What are you doing with D20 Modern?

[Henry]

I am currently running a cross between d20 Modern and Call of Cthulhu. I got the idea from a poster here in the "Plots and Places" forum, which he called:

"There are things man was not meant to know. Shoot them."



There are both the Mage and Priest Advanced classes from d20- Modern, as well as the ritual spells from d20 Call of Cthulhu.

The premise is simple: The cthulhoid horrors are coming alive more and more in these final days. The U.S. Government has recognized the incusions, and is trying to stop them. Fortunately, there are a small pool of individuals who for some mysterious reason are highly resistant to the sanity-blasting spells, books, and visuals of the mythos. These individuals have been drafted or volunteered to Department-7, and receive the best in training, equipment, and care in their mission.

The group wanted something a little more "shoot-em-up," but mixed with some puzzles and mystery, and a touch of horror. So far, they seem to be enjoying it. They have already learned that they cannot rely on the support forces to help them - the regular troops go positively nuts when confronting some of the things they see, and though no one has yet died, the lethality rate is quite high, underscored by dead NPC's and hideous beasts waiting around lots of corners.

 

[Pbartender]

I've put together a post-apocalyptic United States setting (sort Mad Max/Fallout/Rifts-ish).

The characters hail from Yellowstone, which is a frontier town built upon the old National Park. The immediate area is rather tribal and barbaric, but pockets of modern and advanced technology/culture/civilization do exist.

For now, we are running through D20 Modernized versions of the WotC modules (Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, Speaker in Dreams, etc...). They've almost finished the Citadel and things seem to be going well.

And for as much as one or two of the player grumble about the D20 Modern rules, they all seem to be having quite a extraordinarily good time playing the game.

Currently, we are only using two small house rules... One to make Shotguns a little more useful, and one to make non-lethal combat a little more interesting.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

We have run an adventure which originally was designed for the Dark Conspiracy Rules/Setting. It took 2 (or even three) evenings (approximately 6 to 8 hours each), and everybody had fun with it.
We are going to continue that campaign (the DM looks for other good adventures for Dark Conspiracy).

Another DM considers using it for the Space Gothic Setting - Standard D&D / Dragonstar Rules didn`t do well to the setting, because of the High Magic. D20 Modern might be exactly what we need for this.

When my current homebrew Campaign ends (which might still take some month, currently at party level 6, aiming for level 12 to 15 for the campaigns end ) , I consider starting a new campaign using D20 Modern and some slightly tweaked magic classes. The campaign will be loosely oriented at the "World of Tiers" Universe, if somebody knows it. I do already have parts of the first beginning adventure in my mind...

And I am, just for excercise, making a D20 Modern Shadowrun, but I am not really sure that I will ever finish anything of it. (And I am sure I won`t use it for myself, simply because I currently have no good plot ideas for a Shadowrun adventure)

Mustrum Ridcully

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't get it. When I read d20 Modern, it appears more tone down from known fantasy setting, even with the FX. Heck, I daresay it is even more toned down than the flashy Spycraft.

I thought this is what you all want in a modern-day genre.

So, I gotta ask: What is d20 Modern lacking?

 

[Bibliophile]

I for one don't think it's lacking anything. I'll soon be running a campaign with the players (starting lvl 7) as members of an intelligence agency in an alternate-history earth. Basically, the year is 2012, and the cold war is still going, but between not just the US and USSR, but 7 seperate superpowers.

It'll have kinda like an x-files (supernatural elements) crossed with ludlum feel to it.

 

[The_Gneech]

My concept in a nutshell is The Tomb Raider Roleplaying Game; we'll see how well it works in practice. First session went well enough...

-The Gneech

 

[Doc_Klueless]

Currently using d20 Modern for a Morrow Project game. It's working out great. A bit more heroic/cinematic than the original Morrow Project rules, but faaaaar easier for newbie gamers to get into and less number crunching going on.

Currently running "Liberation at Riverton." Players and I are having an blast.

 

[Desdichado]

Right now, nothing -- our most consistent DM just moved, I moved into his house, and we're (as a gamer group) trying to figure out exactly what we're still doing. We were playing an X-files-ish game that we actually started with the ShadowChasers mini-game in Polyhedron.

But what would I do with d20 Modern, or what may I soon be doing?

Got a buttload of ideas. One is an alternate history Cold War game (with Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany as survivors of WWII making a four way rather than two way cold war) with a lot of Dark*Matter/X-files/Alias stuff thrown in. One is adopting the system to a "medieval" tech level and playing it in lieu of D&D. One is a blaxploitation mini-campaign with the Shaft soundtrack playing the whole time we're gaming.

Despite the complaints I've seen on this thread, I think d20 Modern is one of my favorite games right now. It cleans up the d20 mechanic wonderfully and runs much smoother than D&D, and is also more along the lines of what I want from a game. I don't particularly like the replacement for subdual damage that Modern introduces (which I'll kindly ignore and use the D&D version, thankyouverymuch) and I don't particularly like the vehicle combat rules, although they work well enough. I'm not wild at all about the Urban Arcana set-up, or the D&D magic and cleric styles that it introduces. But, as I can easily ignore that, and it is only presented as one of three options in print, then I hardly find that a condemning point.

To be honest, I'm still trying to come to grips with what it is some people don't like about d20 Modern. It compares poorly with Spycraft in some folks eyes, but Spycraft doesn't appeal to me as much, as it seems much more over-the-top and "Setting Included" which isn't what I want in this type of game at all. Granted, I don't own Spycraft, and so although I have read significant portions of it, I'm not the expert. But that's the most coherent complaint I've been able to glean from the detractors -- it's not to their taste as much as Spycraft is.

 

[Mistwell]

I've played D&D, and some other RPGs, for a heck of a long time. I have to say that I find d20 Modern to be the best RPG *EVER*. It is just bloody fantastic.

 

[jerichothebard]

My concept in a nutshell is The Tomb Raider Roleplaying Game; we'll see how well it works in practice. First session went well enough...

-The Gneech

Gneech, I'd be very interested to hear much more about that - Story hour in the works? I have been thinking Indiana Jones/The Mummy for a genre, and the whole Tomb Raider series really fits into that as well... Game and movie. (No statements about the quality or entertainment value of any of the movies themselves expressed or implied, but I do think they would make a good style of game.)

Also, anyone else know of any movies/games/books in that sort of genre? psuedo-archeological treasure hunters?

One reason I like the idea is that DND modules could easily be adapted as "leftover relics from the ancient age", in addition to modern espionage/conspiracy theory (the Illuminati, a la the Tomb Raider Movie, and so on)...

anyway.

jericho