d20 Modern vs. True 20

[Shepherd.Gunn]

Ok, my wife and I are looking to run a post-apocalypse Sci-Fi RPG in the near future. After debating things a bit, we both looked at running it in d20 Modern. Then a friend of ours told us that we should instead look at running it in True 20. Unfortunately, while I know a bit about d20 Modern, I don't know anything about True 20. Before I decide to make an investment of buying an entirely new set of books, I wanted to hear which system works best.

So, what's the community's opinion: Which would work best for a Sci-Fi game, d20 Modern or True 20?

 

[Aus_Snow]

True20, if I had to choose one of those two. If you get the revised version (which is the current one), you get some more detailed rules and stuff for modern, horror, sci-fi and fantasy, included in the corebook.

Plus, it plays faster, is designed more elegantly, and basically cuts down on a fair amount of wasted time, clumsy details, and other such things that can get in the way of enjoying many other systems, d20 Modern for the most part included (IME). Oh, and there are hardly any 'D&Disms' lurking around in the system, as opposed to d20 Modern, which is full of them.

d20 Modern can work fine, but in my experience, True20 outshines it in just about every way, even if you ignore the obvious advantage of being able to run a wide variety of genres straight out of one book, by way of contrast.

 

[Angellis_ater]

I'd say True20, primarily because it gives both the players and the Narrator the freedom to create their world completely freely. As above suggested, get the True20 Revised edition and you'll have an AWESOME toolbox allowing you to play almost ANY game you want to.

 

[Vigilance]

Depends on how much work you want to do. For True20, you'll have to come up wth some crunch yourself.

On the other hand, between 1st party stuff (d20 Future, d20 Apocalypse) and 3rd Party (Darwin's World, Blood and Space) almost all the work will be done for you.

 

[Knightfall]

True20 is a really good system and I highly recommend it. It's a great toolkit for creating almost any type of game in any genre. It definitely works better for modern or future gaming than for fantasy.

However, if you want a game that inculdes hit points, you should use d20 Modern. I have several of the books for the d20 Modern version of Gamma World and it is well done. I recommend you use that if you decided to use d20 Modern as the basis for a post-apocalyptic campaign. Make sure you have d20 Apocalypse as well.

If having hit points doesn't matter then True20 is definitely your best choice between the two systems. However, you should also take a look at Darwin's World by RPGObjects.

 

[Vigilance]

And if you want to use Darwin's World, you don't actually have to choose, cause there's a True20 version as well!

 

[Knightfall]

And if you want to use Darwin's World, you don't actually have to choose, cause there's a True20 version as well!

Good point. I forgot about that.

 

[Qualidar]

Depends on how much work you want to do. For True20, you'll have to come up wth some crunch yourself.

On the other hand, between 1st party stuff (d20 Future, d20 Apocalypse) and 3rd Party (Darwin's World, Blood and Space) almost all the work will be done for you.

That's very true for campaign building, but I think it's much easier to do adventure prep in True 20.

Honestly either can work well for SciFi. I've run a Star*Drive d20 Future campaign and it ran great, but it was a butt-load of work; on par with homebrew 3.5 D&D. If that's not an issue for you, it might be the better choice. It certainly has a more complex system and grainier character options, which many players prefer.

So far I've only used True20 for a Chinese mythology adventure (which it excelled at) but I think it would work well for future as well. They certainly address that in the book. I've been thinking of giving another run at the Star*Drive campaign, and if I do it will be with True20.

EDIT: and I'll be using all the awesome d20 future stuff I have for inspiration.

 

[Darrin Drader]

True20 is my game of choice for everything from the modern genre to the space opera and everything in between.

One thing to mention though, is that the damage track system takes some getting used to.

If you want something more streamlined that has hit points instead of damage track, you might want to consider this instead: http://www.rpgobjects.com/index.php?c=product&o[p_id]=323

 

[FraserRonald]

I voted for True20, but that's just a general recommendation. True20 goes relatively abstract in many areas. If you are looking for something more granular, you might want to go d20 Modern OR, do as Darrin Drader suggests and go Modern20.