I'll be honest with you. I subscribe to the school of thought that says "Dungeons and Dragons sucks, but the D20 System doesn't."
While I mean no disrespect to the decidedly large group of people who play D&D, I absolutely despise D&D; in fact, I have a considerable dislike for the entire sword-and-sorcery fantasy genre. I just find anything with a swords-magic-and-monsters bent unappealing, and I tend to find myself annoyed when I wander into my FLGS and find all the new releases to be nothing but the most recent rehashed D&D rip-off dungeon crawl.
However, even I found myself interested when I first looked through the Third Edition Player's Handbook and was introduced to what replaced the Alternity system, which I had recently become a convert to. It was a far cry from the appalling patchwork that AD&D2 called its rules.
I was hooked on D20 when the Star Wars D20 core book was released (how can I like Star Wars and not D&D, you ask? Two words: space opera). And I was absolutely dazzled when AEG released one of my favorite games ever: the D20 espionage game Spycraft. In fact, Spycraft was and still is my favorite piece of evidence to support my above theory that while D&D is a massive pain in the butt; the D20 System was a worthwhile effort and an excellent rules system. So it was no surprise that when I learned of D20 Modern, I made a concerted effort to add it to my collection.
D20 Modern was created for folks like me: gamers who like the smooth-and-satisfying flavor of the D20 System, but hate the rancid aftertaste of D&D's cliched sword-and-sorcery garbage.
The Book Itself: I'll say this for the Third Edition Player's Handbook-it started a trend within Wizards of the Coast of ever increasingly magnificent specimens of core rulebooks. D20 Modern continues this happy trend. It is 384 pages of pure, solid, goregousness. It features a beautiful silver cover with three of the rulebook's "iconic heroes," Troy, Russell and Yoriko, prepared for battle. The interior has a standard two-column layout with fonts that are easy-to-read while still being beautiful. To top it off, this book has some of the best art in any RPG book…ever. The book's various "iconic heroes" are well drawn, and look fantastic.
The Structure: Pretty standard. The first chapter is devoted to Character Creation, 32 pages long, with all the necessary steps to make your character, what each stat does and what each class can do (the classes are one of the neatest things about this game; we'll get to that later). The second chapter details all the skills, 38 pages long, with clear, well-defined instructions on how the skills work. The third chapter (13 pages long) describes one of D20's most unusual and interesting features, the "feats." Feats are basically specially abilities that almost any character can have (either your character has them or they don't). They almost always affect combat, but there are lots of feats that affect regular non-combat role-playing. There are lots of feats not present in D&D that deal with firearms and autofire attacks, and martial arts (some are nifty, some aren't).
The fourth chapter (which is 38 pages long) deals with equipment. One of the more unusual things in D20 Modern is the Wealth system used to purchase items for the characters. Basically when you create your character, you also pick a "profession" which adds bonus class skills and a starting Wealth bonus (which is added to a roll of 2d4). When you need to buy something, you roll against the item's Purchase DC and add your Wealth bonus. If you succeed, you've bought the item. Certain conditions (such as a high Purchase DC) decrease your bonus, while Profession rolls (against the Profession skill) at each level bring it back up. I happen to like this since it tends to eliminate the infamous gamer's tendency to loot fallen opponents (but still they will try, so rules are included to support this annoying D&D throwback). The fifth chapter (35 pages long) is the obligatory Combat chapter (with all of the appropriate additions for firearms, modern weaponry, martial arts and oh, yes, vehicle combat); and yes, they included the rules for attacks-of-opportunity. Chapter six (23 pages long) is what's known as Advanced Classes (we'll save our discussion of these nifty bits for the overall discussion of handling of classes which is forthcoming).
Chapter seven (27 pages) is the obligatory Gamemastering chapter with tips for the beginning GM and lots of other nifty stuff. Chapter eight is the longest chapter (55 pages long) and deals with NPC's (especially monsters, mooks, and other things for your PC's to deal with). Chapter nine is the Campaign Models, which presents three starting environments for you to play in to start with: Shadow Chasers (actually a reprise of the Polyhedron Mini-Game that inspired D20 Modern: it's for those who want to play a Buffy The Vampire Slayer-type game without dealing with the Buffy universe), Agents of Psi (a cross between a superspy environment and psionic powers; I'll stick to Spycraft for espionage action, but the Psionic powers, adapted from the Psionics Handbook, look nifty), and…I'm gonna be sick…Urban Arcana (for those hopelessly D&D-addicted souls who absolutely HAVE to play D&D in a modern setting with guns, kung fu, magic and monsters…ugh). The tenth and final chapter (51 pages long) feature FX Abilities - the D20 Modern version of D&D magic (oh brother…even the infamous "magic missile" spell got in here) and psionics (what, no "cloud men's minds" power for aspiring "guys-who-know-what-evil-lurks-in-the-hearts-of-men" types?). At the end is the obligatory index, which while dry is always helpful in finding what you need.
