Best 5 books for True20?

[Angellis_ater]

Mail sent.

I am REALLY impressed by True20 as a game and I'm already becoming interested in spending some of my own money (the group has a group fund for group purchases) and Blight Elves, Reign of Discordia and Darwins World sure looks interesting on a personal level.

 

[Urizen]

If you're interested in Reign of Discordia, you don't have much longer to wait.

The book looks incredible.

Darrin Drader is an outstanding writer, the artwork is intense, and the layout/graphic design is on par with any other book out there.

Now, that's me with my publisher hat off and talking from a purely fanboy standpoint. While I obviously have a vested interest in this book, I know quality artwork and design when I see it, and I know great gaming material when I read it.

That's one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to work with Darrin. He's an outstanding writer.

Heck, the Starship combat rules ALONE are worth the price of admission.

 

[ValhallaGH]

Is Blood and Fists useful for non modern Fantasy Campaigns??

It is. The book emphasizes martial arts, especially unarmed styles, and is useful for any characters or campaigns that want to emphasize beating things, especially with fists and feet. Fantasy, modern, sci-fi, whatever, it's great for armored warriors, wandering mystics, vicious assassins, stealthy operators, and peasants that are more than they appear. It's one of the few toolkits that I'm always tempted to use.

Someone mentioned "Fantasy Paths" - what exactly does that help me with?

Fantasy Paths is an electronic True20 supplement that gives guidelines on how to reproduce most of the 3.x D&D classes using the True20 system. If you or your players really want to play a game of D&D, or a D&D-like game, using True20 then it's a good supplement. If you want to use such characters as villains, allies, or just surrounding character then it's not bad. If you have no interest in reproducing D&D 3.x characters then it's a waste of time to purchase. It can be worth reading through once for the insights into how to build certain styles and flavors into a character, but that's the only value I've ever gotten out of it; when I think about it, I regret having actually spent money on it. Other people swear it is the best and most used supplement for True20 they've ever purchased. Utility varies, rather wildly.

 

[Vigilance]

Is Blood and Fists useful for non modern Fantasy Campaigns??

The book has the post-apocalyptic styles we did for Wasteland Fury (for Darwin's World d20 Modern) and the Sci-Fi Styles we did for Cosmic Fury (d20 Future), as well as all the modern skill from Blood and Fists 1&2 that we did for modern campaigns (though obviously those would work for fantasy games, though they might need to be renamed).

 

[Brutorz Bill]

The book has the post-apocalyptic styles we did for Wasteland Fury (for Darwin's World d20 Modern) and the Sci-Fi Styles we did for Cosmic Fury (d20 Future), as well as all the modern skill from Blood and Fists 1&2 that we did for modern campaigns (though obviously those would work for fantasy games, though they might need to be renamed).

Well you've made another sale then. I was wondering if it had the P.A. Styles in it. Sounds like this will be uber useful no matter what Campaign style I'm running.
This is PDF only isn't it? I'd prefer a book in hand but if the only way I can get it is in PDF then so be it.

 

[Vigilance]

Well you've made another sale then. I was wondering if it had the P.A. Styles in it. Sounds like this will be uber useful no matter what Campaign style I'm running.
This is PDF only isn't it? I'd prefer a book in hand but if the only way I can get it is in PDF then so be it.

Yeah PDF only for this title, unfortunately.

 

[jaldaen]

Thanks everyone for your suggestions - I am primarily NOT looking for Setting Material, unless it has a crapload of genre specific stuff that can be used in other games. If at all possible, stuff that is usable in "most genres" is preferable to us.

Sorry I'm late to the party... but here's my two cents:

Although you said you are not interested in setting material... I would like to point out that the Nevermore campaign setting's Nevermore Gazetteer by Expeditious Retreat Press (nominated for ENNies Best Electronic Book and Best Free Product) is available for free at Your Games Now.

As ValhallaGH pointed out it is a "freaky little setting that lets you do anything and everything you've ever wanted all at the same time."

There are a lot of rules within the Nevermore campaign setting that can be borrowed/stolen to enhance just about any genre... the setting itself assumes a "high fantasy" world, but I specifically designed the world to be compatible with any other setting around with a few tweaks here and there. In fact the young adult's novel I'm working on for Nevermore is set in the modern world with Nevermore as the Dreamlands of the Mortal World.

Dream Conviction is also really great, especially if you want to play a bend the fabric of reality game (such as Wuxia)

Last but not least, the Nevermore Big Book will be released at Gen Con... 200 pages of pure surreal campaign setting useable with any other True20 campaign as either a "Feywild"-like alternate dimension to your current campaign (for side-treks or short quests) or a stand alone world for an entire campaign.

 

[Angellis_ater]

Most importantly is that the books you suggest are available in the "dead-tree" format. I realized I might not have mentioned this.

 

[jaldaen]

Most importantly is that the books you suggest are available in the "dead-tree" format. I realized I might not have mentioned this.

"Dead Tree" format... nice

The Big Bad Book for Nevermore will be in the "Dead Tree" format in Sept...

 

[Aus_Snow]

That sounds fantastic.

I only have the gazetteer (and the original material in Worlds of Adventure) - well, also Liber Artefactorum, but I don't consider that too setting-specific, and have used it elsewise - so this'll be heaps of new goodness to get my mitts on. Excellent.

Damn, there are some nice things that have come out / are coming out for True20 in '08. Seriously, this year more than any other so far, I'd say. It's a significant part of what drew me back to this game.