Opinions on True20

[Urizen]

Oh, believe you me, I am.

Cool news about Land of the Crane! I thought Dark Quest was doing that, but their web page doesn't look...updated. That'll be one I'll be waiting to check out.

David Garret (The Creator of Land of The Crane ) Licensed LOTC to both Dark Quest Games and my company, with the caveat that we have to submit finished manuscripts to him for review before he'll allow each to be published.

I don't know exactly what products DQG is working on, but it's been indicated to me that there isn't a core book in the works. With this in mind,I have a team of writers work on the Core Book as we speak.

I hope to have it out before May.

 

[Wycen]

Are there any sci-fi settings for True20?

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Bento ran some True 20 back at the Dallas Gameday, and I found it to be relatively easy to adjust from 3.X to T20. We didn't play long enough for me to completely grasp the altered mechanics, but he ran it smoothly enough that my inexperience didn't really matter.

I'm still not 100% sold on it, but I have to admit it still catches my eye in the game store as one of the RPG products I'd consider buying. I think there are better D20 variants, like Mutants & Masterminds, but not many. You could definitely do worse.

Lets call it an approval rating of 80%.

 

[zacharythefirst]

Are there any sci-fi settings for True20?

HinterWelt, after doing Roma Imperious True20, is looking at doing a Nebuleon True 20, which I think would be even a betting system/setting fit, much as I liked True Roma.

There's also Lux Aeternum , but offhand I couldn't tell you what else we'll see for that.

With the free licensing, I know we'll see a few more folks take the plunge--I've been speaking with a couple folks who are using this news and the timing to give their True 20 ideas a shot.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Are there any sci-fi settings for True20?

Additionally, it's pretty easy to adapt any sci-fi setting you like to True20. It might be the Firefly universe or Star Wars; if people like the setting then one or more someones have already done an adaptation or they are working on one.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I appear to be some sort of freak, in that I don't see anything particularly special about True20.

Reading it didn't fire me up, and I don't think it really simplified anything in d20 (just shifted around where things are fiddly).

Then again, I also preferred what I saw of M&M 1E, and 2E just left me flat.

I guess once 4E rolls out, True 20 is pretty much going to be the only game in town. If having constantly new material published is important to you, it's probably the way you're going to have to go if you're not looking to bump up to the newest WotC rules. Between True 20 (with it's no licensing fee) and M&M, I think Green Ronin is going to lock down a large portion of whatever happens to remain of a 3.x market.

I don't think the rules are _bad_. I just wasn't particularly excited by 'em.

 

[takyris]

I don't necessarily think it's the second coming, but I think that the rules are solid, it doesn't have all the D&D-specific baggage that makes it hard for me to adapt it to my own game, and it has the toolkit feel that makes it very easy for me to make exactly the game I like.

It's right there with Grim Tales, for my money. M&M, True20, and Grim Tales let me run any game I could possibly want to run. I'd probably use Grim Tales for the same games I'd use True20 for, but vary my choice based on whether the group is very D&D experienced (lean toward Grim Tales for rules transparency) or more interested in the roleplaying and story aspects than combat crunch (lean toward True20). M&M handles just about anything they can't.

But there's no rule that it has to work for you. Plenty of systems in the sea.

 

[amethal]

There's also Lux Aeternum , but offhand I couldn't tell you what else we'll see for that.

I like Lux Aeternum a lot. I purchased the core book from Lulu. Apparently they are working on an adventure for it, but I don't know if anything will come of it.

I am not aware of any True20 rules for starship combat, either in LA or in True20 itself. LA is more based around swashbucking high adventure, so if you want to take out an enemy starship you would generally expect to pull up alongside and send over a boarding party.

Powerful weapons which might endanger planets are outlawed in the LA universe.

The strong setting means that the LA sourcebook is great if you want to play LA, but not so useful if you want to mine ideas for some other sci-fi campaign.

However, I expect that the forthcoming True20 Quarterly (assuming they get it established) will have some sci-fi information in it.

 

[Krolik]

I guess once 4E rolls out, True 20 is pretty much going to be the only game in town. If having constantly new material published is important to you, it's probably the way you're going to have to go if you're not looking to bump up to the newest WotC rules.

Not really. I would imagine that most of the d20 publishers will just retool their d20 books to the 1.0a OGL license and reissue them. The various OGL publishers, like Green Ronin, will keep producing material for the OGL games as long as people find it interesting and are willing to keep buying it.

 

[Psion]

I appear to be some sort of freak, in that I don't see anything particularly special about True20.

Reading it didn't fire me up, and I don't think it really simplified anything in d20 (just shifted around where things are fiddly).

I absolutely agree, but True20 seems to be "da bomb" around here.

I thought that Blue Rose "would be a cool system if you broke it away from that setting."

I got the True20 core book and decided I didn't like the result. I did give it a chance and while it's workable and I can stand playing it, it won't be my choice to run anything.

1) As others have mentioned elsehwere, the damage system is fiddly and adds as much complication as is taken away. I run spycraft and really appreciate the use of a damage save style system for mook NPCs/monsters, but I think that damage point systems are much more viable for PC types. I don't like the condition track and massively prefer the feel and flow of building tension as hp/vp get whittled away over the "exposed" feel and additional condition tracking of the True20 damage system.

2) I really hate generic classes, and think they defeat the purpose of having classes in the first place.

Then again, I also preferred what I saw of M&M 1E, and 2E just left me flat.

I like M&M, FWIW. The unholy hybrid that is True20 just doesn't fly for me.

I guess once 4E rolls out, True 20 is pretty much going to be the only game in town. If having constantly new material published is important to you, it's probably the way you're going to have to go if you're not looking to bump up to the newest WotC rules. Between True 20 (with it's no licensing fee) and M&M, I think Green Ronin is going to lock down a large portion of whatever happens to remain of a 3.x market.

There are other publishers with licenses (like Crafty ), but I have to hand it to Green Ronin that making their license for free, a move that is likely to generate support for their game.