Your experiences with d20 Modern?

[Dragongirl]

Ok, d20 Modern has been out for a while so I would like to know how it is going.

1) Have you played in a modern campaign?
2) Did you like it?
2a) Why or why not?
3) What would you most like to see come out to suppliment it?

Thanks.

 

[Ashwyn]

1) Not yet.
2)N/A
2a)N/A
3) A high magic suppliment.

 

[Sagan Darkside]

1) Yes
2) No
2a) I thought the wealth system was sloppy. Since I was not playing a combat oriented character, character creation was tough due to the lack of decent non-combat feats. I made the ultimate mistake of playing a spellcasting AdvCls, and came to realize even when I did get abilities to use in combat- they were too weak for the foes we were facing.
3) I am not sure. Perhaps a book with more talent options.

SD

 

[BiggusGeekus]

1) Yes
2) Yes
2a) Players seem to have an easier time suspending their disbelief and the DM is encouraged to tweak monsters in freaky ways (ie skeletons that only "die" when you have put coins over their eye sockets).
3) Modules for Urban Arcana.

 

[Yeoman]

1) Yes
2) Yes
2a) The campaign (currently in limbo) was pretty fast paced, and we all liked the generic classes and the ease of fleshing out our characters with easy multiclassing. I'm a little iffy on the wealth system though.
3) More settings, and more information for the Urban Arcana setting, or a cyberpunk setting.

 

[Henry]

1) Have you played in a modern campaign?
2) Did you like it?
2a) Why or why not?
3) What would you most like to see come out to suppliment it?

Yes. Currently, in fact.

Our group has had positive response to it - I have asked at the end of each game, and the response has been quite good.

Character gen rules are solid- as solid as 3E, and the classes are far more generic. In some ways, it would be nice if this were the way D&D evolved, but most players would balk at making the classes THAT generic.

The main concerns various people have had, over automatic weapons rules, & over vehicles rules, have proven non-existant in 3 sessions now. Despite the complaints about autofire & burst fire online, a simple group of about 10 thugs (each about 2nd level) with street-converted tech-9's (one of the cheesiest weapons in the game) and pipe bombs, gave the PC's a real run for the money, and demonstrated in graphic detail the need for cover. The autofire rules IMHO work just fine as is.

IMHO, the worst part of the rules is the TOTAL BLANDNESS of shotguns. Might was well be another brand of bolt-action firearm. See the supllement suggested for how to liven that up.

The action plays like 3E - fast & furious, and with players taking some bold actions they would not take in a grittier game. Think Stallone action flick, or traditional "buddy cop" movies, and you have the cinematic level of default d20 Modern to a "T".

The best supplement out there for the time being is Charles Ryan's Ultramodern Firearms (not the Millenium's End version of several years past, but a new d20 version released in December.) That is one heck of a book - with stat charts, features reference index, new feats, shotguns rules, and very good info on how each type of weapon works. If you want new d20 firearms, as well as the old ones completely statted, this book is for you. If you know very little about real-world arms, this book is for you. It's pricey at $27.95, but indispensible if your campaign plans to have more than one gun battle ever.

Hopefully, this is of some use to you.

Oh, and I almost forgot - I moved this to d20 Modern Forum.You should have some stronger response in there.

 

[Moonsword]

I like it, but I haven't had the chance to do a campaign yet. The vehicle rulesa are a serious pain in the neck, but there are ways around it. I just scrapped the whole thing and rebuilt it from the rules in Dragonstar. More flexible, more common sense, easier to build in, fewer headaches. The wealth system is nice, you just have to be careful. The purchase DCs for magic items are a little whacked, though. Insanely high. The cost of making them, given you can find supplies (and you probably can, knowing the nature of modern economics), isn't nearly as high as the price to buy one would be. I'm tinkering with a way to replace that system, but no juice yet.

 

[Doc_Souark]

Nope not yet, The only d20 Modern game I can find is in Little Rock (50 miles away) on Tuesday night.

From what I've seen on-line, the Poly and the book it self , I like the game but the wealth system blows. and I like Spycraft vehicle rules a lot better.

Not sure what it needs as of yet with the Urban Arcana book due out in May that'll cover the magic aspect. Maybe more equipment or weapons yeah more fire power is always nice.

 

[takyris]

Nothing yet -- looking forward to it. Just gotta get these darn players to finish off the BBEG in our existing campaign. It's been going two years, and they'd kill me if I pulled the plug now.

-Tacky

 

[FatGnome]

1) Yes I have.
2) Yes I did
2a) I love how general the differant classes are. You can easily play anysort of a person that you want to. So far I have not used any of the spell using classes or the psionics but I have enjoyed the game. The campaine our group has been playing was set in WW2 and almost all of our charecters have almost died at some point or another. Cover is truely important in this book. I haven't realy used cover or concealment in any of the other games I played in (DnD and Starwars with a brief stint of BESM). I am also much more likely to go prone giving me extra bonuses to defence. So anyway I like the way ranged combat works.

I agree though that shotguns kind of suck so we have instituted the rule for them that all the shotguns in the book are balanced for slugs and if you want to use shot in the gun we:

double number of damage dice,
half the range increment,
take away one die for every new range increment.

This makes the shotguns way more deadly close up but much less so further away. Also I realise what this does to the sawed off shotgun, it makes it so you have an attack of opportunity at one range increment. I guess that is the penalty you take for having increased concelment of the weapon.

You can change the number of added damage die depending on how deadly you want the shotguns to be. It has been sugested that you add only one die and then after 3 range increments one die till max range.

We also do alot of roll playing instead of "roll" playing so most of our time is spent in the verbal time instead of the rolling attack times. We use the rules that we only roll for things that will effect the game dramaticly. We have used the driving rules in both of the games I played in and we have liked them alot. They are easy once you get them figured out and all you have to remember is that you only roll when doing stunts or trying something that is out of the ordinary. Most of the rules make sense so it is fairly intuitive. I like the rules about shooting through glass although I would add a percent chance that the glass shatters when someone fires through the glass.

All of the classes are definatly cool. I do not see an advantage of any of them over the others. Smart and Tough are dogged alot but dang they are both cool. I mean you can get tons of hitpoints and d/r with the tough wich more than makes up their lack of other things.

So all in all I realy like the system. If you want, as a GM you can make up any talent trees you want to. Ask your players if they have any ideas and then add the talent trees they are looking at into your own game. I take the rule book as sugestions and a starting point, not a difinitive source for rules and regulations. Do not let it become a total, all encompasing, can't add to it, can't do anything it does not mention explicitly rule book. If you do it will lose much of the fun involved in RPing.