Good D20 Modern Warfare RPG

[Zinegata]

Do any exist? I know some RPGs covering Modern Warfare exist - i.e. Twilight 2000 and Recon, but do any exist for the D20 system?

I know there's D20 Modern, but it's a big of a mis-mash fantasy/modern game and it's not that good.

Has anyone adapted a D20 RPG that plays like an episode from "The Unit" (TV Show) or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare?

Any non-D20 recommendations would also be welcome, but D20 is preferred as it's the system most of the people I know are familiar with.

[Zinegata]

With 50+ views and no replies I'm guessing no one knows any games that fits this bill

[sabs]

Why would you want to use D20 for a modern game.

Ick

[fectin]

Stargate was sort of okay, and the protagonists are basically normal humans (I.e. Not wizards). It was built on Spycraft, which I've heard less good things about, but which had a massive update since I paid any attention whatsoever to it.
Edit: Traveller isn't d20.

[hogarth]

With 50+ views and no replies I'm guessing no one knows any games that fits this bill

I think the usual response would be "Spycraft" (I don't know, I haven't played it), but it's probably worse than d20 Modern in some ways (even if it's better in some ways).

[mean_liar]

Why d20? Its classes and levels don't lend themselves to any sort of realism.

[hogarth]

Why d20? Its classes and levels don't lend themselves to any sort of realism.

Hm...I wonder if an E6 d20 Modern would work.

[Lago PARANOIA]

d20 Modern works even less well at low levels, depending on what kind of flavor you're going for.

Battles are a nihilistic, suicidal venture where you have a serious chance of suffering a TPK in the first round of combat, due to how fragile characters are in that system. I don't even mean things like someone getting a lucky critical with a greataxe, I just mean just the scenario of 4 mooks round the corner and open fire. Their guns dish out from 12-16 damage (exceeding characters constitution scores) because they're using longarms with an average damage of 2d12. This forces DC 15 fortitude saves or drop to -1 hp instantly. First round of combat, 3 out of 5 people die and the party tank has less than half hit points left.

Not even Shadowrun is that lethal and that game revels in punishing you for trigger-happiness.

[hogarth]

I just mean just the scenario of 4 mooks round the corner and open fire. Their guns dish out from 12-16 damage (exceeding characters constitution scores) because they're using longarms with an average damage of 2d12.

I will freely admit that 1st level characters are pretty fragile. But I find it funny that in your campaign, mooks are equipped with .50 caliber sniper rifles.

[sabs]

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the words Good and D20 being in the same sentence, without the word riddance in between.

[shadzar]

I'm still trying to wrap my brain around the words Good and D20 being in the same sentence, without the word riddance in between.

sadly the d20 system is a good idea at its framework, but the implementation for D&D was jsut crap...as well many other things it applied to.

the good part was an attempt to make an open source game system that anything could be put into...the problem is when you mix and match that stuff from genres, it kind of doesnt work together...like playing a Naruto character in a D&D game...

i dont play modern games, but think the approach not that different than how many games were made based off AD&D1E.

so finding the one that is built for your playstyle, as Zinegata is trying to do...is just a matter of looking.

[TheFlatline]

Stargate was sort of okay, and the protagonists are basically normal humans (I.e. Not wizards). It was built on Spycraft, which I've heard less good things about, but which had a massive update since I paid any attention whatsoever to it.
Edit: Traveller isn't d20.

Spycraft 2.0 is a massive toolkit. It's better in many ways than the original version, but it takes some getting used to.

For example, instead of creating a set of mooks for one adventure, you create a class of mooks (ie: tissue paper, good fight, and nearly-have-a-character-name) and the actual NPCs scale with the character levels. Damage for minor NPCs is done via saving throws that get cumulatively harder as you inflict damage.

The chase rules are some of the best I've ever seen for any RPG, period. They are fairly successful and are very cinematic and fun. In my Spycraft game there was generally an argument over who got to be the wheelman it was considered so much fun.

