You got d20 Modern in my fantasy! You got fantasy in my d20 Modern! Two great tastes that would have tasted great together if it weren't for the typos, padding, and lack of an actual setting.
Post originally by Joshua Dyal at 2003-09-05 09:25:26
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Hey, buzz. How's it hangin'?
I too was disappointed in Unearthed Arcana, but I suppose not for the same reasons as you, when I really get down to it.
d20 Modern really struck me as a flexible game that could concievably, and with little effort, be tweaked to play all kinds of genres. d20 Modern was the generic d20 that D&D wasn't. It was disappointing to me, then, that Urban Arcana went with a very D&D inspired set of mechanics to graft onto the flexible d20 Modern setting.
In terms of whether or not Urban Arcana actually presents a setting or not, the best chapter, and one that can get tons of mileage out of it, is the chapter on organizations. There's all kinds of adventure and story kernels in there to be mined, but the book itself leaves a lot open to the GM rather than givein a lot of detail. This is both a blessing and a curse, in many ways. The setting lacks a strong theme or thrust, but is very flexible and can be used in a variety of ways.
But at the end of the day, the book is a concept with a bunch of mechanics to back that concept up, and very little detail to flesh the concept out. I guess I'm not as bugged by the lack of campaign detail as you are, but I agree that this feels very little like a campaign and more like an effort to bring d20 Modern more in line with D&D in terms of how it's played, what you do with the game, and how it works. It does, at least, offer more of a setting than D&D core books do, but that's not saying much. It comes across more like a second core book for d20 Modern that is designed specifically to make d20 Modern more like D&D.
Post originally by Buzz at 2003-09-05 10:07:27
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<i> But at the end of the day, the book is a concept with a bunch of mechanics to back that concept up, and very little detail to flesh the concept out. I guess I'm not as bugged by the lack of campaign detail as you are, but I agree that this feels very little like a campaign and more like an effort to bring d20 Modern more in line with D&D in terms of how it's played, what you do with the game, and how it works. It does, at least, offer more of a setting than D&D core books do, but that's not saying much. It comes across more like a second core book for d20 Modern that is designed specifically to make d20 Modern more like D&D.</i>
Hey Josh!
I pretty much agree with this. I suppose if the book hadn't been labeled a "campaign setting," but instead maybe a "sourcebook," I woulnd't have come down as hard on it. I do try and mention in the review that are a lot of little bits that are worthwhile. I just don't think the bits were enough to support the book as a whole.
And yeah, I wasn't so nuts about all the D&D rules that WotC seems to want to graft onto d20M, especially when simple guidelines on importing D&D rules into d20M would have sufficed, leaving more room for genuine setting material.
Post originally by Mighty Fast Pig at 2003-09-05 10:22:49
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I agree that Urban Arcana is an ill-formed thing. It looks like they just grabbed the whole mess of the default D&D world and dumped it onto the modern world without ever thinking through the hows and whys.
Compare it to the GURPS Technomancer setting, for instance. David L Pulver seriously thought about how the default GURPS magic system would work in the modern world. He also came up with some cool, funky stuff, like the sentient animal species in the mana fallout zones in Arizona and Antarctica. The Technomancer world has a history and an internal logic.
It's fairly obvious that UA is supposed to simulate the world of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel", where monsters and the supernatural exist but the vast majority of people are blithely oblivious to them. It works on TV, but those shows are great examples on how to add themes and ideas to adventure stories. Both shows are about fighting the good fight, even when the world hurts.
Post originally by Joshua Dyal at 2003-09-05 11:30:06
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In the core book for d20 Modern, the Shadow Chasers mini-campaign epitomized that concept better than Urban Arcana anyway. UA comes across as just jamming D&D into a modern game willy-nilly.
Post originally by Johnny McKenna at 2003-09-05 12:52:25
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I'm personally of the school that if you want to emulate "Buffy", you should play the "Buffy" RPG. Where "Buffy" was subtlety and shadow, "UA" is flamboyance and power. While having elements of the supernatural in it, "Buffy" was never entirely about the supernatural, and the supernatural wasn't everywhere. In "UA", it sounds like you can't cross the street without tripping over a kobold, dodging a red-light-running drow chick in a midriff-bearing tank top while on your way to a meeting with your mind-flayer boss, who's still in the middle of that 9th-level spell ritual.
OK, long metaphor, but you see my point? "UA" takes "Buffy" and stretches the rationalization concept to its absolute limits until it becomes absurd. The Shadow-Chasers campaign hooks in the d20 Modern book are much better to emulate Buffy (as has been mentioned earlier).
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