Modern System Reference Document - Future section help file - PCGen Documentation

# Modern System Reference Document - Future section help file

Game Mode: Modern

MSRD > COMPLETE

MSRD - Future

MSRD > PARTIAL

Future - Basics

Future - Cybernetics

Future - Equipment

Future - Mecha

Future - Mutations

Future - Robots

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MSRD > COMPLETE > MSRD - Basics

MSRD > PARTIAL > BASICS > Modern - Basics

The Future section of the Modern System Reference Document, or MSRD, contains the Future rules for the Modern d20 role playing game published by Wizards of the Coast under the Open Gaming License and contains much of the material found in the Future supplement.

## Loading the MSRD Future parts

To load the MSRD Future set you also need to load the MSRD Basics. You have two options to accomplish this, either you can load the Complete MSRD - Basics set (including FX and Creatures material) or you can load the Partial Modern - Basics set and maybe add some of the other Partial Modern sets to that. To that selection you either add the Complete MSRD - Future set or only those parts of the MSRD Future section you desire to use. You should not load a Complete section set and any of the Partial sets from that very section at the same time because it is basically loading the same data twice. The partial Future - Basics set contains almost all classes, feats, and occupations, the partial Future - Equipment set includes personal gear, starships, and vehicles, the other names should be self-explanatory.

# Future - Basics

## Classes

Astronaut Trainee, Engineer, Explorer, Space Monkey and Tracer

All these classes offer the feat Aircraft Operation as one of their possible Bonus Feats, but limit that feat to the selection of Spacecraft if taken as a Bonus Feat. Since PCGen cannot limit this selection at the time, you will have to make sure to take heed of this restriction on your own.

## Feats

PLUS Feats

The feats Charismatic Plus , Dedicated Plus , Fast Plus , Smart Plus , Strong Plus , and Tough Plus will grant you a selection of two additional talents from the given class, but require that you cannot select more than one talent from a single talent tree. Currently it is not feasible within PCGen to limit the selection of talents granted by these feats. It will therefore be necessary for you to make sure to comply with these limits when making your selection.

# Future - Equipment

## Purchase DCs

For most items the Purchase DC will be shown in the Cost field, but we have a problem with the Purchase DC s of items that get applied to a piece of equipment (anything that only shows in the window that pops up when you customize a piece of equipment) if it doesn’t add to the base item’s Purchase DC but calls for an additional Wealth check . In these cases the Purchase DC cannot be added to the base item and will not show up at all in PCGen . It would have been possible to list the additional Purchase DCs in the special properties of the item it gets applied to, but many of these (especially starships) are already quite filled with different informations, so we decided against that. Please look up these Purchase DC s in the Future section of the MSRD .

## Gadgets

Alternate Weapon Gadget

It is not really possible to code this gadget with the current limitations of PCGen . You can apply this equipment modifier to a weapon by creating a custom item, but all it will do is put the name of the linked alternate weapon into the weapon’s special properties. You still have to buy the alternate weapon (you’d have to pay for it anyway) and equip it as carried. Because there is no real link between the two weapons, it is currently not possible to have both of them equipped to the same hand or let them take up 1 space in a container.

Autoloader Module Gadget

The Autoloader Module Gadget is only allowed to be equipped to weapons that have box magazines or power packs for ammo feed. At this time we cannot test for the ammo feed of a weapon, you will therefore have to pay attention to this detail on your own, when applying this gadget.

Booby Trapped Gadget

To be eligible to add this gadget to your weapon, you must apply the Alternate Weapon Gadget first.

Satellite Datalink Gadget

This Gadget should be restricted to being applied to gear containing computerized communications equipment , but it is currently set up to allow items that have the types electronic and surveillance applied to them. While this mostly covers the items of the wanted category, there are a few items included that don’t make much sense for this gadget, so take heed at what item you add this gadget to.

Storage Compartment Gadget

All this gadget will currently do is to show up in the item name. At this time we cannot change a piece of equipment into a container afterwards. You will not gain any functionality from this!

## Starships

You put a starship on the vehicle slot of your character. Only when applied there, you will see all the bonuses and effects that pertain to your starship. At the time you equip the starship to the vehicle slot, you may also get additional equipment granted to your character (e.g. the starship’s weapons). Every piece of starship equipment gained this way should be equipped to not carried .

## Starship Weapons

To add weapons to a starship you customize said starship and add those equipment modifiers to it, which provide the wanted weapon. When you equip your customized starship to the Vehicle slot of your character, these equipment modifiers will automatically add the starship weapons to your character (like personal weapons), but they will be unequipped and you should equip them to not carried as location. This will only work with the existing weapons that come from the sample starships in the MSRD Future. If you want to have weapons in your starship that were customized themselves, you can build and add these to your character, but there is no way to have them show up as part of your starship. As a workaround, you can hand edit the special properties of your starship and put in a reference to the weapon there.

