D20 Modern

Cover art.

What do you get when you take Dungeons & Dragons and put it in the 21st century? d20 Modern.

Back in the good old days of 3e (not 3.5), some brilliant bastard at Wizards decided that there was no point in having only one game using the d20 System. So, they took the D&D rules, replaced the classes, and added guns. The result was d20 Modern, an easy-(enough)-to-play modern RPG (if you don't mind rules skewed toward magic and monsters, as opposed to, you know, REALITY).

Like D&D, Wizards also belched forward a number of accessory books for d20 Modern, which, unlike the D&D supplements, were few in number and many actually worth buying. They still handled guns with shitty attempts at realism, but then every RPG does.

If you look carefully, you'll see some of the ideas from d20 Modern survived into D&D 4e, which some would say is a brief glimpse of win midst the fail, or just more failfuel for the failtrain.

Another nice thing that kept the guns SOMEWHAT realistic, was massive damage threshold. Instead of 50 like in D&D, it was equal to your Con score. This meant a critical hit or good roll from a long gun (usually 2d6 to 2d10 damage) could force you to make a save or instantly go to -1 hit points. If gun damage had been buffed a bit, it could have been a nice alternative to the "Vitality and Wound points" used by Star Wars D20. This was addressed in Saga Edition with a damage threshold system where damage in excess of the threshold's value caused a penalizing wound, which was relevant with higher damage, more starting HP, lower threshold and easier to increase gun damage.

Star Wars d20 was based on this system. While it solved a few of d20 Modern's issues, it unfortunately compounded many of its problems with problems of its own. Saga Edition adopted more ideas from d20 Modern and actually fixed everything.

