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: A Recipe for Modern Roleplaying
Review: Take Dungeons and Dragons, add a couple handfuls of modern concepts, add a pinch of Alternity, stir and let sit for nine months. Serves all flavours of cinematic modern roleplaying. I have been following the development of d20 Modern since the beginning of 2002. I saw the many changes that were made over the months. I also heard some of the reasons behind these changes and all these reasons are now justified as I hold the book in my hands. The d20 Modern rules are similar to Dungeon and Dragons, similar enough that it is easy to drop in a creature from the Monster Manual or add a spell to the Mage's spell list from the Player's Handbook. With the many products available from Wizards of the Coast and 3rd party publishers for Dungeons and Dragons this compatibility is definitely a positive one. The layout and art leaps out at you as you thumb through the pages. It conveys the message of action, adventure and heroics in a modern setting. d20 Modern will do to modern day roleplaying what Dungeons and Dragons did to medieval fantasy roleplaying. It will provide hours upon hours of fun and interaction for a group of participants immersed in a story. Be it playing as a soldier infiltrating an enemy base under the cover of night or casting a spell that instantly transports you and your companions to safety away from certain death. d20 Modern allows this to be achieved through consistent and simple mechanics. Awesome!
Rating: 
Summary: I don't know about this one.
Review: The actual game is , um, ok I guess. It has pretty solid rules. But the main thing that bothers me about this game is that IT IS A CHEAP VERSION OF SHADOWRUN. SHADOWCHASERS ANYONE? The firearms don't seem to do much more damage than a sword or an Ax in dnd. If you want a modern fantasy/cyberpunk setting, play shadowrun
Rating: 
Summary: Think it. Build it. Run it.
Review: The D20 series is really starting to hit its stride with the publication of D20 Modern. The flexibility of the character design rules is outstanding and something guaranteed to accommodate the needs of even the most creative characters and DMs. The rules system is solid and there are several rules "spins" for combat that are interesting. The central change involves a shift in the massive damage threshold. This is the amount of damage a character can take before having to make a fortitude save or drop to -1 hp. In Modern, your massive damage threshold is equal to your constitution score. Gunfire from long arms gets very scary very quickly. A critical hit from any weapon just doesn't do more damage, it has a good chance of dropping the character. Non-lethal brawling damage no longer does hit points. Rather, damage is compared back against the target's constitution. Fortitude saves are forced when the threshold is exceeded and the result of a failed save in unconsciousness. In practice, this doesn't work as well as it could as most attacks via fist just don't do that much damage. My campaign uses a variant that totals damage taken in one round and compares that against constitution. This has made fisticuffs and melee much more challenging. So far I have run a two scenario run with predesigned characters where the PCs were teenagers in a zombie hunting b grade movie. GREAT FUN. Likewise, the campaign we're playing now is X Files meets Buffy. We have talked about games: based on Poul Anderson's Chaos Inc.; set in a post holocaust undead laden wasteland; based on SG-1; and a game about passage from gate to gate and world to world incorporating all the D20 genres. At its best D20 modern gives you the ability to do something as dark and chilling as Fallen or something as light and fun as Evil Dead or Scooby Doo. Think it up. You can run it with this system. Excellent work. I'd give it five stars but some of the campaign ideas section is just not that good. For example, elves and orcs and kobolds in Manhatten. Puh-lease. The novelty would wear off fast. Anybody else out there remember Shadowrun...
Rating:
Summary: An okay buy, but still disappointing
Review: The long-awaited (and long-hyped?) d20 Modern is now available, and you might be wondering whether or not this book is for you. That depends on what you are looking for in a game. If you want to drop firearms and heavy explosives into your D&D game, this certainly gives you enough material to do so. The character classes are generic enough to represent almost nay sort of character you can imagine in the setting, although there is such a thing as "too generic." This definitely isn't a jump-in-and-go-at-it game, anyone running it must already have a firm concept in mind for their game before you can even generate characters. I myself am planning to use it to run a game set in the Resident Evil setting, to which this game does an adequate job. The entire thing lacks zest and flavor though, flipping through it doesn't really get me jonesing to play a d20 Modern game. The artwork, while relatively high in quality, lacks direction. It conveys no general theme or mood, other than "here are illustrations for a d20 Modern game." It is, basically, D&D or d20 Star Wars with bells and whistles, given a high-gloss spin to make you shell out [money] for another product. I'm pretty disappointed in the product, since I was expecting this great new sourcebook full of modern material for d20 games. What I got was a slapdash repackaging of older d20 products with a few new classes, skills and feats. Even the combat system, monsters, and weapons aren't much different from Call of Cthulhu, D&D, or Star Wars. Maybe I shouldn't have had high expectations for the game, since it is called "d20 Modern" afer all... if nothing else because the monsters, spells and so forth are, hmmm... what's the word I'm looking for? DIFFERENT, yes that's it, DIFFERENT than those in D&D. But if all you want is D&D for the modern day, this is your bag.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but could have been better
Review: This book definitely has its place. If one wishes to use more modern d20 supplements like Afghanistan d20, Forbidden Kingdoms, or any of the numerous historical supplements from Avalanche Press, this book will do nicely. The six basic character classes are generic enough to fit in any "realistic" campaign setting, or at least ones more realistic. However, if you are short on funds, you can skip this book for now if you have 3e D&D. WotC forced themselves to have a character class based on each ability score, and it makes you wonder. Does the "Strong Hero" and "Tough Hero" really need to be separate? These two are the classes most meant to fight, yet splitting them just seems likely to hurt the playing experience. The differences between "Smart Hero" and "Dedicated Hero" are also rather similar. The wealth system is also odd; its a compromise that will probably please only a few. The new feats and skills were needed, but the advanced classes (d20 Modern's version of prestige classes) don't offer enough diversity. Still, if you got the money and want to run more realistic campaigns, get it.
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: w00t!
Review: This is one of my favorite RPG's that I have ever played. It is easily the most customizable RPG's out there. If you're into a straight, realistic game, you can play one, using the Vitality Point/Wound Point system and ignoring the Middle-Earth type opponents. If you like D&D, you can play with Orcs, Goblins and Vampires and still use the original classes and feats.
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