Rating: 
Summary: B- Instead
Review: This book is very well done, though it is plagued by many problems that WOTC can't seem to correct through the use of a professional copy-editor. The system seems to work with very few flaws, however don't rely on the page references (especially if referenced to a certain table) to find the information you seek.
(After some careful consideration, I need to ammend my review... I still give it 4 stars, but I think the wealth system used is not very useful...)
Rating: 
Summary: The only RPG I ever got rid of!
Review: I've played RPG's for 20 years and have come across some doozies but this is the weakest, most useless book I have ever come across. From the unimaginitive and uninteresting character classes to the emphasis on fantasy in a modern setting. I bought this book thinking it was going to be a reimagining of the old Top Secret RPG but instead they should've called it "d20 Shadowrun Generic." Because that's all it is: What if an orc had a machine gun? Ooh! Color me unimpressed. Who cares. Don't buy this. All I wanted are d20 rules for shooting. Call of Cthulhu and Star Wars must be better than this?
Rating: 
Summary: An okay book, but not for the price
Review: Let me being by saying that I am not a huge fan of the d20 system to begin with, but try finding a group of players who shares this view. My overall assessment if the d20 modern book is; good. I found the writing and artwork to be above average. The six character classes are each centered around a different attribute, strong hero for strength, smart hero for intelligence, etc. This is a good idea, as it gives a lot of flexibility for design, and matches the feel of action-movie heroes pretty well. A lot of people remember "Ripley" from the "Alien" movies as a tough heroine, but how many remember her actual role on the original ship?The new feats are rather lackluster. Most of them consist of adds to a few skills, ho-hum. There are several, however, that expand the role of unarmed combat, and are very much appreciated by those of us who enjoy martial-arts flicks. Unlike some of the reviewers I liked the new wealth stat as it eliminated a lot of bookkeeping, and simulates the feel of modern fiancnes fairly well (quick, what is your total net worth? See what I mean). The suggested campaigns are uninspired and can be safely ignored. My one major beef is the rules for firearms. In real life, a bullet can kill. In this game, only a lot of bullets can kill. Yes they are threatening to first and second level characters, but after that a 2d6 attack just doesn't seem the threatenting. A tenth level charatcer can wade through a hail of bullets not expecting to loose more than half his HP. That isn't realistic, it isn't in the movies and it isn't any fun! In a regular D&D campaign if the characters have alot of HP you can throw a dragon at them, what can you do in d20 modern? Have every mook packing a howitzer? For my campaigns I modified the gunfire rules. So why did I give this book only 2 stars? Not because it is an inferior product, but because it is overpriced for what you get. Personally I would have liked to have seen the sample campaigns dropped, along with about about 1/4 of the price. Still, if you don't mind the expense it can be a good addition to your collection
Rating:
Summary: Huge Disapointment....
Review: OK, I was honestly pretty excited about this coming out. I've been playing rpgs for close to 20 years now, and like the D&D3e system so much that I switched from GURPS(blasphemy, I know). After hearing about d20 mod, I was really looking forward to seing what Wizards was going to do with it. This was especially true after seeing their take on Call of Cthulhu. So then I plop down my $ and....eh. It's by no means horrible, but I really didn't find anything new or innovative in this as I expected to. A glance through the chapters shows this: 1: Character gen. OK, so this has to be here, but the class system is based on attributes, and not jobs, which is cool, but these are pretty much the same as the Shadow Chasers rules that were in Dungeon earlier this year. Alignment is gone, something I threw out of my D&D games awhile ago. The occupation system is ok, I suppose, but I like the CoC system better. Money is treated as a stat, which reminds me of the old Marvel Superheros game, which is a bad thing.2:Skills:Nothing new here except for the hacking rules which one could just as easily made up. 3:Feats:OK, lets set this straight...picking 2 skills and giving them a +2 bonus each is not a new feat, it should have a generic name where you can just pick any 2 skills. The firearm feats are pretty much the same as in Star Wars and Call of Cthulhu, and most of the basic D&D feats were left in, but seem kinda usless in the modern world(Mighty Cleave? really...)4:Equipment: Not bad...adequate. 5:Combat: It's a d20 game, so I knew all of this would be the same as in the Player's Handbook, the firearm rules from SW/COC are here also. Good, easy to use rules. 