d20 core rules

[davidence]

What book do people use for the d20 core rules?

Thanks.

 

[Flynn]

I personally use D&D's PHB, but I've heard that many people get by quite well with either Star Wars d20 or D20 Modern.

Hope this helps,
Flynn

 

[Jadawin]

While 99.999% of the time, just using the the 3E PHB is fine, I've recently taken to building characters (Traveller Characters mind you) using my own home-brew spin on D20 Modern. It goes something like this:

1. Players pick a "base class" to start with. In d20 Modern, its the standard classes from there.. Strong, Tough, Smart, etc. This represents the overall type of person the character is. They get a free level in whatever base class they take at maximum ability (Max Hit Points for 1st level).
2. Then I have a mildly complex "career" system which at various points in the process allows them to pick up one more levels in this base class or add a new class (the basic T20 classes), and/or level up..

This allows older characters to come out of the process at a higher overall character level and a bit more well-rounded (for me anyway)..

 

[Michael Taylor]

I use the T20 players handbook playtest files on the Moot.

 

[davidence]

Interesting...

I was going to pick up D20 Modern. Would it be better then the D&D PHB?

 

[Jadawin]

Originally posted by dence:
Interesting...

I was going to pick up D20 Modern. Would it be better then the D&D PHB?

I think if you're playing ANY kind of MODERN-TO-FAR FUTURE D20-based RPG, its best to use D20 Modern as the foundation rather than the Swords-n-Sorcery D&D stuff.

While one might argue that they're basically the same, there are some differences that cause the game to "feel" different. No, I would never run a "vanilla" D20 Modern game on its own, but as I've already indicated it makes an excellent base on which to build any kind Modern-to-Far Future RPG.

 

[DaveChase]

If you are going to use the barbian type character that becomes a marine, you could use the PHB but I would strongly suggest the d20 Modern if you had to choose only one.

The d20 Future book has some interesting things in it if you are wanting to twick somethings IYTU.

Dave

 

[Jadawin]

D20 Future was sadly disappointing. Its basically a hacked up D20 version of ALTERNITY. Starship construction is VERY vague and didn't satisfy me at all (ok, I'm a fan of HIGH GUARD, sue me). The character classes they present in D20F are just plain dumb. As a reference of what NOT to do in a D20 Sci-Fi ruleset, it rocks. As a tool to take D20 Modern into Sci-Fi settings, forget it.

 

[davidence]

I think I'll pick up the D20 Modern then.

I too am a HIGH GUARD fan.

I played CT in the early and mid-80's and just picked up T20 to give it a try.

I was thinking of picking up D20 Future too to use for ideas and such, but use T20 for running the game.

 

[Malenfant]

You won't get many ideas from D20 future that aren't already in T20. You'll be fine with D20Modern though I think, it's a good system.

 

[mike wightman]

Have a look through the d20M/F SRD, here's a link to it, or try to get a look at d20F in a shop.

The sections on biotechnology, nanotech, mecha, robots, mutations , and cybernetics have some interesting stuff in that could be adapted to a T20 game - especially one set in 1248 onwards...

 

[Malenfant]

hm, oh yeah, I forgot about those. Ok, I take that back - those could be quite handy.

My brain just blanked out on the godawful "ship design" and the 'please let me shoot the author for the one page star system generator with green stars'...

 

[mike wightman]

Yeh, the ship design is awful, and the system design is worse.

And a lot of the book is filled with stuff that may not be all that useful to T20, although the equipment gadgets have given me a few ideas, as have the campaign types.

 

[davidence]

Thanks guys!

Yeah. I saw the SRD's. I looked them over pretty well a few weeks ago. Then I saw the books at a store. The books seemed a bit more organized and complete.

I didn't really look over the ship design. I was just going to stick with the T20 stuff. Now I know I'll ignore it.

 

[DaveChase]

I never said d20 Future was the greatest.

I just said that it could give a refree some ideas with out having to do lots of work to convert.

I prefer conversions of anything that I find/like because I have to take more time with it and there for it works better in MTU

Dave