D&D 4E Ultramodern 4e or "The best 3rd party 4e supplement yet!"

[herrozerro]

First off I would like thank Chris Dias for finally getting this book out, its been a long wait but it's so worth it!

Ultramodern4 (UM4) is the latest supplement from Dias Ex Machina, taking the next logical step beyond it's previous Amethyst setting and bringing more generic modern rules to the table.

The biggest changes from your standard D&D or amethyst game is the new class/ladder system.

Classes are a bit lighter in weight, they have fewer powers in general but still are the "What you do" of the game. They are a bit more generic with names like: Faceman, Heavy, Mastermind, Specialist. Anyone familiar with Amethyst will probably recognize a fair share of the mechanics, the sniper uses the marksmen talent from the stalker sniper for instance.

While classes are a bit pared down from what you would be used to it's because of the Ladder mechanic. Ladders are the other side of the coin, they are "How you do it". While you might be a sniper, you could be a Juggernaut Sniper, replacing your usual reliance on DEX for powers with CON. You could be a Savant Gunslinger, using your keen intellect to take your foes down.

Overall I love the mechanic, it really opens up more themes, letting more then one type of person be locked into a class.

Paragon paths and epic destinies like most items in this book are also fairly generic, with 22 paragon paths such as: Driver, Field Sniper and Cinematic Cliche and 5 Epic destinies like: Ultimate or Respected. you should have no problem bringing your character into the higher levels with some great mechanics and flavor.

Skill and feats, some of these are revised or updated versions of Amethyst rules, notable vehicle operation and demolitions, but with expanded sections in some of the skills such as sabotage under engineer there is plenty added for any game you'll run. Also included are contacts, which can be purchased or received with feats, these characters are pulled right out of an action movie, they are the people the hero always contacts for that helpful bit of information or to find some kind of black market object or occasionally showing up as added backup.

Weapons and equipment, For me this is the real meat of the book, there are items in here for every level of tech you might want. Everything from revolvers to plasma cannons, Ballistics Armor to XH Dragon powered armor. This book has it.

Another aspect I liked about the equipment is that everything has a price and a loadout value, loadout being rules for adventurers who might be a part of an organization or other kind of group where they wouldn't necessarily buy all of their equipment. it lets you set a loadout value per adventure with modifiers depending on intelligence and a few other items and lets the characters requisition equipment. Perfect for a military game.

included in the book as well are two adventures and a great resource with its Adversaries chapter, giving you a lot of basic bad guys with great trait templates.

Overall I have to give this product a thumbs up, its quality is not only in its content but its layout as well, I personally have not had many 4e 3rd party products with the production quality that DEM puts in its products.

If you are looking for the perfect 4e modern rules, they are right here.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

On the recommendation of this and the other thread, I picked up the pdf today. I think Ultramodern 4 has a lot of good ideas, like the ladder system, but I think the implementation of them could be improved.

Ultramodern 4 may suffer from what was said many times in the early days of 4e: doesn't read well, but play is fun. I haven't had an opportunity to play it yet, but after my first read through I have a few problems with it as is.

I think most of my criticisms could be summed up with what I think about one power: Swift Strike, from the Warrior Ladder. It is one of the At-Will powers that a character with the Warrior ladder could swap for one of their regular level 1 class At-Will attacks.
Swift Strike Warrior Attack 1
You find a split-second opening and deliver the attack, hoping to hold the enemy back.
At-Will • Martial, Weapon
Move Action Melee or Ranged weapon
Attack: Dexterity vs. AC
Hit: Dexterity modifier damage, and the target is dazed until the start of your next turn.

First of all, I don't agree with making Move Action attack powers that deal damage, but that's a design choice the writers of UM4 have made, and its consistent throughout the book. I like the Move Action powers that don't deal damage, but instead inflict a minor restriction or penalty to the target. I'm not sure how I feel about increasing the number of attack rolls in a turn, as every power that targets an enemy (that I can recall from my first read through) has an attack roll.

But the main issue with the above power that made me reconsider whether UM4 is going to be worth my time to run is the fact that the Swift Strike power is an at-will daze. Dazed is a condition that should not be available that frequently at level 1, IMHO.

This power is the worst example I found in the book, so perhaps the system functions better overall and this is just an anomaly. According to the introduction, pushing the design boundaries of 4th edition D&D was an intent of the writers. After four years of reading consistent and mostly easy to understand rules text from 4e, I found many powers in UM4 needlessly complex and difficult to parse.

Formatting for the book was bothersome for me as well, but some of the problems may have been caused by a space restriction do to the forthcoming print-on-demand version. Classes start in the middle of columns, I would have preferred each start at the beginning of a new page.
The new feats are presented in the same chapter as skills, which I can understand as it is only 2 pages.
Edit: There are more feats than I thought, but I missed them because of the page swapping error.
However, there is no section break to separate the skills section from the feats section. The feats begin with Iron Will after the Vehicle Operation skill, and its obvious they were intended to be grouped by Ladder, and then by class, followed by General Feats. But the title for Ladder feats is missing.

