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Ultramodern(5) by Chris Taveras Dias (Roleplaying Game)
Ultramodern is a sci-fi skin for Dungeons & Dragons, and I actually used an earlier version of the game to run a campaign based on the Phantasy Star video game series in 2019. (I used a free version for that campaign, and backed the Kickstarter for this hardcover book on the strength of that.) The fact that you basically need the D&D 5E corebooks and knowledge of that ruleset to make it work is both a blessing and a curse. On one hand, everything is familiar. On the other, it limits the ability for it to stand alone and escape the assumptions of D&D.
And it’s not a simple reskin: All the fantasy races are replaced with rules for aliens, robots, uplifted animals, and enhanced humans. All the combat rules assume you have guns (possibly phasers!), class features are designed to account for this, and damage is re-scaled appropriately. Instead of just a race and class, you have your species, ladder, class, and archetype which are all providing bonuses and new skills as you level up. There’s also a full “lifepath” set of tables that replaces the standard D&D backgrounds. (There doesn’t seem to be—as far as I can tell, at least—a way to die during character creation, which I feel like was a standard of the classic lifepath tables.)
There’s lots of weapons, armor, and gear: The defined “tech levels” are a clever addition, basically giving you a neat shorthand for how “sci-fi” your setting is—especially since “right now” is basically tier 2. Then there’s a system for mecha that explicitly acknowledges that it’s independent of the tech levels, because any society that could build humanoid mechs for various tasks could also come up with much easier and cheaper ways to complete those tasks; we just think mechs are cool. The extensive equipment list has lawyer-friendly versions of lightsabers, phasers, and proton packs. (And later in the book there are treasure tables, too.)
There’s a full chapter with an optional magic system called DARK which adds an additional ability score (Vigor), is based on a pool of magic points, and has a vast collection of spells split into Paths (which feel more like World of Darkness Vampire magic than anything D&D). That chapter has the classes, archetypes, feats, and equipment that are specific to the magic system; making it easy to keep separate if you don’t want to use it. I feel like you could bolt that system into fantasy D&D5E if you wanted to, though I’m not sure how well it would actually balance.
There’s also a full chapter with an optional version of the combat system called ULTRAMAX which harkens back to the 80s/90s more complicated “realistic” systems. (And that chapter also includes changes to rules for classes and equipment where applicable.)
There’s a big list of new antagonists, there are several different sets of setting and campaign ideas. There’s a big list of spacecraft for one of the settings buried in the back of the book. If you hadn’t gathered, this book is a bit of a kitchen-sink of all of the author’s favorite ideas in one big system.
Overall: On one hand, this commits one of D&D’s big sins of trying to be everything to everyone in one big system. On the other, if you’re familiar with D&D and you like that style of (fantasy heist adventures) gameplay, this is a solid way to port that into a sci-fi setting, and you can pick and choose which sets of rules you want to fit your chosen setting appropriately.
And it’s not a simple reskin: All the fantasy races are replaced with rules for aliens, robots, uplifted animals, and enhanced humans. All the combat rules assume you have guns (possibly phasers!), class features are designed to account for this, and damage is re-scaled appropriately. Instead of just a race and class, you have your species, ladder, class, and archetype which are all providing bonuses and new skills as you level up. There’s also a full “lifepath” set of tables that replaces the standard D&D backgrounds. (There doesn’t seem to be—as far as I can tell, at least—a way to die during character creation, which I feel like was a standard of the classic lifepath tables.)
There’s lots of weapons, armor, and gear: The defined “tech levels” are a clever addition, basically giving you a neat shorthand for how “sci-fi” your setting is—especially since “right now” is basically tier 2. Then there’s a system for mecha that explicitly acknowledges that it’s independent of the tech levels, because any society that could build humanoid mechs for various tasks could also come up with much easier and cheaper ways to complete those tasks; we just think mechs are cool. The extensive equipment list has lawyer-friendly versions of lightsabers, phasers, and proton packs. (And later in the book there are treasure tables, too.)
There’s a full chapter with an optional magic system called DARK which adds an additional ability score (Vigor), is based on a pool of magic points, and has a vast collection of spells split into Paths (which feel more like World of Darkness Vampire magic than anything D&D). That chapter has the classes, archetypes, feats, and equipment that are specific to the magic system; making it easy to keep separate if you don’t want to use it. I feel like you could bolt that system into fantasy D&D5E if you wanted to, though I’m not sure how well it would actually balance.
There’s also a full chapter with an optional version of the combat system called ULTRAMAX which harkens back to the 80s/90s more complicated “realistic” systems. (And that chapter also includes changes to rules for classes and equipment where applicable.)
There’s a big list of new antagonists, there are several different sets of setting and campaign ideas. There’s a big list of spacecraft for one of the settings buried in the back of the book. If you hadn’t gathered, this book is a bit of a kitchen-sink of all of the author’s favorite ideas in one big system.
Overall: On one hand, this commits one of D&D’s big sins of trying to be everything to everyone in one big system. On the other, if you’re familiar with D&D and you like that style of (fantasy heist adventures) gameplay, this is a solid way to port that into a sci-fi setting, and you can pick and choose which sets of rules you want to fit your chosen setting appropriately.