Ultramodern5 is a great toolkit, providing everything you could need to place a 5th Edition Campaign in a modern/sci-fi/western or similar setting. Included are rules for modern character creation including new classes, Archetypes, backgrounds (Lifepaths here) and Ladders (an expansion of your class, determines very general traits). 5th Edition has already had some awesome Homebrews, but this book coming in at a bulky 217 pages is high above your regular releases.

Quality of the Product (Still waiting for a print version, will update)

The artwork is every bit as strong as you'd see in the 5th Edition WotC Source Books, the black and white nature of the product does little to detract from this. Some of the art is used repeatedly across the scope of the book, sometimes zooming in on specific characters for a class description or cutting away other elements and placing it diffrently. Considering the amount of content that's hardly a negative point, but some classes are lacking artwork to get a general picture of what the character could encompass. I know my players love seeing what a character might look like before reading 2 and a half pages of class descriptions. This applies to only two Classes, but both could be especially hard for new players to envision, which are "FACE" and "Martial Artist" and some of the others have very generic, sometimes slightly unsatisfying designs, this of course is higly subjectiv.

The Equipment Section has some great Weapon designs and also includes Artwork for some of the more Sci-Fi Armors and even some of the Vehicles available.

Also as described later in "Additional Content" you get even more Art towards the end of the book.

There are some spelling errors (you'll find many in this review I'm sure) and there are some formatting errors (almost annoying is that some of the tables have an additinal column for Tier Levels, while some include it only in the Proporties Column)

The Content

Character Creation represents the meat and potatoes of the book. And this core is very solid, you get 10 classes, which you can combine freely with 7 Ladders and 24 Archtypes (Archtypes are not bound to a certain class) + every class has an option of running it without an archtype which technically gives you a further 10 Options. This alone is a staggering amount of options, but the ability to freely combine them and that classes have even more options to choose from when leveling up means you can create truly unique characters.

Ladders are new and are explained to add more power to a world wihtout Fantasy Magic. The major change implemeted with Ladders is that a player uses them to choose which ability score they use for most of their attacks. In my opinion a good solution filling the niche that cantrips fill in Standard 5th Edition.

Backgrounds, replaced here by Lifepaths are also included, thought they are slightly more generic. They offer Skill Proficiencies, Tool Proficiencies, Languages and starting Equipment. Traits, Ideals and Flaws and additional background features are missing, parts of which can be found within Ladders or Class options, and Bonds are replaced with an origin table where you roll for the kind of upbringing you've had. This origin table is actually a mix of 24 diffrent tables, where you find information about your parents, siblings, enemies, relathionships and friends; each fleshed out beyond who these people were and include a current standing towards you.

Sadly there are virtualy no race options within this book. It's explained that due to the nature of the book the only races they could offer would be very generic options, but even with that explanation I think a few even simple options would have been nice. It would only have to be a few types of aliens, Robots or Hybrids and a GM would get a feel for the creations. However it does come with a very nice alternate human option, which takes the basic human from 5th Edition and adds potential for genetic Traits and Flaws, which can even be used again in your traditional Fanatsy Setting.

Equipment comes in Technology Tiers, each of the Tiers is explained briefly at the beginning of the chapter by the sort of medicine, weapons and vehicles you'd expect within that Tier. Also where applicable a Tier will be given a Time Period where similiar technology was available in our human history. Tiers 0 to 2 reach from the mid 18th century to present technology, Tier 3 representing near future and the Tiers above being closer to magic. Weapons, Armors and Equipments here are solid for all Tiers. There are additional Vehicle rules (far more than standard 5th Edition) and only lacking in the space flight options. The vehicles presented are still many, comprised in three ground categories, one aircraft and one watercraft categorie. These again are all sepearted by a Technology Tier, and even have customizable options for adding speed boosts or mounted guns.

Additional Content

What I was surprised to discover, is that the book comes filled with 15 pages of Antagonists & Enemies, which has full statblocks for "Creatures" (5th Edition Term; largely Humans, Aliens (kinda), Robots/PowerArmors/Vehicles) you can expect to find in a more modern setting. Some of these come bundled with minion options, which are weaker versions of the enemies. There a even adversary traits, which give weak enemies a theme and power boost; hive mind bots, or fanatic goons are easy to create from a single Statblock.

Don't go in expecting a fully fleshed Monster Manual, none of the Creatures come with flavour text and with 15 pages there's only so much you can do, but as an added bonus it's nothing the sneeze at. And as explained those 15 Pages actually hide a few more monsters within the minion and adversary trait options.

There are even (full color) Maps, encouters and two Adventures; A Zombie Apocalypse for Level 4 Characters and an Alien Invasion for Level 14 Characters. Both come filled with even more Creatures, Flavour Texts and even a Modern City Map.

Also you get some pre designed PCs in the Appendix, which are designed for use int the two Adventures and are either level 4 or level 14.

So adding all of this together you get about 93 Pages of additional content, which includes everything past character Creation and Equipment.

In Conclusion I'm quite impressed with how much quality content is inside. And only slightly bummed at the lack of Race Options (making my final review a 4,5 / 5 if I had the option). If you’re looking for some great DM content to travel to modern seeting with your table check this book out, it’s a great read and has some solid Rules!