The d20 Modern Roleplaying Game from Wizards of the Coast is great if you want to play a heroic character in a variety of modern "cinematic" genres. Trouble is, I watch a lot of movies and read a lot of books, and what if I decide I want my hero to be a little less than perfect or have some sort of handicap to overcome? What if I want to play the anti-hero so common now in modern cinema and fiction? Or what if I'm the DM looking for a little something to make that NPC stand out a little more? Enter the Book of Distinctions and Drawbacks Modern.
I'm going to concentrate on the drawbacks (or flaws) because they comprise the bulk of this PDF. By taking a flaw, you gain points which can then be spent on other things (like skill points, XP, feats, or ability score increases). What I really like is that each drawback is scaled - as the severity increases, you get more points to spend. Take Impaired Movement, for example. My character would get 2 pts. if he had a limp, but 12 pts. if he were paraplegic and in a wheelchair. Guidelines are also given to the GM as to what might then be unavailable to my Smart hero modeled after Stephen Hawking, as well as other flaws - no feats or FX abilities that require bipedal movement, can't take the Inflexible flaw for this example.
The flaws aren't just physical or medical - the list includes a variety of personality flaws, psychological conditions, and even a handful of "supernatural" flaws called Weird Flaws.
The section on distinctions (Advantages) is nowhere near as extensive as the section on flaws. This is probably a good thing, however, as the the core d20 Modern rules already provide Heroes with a multitude of advantages over Ordinaries. Still, there is some good material in this section that might be of use to some. And being "modular", you can ignore the Advantages section and just use the Flaws if you so desire.
As for presentation, this book is "bare bones" - there is no artwork or fancy layout, but it is quite printer-friendly.
In summary, this is an excellent resource for creating PCs or NPCs with a little more depth, a little more realism, and a lot more story possiblities. I felt this was money well spent, and I highly recommend this product to anyone playing a d20 Modern campaign in any genre.
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