Traits and Flaws

POSTMODERN: Traits and Flaws, a PDF supplement for D20 Modern from Big Finger Games, presents 17 pages worth of additional "postmodern" traits and flaws for the D20 Modern game system. More specifically the supplement includes 30 some odd Mundane Traits, 2 Conspiracy Traits, 3 Occult Traits, 1 Psionic Trait, and 2 Supernatural Traits. Similarly the supplement provides 16 Mundane Flaws, 6 Conspiracy Flaws, and a couple of Supernatural and Psionic Flaws. This in addition to a plethora of Disadvantages.

Those familiar with game systems like GURPS have seen it all before. Which got me to pondering. Does the average gamer ever ask what the point of game products like this is? As a reviewer I have to admit that, over time, the more of these "plug-in" products I see the more I start asking myself that very question. Not because the supplements aren't good. Quite the contrary actually. Alas authors keep producing more of the same. Which makes me wonder: Are gamers really content with more of the same? Don't they hunger for the new, the innovative, something fresh that might challenge their expectations?

Since I've received Big Finger Games PDF expansion for D20 Modern "Traits and Flaws" it's not only made me confront those nagging questions lurking cobwebby recesses of my mind but it's forced me sit up and take a closer look at this type of product. What I've found is they all share one commonality, they are produce for use with OGL games. Indeed in recent years there has been a near endless stream of supplements for use with OGL games. On the surface that seems like a good thing. And yet..

Back in the day, when role-playing games were few and far between, I can remember sitting down and literally writing down endless pages of ideas and skills and all sorts of silly stuff like that till I'd filled at least one (if not more) three ring binders. Nor was I the only one in my group to do so. True we gamers don't always have the time to do so, but if we really enjoy a game we invariably with create out own material for use with it. While the usefulness of such supplements cannot be denied they also seem to have just sapped most of the creativity out of gaming. It's now far easier to find supplements for all manner of minutia, thus easing the burden on Game Master, yet I am starting to question if that's really such a good thing.

What Big Finger Games has compiled an excellent supplementary plug-in for someone else's game system. For those using said game system that's a boon beyond description. Yet, with a little extra work, the folks and Big Finger could just as easily have put out an entire game. It's been my experience that creating skill lists and fleshing out their descriptions are far harder than coming up with game mechanics. Would such a game be derivative? Probably. Would it be just one more game glutting the market? Now there's a question!

According to gamer legend first there was Dungeons & Dragons. This opened the floodgates for Tunnels & Trolls, Bunnies & Burrows, Chivalry & Sorcery, The Fantasy Trip, Superhero 2044, Traveller, Palladium Fantasy, The Atlantean Trilogy, MERP, Warhammer, Skulls & Crossbones, Villains & Vigilantes, Space Opera, GURPS, Rolemaster, Stormbringer, and dozens upon dozens of even more obscure games that the average gamer has probably never heard of. Games full of spirit and new ideas.

Did they glut the market?

Hardly. They created the market. Each new game forced their competitors to come up with something new, something innovative, and something unique. Those who couldn't compete disappeared. There were many one-hit wonders and more than a few orphaned games. But for all that role-playing games still exist. The market wasn't glutted; it didn't collapse, though it may have seemed close to it many times.

Looking back those days seem like golden years. There were so many different games to choose from. So many authors with varied ideas. Ideas that led to many innovative and downright bizarre game designs. But all those varied approaches only served to invigorate the role-playing hobby. Just as new board games that play off the rules and similarities of the old come out each year.

Alas all that was before the concept of OGL. It is this reviewer's opinion that, twenty years ago, something like "Traits and Flaws" would have been the core of an entirely new game. Alas, since the advent of OGL, fewer and fewer game designers bother to come up with new and innovative games. I am almost certain that had OGL existed at the beginning of the RPG hobby we would not have had games like Lords of Creation, TWERPS, Talislanta, Buccaneer, Aftermath!, Skyrealms of Jorune, Bushido, Space: 1889, Runequest, Crimson Cutlass, the Dr. Who role-playing game, or, indeed, most of the myriad other "classic" RPGs.

After all why bother working out new mechanics when OGL products allow would be game designers to create a plug-ins for existing game systems? The more I look at that question the more my head hurts.

Game designers have always written for existing RPGs. One of the classic product lines was Role-Aids. Sure the TSR lawyers came down hard on the company but all that really did was force third party publishers to become more creative. Third party publishers moved towards generic modules and supplements that could be used with any system on the market. Had TSR left well enough alone it's likely they'd still be in existence today. Yet OGL, on the surface, does seem to be keeping D&D afloat. Even so this business model really ensures one thing and one thing only: That the OGL product in question has no contenders. Call it D20 but the reality is it's just a gimmick to keep the D&D property afloat with as little market contention as possible.

Alas, without competitors to drive new developments or force authors to be more creative, hasn't the hobby suffered from stagnation in recent years?

I don't know. But, as a reviewer, I have to admit to noticing a reticence in myself to look at these supplements as, looking back, they all begin to meld together. They are all just more of the same. Lists. Compilations. Assemblages of suggestions. Many are great adjuncts, to be sure, yet there are also too many that are barely mediocre. Worse, as none of them are an "official" release, that too often means Game Masters have to weed through half a dozen, if not more, products all covering the same ground. It ridiculous. And yet I can't deny their allure.

What Big Finger Games has done here is present an above average addendum to D20 Modern. While these supplements do all start to look the same after a while this one is better than most. So if you're the sort who doesn't like to sit down do a lot of time consuming research to create new material for your games or, as is more likely the case, just can't find the time then look no further. For "Traits and Flaws" is a rock solid D20 Modern supplement that will allow players to expand character horizons while easing the burdens on the GM. All while providing for vastly more interesting character development.

To sum up: Traits and Flaws is good enough to have served as the seed of it's own game.

The PDF is available from RPGnow for $2.50.

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