Differences from D&D

• Action Points, like 'karma' or 'luck' points in other games. You can use them to either boost the number you rolled on d20, or to use a feat that requires an action point (usually to do something totally awesome). Action points spent do not return until you level up.
• You didn't keep track of how much gold/dollars/nuyen you had; instead, Wealth was a skill check, and getting big wads of cash was a bonus to your Wealth rolls. Purchases had a DC for Wealth checks, and buying something with a higher DC than your Wealth score (which was virtually anything not one use) meant you lost some bonus (because you spent beyond your means). It was horrifically, horrendously, broken. Not in the "overpowered" sense but "they didn't playtest this once".
  • Buying anything with a non-trivial cost (15 PDC or higher) reduced your wealth bonus by at least 1. A starting character's wealth bonus is (2d4+1 to 4 from starting occupation+1 from having ranks in profession. Typically 7). A Computer (-2d6 because computers cost an absurd amount in this system), a printer/scanner (-2 because these are completely different items), filling out a 4473 form (-1), a shotgun (-1), a decent backpack (-1), and a single set of clothing (-1) will take a character from "middle-class" to impoverished.
  • On the other hand, because you can purchase "trivial" items infinitely, a rich character (PC, allied NPC, or allied faction) can bootstrap the party to effectively infinite Wealth by buying random trivial crap for the poorer characters to sell, so they can buy random non-trivial crap for rich character to sell. This is only the simplest way to get infinite Wealth, by the way.
  • It also has some really fucking bizarre ideas on how restricted everything is legally. Suppressors ($200 tax and a bunch of waiting) are, under the game's rules, harder to get than full auto (The same, but banned since 1986 so all grandfathered examples cost tens of thousands) while sawed off shotguns (Same as suppressors) are flat out impossible to get legally in the game's rules (and black market sawed off shotguns are several times more expensive than normal black market shotguns).
  • You couldn't take 10 or take 20 for wealth checks or take average wealth decreases during character creation, meaning you had to make your character with the GM present wasting everyone's time and rendering the OGL nature of the system moot. This was thankfully axed in errata.
  • Urban Arcana offered the option to play a reverse Isekai character. This gave you extra wealth (2d6+occupation+profession skill bonus) at character generation in exchange for having your bonus go to +0 afterwards (apparently the several pounds of gold a fantasy character carries is worthless in the modern era). This was hilariously easy to cheese since you could bypass the "magic items are rare" thing and buy expensive magic items (indeed, you sorta had too since there's little other fantasy appropriate gear at high enough price you don't get it for free) like a magic jacket that gave you DR10 against non-magic attacks, enough to pretty much nullify all damage for several levels (an attack would need to kill a 1st level character outright to even scratch you). Since wealth increased quickly at level up if it was low, this isn't much of a disadvantage in the long run.
  • The system tried to represent things getting less expensive over time with "Tech Progress Levels"; Purchase DCs for things invented farther in the past were lower than modern stuff (-2 per PL), assuming the thing in question isn't an antique, while cutting-edge equipment had a +5 "penalty" to the DC until the rest of the world caught up. Many mundane devices date back to the Late Cold War/Industrial Revolution or even the Bronze Age/Stone Age, meaning a player who knows his trivia and/or can fast-talk the DM can push a lot of very useful equipment into trivial-cost territory. Also, the system is very rough and oversimplified (PL's are meaninglessly vague, especially futuristic ones - and that makes it hard to determine when exactly one PL ends and another starts - which complicates PDC and availability; late PL3 and early PL4 have big overlap; a lot of epochs are lumped in PL4, from flintlocks to assault rifles).
    • Depending on how you define PL4 and PL5 by RAW, you could argue that pretty much all modern war gear is PL4 - unless it has complex computers/electronics (PL5) or if it's invented even earlier (PL0-3). By examining key technologies listed in book, it was determined that the only PL5 things are computer/electronics-related; most important things are late PL4. For example, all but the most overcomplicated and computerized (e.g. OICW) modern guns work on same principles as guns of 1960-1980's, so are PL4.
  • Another option for acquiring gear, is "Requisition". Roll to acquire gear from organization, based on character level, charisma bonus, and item's importance/relevant for mission, and item's PDC. But it doesn't fully circumvent the problem - as requisition needs a lot of time to arrive, and it requires the PC's to work for - or at least, be backed by/be allied with - organization/faction.
• No alignment system; instead you had an "allegiance." You could have an allegiance to a religion, a nation (patriotism), an organization, a philosophy... and you'd get a +2 circumstance bonus when dealing with people that have the same allegiance.
  • In fact, you could have multiple allegiances, although most people were too dumb to take advantage of that fact.
• You had an Occupation, which was like your level 0 class that gave you some class-skills and maybe a bonus feat.
• There were three noticeable tiers for characters: levels 1-7, levels 8-15, and levels 16-20.
• Every class only has 10 levels; you had to take an "advanced" (read: prestige) class or multiclass if you wanted to go higher.
• There are six basic hero classes, one for each of the six base attributes: Strong, Fast and Tough heroes (Str,Dex,Con), and Smart, Dedicated and Charismatic heroes (Int, Wis, Cha). There's no penalty for multiclassing (indeed, it is required by level 11, see above). There were 12 advanced classes, designed as 2 for each basic class, but which could be taken by any character provided appropriate requirements were met by said character. Some splats added additional advanced classes, as well as some 5-level true "prestige" classes.
• Basic classes had no class features but got talents from a class specific list every odd level. Most were just plain old shit and the worst class features ever (You get +1-3 to a couple skills! If you take longer you can lift/bend harder!) but the system would eventually be fixed and made awesome in Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game Saga Edition before being made useful but video game like in 4th Edition Dungeons and Dragons.
