Character 2: D20 Modern

It's a real shame D20 modern sorta died out after a couple of years, because it was pretty nifty. This generic modern adaptation of the D20 system had some great ideas, many of which were poached for other D20 games. It introduced action points, which have since made an appearance in Eberron, and talent trees which have been used to great effect in Star Wars Saga Edition.

By far the best part about D20 modern, I believe, is the way classes and advanced classes work. D20 modern has 6 six classes, each focused around one of the six ability scores, strong her, fast hero, tough hero, smart hero, wise hero and charismatic hero. Then you have advanced classes which tighten the focus of your concept, such as the soldier, gunslinger, techie etc. which can be qualified by level 3 usually.

This creates a fantastic generic system that is easy to adapt for various genres and game ideas. Polyhedron magazine used it as a basis for several games, including pulp (Pulp D20) and sci-fi romance (Iron Lords of Jupiter). The six basic classes can apply to everyone, anywhere and a gm can simply tailor advanced classes to fit the game.

I'm going to stick with the random roll method for this character and all my other D20 characters. Here's the set for my D20 modern character:

15,12,16,12,14,10

No 18s unfortunately, but no scores under 10 either. Not too shabby.

For my base class, I rolled a 6-sider. I ended up getting a 6, which means I'm making a charismatic hero.

So without further ado, I present to you Tony Biscola, Italian-American art/english lit major and student union activist!

Tony Biscola Charismatic Hero 1: CR 1; Medium-sized Humanoid; HD 1d6+1; hp 7; Mas 12; Init+1; Spd 30ft; Defense 12 (touch 11, flat-footed 11); BAB +0; Grap +0; Atk +0 melee (1d3 subdual, unarmed strike); FS 5ft by 5ft; Reach 5ft; SQ Coodinate; AL Student unions; SV Fort +2 Ref +2 Will +2; AP 1; Wealth +7; Rep +2; Str 10 Dex 12 Con 12 Int 15 Wis 14 Cha 16
Occupation: Student (bonus class skill: research)
Skills:Bluff +7, Craft (visual art) +6, Diplomacy +9, Gather information +9, Intimidate +4, Knowledge (current events) +6, Knowledge (civics) +7, Knolwedge (popular culture) +6, Listen +6, Research +6, Spot +6
Feats:Alertness, Trustworthy
Talent (Charismatic hero): Coordinate
Possessions: Leather jacket, digital camera, casual clothing, day pack, textbooks, arts supplies


Yeah, Tony isn't going to be slaying any orcs or busting up gang members any time soon, but he's great at negotiating! That's the rationale behind selecting the alertness feat, a pre-req for the Negotiator advanced class. Two of the bonus class skills for being a student went into knowledges, giving him a +1 bonus for civics and pop culture. Not exactly combat-capable, but he makes a decent front-man. Not to mention, any group would welcome his fairly decent starting wealth bonus (must have recieved and inheritance ;) ) and coordinate ability.