2.0 expanded this system for brainwashing, dragnets looking for people, and about four or five other "dramatic systems" that handle complicated series of events in a montage sort of way.

Even better, the chase system can be lifted wholly from Spycraft and dropped into any other D20 system, since it's based on a handful of skillchecks and it's own mechanics.

The characters are *way* powerful though. Level 14 powers (and level 10 prestige class powers) are essentially "game-breakers" that change the rules in some fundamentally beneficial way once or twice a session.

You're considered highly proficient, so you receive a pseudo-skill called "education", where if you think your character would know something you don't, you roll vs education and see if you've picked it up in the past. Kind of a neat way to ask the DM for help.

The system uses a wounds/vitality split, but it's not quite so lethal as Star Wars, since you have action dice, and among other things you spend them on activating critical hits *and* failures (so you can force the DM to critical failure, which he can ignore by awarding you extra action dice). Armor is mostly damage reduction with the occasional buff to AC, whereas class level helps determine AC. Action dice also can buff your AC for one round too.

Combat deals with a "fluid initiative" system where it's easy to increase your initiative count. At a certain point, if you're past I think 21 init, you can subtract 20 initiative to turn that head start into pure action, and you gain an extra half-action. It's a little more paperwork but it's nice for the one poor PC who's going last to spend a round gathering his wits and vaulting up in the initiative order.

Multiclassing is highly encouraged, although you may end up sacrificing your "game-breaker" at 14, the earlier levels all include significant abilities stacked early in the level progression to make shallow dipping an attractive option.

The system allows for some incredibly bullshit setups though. A military sniper with sniper levels could easily crit on a 10-20 (I'm not exaggerating) if he aims for 2-3 rounds. If memory serves, a level 10 sniper then has the ability to "take 10" on his attack roll, meaning he's going to crit once every 3 rounds so long as his action dice hold out. At that level he has something like 4 or 5 action dice available to him per session, plus any extra the GM hands out (which he needs to hand out, since he gains action dice by awarding them to the players).

The feat system is huge, and allows you to design your own martial art by combining different areas of martial arts into a fairly passable system.

My main complaint about the system is that the wealth/gadgets system is slow. Not as slow as the original spycraft, but still pretty slow. Mostly it's decision paralysis, since you can build your own gadgets from the ground up.

The rules support "gritty" military up through techno-thriller, and is aimed at a power level somewhere around the 007 movies (Casino Royale in the early levels, and some of the more bullshit movies in the later levels).

I liked the system. I never got any complaints when I ran it, everyone had fun, and it felt like a different enough game that it wasn't just another soulless D20 clone. It's also one of the bigger D20 toolkits at around 500 pages.

[Zinegata]

Spycraft sounds interesting. Use 2.0 you say?

[Zinegata]

Why d20? Its classes and levels don't lend themselves to any sort of realism.

Sorry, forgot to answer this question.

I'd prefer D20 due to familiarity with the system.

[TheFlatline]

Spycraft sounds interesting. Use 2.0 you say?

It's more complicated than 1.0, but it smooths over a lot of the biggest issues in 1.0. Namely, the equipment selection originally took for. ever. since it changed every mission. That's been streamlined now.

Designing enemies and their organizations are more streamlined too. You decide how big of a campaign you're going to have, and you buy a mastermind out of the points you have for the campaign, and then point-buy an organization, mooks, and named NPCs. Each location in the organization gives benefits and bonuses to the organization, and taking them out lets you eat away at what would normally be a huge unassault-able organization.

Now to be fair, I haven't strenuously tested all this. I picked and choosed and ran old-school adventures.

It's pretty comprehensive too. There've been a few minor supplements, but generally the 500 page core book has most of what you need in it. The only thing that's missing that 1.0 had was the 60's sourcebook. That was actually a blast to play in (though they do take the idea of theater-wide climates from the 60's book and implement it in 2.0).

Just realize it's a toolkit, and a giant one at that, and you're bound to find some sticking points, and you'll probably enjoy it. As I said, the chase rules are worth reading on their own to crib if nothing else.