6:Advanced Classes, d20mod versions of prestige classes don't hold up quite so well. They are just extensions of the characters jobs, but without all of the cool stuff from prestige classes. 7:Gamemaster section, lifted almost word for word from the Dungeon Master's Guide. 8:Friends and Foes has stats for NPC's and monsters, most of them taken directly from the Monster Manual. OK, most of these are just silly. Most people who are going to buy this already have the stats for these monsters, so what was the point of wasting 67 pages on it? Goblins and Ogres and Mind Flayers don't seem very modern to me...I did enjoy the painting of the gnoll in the pimp outfit, though. This section puts way too much fantasy into the game. 9: Campaign Models.....ok, here we go...they give us 3 exceedingly derivative setting to use here. Shadow Chasers, which was originally 1st seen in Dungeon Magazine is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer knock off. I'm not much of a Buffy fan, but this didn't come across as being too bad, in a Kolchack(sp?) sort of way, but I don't think it lends itself to much long term play. The second, Agents of PSI is essentially Scanners married to the X-Files, which isn't altogether bad, but it uses the clunky Wizards point based psionics system(why they didn't make it like the Force in Star Wars is beyond me...) and doesn't cover too much ground that Shadow Chasers doesn't. In fact, they could be viewed as separate parts of a common world. Finally, Urban Arcana stinks up the remainder of this chapter, which is just D&D set in the present, with Mind Flayer priests, Medusa CEO's, and urban landscapes in place of underground labyrinths. So there is a modern horror setting, a spy filled paranoia setting, and a modern fantasy setting. Horror+paranoia+fantasy=Call of Cthulhu, even if you don't use the mythos stuff. Once again, nothing new. The next chapter, FX Abilities, reprints the psionics rules and a watered down version of the magic system from the PHB. Most of this is just useless. I mean, how usefull is a Wall of Stone spell in modern time? How about some magic that reflects the modern world a la Mage? And is the magic itself really necessary? Once again, most gamers probably already have these rules, so why waste page space? The magic item section is a complete disaster, which once again simply reprints items, word for word from the DMG with very little new stuff here(the Ring of the Ram was stupid in D&D, and even more so here). They almost seem on the right track for a moment with cool stuff like leather jackets of damge resistance, but then lose me when they throw wands into the mix. How about some flavor, like TechMagic, with Cell Phones of Speak With Dead, True Universal Remotes, Televisions of Scrying, Soda of Healing, etc. If the setting is going to be as cheesy as it looks, play it up. Essentially, this book offers reprints of material previously found elsewhere, in books already owned by the majority of people that will buy this... I can say that this is by far the biggest waste of money on a Wizards product so far, as it will sit on my bookshelf completely unused. I'll be sticking with d20 Call of Cthulhu for any modern setting for the time being....
Rating:
Summary: Very solid
Review: Unlike some of the other reviewers, I found the classes based on characteristics to be a refreshing change from the profession = class route i.e. fighter, monk, etc. The talent tree is a good idea and not overpowering, but enough of an edge over the 'ordinary' folks that the heroes may come in contact with. The action point method takes a cue from numerous systems that try and give the heroes that little something extra that can get them over a tough encounter. Much has been said about the wealth system, which I found to be a better method of approximating a character's purchasing power than accounting for how much liquid capital one has (I do enough book keeping at work; I don't care for it in my games...but that is just a personal preference). The professions that the character begins with is another plus to the system in my opinion. Here a player could be a charasmatic hero, and a soldier. Or a tough hero could be a field scientist. The ability to do the job is based on a skill called Profession. Which says that one has to spend resources to get good at their job. The campaign ideas at the end of the book are enjoyable, but probably there is no pleasing everyone. For those who are unhappy with some of the equipment available, there is a web resource from Wizards that has additional high tech equipment. I only gave this book four stars because the methodology they followed for the basic classes became less consistent with the advanced classes. I was not real keen on 'Soldier' or 'Gun Slinger'. Just back to the theme of class = profession. But, overall, I am very pleased with my purchase. (As an aside, I am using D20 Modern for my D20 1920's Call of Cthulhu game. But I like more action in my fight against the mythos!)