The Classes: so cool, they get their own section in this review. Unlike most D20 system games, which use narrow classes to define character within a specific genre (such as warrior, wizard, solider, Jedi Guardian, etc.), D20 throws genre out the window and instead relies on "basic classes:" six classes each devoted to one of the D20 Ability Scores: the Strong Hero (for Strength), the Fast Hero (for Dexterity), the Tough Hero (for Constitution), the Smart Hero (for Intelligence), the Dedicated Hero (for Wisdom) and the Charismatic Hero (for Charisma). These six classes are intended to allow characters to play in just about any kind of modern setting without having to worry about that setting's limitations to much. At first level, in addition to all the normal stuff (base attack bonus, base saves [same as any other D20 game: Fortitude, Reflexes and Willpower], Defense bonus [Defense comes originally from Star Wars D20, and is basically the same thing as Armor Class] Reputation bonus [again from Star Wars]) you also get a "talent." D20 classes usually give characters specially abilities limited to those classes, and only at specific levels. The Basic classes instead give player a choice of these special abilities (called, yep, you guessed it, "talents"), further increasing D20 Modern's versatility. Every level afterward alternates between these talents and bonus feats which the player must pick from depending of the class which is being leveled-up. BUT, the Basic class charts only go to level 10…which means to get to the upper levels, you're going to want to multi-class. D20 Modern all but commands you to multi-class, but if you don't want to go into any of the other Basic classes, there are twelve Advanced classes (yep, these are the ones from Chapter Six). Each Basic class has two Advanced classes which they are fast-tracked into, but you don't have to be in any specific class to get levels in any given Advanced class. Instead, Advanced classes are like a cross between a traditional core class and the nifty Prestige classes which inhabit most D20 game (including D20 Modern; there just aren't any in the core book). In this respect, you get levels in an Advanced class the same way you would a Prestige class: all you need are the appropriate minimum stats (for example, a minimum base attack bonus, a minimum number of ranks in one or more skills, certain feats, and so on). The Advanced classes are lots of fun; my personal favorite is the Gunslinger (good with handguns and other ranged weapons), but there are lots to suit all tastes. Once again, the name of the game is versatility.
What's Cool: It's versatile. It is, as I said before, D20 without the D&D. D20 has turned out to be a great role-playing system, and D20 Modern elevates it to a whole new level. The book is one of the best physical specimens of a RPG core rulebook ever made; it is sturdy, and beautiful, and the contents are clear, concise, and a good read besides.
What Isn't: It tries TOO HARD to be D&D Modern (WotC trying to cater to the D&D market again…dorks). It uses the Hit Point system of D&D, which IMHO, is inferior to the nifty Vitality and Wound Points system used by Star Wars, Spycraft and other games. The campaign models (especially Urban Arcana) tend to encourage D&D style games. Also, damage for the weapons (especially the firearms) is too similar; there's no incentive to choose one weapon over the other (of course, one can always substitute the Spycraft Modern Arms Guide or better yet, the upcoming revision of Ultramodern Firearms…written by Charles Ryan, who wrote the original version of Ultramodern Firearms and even helped write this game).
Why What Isn't Cool Really Is Cool (HUNH?): All the stuff that would be used for a D&D Modern game is in the back…in other words, this game is totally modular (did I mention this game is REALLY versatile?). Those who don't like the Hit Point system can always substitute the Vitality and Wound Points System; those who don't like attacks-of-opportunity can always leave them out…you get the idea. Best of all, this modularity makes D20 Modern an ideal substitute (or better yet, replacement) for the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide for all the non-fantasy D20 games out there (Deadlands, Weird Wars, and Spycraft automatically leap to mind).
In Conclusion: If you like the D20 System, get D20 Modern. It is truly the D20 System taken to a higher level, and it is a masterpiece of gaming. If you've been thinking of trying the D20 System, but don't like D&D, I think you'll especially like this game.
Now, if someone would only write a D20 adaptation of "The Matrix."
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