d20 Future Tech rocks

Last month WOTC released a pair of books worth raving about. Due to time restraints, it has taken me a while to whip up a review but the upside has been some deeper analysis on this sourcebook. I plan to have the other review pertaining to the D&D adventure soon. 
 
Future Tech is a long overdue supplement for the d20 Future rules. Thankfully the book delivers too. Instead of wasting paper and time with 96 pages of more Feats, Races and Advanced Classes, there are 96 pages elaborating on equipment, starships, systems (more on this later), robots and mecha. The mecha stuff is brief so its inclusion is forgivable. When it comes to equipment there are options explaining how computers, weapons and gear can be tweaked to make them cheaper, portable, tougher, etc. There are also new weapons (many I recognized from TSR’s Star Frontiers), armor and personal gear. The additional equipment rules are pretty straightforward and easily integrated into an existing, ongoing campaign. Starships is where the book excels and disappoints at the same time. Excels: more ship templates, weapon systems, defensive systems, types of FTL drives and power sources. The designers also state which parts of a starship are modified differently with the six key alien races. For example, Vrusk ships have 5d20 more hit points and slightly faster engines. Disappoints: still no guidelines for laying out deckplans when you build a starship since players love to have a “map” of their ship. Systems covers the more mundane details of the world around the PCs based upon the Progress Level of the campaign: the routine means of communication, healthcare delivery, advertising and entertainment, identification, etc. This definitely resolves arguments and saves the GM the grief of having to research those matters. The robots section is rather brief and just focuses on new accessories, new models and new rules to make them more feasible PCs. 
 
Here is my overall frustration with the game. When it comes to d20 Modernand its derivative genre books (Future, Past, etc), I don’t see how WOTC fails to capitalize on how great and successful Modern and Future could be. As much as I enjoy my monthly Traveller d20 game with Flynn, its the interaction with the other players, Flynn’s imagination and GM skills and the chance to be a player that keeps me participating. Even with the d20 mechanics, Traveller‘s stodgy approach to Science Fiction, (lack of) action and belittling of PCs to insignificant pawns against the backdrop of the Imperium dominates the game. In short, Traveller d20 is still that sow’s ear Traveller covered in d20 silk trying to be a purse. GURPS’ problem with Traveller is it’s GURPS, not much of an improvment there. The RPG market is ripe for a solid Sci-Fi game, d20 Futurecould be WOTC’s shot to finally get it right after past attempts with Star*Driveand Star Frontiers. 
 
The Bottom Line: d20 Future Tech is pretty reasonable for its $20 cover price. The price-sensitive will need to wait for the PDF version but they’ll be pleased with it. Regardless of the physical form buyers prefer, this book is more on target of what WOTC should be publishing for their d20 Modern line. I think a major reason why this book impressed me is that one of the authors is president of The Game Mechanics, the best publisher of third party d20 Modern rules around. Now some adventures and a more specific campaign book are the next steps WOTC and TGM may want to take.