Gamefiend already gave out some excellent dungeon mastering advice this week, so I’m going to take a quick break from my usual system modifications and advice to discuss something that me and many others loved and enjoyed about 3.5: the d20 series.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll clue you in. After 3.5 had been released for a while, Wizards released a series of rulebooks for 3.5 in the fall of 2002, starting with the core rules for d20 Modern, a contemporary setting for D&D 3.5. Shortly after that came companion sources like d20 past (for pirates and pulp action), d20 future (for your cyberpunks), and d20 apocalypse (for all you Mad Max fans). You can find just about all the rules you need to play at the following link from Wizards:
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=d20/article/msrd
It was a good set of rules and it is from this system that we get the evolution of class roles, action points, and several other gems that are now integral parts of 4e. In my personal opinion, d20 modern was far superior to the 3.5 rules and could be used to play a far superior game in any setting, from surviving the Ice Age to battling cyborgs in space.
My absolute favorite was a campaign set in an alternate 1930s where prohibition had never been repealed and the mob was in a losing war against a Big Easy voodoo priest and his undead gang. I never thought mowing down zombies with Tommy Guns and taking down buildings with dynamite would thrill my players so much.
So, if 3.5 evolved into d20 and 4e is the child of those two systems, will we see a contemporary setting for 4e? Will we see a return of the fast and dedicated heroes as playable classes, or will we see more focused applications of action movie bad-assery, like gunslingers and kung-fu masters? How will guns factor into the game? Will they make or break combat? What about stats for cars, airplanes, even starships? Will I once again take my players through the dark alleys of Chicago and New Orleans on a hostile take-over of rival gangs?
Rather than insert my own theories and ideas, I leave these questions (and any others you might have), open for discussion. What would you expect to see in a 4e modern? And will we get Tommy Guns?
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I started Dungeon Mastering with secondhand AD&D materials in 1996 and have run a vast number of D20 campaigns, from cliche' medieval adventures in a kingdom made of Lego bricks to fighting zombies and the mob in the mid 1930s. I try to make the gaming experience as enjoyable, fast-paced, and easy to play as humanly possible. 
D20 Modern was, without a doubt, my favorite during my 3.5 gaming days. It had the fun that D&D had, as well as the modern day touch that gave me immediate fluency with the setting. In D&D, you could wind up running into something your character is supposed to know but you don’t, or worse, the other way around, and it would slow down the game or butcher the roleplaying process. (“Vecna? Who’s Vecna?”)
Fluency in setting meant that D20 Modern was an immediately recognizable game, letting you focus less on the setting and more on the characters and gameplay.
I agree 100% that we need a Mode4n game. Star Wars SAGA was a nice move in the right direction; but it’s not quite there.
I don’t think guns would break the system, but entirely new classes would have to be designed. For one, the defender role works in close with enemies, locking them down. That would be a significant change from most of the defender builds in D&D (barring the swordmage, which covers ranged defending fairly well).
Other than that, I think a 4e modern would be a perfect fit for my table.
I never thought of it that way, but you’re absolutely right. D20 modern is a setting that everyone can relate to immediately. It also lets you incorporate all your pop culture references and corny jokes at the game table into the setting.
This review of Amethyst, a 4e GSL product from Goodman Games, talks about rules for automatic weapons.