The first rules discussed in the game is the chapter on character generation. Unlike the old Games Workshop version of Judge Dredd this game gives you two options for characters - either judges or citizens. This has been cited as one of the major selling points of the game but unfortunately its clear that you can only really play one or the other as the two are simply not compatible. Using the D20 system is the biggest hinderance in the character generation system here as the game tries to force everything into classes. In D&D the class system works because there are a lot of them and their abilities compliment one another. In Judge Dredd though there are hardly any starting classes and the game system does not allow for much customisation.
Most games I imagine will focus on judges but there are only two judge classes - the street judge and the psi judge. The practical upshot of which is that half your players will probably choose one class, and half the other, resulting in a much greater number of psi judges than there should be in Mega City One. Alternatively there is one single class for the citizen character which has slightly different abilities depending on your background, but the same basic character template. There just are not enough options at character creation to make it interesting, partly due to the limits of the world but mainly due to the artificial nature of the D20 class system. If you had six players making up a party of judges the chances are after rolling them up half of them will be almost statistically indentical to the other half. In a world where said judges are supposed to suppress their personality and emotions this doesn't allow much scope for diversity in a judge campaign.
Judge Dredd D20 Rpg.pdf
Later chapters detail prestige classes your characters can select. As usual in a D20 game there are requirements before a character can qualify for these though so you might have to play up to high level before these become available. Prestige classes include things like Tek Judges and Med Judges which I would have preffered as options when making up a basic character. Instead you are unlikely to qualify for these before level 7 and psi judges cannot choose these options at all ( a seperate supplement details special prestige classes for psi judges ).
The chapters on Skills and Feats as you might imagine try to crowbar the D20 system into a more modern setting. A lot of these are the same as are found in D&D with a few changes to reflect the nature of life in Mega City One. For example you still have a Ride skill but it refers to riding a bike, you still have the Quick Draw feat but it refers to drawing a gun. Once again any originality is stifled by the D20 system. Its worth noting that most of a street judges abilities come in the form of bonus feats, so these become the best chance you have to personalise your judge. Even so there are several skills and feats which stand out as better than others and most players would regard as essential.
The equipment and weapons chapter is nicely done with all sorts of weird and wonderful items taken from the pages of 2000AD. Each weapon is given its own illustration which is a nice touch, with extra love given to the judges equipment. Once again judges have standard equipment so there is no chance to personalise your judge here either. It is nice to see though that the judge character sheet at the back of the book includes this equipment as standard which saves writing it out each time.
Combat in Judge Dredd follows the standard D20 rules with a few minor differences. The games designers have made some effort here to adapt the system to suit the style of the comic but they have had their hands tied. The most noticeable difference is the use of Defence Values instead of armour class. Armour, instead of making you harder to hit actually provides a reduction in the damage you take. While your defence value, derived from your Reflexes save and any nearby cover helps you avoid being hit in the first place. Its clear from this system that judges are designed to be pretty tough hombres as they start automatically at level 3, have excellent all over body armour and use the best weapons in the game. If you are playing as citizens however you are only likely to survive a fight if you are facing other citizens rather than judges.
Being a big fan of Judge Anderson stories the chapter on Psi Powers was something I was looking forward to but it proves to be a big dissapointment. Once again the fault lies with whoever decided to use the D&D system as these abilities are nothing more than spells. Looking like a limited section from the Dungeons and Dragons wizards spellbook the psi powers are described in the same format as D&D spells, only with power points being used instead of a spell point system. There are even some psi powers which directly copy D&D spells like Daze and Augury. This is such a wasted opportunity to come up with something original and it totally detracts from the style of the psi judge stories in 2000AD. When Judge Anderson used her powers it was always vague and unpredictable, the idea of her 'casting' Daze every round makes me cringe. This approach is completely unsuitable and I'm surprised the writers went for this system unless they had to as part of the D20 licencing contract ie "anyone using our system must also adopt our god-awful magic system into whatever game they are writing".