Fire-linked Weapons

At this time we are not capable of supplying you with an equipment modifier for fire-linked weapons , therefore you will not be able to simply customize a single starship weapon into groups of fire-linked weapons . You will therefore be limited to those fire-linked weapons that are included in the dataset.

# Future - Mecha

## Purchase DCs

The problems about Purchase DC described under Equipment pertain here as well. Purchase DC s of items that get applied to a piece of equipment or Mecha (anything that only shows in the window that pops up when you customize a piece of equipment or Mecha ) if it doesn’t add to the base item’s Purchase DC but calls for an additional Wealth check cannot be added to the base item and will not show up at all in PCGen . It would have been possible to list the additional Purchase DCs in the special properties of the item or Mecha it gets applied to, but many of these are already quite filled with different informations, so we decided against that. Please look up these Purchase DC s in the Future section of the MSRD .

## Equipment Slots

Most equipment that gets applied to a Mecha needs to go to a predetermined equipment slot. With the current PCGen code limitations it is not possible to do that. You will find the information which slot a piece of equipment may go to in the special properties, so you can check the correctness, but there is no way to enforce this. If you build a custom Mecha , you should do this outside of PCGen and then customize the basic Mecha entries according to the built up that you already determined. PCGen is not the proper tool to do that planning, it will just allow to to record your results.

## Equipping Mecha Weapons

There are two ways to equip a weapon to a Mecha : hand held or built-in . To equip a weapon hand held to a Mecha , you just buy the weapon and equip it to your character. To equip a built-in weapon to a Mecha , you need to customize the Mecha and add the equipment modifier to it, that corresponds with the chosen weapon. The equipment modifier will then add the weapon itself to your character, which you should equip as not carried . If you remove the Mecha from your equipment later, that will not automatically remove the Mecha weapons as well, so you will be required to remove those yourself.

## Piloting a Mecha

If you look at the rules for Mecha , you will see that these are more of a hybrid game element, being so constituted that they include elements from equipment as well as creature templates. To effectively reproduce this in PCGen , you will have to add not only the chosen Mecha from the Equipment tab, but also the Mecha Pilot template from the Templates subtab on the Race tab. Without that template, the Mecha is not going to work correctly.

## The Paragon Mecha

The Paragon Mecha should be getting the Missile pack for M-87 Talon Missile Launcher (4) and the Rocket pack for M-70 EMP Rocket Launcher (6) twice, but the AUTO:EQUIP tag doesn’t work well with equipping the same item twice. You need to add the second pieces of these equipment packs manually.

# Future - Robots

## Building Robots

There are two sets of Robot races, one is meant for heroic characters run by Players, the other is meant for non-heroic characters. The races 4 named Biodroid (Medium and Small) and Bioreplica (Medium and Small) are Player races and gain feats and skills when PC classes are gained as normal. The races whose names are formatted Robot(Type/Size) are all non-heroic, they do not gain feats or skill points as long as they are advanced in the Robot monster class, if given levels of an Ordinary base class they will not gain feats (unless equipped with a Feat Web ) but they will gain skill points, these should be discarded unless the Robot is equipped with a Skill Web .

## Purchase DCs

The purchase DC for a Robot is calculated and displayed in the special ability window. The purchase DC for some robotic equipment and accessories is not shown in the cost field but is instead displayed in the equipment’s special property display. This is because the cost of many of these items are dependent on the cost of the Robot frame they are installed on, thus the purchase DC can be calculated but only after the item is equipped to the robot character. Items with straight purchase DCs are displayed in the cost field normally.

## Equipment

All the Robot equipment is meant only for Robots, the bonuses they have which provide the functionality are qualified as such and will not benefit characters who are not Robots.

## Locomotion

All Robots need to have some form of locomotion equipped to them to provide a movement speed. The speed can be increased by customizing the locomotion equipment and adding a speed upgrade. The rules say you cannot upgrade the speed past double its base speed but PCGen cannot enforce this.

## Manipulators

The Manipulators are size tiny and are meant for Medium-sized Robots. To get the proper damage for a Robot of another size you will need to customize the Manipulators for that Robot, they should be 2 size categories smaller than the Robot they will be installed on.

## Skill Software

The Skill software equipment all needs to be customized before you can add it to your character. This is so you can select the specific skills the equipment emulates.

## Feat Software

The Feat software could not be implemented the same way that skill software was. Each feat has a corresponding Robot Feat Software item which adds it as a virtual feat when the item is equipped. There are two sets of items relating to feat software, the actual devices, feat progit, feat net, and feat web and then there the individual feat software which grants the virtual feat. The software has no purchase DC but is assumed to come with the device when purchased. The Weapon Finesse and Weapon Focus feats are missing, as they couldn’t be implemented that way.

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