 

[herrozerro]

While I agree about the formatting a bit, Im used to it from Amethyst Evolution. the point about the feats suddenly starting is an error, those pages are swapped around. I assume they will be fixed before the print versions. (A similar issue happened with Amethyst Evolution there were two chapters titled Chapter two.)

About the at will daze, for me it's so so. In my experience though these modern rules work best with much more creatures than what would be normal for regular D&D, with more characters operating with ranged weapons you really need to swarm the PCs. So naturally PCs have more actions and more ways to deal with the situations.

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

You're right about the feat page swap around. Pages 105 and 106 need to be pushed a couple pages back. Luckily that would be an easy fix for the Publisher to change and send out an email through RPGnow that the document has been updated.

 

[herrozerro]

there is also another one in the sample characters.

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

Yes, we discovered the page flipping after the release. It was bug that made it into the last compile. We're fixing it now. The combining of Feats and Skills was made because of space but more because we didn't have a half-page illustration for feats. I also thought the Skills section was too small to warrant a chapter.

As for Swift Strike, this was a power carried over from Amethyst - Evolution. Oddly, no one really voiced a concern over it in both playtests. The balancing issue with it is that is its incapacity to score increased damage based on the weapon.

However, if it proves unpopular, we could always include it in the errata to say "or" instead of "and"

Thanks for the input. We knew these rules were due to evolve.

 

[herrozerro]

I would say that the power isnt that overpowered, while it is atwill daze, its not much worse then the sniper's marksmen talent. In my experience beating the target's defenses by 7 isn't so hard.

[MENTION=33291]Kelvor Ravenstar[/MENTION]
What kind of powers did you find needlessly complex?

 

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

So far, the Infiltrator powers Concentrated Concealment and Extreme Prejudice. I don't really understand Concentrated Concealment is trying to accomplish that couldn't be accomplished by another means. My confusion with Extreme Prejudice might be that the burst size is one too big. If my target is within burst 3, and I shift one square, I'm not adjacent to them when I pull them back with me to my origin square.
Other than that, powers that increase weapon die steps seem like an extra step that could be accomplished by a flat bonus to damage rolls. Each step up on weapon damage adds a +1 to average damage, so what is the reasoning in increasing the die side instead? This is a feature of plenty of Techie powers. If I have multiple die steps added to a single weapon, do they all stack? For the class features that increase die size I'm okay with, that can be recorded easily enough.
My needlessly complicated comment about powers was probably overstating it a bit, U4 is different enough than 4e that I'm having trouble adapting to things like move action attacks.

 

[herrozerro]

So far, the Infiltrator powers Concentrated Concealment and Extreme Prejudice. I don't really understand Concentrated Concealment is trying to accomplish that couldn't be accomplished by another means. My confusion with Extreme Prejudice might be that the burst size is one too big. If my target is within burst 3, and I shift one square, I'm not adjacent to them when I pull them back with me to my origin square.
Other than that, powers that increase weapon die steps seem like an extra step that could be accomplished by a flat bonus to damage rolls. Each step up on weapon damage adds a +1 to average damage, so what is the reasoning in increasing the die side instead? This is a feature of plenty of Techie powers. If I have multiple die steps added to a single weapon, do they all stack? For the class features that increase die size I'm okay with, that can be recorded easily enough.
My needlessly complicated comment about powers was probably overstating it a bit, U4 is different enough than 4e that I'm having trouble adapting to things like move action attacks.

I can see what you mean about Extreme prejudice, though i think the only issue is with a ranged attack, if it draws the enemy to you as well. I'm inclined to believe it does.

Concentrated Concealment seems to be a bit difficult at first but i think it planely states what it's for. All squares around you totaly concealment only for stealth checks and in addition you can shift to any square that grants you total concealment or superior cover. but you cant get out in the open.

Yes, it's a bit wordy but I think its the best way to do that specific power.

[MENTION=12454]Dem[/MENTION] if your still around, it would seem though that the sniper is missing a few key features that really made the Evolution one shine. Namely the ability to make your ranged basic attacks have the sniper keyword. Is that to make the marksman talent something that you need to work a bit more for rather then it firing off every single shot?

 

[Dias Ex Machina]

[MENTION=12454]Dem[/MENTION] if your still around, it would seem though that the sniper is missing a few key features that really made the Evolution one shine. Namely the ability to make your ranged basic attacks have the sniper keyword. Is that to make the marksman talent something that you need to work a bit more for rather then it firing off every single shot?

It's there. Check out Perfect Tracker. "You can also add the sniper keyword to ranged basic attacks."