The quantity of Action Points is now defined by Char-level plus Char modifier. I’ve done this after growing tired of Char 8 characteres.

And then I’ve been studying the possibility of giving free ‘minor feats’ to be used exclusively on feats rarely picked up, like Athletic.

Stunning was slightly altered, now knocking the target prone.

So, I’ve heavily changed d20 modern in very important aspects, like Reflex Saves, Number of Attacks and Damage Threshold. For me, it’s a great system to play casual games, but I still don’t like the class system.

First of all, falling damage was radically changed. 5 feet would give 1d4 of non-lethal damage; 10 feet, 2d6 of lethal damage; 15, 3d8; 20, 4d10; 25, 5d12; and after that each extra 5 feet would increase damage by 1d12, to a maximum of 10d12.

Damage Threshold changed too. A DT roll was required whenever you take damage enough your Con score, and the DC would be the damage itself!

Armors now give 150% DR instead of AC. And their penalty was also in the Reflex Saves was also included.

Shotguns are the only “19-20 crit”, anything else would be the same. Their damage would increase to 2d12, and after the first increment range, they would be AP 1/2, that’s it: Doubling target “DR” from armor.

All weapons have a Speed Factor. “SF” defines how many attacks your character can make with a gun. Poor weapons have a high SF, and fine weapons a low one.

I’ve added large knives (1d6) and bayonets. Also, any masterwork melee weapons now gives damage bonus too.

I’ve developed new feats, to decrease Speed Factor and augment the Reflex DC from Autofire attacks.

Climb and Jump are now called Athletics (i’ve done it long before D&D4), Hide and Mov. Silently are now Stealth, and we have Perception too.

All skills costs 1:1, even cross-class, but those can’t be raised above (CharLevel+3)/2

When a gun crits, it deals pretty massive damage in this system, with a rifle doing 36 damage on average.

(a) increase wounds as you level, or
(b) decrease the number of wounds a crit takes.

I can see if you’re doing 14 or 16 points of damage by level 10, there needs to be a check to you taking out someone with one hit.

Maybe there are no wounds? Maybe a crit just causes a roll on the chart, and let the chips fall where they may?

Something between the two I suspect – just better than what D20M currently has. There’s some interesting ideas here already. Any more?

The main problem with guns is that they too fast and too deadly.

Guns that fire six or seven shots a seconds are routine. Each bullet can be lethal, even the lightest rounds.

The best way to approach the problem is think about films. Which film are you modeling your gun mechanics on? Something like Reservoir Dogs or Saving Private Ryan guns are deadly to everyone; or Die Hard, where guns are only deadly to minor bad guys?

I like this or the severity chart mainly because they involve a small addition to the rules instead of digging greatly into the established game mechanics.

Do you want combat to be one-shot-one-kill? If you use the Wound/Vitality system, and then increase the crit range of guns… Turns rolling low on initiative into a death sentence.

I remember reading a designer blog for D20 Star Wars. Basically they said they wanted to move away from the Wound/Vitality system because after looking at the statistics, you were something like 80% likely to die from a crit shot by 10th level.

I kinda like D20 Modern the way it is. About the only change I’d recommend would be allowing Mastercraft weapons to increase the crit range by their MC value. For example, the Glock 17, Glock 20, and the Colt Python are all automatically MC1 (which lets you add +1 to attack)… I could see upping their crit range to 19-20. If you allow a PC to purchase an MC3 weapon, then they get +3 attack and a crit range of 17-20.