Rating: 
Summary: Surprising...
Review: I was kind of looking forward to this. Sure, Spycraft is out, and is a great modern RPG, but surely WotC, makers of the d20 system, could come up with something great? Eh. In a synopsis, it's boring. Now PCs start out in one of six attribute-centered classes, with low saves and base attack. You can then move into an advanced class if you qualify for one, but those are currently fairly rare. They've factored in the extra human skill point, so everybody now has odd skill points/class. New to the d20 system is the Wealth rating. This is an attempt to represent modern finance, which is rather more complicated than piles of gold pieces. The idea is that one rolls against one's Wealth rating to purchase an item, which has a variable DC based on expense and rarity. It's a nice concept, but I'm not all that happy with it, mostly because it's possible for a 1st-level PC to not be able to afford to purchase duct tape. (No, really.) I'm not sure of a better way to represent modern wealth, but I'm not happy with it. The general trend is that one gets rich as one rises in level, and in practice, one skill point/level will get devoted to Profession (which is partially used for Wealth checks). Most of the other rules are similar, but new to d20 are action points, which one gains every level, and which are used to add to rolls and, if I'm not mistaken, activate critical hits. Unfortunately, there's no mechanism for regaining them that I could see, which makes them less useful than the action dice from Spycraft. The other new thing is Fx, which actually isn't new; it's weird stuff, like magic or superscience, that can be plugged into the game. However, there's not a lot of description about magic and almost none about superscience, which might be because it's a basic book. However, ALL THREE of the settings included in the book are supernatural to some degree, two with magic and one with psionics. It's at this point that I decided that d20 Modern had failed, because the Urban Arcana setting is, for all intents and purposes, D&D with less capable PCs (in that their base attack and saves are lower, so they're easy fodder for that mind flayer!). That also seems to be the first one they're developing for its own setting book. Shadow Chasers is a less magic-intensive, lite-horror setting, similar to Buffy the Vampire Slayer and shows of that ilk, and is fairly good. The psionics setting is okay, but was better done as part of GURPS Psionics. Honestly, what they really needed was to drop Urban Arcana and put in a good, regular setting that didn't involve magic, just to show how it would be done. You can have more or less regular games without magic or psionics, but you can't look to d20 Modern for that. Try Spycraft first.
Rating:
Summary: Lame adaption of a great concept
Review: I waited for weeks with anticipation for d20 modern and I have to say I was pretty disappointed. I definitely think WotC had a chance to really make something great out of this and failed. Too bad. Very generic book. Example: classes. The strong hero? The fast hero? Can't we do better than this. Really pretty pathetic.
Rating:
Summary: A Work in Progress
Review: For both the dedicated Star Wars fan and any RPG addict, this is the game to play. The game is essentially a deriviative of the 3rd Ed. Dungeons & Dragons rules, but with many changes that make it a unique experience. Adventuring in the Star Wars universe doesn't get any better than this, with just your imagination as the limit to what you can do. The Revised Core Rulebook is a major improvement over the original, with a whole lot more (and more useful) class abilities, added skills, new starship combat rules, and Force-user prestige classes that were previously notably absent. A great deal of balancing has been done, and things work out better in general. For example, Jedi can do a lot of the things you see them doing in the movies (e.g. deflecting, extending defense to allies), which makes for a more exciting game. If you have the old rulebook, I suggest you upgrade to the new one. It's worth the money. Despite the improvements, there are still some serious problems with the rules as they stand. My biggest gripe was the starship statistics, which are peculiar, to say the least. Perhaps it's just me, since I've played all the Star Wars space sim games, but I have a problem with a squadron of normal TIE fighters destroying a Nebulon-B frigate on the second pass. Additionally, some of the skill rules have odd restrictions, such as the DSP award for using Drain Energy (why?) and the utterly pathetic damage Force Lightning does (and it costs you too). Also, and this strikes me as doubly peculiar, older ships seem to be better than newer ones. What happened? Did the weapon technology go retrograde? Usually old is better only in fantasy RPGs. Some might also complain about the way Jedi are bullied into considering every little thing they do, under penalty of getting Dark Side Points. I think this is rather realistic, however, since that's all part of having the Force with you. As for my gripes about the starship rules, I simply ignored them and made my own. This of course is the ultimate beauty of this game: the GM is in charge and can do whatever he/she wants, so long as the players are fine with it. If you want your concussion rifle or dual-phase double-bladed lightsaber, go ahead and put it in. Unlike your typical board or computer games, this one is endlessly customizable and limitless in both scope and replayability. I am hoping that future revisions of the book call to account the peculiarities of the current version, but even if they don't, I'll probably check it out. The classes and general combat rules are the real core use of this excellent sourcebook, and they are fabulously well done. Compliments to the creators, but perhaps you should play some X-wing vs. TIE fighter first.
