Roles & Classes: Talent Trees Assembled
From: Sword’s Edge Publishing
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
Roles & Classes: Talent Trees Assembledis a new d20 Modern Source book PDF from Sword’s Edge Publishing.
As part of Sword’s Edge Publishing’s (SEP) Roles and Classes series of specialized and prestige classes, this PDF compiles a series of Talent Trees. These talent trees originate from the Capable Hero, the Combat Hero, the Covert Hero, the Counter-Terrorism Assaulter, the Special Operations Marksman, and the Spec Ops Recce and are obviously heavy in the combat concentration.
From the front cover : “Talent Trees For The D20 Modern System™”
The Talent Tree is a new innovation from d20 Modern that you either love or hate. I happen to love it because I like d20 Modern, even for all its flaws. The Talent Tree system, to me, is a unique way to make d20 more “plug-in-play” friendly and customizable. SEP’s Talent Trees Assembledis their attempt to give players more specialized options.
The Introduction of the PDF gives general guidelines on how to use these Talent Trees in existing classes. It gives the GM and player open latitude on exactly how to use them, but gives good examples using existing classes in the core system. This is important because without it, I do not think I would be able to figure out why one would compile a bunch of Talent Trees.
From page # 1: “The talent trees collected here have been genericized so that they can be used by any class.”
The Talent Trees lists are Assault, Combatant’sLeadership, Combatant’sPowerful, Combatant’sTough, CovertOffensive, CovertDefensive, Craft, CovertScout, Combatant’sDefensive, Firearms Training, Knowledge, LongRangeReconnaissance, Sniper, and Social. Abilities include Close Quarters Drill (CQD), Clear the Room (very awesome ability), RemainConscious, Opportunist(those that hate AoOs will not like this one), Potent Weapon, and a whole host of new as well as familiar talents. There are more than enough options for a GM and player to specialize his characters.
In conclusion, I like the philosophy and there should be more options like this for classes, especially in d20 Modern. I liked the way d20 Modern was designed to allow for that. This particular PDF gives players more options for more specialized characters than the generic Strong or Fast character and it is a good start.
For more details on Sword’s Edge Publishing and their new d20 Modern Source book PDF “Roles & Classes: Talent Trees Assembled” check them out at their website http://swordsedgepublishing.ca.
Roles & Classes: Talent Trees Assembled
From:Sword’s Edge Publishing
Type of Game:d20 Modern Source book PDF
Written byFraser Ronald
Art byDean Martin
Design and Layout byRob Wakefield
Number of Pages:14
Game Components Included:One PDF file
Game Components NotIncluded:Core d20 Rulebooks
Retail Price:$ 2.25 (US)
Website:swordsedgepublishing.ca
Reviewed by: Ron McClung