• No spells/miracles/psi (called "FX abilities") for base classes. Only prestige classes can have them, and refreshingly little of the rulebook is dedicated to listing and describing spells.
  • Spellcasting classes are all advanced classes, so you can't enter till level 4, and like all classes only go up to level 10 limiting you to 5th level spells. Theoretically this makes them less powerful, but practically it just means any mage is a Gish or Arcane Trickster (especially so on the second since Mage gets loads of skill points even before intelligence bonus) to some degree and they're still the best classes in the game.
• Had several supplements, including d20 Future and d20 Past. d20 Future had rules for playing (you guessed it) in the future and also had several supplements (d20 Apocalypse, d20 Cyberscape and Future Tech). d20 Past, meanwhile, had rules for playing the past. Obviously. The supplements allowed players to engage in updated-for-a-new-generation games that Gary Gygax had put out, including Gamma World, Boot Hill, Star Frontiers, Age of Exploration, a Zombie-Apocalypse variant, and many, many others. Suffice to say, these supplements, unlike their counterparts in Dungeons and Dragons, were actually worth buying and checking out.
  • d20 Past is a fantastic reference for when things first existed and first became common and even had a bibliography of citations available as a download.
  • d20 Future however was utter shit, with horrific balancing both in "useless" (You can play as an android! But your ability scores suck, you lose three feats for a handful of immunities, being/becoming anything better than basic biodroid/bioreplica gets too big ECL) and "horrifically overpowered" (There are feats to get two extra talents, which are better than a feat if you pick halfway intelligently, and you don't even need to have been in the base class.), has horrifically bad ship combat rules, most of the sci-fi gear is just magic gear but not magic, and hilariously includes the (already out of date and poor preforming at time of publishing) OICW as a high-end future weapon.
• Child character are explicitly playable, but it's impossible to complete character creation with one unless their dexterity was high or their strength really high. Fixed in splat.
• While magic items aren't excepted, mastercraft ones are trivial to get for someone who can craft, but GM's whims for one who can't, and give the same bonuses. This reinforces the only crafting skill worth a damn being mechanical, as that covers weapons, armors and vehicles.
• Oddly not changed is that you can't coup de grace with a ranged weapon. Reasonable with slings and bows, but the inability to shoot a tied up or unconscious man in the head at point blank is bizzare.
• Lots of weapons, which are strictly better than other weapons. If we sort them all out, we get rather small amount of worthwhile choices. Especially if every weapon in all books - or at least, all weapons in "Weapons Locker" book - are analyzed and compared. Large-sized SMG's and shotguns are worse than assault/battle rifles, LMG's and GpMG's are the best. Though, that may be intentional - as in real life, some weapons are strictly better than others of same class. E.G. 6G-30 for grenade launchers, Glock 19 and Reutech ADP Mk II for Tiny pistols, Glock 18C for Small full-auto pistols, MAS M50 and Ruger Service-Six for small pistols with PDC 14, FN Five-seveN for 2d8 pistols, Galil LMG for battle rifles, AW/AWP for sniper rifles, FN P90 for large SMG's, H&K 21E for machineguns, etc.
  • It doesn't help matters that, because of Wealth system - unless PC's are using infinite Wealth loop, are planning to bankrupt themselves, lend weapons via Requisition, and/or got their weapons as loot/gift from NPC's - they would gravitate to weapons/gear with trivial cost (14 PDC or smaller). As such, amount of worthwhile choices shrinks even further, to only "Boring, But Practical" things. Good choices include AK-47 (PL4), Tommy Gun (PL4), Browning High Power (Weapons Locker variant, PL4), Tec-9 (Basic Set variant), tiny concealable pistols (e.g. CZ 92, Pathfinder), range rifles (e.g. Springfield M1903, Winchester 94 - PL4), PL4 Repeating Shotgun.
• Some gear options are rather imbalanced:
  • "Future Tech" weapon modification. "Electrified" modification for melee weapons which increases damage by 4d6 for +2 PDC, "Extended Range" doubling weapon's range for +2 PDC, Improved Stopping Power for +10 PDC of ammo for extra damage die, cheap but effective ammo modifications, etc. Note than, unless noted otherwise, modifications are available at any PL.
  • D20 Future, Compact and Miniaturized: makes weapon 1 or 2 sizes smaller respectively, for +2 PDC and +5 PDC respectively. So you could, for example, have assault rifle or anti-material rifle shrunken to size of magnum pistol, while keeping the firepower.
• Minor weapon workings errors; many parts need to be house-ruled to make sense. E.G. "Weapons Locker" - the gun book - has machineguns overheating faster than assault rifles, and impossibility of using MG belts longer than 50 bullets without assistant (IRL machineguns overheat slower than other automatic weapons; it is possible to use long MG belts without assistant - especially if belts are loaded into machinegun backpack).
• About unbalanced species/races/templates/subspecies (benefits for free):
  • "Half-Fraal" template ("Fraals" are "gray" aliens) from Menace Manual. +4 Intellect, +4 Wisdom, +2 Charisma; better psionics (at will - lesser mindlink, suggestion; manifester level can't be less than 5); Fraal language. Only minuses are -2 Strength and -2 Constitution. For any Intellect, Wisdom or Charisma-based character, this is must-have, especially if he's psionic. If combined with "Franks" from D20 Future (human sub-species for stat min-maxing; +2 to one stat, -2 to other, low-light vision), Intellect or Wisdom can be boosted to +6 at start from species alone.
  • "Extraterrestrial" template from D20 Future. CR is rounded up/down to nearest whole number - you can take one "+1/3 CR modifier" special quality freely. Also, can replace 1 movement mode with other (burrow dirt/climb/fly poor/swim); land movement is retained since they key off "base land speed" - so you can essentially replace "walking" with "walking + extra mode".
  • Mutations, which give little-to-no harm for free mutation points: "Neutrad Dependency", "Poisonous blood" (both make character dependent on cheap readily available commodities - not problem unless in D20 Apocalypse), "Festering Sores" (decreases bonus from armor - doesn't matter to character who doesn't wear armor).
• For non-technical character, "Technophobe" flaw is good - minus to skills you aren't trained anyways (can't use), extra Feat. For low-strenght character, "Skinny" and "Slippery" are good: bonuses to Escape Artist, penalties to being bull-rushed and grappling (don't matter).