Rating: 
Summary: REVIEW of the 2002 Revised Core Rulebook
Review: Here's where i'm coming from with this review: 30 years old; big fan of star wars since i was 5; hated the Phantom Menace and feared that George had lost his marbles and ruined memories of my childhood; liked Clones better, even if the script and acting and romance sucked; and a player of D&D since i was very young.
So, roll all of that up and introduce the new revised rulebook, and we have ourselves a fan. The book is gorgeous, i mean really, really well done, chock full of attractive layout, art and photography. I never played the old WEG Star Wars. That's too bad, as i feel that i might have missed out on something. I've read all of the reviews regarding the new version, and to say the least they are very contradictory.
I sort of know what they mean. When 3rd edition came out i was sorely against it for about a year. I found it confusing, some of the changes unnecessary, and the general FEEL was not the D&D of 1st and 2nd edition that i knew and loved so well.
Given time with my group, we slowly integrated the rules, tweaking them as needed, leaving out a good bit of the OOP rules and keeping what we wanted. In the end, we all became hardcore d20 fans as we came to understand the complexity and flexibility of the system.
I don't think it matters what game system you use, so long as it is a good, stable one, if you are into rpg's. No system is perfect, not the old WEG system, and not the new WOTC system, but the new one is still pretty damn good. For any of you out there who still have reservations, keep in mind that you can alter the rules for your own style of play. Give some classes bonus abilities, let armor reduce vitality damage, make races stronger than Humans, give droids maximum hp at every level, do whatever you want to create a game that fits your needs.
Combat is fast and furious, but ONLY if you are familiar with d20. Our first forays into attacks of opportunity was a disaster. SW is still deadly, much more so than D&D. Wound point damage is equal to your constituion score, an average of 10-15 points. A simple blaster does 3-24 points of damage on a critical hit. Add that with fatigue penalities, saves vs. unconsciousness, and lack of healing potions, character lives are rather fragile.
In conclusion, i am pleased with the book and the system, and the wonderful accessories available for the game. Like with D&D before it, this update has been a welcome change. And even if they DO come out with another version after episode 3, i'll just have to save up ... over three years to buy that too.
Rating:
Summary: Ultimately modular d20
Review: I'm more fond of d20 Modern than I have been of any other d20 product with the exception of Call of Cthulhu d20, which is an obvious influence. The nature of the class system, which seems designed especially for maximum variety (unlike D&D, there is no multiclassing penalty...indeed, the whole game is geared towards encouraging the multiclass player) and the inclusion of the Talent Tree only emphasizes that. Between multiclassing, talent selection and feats and skills, it becomes possible to grow into an enormously varied selection of character types...the closest I've ever seen a class and level system come to the flexibility of a point based system, in fact. With the addition of streamlined magic and psi systems derived from the ones in D&D (although I'll admit it would have been nice to have had the lost GeneTech setting included...I'm a sucker for Transgenics) and the nice assortment of monsters, it becomes possible to use this book for almost any genre you'd care to create, which is where it earns its cover price for me. I don't want limits, I want possibilities, and I can imagine using this book to create any campaign I'd want to run and almost any character I'd want to play. The cross-genre nature of the book wins me over. I do think the monster section (although useful for someone intending to use only this book) could have been removed and some rules for high-tech could have been included...but this isn't d20 Future, I guess.
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