What the Modern Player’s Companion was for general d20 Modern, the Future Player’s Companion is for d20 Future. Most of the book is committed to character creation or advancement options, so this is a toolbox for many kinds of d20 Future campaign. Some material from chapters one to three will also be useful for general d20 Modern campaigns. Nevertheless, as all “universal” games or supplements do, the book focuses on some Sci-Fi styles while neglecting others, like the very cyberpunk-like cover suggests. This is Star Trek - not Star Wars, Cyberpunk - not Shadowrun. The only mystical/ supernatural option in the whole book is the Shockmonk prestige class (page 100-102), the rest is the cold universe of cyberware, cloning, and robotics with a few nods to time and dimensional travel. Apart from the alien species, there is just rules and no setting material, so this product is only useful for d20 players. With these premises, we’ll go through each chapter to see what we get out of this. Note that all rules (so basically everything in this book apart from the names and backgrounds of the new alien races) are open game content.
Chapter One: Future’s Heroes
Without much fuss, the Future Player’s Companion begins with new species to play and starting packages for characters. There are 6 species that seem well balanced. They have been created using the rules in chapter eight. In fact, you’ll find a seventh playable alien species on page 87. There is nothing really exciting or out of the ordinary here, the theme is space opera.
Back in the solar system, we get 10 “Sol Colony” packages for various places in our vicinity. Each includes one advantage and one disadvantage for human characters plus a recommended starting feat, often a specific planetary adaptation. Venusians are a bit out of tune, as they have two advantages and no disadvantage. Every package has a short write-up about the planet/ asteroid/ moon and while this is solar system based, they could easily be rearranged to reflect different specializations in far away planets.
Furthermore, there are 6 environmental packages, which are templates for specializations to specific climates or extreme living conditions. Unfortunately, when it comes to how these packages can be gained during play via gene therapy or forced mutation there is a reference to the old .pdf document Tomorrow’s Hero, which doesn’t help much with the current book (in the respective chapters – five and six – applying environmental packages isn’t mentioned anymore, though the templates on pages 45-46 suggest that they could just be added to characters).
Next are new talent trees and new talents. More than half of these are not future specific and could be used for any d20 Modern game. I have too little experience with talent trees to say how good these are, but many seem slightly weaker than the ones in d20 Modern and there is little that seems too powerful.
Finally there are 9 new occupations, and while some like Lone Survivor are universal, Netizen or Dimensional Outsider are much more setting-specific. In fact most new occupations are niche options.
Chapter Two: Skills and Feats
Here we find a bunch of new uses for old skills, some revolving about contact with aliens, others with zero-g movement. As you could guess, there are a number of new options for computer use, like reprogramming robots.
Then 73 new feats, most future specific with a tight focus (for instance “time walker”: languages work normally in the past and +4 to bluff and disguise that you are from a different time). Some feats concern new future options for allies/ cohorts. The only problematic feats could be the modifiers to the uses of action points (better dice, more uses per round etc.), which I would have to see in play to really say whether they are unbalancing or not.
Chapter Three: Future Class Combinations
An idea introduced in the Modern Player’s Companion, these are very useful guides on how to combine multiclassing of the six base classes with a choice of Talents, Feats and Skills to create all sorts of interesting character archetypes. Even if one isn’t interested in one of the 17 archetypes presented here, this section shows how to emulate all kinds of characters with very basic methods and how to create characters with certain themes.
Chapter Four: Character Creation
One might ask whether the last three chapters weren’t about character creation as well, but what is meant here is creation in the literal sense: genetics, cyberware and robotics during chargen. As some of the options in d20 Future and this book might have prohibitive purchase DCs for starting characters, there are a couple of new drawbacks to make this possible. Unfortunately, especially the cybernetic drawbacks open doors to min-maxing. Three new gene therapy templates and 7 for robots round this chapter off. I don’t really understand why this is in an own chapter and not under Genetic Engineering, Robotics, and Cybernetics respectively.
Chapter Five: Genetic Engineering
Some rules for cloning in general, three templates for proverbial übermenschen, and an open question why there are cloning templates, gene therapy templates, and environmental packages in three different chapters with no unified ruleset (such as the one for temporary and permanent changes). Genetic manipulation lets you create human-animal (or whatever you fancy) hybrids without any rules for what that may mean for the character. Instead we get rules for “gene splicing”, which lets you take animal attributes like sonar or faster running speed. Why these aren’t the same or similar rules as mutations is left open. The rest of the chapter has new “intelligent” medicine, nanocolonies, regulators, and bioware in the form of retroviruses and adenoviruses (which let you have temporary mutation, genetic manipulation etc.)
Chapter Six: Mutations
Apart from some short rules for grafting (getting mutations by a doctor quick and dirty in a street shop) and injections (instant mutations!) this chapter has 46 new mutations and 5 drawbacks, of which all seem to be balanced. What is a bit odd is that Glider provides the character with “fleshy flaps below your arms” without stating what that would mean for everyday life!
