D20 Past

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D20 Past is a 2005 role-playing game by Wizards of the Coast, designed as a supplement to d20 Modern. It lets you run campaigns from the Renaissance through World War II, blending realism with fantasy. The book adds new character options and rules for early firearms and covers a range of themes, including swashbuckling pirates, Victorian horror investigations, and pulp-era adventures. It includes three ready-to-play campaigns and is organized as an introduction plus five chapters. A web enhancement offered extra background material. Designed by James Wyatt and Gwendolyn F. M. Kestrel.

Progress Levels (PL) show how advanced a society’s technology is. d20 Past uses two PLs: 3 (the Age of Reason) and 4 (the Industrial Age). These levels affect available gear and which skills and feats make sense. Skills and feats from d20 Modern are adapted to fit historical tech, so some modern actions or knowledge may not exist in these settings, while new historical uses for skills and feats are added.