The following chapters provide a vast wealth of background material about Mega City One and its Justice Department. These chapters are lovingly detailed with information about the law ( something every judge player would have to have a copy of )and what it means to be a judge. More information is also given on running a citizen based campaign with the various past times and crazes detailed so you can decide just what sort of citizen you are going to be. Most as you might expect will turn to crime, and although this type of campaign allows for greater freedom it is also a lot less focused. With no common goal to work towards citizen characters may find it hard to work together, and as mentioned previously as soon as a judge turns up they are as good as dead.
One thing which I found to be missing in this rulebook was some statistics for standard judges and perps of each level. Instead there are some guidelines to creating NPC's and a 'monster manual' of non-human adversaries you could throw at your players. This seems a bit of a shame as GM's will each have to work out some standard statistics for random city encounters before playing, which is extra work a GM could do without.
'The titular character in the franchise, Judge Dredd, is a law enforcement officer in the dystopian future city of Mega-City One, which covers most of the east coast of North America. He is a "street judge", empowered to summarily arrest, convict, sentence, and execute criminals. [...] Street Judges act as police, judge, jury, and executioner. Capital punishment in Mega-City One is rarely used, though deaths while resisting arrest are commonplace. Numerous writers have used the Judge System to satirize contemporary politics.
The 70- page (!) Character Creation chapter does exactly what it says. The game uses the 'What's O.L.D. is N.E.W.' (W.O.I.N.) game system, which is based on attribute plus skill plus equipment dice pools rolled against a target difficulty. The number of dice in a pool is dictated by a character's score there. Characters have eight primary attributes (Strength, Agility, Endurance, Willpower, Intuition, Logic, Charisma, Luck) as well as two secondary ones (Reputation, Psionics). Their range is open, even though an average human would be mostly depicted by 4s, leading to a dice pool of 2d6 when it comes to ability. The species you choose will affect the values of your attributes in a rather broad way. There are seven species on offer, three of which are different kinds of apes outside the Dredd standard of humans, mutants, clones and robots. In addition to the seldom oddity like a list of 36 mutations for the mutants and the exploits (see: special abilities) that each species has, species also influence the skills a player can choose. The list of skills is open-ended, and any activity can be a skill. Each character then follows five different careers which can relate to a number of broad categories like Civilian, Perp, Judge and Specialty Judge. Examples of careers include gamer, PI, scavenger, mobster, punk,street judge, tek judge, and dozens more. Each has a prerequisite, alters you attributes and increases your skill choices, not to mention that it offers new exploits to draw from. There are more minor steps in character creation, the most interesting of which is the fact that at character can be summarized in the format 'A [age] [trait] [species] [career] who [hook], or, to create one example, 'a middle-aged erudite game reviewer who takes basketball very seriously'. Characters advance through XPs which are earned through overcoming challenges, defeating enemies and completing milestones.
The Equipment chapter doesn't just cover the physical items themselves. It also discusses money (creds), services, drugs, cybernetics, and all kinds of customized gear. As importantly, it covers requisitions and organizations. The judges are not buying the lawgivers with their own money after all.
Crime Blotter contains the blueprints for five different adventures. Each vignette is from three to five pages long, and presents the adventure for any of the three groups that the game can cater towards (judges, perps, and citizens).
State of the Empire is a starting level, 14-page scenario divided in five parts. Dredd afficionados will note that the adventure is a tribute to the very first Dredd story ever, published in the distant 1977. The comic might have examined the plot through the eyes of judges only, yet the adventure can also be played by perp and citizen groups.
The book closes with an Appendix, a 4-page index and two 2-page character sheets (one for mutants, one for everybody else). The pages of the former include everything from tables to a character creation walkthrough, random encounter tables, pages devoted to the lawgiver (the iconic sidearm) and the lawmaster (the iconic motorbike), as well as four pre-generated judges. 2ff7e9595c
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