Chapter Seven: Robots
There is a parallel robot part in this and WotC’s d20 Future Tech – the tentacle. Given that the authors of both books are the same, it doesn’t surprise that the game rules are virtually identical. Otherwise, we get two new frames and loads of add-ons as well as “core programming affinities”, in essence occupations for robots. There are some additional “equipment packages” to the “robot attachment packages” in chapter four. The most striking new rule here though is the one for ”robot followers”, which fulfill the role of familiars from D&D. Imagine a cyberraven on the shoulder of a tech priest. Unfortunately, the Future Player’s Companion doesn’t include ideas on how to use followers (as NPCs, as motifs etc.), only the rules.
Chapter Eight: Aliens
Most of the chapter is made up of rules on how to create your own playable alien species, accompanied by an example which makes the process quite understandable. There might be some issues with the worth of certain drawbacks (weapon restriction is worth as much as –2 Str…), but then this process has to be approved by the GM anyway. Two templates, the neo-human (basically the template for Sol Colonials from chapter one) and the half-alien, both with an example, round out this quite useful chapter.
Chapter Nine: Advanced & Prestige Classes
Corporate Agent, Cyborg Adept (a bit like the Cyberwarrior from d20 Cyberscape), Evolved Mutant (like the Evolutionary from d20 Apocalypse), Geneshifter, Pharmer, Robot Avatar, Robot Hunter (think Bladerunner), Shockmonk, and Tech-Knight.
The three prestige classes need some further explanations: The Robot Avatar is a prestige class for robots who can then project their consciousness into other programs or control them. This is one of the classes which in itself generates some story ideas. The psionic Shockmonk is a member of a mysterious order opposed to technology. His class features are quite powerful versus electronics. This is the only supernatural element in the book, by the way. I missed some further text on the organization and the monk’s way of life. His antithesis, the Tech-Knight, is in essence a cyber-paladin with an honor code to uphold, a familiar (a robot follower) and a special sword. No it’s not a light saber, but I am glad you asked. I actually don’t really see any deeper sense in a knightly order which main goal is to improve the relationship between men and machines.
Chapter Ten: Cybernetics
There are 41 new peaces of cybernetic equipment. Some interesting features are the Aural and the Optic Plexus, which let you bundle ear and eye cyberware respectively. Also there are a couple of weapon enhancement features with neat confusing acronyms like FAM, OVP, and SCU. Their bonuses are small enough not to make this too unbalancing. Unfortunately there are some redundancies with equipment presented in d20 Cyberscape (a book by WotC which came out in September 2005 and has one of the Future Player’s Companion’s authors as an additional developer). These include Dermal Camouflage (much weaker than Camouflage Skin), Digital Recorders (similar to Sensory Recorders), Grafted Musculature (almost the same as Artificial Muscle Fibers), Improved Initiative Implant (weaker than Reflex Wires), Nasal Filter (similar to Nasal Filter), and Vehicle Link (weaker than Vehicle Control Jack). The relative weakness (i.e. worse stats at higher purchase DCs) reflect that the creators of this book have been careful not to build too powerful equipment, which I would judge as a good sign.
A new idea is including “obsolete” cybernetics, i.e. attachments from d20 Future at lower progress levels and lower purchase DCs with weakened functions (usually the benefits are halved). The chapter also includes options for “total cybernetic replacement”, basically robotic suits with organic brains, which can be used on the new “cyborg” template. I can imagine how this might be used by power gamers to create cold inhuman fighting machines, but this chapter also ends with an optional rule for a paranoid disorder your character might get from too much chrome, so the author’s message is clear.
Chapter Eleven: Gear
Most of the new stuff here is gadgets (a few overlaps with d20 Future Tech like Long Range/ Extended Range or Fragile). There are a number of interesting flaws, such as overheating or weapons with reduced ammo capacity. I am always looking for interesting game ideas within equipment, and elements like this are much more interesting than a “-1”. Then some new weapons (something I haven’t cross checked against the various official supplements), new equipment, additions to powered armor, and some new armor suits, as well as complete stats for the Tech-Knights sword.
Conclusion
The Future Player’s Companion is a very useful supplement for d20 Modern/ Future to be mined by players and GMs alike. As this it is a slightly dry read and setting free, not unlike WotC’s products. As a bundle of optional rules it does its job beautifully though. I haven’t found anything outrageously unbalanced yet and everything fits smoothly into the Sci-Fi genre.
A final note on artwork: this is a toolbox, not a picture book, therefore illustrations are probably not as important as in setting heavy books. The interior art is by Khairul Hisham (abysmal to workable) and Pete Schlough (brilliant). It would have been nice to see all new aliens with pictures, but otherwise the art compliments the text nicely.