Spycraft 2.0

Crafty Games made a heavily modified variant of d20 Modern which was based off their previous system. Spycraft 2.0 improves many of d20 Modern's faults (including replacing the clusterfuck wealth system with issued gear as standard). It also assumes the genre is not Urban Fantasy, which was largely the default in d20 Modern, and focuses on (as you'd guess) James Bond esqe antics. Unfortunately Spycraft 2.0 had two big, crippling faults of its own.

Firstly nobody writing it understood how pointless a +1 or +2 bonus was (it increases the total chance of success by 5% and 10% respectively) and they're everywhere and treated like they're important. Coming from a system where a feat that gave +2 to two skills was well known to be one of the worst possible options in any moderately normal build, throwing out a bunch of options with +1 and +2 bonuses to skills attached was pretty lame and hard to keep track of.

Secondly all guns have a recoil value that's effectively a minimum strength value. This is quite a reasonable idea but the values make absolutely no sense and these values seem to be purely based on the weight of the firearm with little understanding of the characteristics of even common cartridges. This means 7.62x39 firearms (which has quite harsh recoil for an intermediate cartridge) tend to have less recoil than 5.56 (considered the mildest recoiling centerfire rifle cartridge in common use) firearms since their all steel construction weighs more. This is absolutely not the case in reality. Other crazy standouts being Glocks have insanely high recoil values due to their light weight while most versions of the Desert Eagle have values approaching half the Glock's. A Glock 22 in .40 S&W has more recoil than a Glock 20 in 10mm, which is retarded because having less recoil than the Glock 20 is literally the entire reason it exists (Female FBI agents couldn't handle 10mm and .40 S&W was developed purely to have less recoil). Even within the nonsensical system of recoil being primarily determined by weight (rather than cartridge), the scaling isn't consistent across firearms in the slightest.

Spinoffs/Subgames/Settings

• Urban Arcana
• d20 Past
• d20 Future
• d20 Apocalypse
• d20 Cyberscape
• Dark*Matter was remade for d20 Modern
• The Modern Path a fan's attempt to update the rules to match Pathfinder

See Also

• d20 Modern System Ref Document hypertext open-gaming license book of the whole enchilada.