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The screen is four panels (the better to shroud your notes from nosey players) and constructed of durable cardboard. Facing the players is a gorgeous full-color painting that’s action-packed and depicts icons of the many genres that d20Modern can be used to emulate, ranging from masked swashbucklers to cyber-ninjas and blade wielding vampire hunters. If players can’t get stoked about the session with this inspiration in their faces, they need to be checked for a pulse.
Each of the four panels is devoted to a different aspect of game mechanics. The first covers skills, purchase DCs, equipment needed for various skills, and sample opposed checks. Next are combat actions by type and condensed grapple rules. The third panel covers a host of miscellaneous modifiers, ranging from concealment and cover attack to light and size. This will probably be the most referred to information, and its pretty comprehensive. Finally, we get vehicle rules, including driver options, vehicle speed and modifiers, and collision damage.
The screen is full of information but not busy, the text small so as to include as much as possible while still remaining clearly legible. It’s an extremely useful game aid.
“Come for the Reaping” is an excellent introductory adventure almost worth the $15 on its own merits. Designed specifically for the Urban Arcana setting, it’s a horror-tale dashed with a bit of James Bond.
The plot sees the PCs investigating the disappearance of a Department-7 agent undercover in an old mansion in the Santa Monica hills suspected of housing an arcane research facility. The staff of the mansion, a group whose incompetence matched their ambition, made a fatal error while summoning a fiend called the reaper. It subsequently broke free and murdered everyone, turning them into mindless zombies.
A time limit is imposed upon the party in the form of the research company’s “clean-up crew”, which will arrive shortly to destroy all the evidence of wrong-doing. The characters have to search the mansion, find their missing comrade, destroy the resident evil, and leave with evidence implicating Ogdoad Research before the “clean-up crew” arrives. It’s a tough order.
The adventure is site-based, taking place entirely within the mansion where PCs kick zombie-butt. But while some will deride “Come for the Reaping” as a d20Modern dungeon-crawl, the truth is that’s an extremely flexible adventure. You can use it to play an over-the-top action story or a more cerebral X-Files style game or even a Cthulhu-esque tale at your leisure with only minor modifications, and it’s a great introduction to the d20Modern game system.
There is only a single illustration (that of the reaper) but it’s solid, and the cartography is great. Sidebars throughout the text give guidance to the GM on a number of important issues, such as scaling the adventure and hacking rules. Finally, the scenario includes a new incantation, pregenerated characters, a blank-character sheet ideal for photocopying, and player handout map of the mansion grounds.
“Come for the Reaping” is an inspired addition to the zombie-hunting genre, and is entirely entertaining. For its part, the screen is a must have for any d20Modern GM. Alone either would nearly be worth $15, but combined this is a steal.
