Player Basics

What player's need to start playing the d20 Modern Roleplaying Game:

* A Character Sheet and writing surface like a table or clip board
* A pencil and eraser (avoid using pens or markers as information changes a lot)
* Some scratch paper and graph paper might be useful, too.
* A Dice set, at least the below listed:
	+ One or two four sided dice (d4) ,
	+ Four or more six-sided dice (d6) ,
	+ One eight sided die (d8) ,
	+ Two ten sided dice (d10) ,
	+ One twelve sided die (d12) ,
	+ and One twenty sided die (d20) .
* A miniature, and action figure, or some other token to represent a character in the game.
* The rules in this wiki explain how to create and play a character.

A player should read this introduction and the following pages: Character Creation, Skills, Feats, Gear, and Combat. Advanced classes gives ideas for the kind of elite hero a player can begin building toward. The rest of the book is for the Game Master, providing advice , opponents, campaign models, and starting points for adventures.

## Terminology

* Abilities are the characters most fundamental stats that determine most every other stat of a character.
* Classes determine attack ability (BAB), skills, Health (HP and saves), defense bonus, special capabilities (i.e. talents), and reputation.
* Health or HP determines how much punishment a character can take before going down in a fight.
* Defense is the character's ability to dodge attacks
* Speed is the distance a character can move. This can come in many forms.
* Initiative is how fast a character reacts in combat.
* BAB is the character's abilities to hit a target.
* Reputation gauges how well known a character is.
* Saves are the character's ability to respond to unavoidable or unforeseen threats.
* Action Points are the hero's pool of luck or extra power.
* Occupation is the character's background.
* Skills are what the character practices in their past time so they are good at a task when it is important.
* Feats are a character's unique fighting style, incredible abilities, or proficiencies.
* Wealth is the character's buying power.

## Character Sheet

A **Character Sheet** is used to track an RPG character's features, Abilities, health, attack, defense, feats, skills, and much more. Some players enjoy adding an image of their character and include a background.

The d20 Modern Character Sheet can come in many forms. The original Wizards of the Coast© character sheet was in paper form and can be downloaded from many sites with a google search. Other people have developed their custom sheets for use with custom rules and their preferred layout. While a formal layout is recommended, technically a blank note pad is all that is needed to track a character's information.

Computer generated sheets have been developed by many people who prefer the use of computers to work the math. While the math is simple, there are a lot of different calculations to be made and a simple oversight can drastically alter a character and an encounter. High level and complex characters may need to track over 100 different stats and numbers. Spread sheets are often used for their simplicity and do not require a great deal of programming while being free or included in popular software packages for computers. They do, often, require that the player still have access to the books (or PDF of the books) to get the information on the character sheet. Alternatively, there are programs based entirely around RPG characters that do not require the player to do any programming and include all the classes, feats, skills, and more in a central database that the player can reference. These programs often cost money and sometimes a subscription or multiple purchases to get different books available.

## Character Creation

**Table: Character Creation Order**
 Determine new**wealth** bonus ->spend money

Character's are Hero's that started as Ordinaries with unusually good stats until something special happened to them. That may be fate, luck, scientific or magical intervention, divine providence or just some strange series of events that the character was able to push through to become extortionary. In all cases, the player needs to set up the character to fit their desired style of play and be meaningful to the campaign. It is critical that the GM clearly communicate the type of campaign and review the characters made for completeness and relevance to the scenarios the players will face. The steps explained here will guide the player and GM through the process of character creation.

### Race

d20 Modern is built around humans being the dominate race for characters. There is, however, much provision for non-human Races. Players will need to consult with the GM about what races are available. Races may come from fantasy (i.e. elves and goblins), science fiction (i.e. aliens and genetic mutants), or even from the GM's and players' imagination. In any case, be sure to follow the description about how to make adjustments to the character for any given race. Normally this is in the form of altered Abilities, unique features (i.e. telepathy), and many more. Otherwise, these instruction will assume human as the race.

### Generate Ability Scores

Player Characters will start the game with all 6 scores determined either by the GM, or, more frequently, by a roll of the dice.

Roll 4d6  and drop the lowest. add the results together to create one score. repeat this until there are 6 scores. Now select which ability will get each of the scores. Once a score is matched to an ability, it cannot be used again.

GM:*Be vary careful with how divergent characters are when rolling for their scores. it is possible for one to end up with several 14+ scores while another has none above 13. To identify the balance between player characters, add each characters 6 scores together and compare the numbers to each character.*

*If one player is more than 5 points ahead of the others, they will have a significant advantage over the other players. It may be prudent to give all other players more points to spend on their abilities until all players are within 4 points of eachother.*

*If one character is more than 4 points behind the others, they will feel disadvantaged. It may be prudent to give them an additional 1d6  points to spread through their ability scores.*

### Classes

Classes title a character to explain their capabilities. Characters follow a "skill tree" of learning special abilities that are not available to characters in different classes. As a character progresses through the class level by level, they will get stronger abilities. However, characters will always start at level 1. If a campaign starts it's character's at a higher level than one, character creation will still need to level up one level at a time. There are some shortcuts to make building character's fast, especially NPC's, but only experienced players should use those shortcuts.

The first class of a character is special as they gain 4 times the normal "skills points" (explained later), the max value of their "hit die", and a starting feat (in d20 modern, all basic classes start with Simple Weapons Proficiency). A character can choose another basic class any time at level up, or an advanced class if they meet the prerequisites.

Don't forget to count up the Action Points.

### Occupations

Once a player has selected the starting class, they will choose an Occupations. This represent a character's past means of living/surviving. Sometimes this is a carrier or an education or sometimes this is just how they got along in a rough world. It provides class skills and feats beyond what the starting. It will also provide a wealth bonus.

### Feats, Skills, and Wealth

After selecting an occupation, the player will select a starting feat (2 feat if their race is human), spend their skill points, and finalize their talent selection from their class. GM's must ensure that players have only chosen feats that the character qualifies for (all prerequisites are fulfilled) and skill ranks do not exceed 4 (level+3) for level one characters.

### Wealth

After all else is settled, player's roll their Wealth score adding all the bonuses from their occupation, feats, and the Profession skill. Once they have a wealth score, they will need to spend their wealth for stating Gear.

### Finishing the Character

Things like the character's name, weight, height, eye/skin/hair color, and a background story.