they should have (imo, they should have done some sort of XFiles tie in)

Masque of the Red Death (alternate earth setting using Ravenloft rules and ideas), another one that had great promise (being a sherlock holmes meets cthulhu meets classic horror) but was just poorly executed. Now, this one was still mainly TSR, so wtoc isn't purely to blame.

Lokking back at the solely TSR games, you've got Boot Hill (only modern if you caount wild west as 'modern', I do, to me anything with guns, machines and low or no magic is 'modern'), Gangbusters, Indiana Jones, Amazing Engine, and Top Secret/Top Secret SI. The Top Secret games and Boot Hill had a significant shelf life, and decent sales for a while I guess, but were both abandoned in favor of regular D&D. The others were poorly executed flops.

What I think people are missing here is that with a game like Spycraft, or Godlike, or the upcoming Sidewinder and Forbidden Kingdoms stuff, is that you can use rules and stuff from them without totally using their game. With a little effort, you could easily take the spy stuff out of Spycraft, add in a bit of Call of Cthulhu and some Monster Manual critters and run a decent monster hunters type modern game. The possibilities are only limited by the amount of homebrew and mixing and matching different published products you want to do.

 

[Yuan-Ti]

I can't wait for my Spycraft Modern Arms Guide!

 

[Black Omega]

And in fact I'd highly recommend you ignore the gun rules in Spycraft and use the Call of Cthulu gunlist instead. For reasons mysterious to me Spycraft's section on firearms sucked, while CoC did an excellent job.

Personally, I'll weigh in on the side of waiting on Modern d20. Spycraft was a great disappointment to me. To much Roger Moore James Bond. The rather nifty idea of departments replacing races was very poorly executed. I'm hoping d20 Modern will be better.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, how do you like Shadow Chasers, the first preview of d20 Modern?

 

[Yuan-Ti]

And in fact I'd highly recommend you ignore the gun rules in Spycraft and use the Call of Cthulu gunlist instead. For reasons mysterious to me Spycraft's section on firearms sucked, while CoC did an excellent job.

Personally, I'll weigh in on the side of waiting on Modern d20. Spycraft was a great disappointment to me. To much Roger Moore James Bond. The rather nifty idea of departments replacing races was very poorly executed. I'm hoping d20 Modern will be better.

I agree completely about the races/departments issue. Bleh! First thing I did was ignore it.

I also agree that CoC did a better job with weapons that spycraft's generic list, which is why I am looking forward to the MAG.

As for James Bond, etc., I think Spycraft does not at all have to be that, you just pick and choose what equipment you can allow. Besides, you are weighing in to wait for Modern d20 with the guy on the thread who wants Modern d20 so he can "finally" play James Bond type games...

 

[Jarval]

Try Dark Matter.
Great game, great concept, decent mechanics, amazing setting source material. The problem is, for whatever reason, they didn't hype it the way they should have (imo, they should have done some sort of XFiles tie in)

OK, I should really have remembered one of my favorite settings...

I was only thinking of games done by WotC really, as many of the people who worked for TSR are no longer with WotC.