Geekery Today, or "I wait a year to complain about things"

[thebitterguy]

After getting a wad o' Funny Money in the mail yesterday (gracias a 100D & the good folks at Eden Studios), YHB took it upon himself to do a little shopping.

Anyway, after stopping at 401 Convenience, I picked up a couple d20 Modern books from Green Ronin (Martial Arts Mayhem and Modern Magic) and Ancestral Vault, a supplement for Nyambe, which is still one of my favourite RPG settings I'll never get to play in. Dammit.

Of course, like any junkie, once you get a taste, you want more. So I wandered off and started searching throughRPG Now for various stuff for d20 Modern. Once again, I love taunting myself.

One company, RPG Objects, had some products that seemed fairly intersting, so I did a bit of poking around. It was then that I remembered that these were the guys who produced the incredibly ass-tastic Blood & Guts: Modern Military sourcebook.

Modern Military might have been bearable if, in fact, it had been written by someone who understood how d20 Modern was put together, vis a vis the fact that 10 level prestige classes don't exist.

If someone wishes to correct me on this, please go ahead. But the d20 Modern system seems to operate in this way: You get base class(es) (which have a max of ten levels). You advance to Advanced Class (ditto with the ten level thingy). If you WANT, you then go onto a Prestige class, which is only 5 levels.

Am I smoking the angry Crack again? Or is this something I understand just well enough?

Comments

[maliszew.livejournal.com]

While it's true that, to date, we've never seen a D20 Modern PrC of more than 5 levels, there's no reason that need be the case, except that it's what WotC has done. More importantly, a lot of third party d20 publishers confuse the terms "advanced" and "prestige" classes, so many of the things labeled "prestige" classes are really advanced classes misnamed.

Now, as to Blood & Guts, if that's the book you're referring to, they call all the specialist military classes prestige classes, which is technically accurate in the way D20 Modern uses the term: they're for groups and organizations that have entry requirements and unique talents that come from being a member, whereas advanced classes are more generic (i.e. "Soldier" as opposed to "101st Airbone", etc.) You don't necessarily need an advanced class to join a PrC, though it often helps. So, in theory, you can have 10-level PrCs. It's a question of how hung up you want to get over very muddle terminology.

[artbroken.livejournal.com]

No, you're on the money.

Although it's not a hard-and-fast rule; there's no reason why a prestige class couldn't be 10 levels, or 12, or 3.

But the 10/10/5 breakdown works, and I'd need to see some pretty compelling reasons to screw with it.

[thebitterguy]

Blood & Guts had many varied problems; the whole 'Advanced/Prestige' class thing was just the icing.

God. I'm pretty certain it's packed away with my copy of d20M, so I wish I could dig them out and take a proper critical look at it.

[kynn.livejournal.com]

I hate d20 games which don't seem to understand how d20 works. This applies to D&D, d20 Modern, etc.

--Kynn