Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Rocket your D&D 5E and Level Up: Advanced 5E games into space! Alpha Star Magazine Is Launching... Right Now!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="JoeGKushner" data-source="post: 2009841" data-attributes="member: 1129">Green Ronin Publishing has another winner on its hands.  With the d20 Modern game being out only a short time, they’ve done what Sword & Sorcery Studios managed with 3rd edition, and that is to come out with a core book at almost the same time as the game system was published.Ultramodern Firearms has everything I need to incorporate it into game play right away.  It introduces new feats, breaks up firearms by type, includes ammunition types, and provides great illustrations for almost every weapon listed and then throws in some variety to insure that the mix isn’t boring.It starts off with an introduction, but unlike most, this one has rules you can use right off the bat.  A section on reliability gives the GM ways that guns may fail to work all the time.  Perfect for those running Mad Max type of world where weapons become damaged or clogged with sand and soot.  Want to use this book with a Vitality and Wound Point system?  Rules are provided for that as well.The new feats will be crowd pleasers too.  I know, strange that instead of having a small chapter for feats we get them in the introduction, but I’m not complaining.  Goods like Armed to the Teeth allow you to fight with a ranged weapon in one hand and a melee weapon in the other, while Improved Autofire increases the DC of the Reflect save by 5.  The feats end with a nice collection of firearm related feats so at a glance you can see what you want your gunman to have.  Want that Skip Shot?  How about Guns akimbo?  It’s there.Now here’s another goodie.  It’s a features index.  Each weapon is lain out in a table with the different types of information that apply to weapons and the page it’s on.  This is an excellent resource for the player who wants a specific type of weapon effect.  Want a pistol with a large magazine that’s concealable and very reliable?  How about a  submachine gun that allows one-handed use and has a folding stock with a silenced feature?Now the bulk of the book consist of seven chapters, pistols, submachines guns, assault rifles, rifles, shotguns, machineguns and ammunition.  Each chapter opens up with a blank page with the title of the chapter and the subheading, like “Chapter Two SUBMACHINEGUNS”, which I didn’t care for too much, but it’s one small issue in a book of goods.  After the splash page, the section introduces what the weapon is, common uses, creations and important features of each weapon.  It’s not going to make you an expert able to strip down a weapon into its component parts but it may clear some misconceptions and provide some solid ideas on which weapons are best to use when.The weapons are broken down by manufacture and then by alphabetical order.  This adds to the ‘waste’ factor of white space (especially if the company only has one weapon), but it makes the book clean and easy to read.  Each weapon has background details, d20 modern rules, information on caliber, length, weight, and magazine, and most come with illustrations.  The few that aren’t illustrated are usually variants of one weapon that is illustrated.I’m no gun expert but even I can see that some of these are taken right off today’s presses like the OICW by Alliant Techsystems.  This prototype takes the assault rifle and combines it with a “long-range heavy weapon somewhat akin to a grenade launcher.”  Now that’s firepower at your service.  One of other things I really enjoyed about the book is that it has ammunition types.  The sizes of the different rounds really gives you an eye opener about what these suckers could do to a human but the rule effects are what catches my eye.  It’s always nice to be able to go from regular rounds to armor piercing, cold-loaded, glaser, hollowpoint or tracer ammunitions.The appendix contains some materials that are interesting for providing bad guys with appropriate weapons.  Want to know what El Salvador is using in the Amry?  How about Colt M16A1, and HK G3AG among others?  How about the U.S.?  Yeah, it’s a pretty big section because it’s broken down into Army, Customer Service, Delta, FBI and other forces that use firearms.Those looking for a comprehensive listing of each weapon with it’s damage, critical threat, rate of fire and purchase DC will flip to the D20 Modern Game Stats section and drool at over ten pages of collected material.  They’ve even done the work of showing what different ammunitions do in different pistols, submachine guns, rifles and machineguns.  It’s always nice to see all the different goods in one spot and helps the users get the information they need quickly and easily. One complaint I’ve heard is that the book doesn’t cater enough to the weapon fanatics who want stats for older weapons, say, prior to 1950, but I can’t fault them for that.  That subject could be another book in and of itself.  Another issue some have is that there are no prices.  This isn’t an issue in standard D20 Modern with it’s DC rolls for purchasing, but in other game rules, it becomes a little more problematic but is a minor issue as this book isn’t one that requires the Player’s Handbook, but the D20 Modern book as stated on the cover.  I can’t fault Green Ronin for not catering to everyone but perhaps we’ll see a web expansion with real world prices soon.Perhaps to me part of the lure of this product is that I've owned several like it, including the original.  I have very fond memories of it, but it strikes me as a very useful product for any d20 modern campaign that uses guns for combat.  For me, this is a great example of why Green Ronin, despite some products odd off products like Assassins Handbook and Wrath and Rage, continues to be one of my favorite companies.  Quality over quantity.</blockquote>

Verification