True20

[oninowon]

How many of you guys downloaded true20 from Green Ronin this past week? I caught the notice late Friday on RPGnet.

I like the system and I heard it shares some similarities with M&M. The difference being if you want high powered gaming refer to M&M. If you want low powered go to True 20.

The wound system is wonky like Savage Worlds though and seems more complicated. A lot of people didn't understand why GR didn't use the wound system from M&M which I hear is pretty simple (although I heard people were having a hard time grasping that also). I wonder if people (including me) are having a hard time understanding the wound system because we are so used to HP or the woundsystem seems counter-intuitive.

The whole production of the book seems rough too. It seemed like they didn't follow through with some of their ideas. For example, they mention very briefly about Archtypes but don't go further into it. You don't see an example of a statted out Archtype until you hit the settings given near the end. Then there is the encumbrance issue. They give the mechanical effects but don't give the weight of the items.

The game has potential though. The power section is pretty broad so you can tweek it to fit a power /spell you want to emulate. The best is the roles (classes in D&D terminology). There is only 3 broadly defined roles and the way to go about getting the character you want is to mix them together. There is no restrictions to switching roles. Further, they have Archtypes which can be viewed as prestige class but without having to fully stat out another role. They are used like prestige classes to add flavor to whatever setting.

I'm thinking about writing up either a horror/fantasy setting or sci-fi setting.

[madtitan]

Never heard about this? Is it still available or what is a one time thing?

[oninowon]

It was free for several days. GR gave several stuff away for Free RPG day. They extended it because they didn't anticipate the number of downloads and the increase in traffic caused a meltdown or some such thing. The last day was last Saturday though. I was browsing RPGnet when someone put up the notice.

I had initially eyed True20 ever since the announcement but they were taking so long in getting it to the public. When Rippers came out for Savage Worlds, I gave in and bought that system.

Since I am more comfy with d20, I may use more of True20 than Savage Worlds. I'm still figuring out things though so it's too soon to tell.

[silverlion]

I have true 20 and like it a lot, I've owned the hardcover book, as well as the players guide. It's nice solid iteration of d20 that simplifies much of what I don't like about d20, and makes the game usable.

It's not perfect. Powers are not as smooth as I'd like. But I really like the three classes, and tailoring things with feats.

[oninowon]

Have you run a session with it?

I like that it simplifies the classes. The Companion book broke down the classes so that you could build one more to your liking. I have started a project of writing up a stone age kind of setting for True20.

[silverlion]

I've not run True 20, since an attempt at using it for my "Forge of Destiny" D&Dish style fantasy game. It worked wonderfully.

I'm hoping to pick up the revised edition soon

[oninowon]

While I haven't run anything using True20, I plan on picking up the revised ed (it has the companion which should have been part of the core in the first place) because it is a neat system and I would like a dead tree version (reading PDFs are a pain...).

The Mecha vs. Kaija setting piques my interest as well so I will probably pick that up whenever the hardcopy version hits my FLGS.