RPGaDay 2023 #12 Old game you STILL play

Well, I could talk about the OSR again, but I think I'll hold off for now.

I think this might be time to talk about my strange fondness for D20 Modern.

It's funny because I will kvetch all day about D&D like it needs to get off my lawn, but D20 Modern gets a pass.

There are three major factors that really work for me over other iterations of the same rules.

1) The treasure treadmill is gone. At least in the 3.x era of D&D, there was an assumption that, in order to be "properly balanced" at each level, the characters had to have a requisite amount of treasure, gear and magic items. This is not present in D20 Modern, taking an extra layer of planning off of my mind.

2) Magic is optional. While D&D magic has always felt artificial, it's fine if it's happening in a fantasy world. Bringing that into something that's supposed to feel like the real world doesn't work for me. But D20 Modern has set the magic system aside as an optional feature, so that's just fine.

3) Cross compatibility. Probably one of the big things that I like about D20 Modern is the cross compatibility with the then-current edition of D&D. While I'm not a big fan, it does mean that there's a whole trove of material that I can use if I want.

One of my favorite things to do was to use it for a "Tabloid World" style campaign, where the magical, mythical and weird stuff from D&D was lurking somewhere just outside the everyday.

I ran a one-shot in this vein within the last year or so, so I think it counts as a game I still play.