Azgulor said:
I've read a good bit about True20 and I am intrigued by it. I'm pretty happy with my current d20 games, which includes d20 Modern. However, I'm also becoming a big fan of Green Ronin's Bleeding Edge Games and will be probably be getting into the Freeport stuff. With 4e increasingly looking like something I don't want to buy, I'm considering if True20 might be a good choice as other publishers seem to be testing the True20 waters as well.
Other publishers have been testing the water on True20 for a couple of years now. There's some good genre-specific games out there like Darwin's World (post-apocalyptic) and Blood Throne. I find that when there's not published materials already, its fairly easy to translate a feat or a monster over from D20 games.
Azgulor said:
I'm curious as to what people's actually play experiences (PC or GM) have been. I'd like to give it a shot but since face-face game time is already in short supply, I don't want to burn several sessions without a little more knowledge of the game in play.
I've used it to run a historical horror one-shot (two times) and Asian-style (OA) fantasy adventure. I use the one-shot as an introduction to the rules and made up pre-generated characters based on specific movie or fiction character types. The one-shot was a mystery with a good mix between social interaction and combat. The OA game was an ongoing campaign and True20 delivered the results I wanted. I was looking for rules that supported characters reward through solving problems and gaining honor, rather than D20's reward of XP (typically for killing stuff) and loot. In the OA game the players were much more invested in their characters than when I ran D&D for the same group, and they weren't afraid of using unusual tactics to resolve encounters. It tempered their hack-and-slash tendecies.
The first time you play the game you need to focus on imparting basic rules and running fun encounters. If the encounters aren't fun you're players probably won't want to play again. By having pre-gen characters, you can be sure to match the character's abilities to the action during the encounters.
For example: my historical horror I had characters for up to five players (2 musketeers, 1 assassin, 1 psi-powered cleric and 1 witch hunter) and encounters where any one of them had a feat, a skill or something in their background to address the situation. In real game play there wasn't a time where everyone waited on one player to do his thing. If the witch hunter was interrogating an old lady, one of the musketeers was also asking the town's sheriff about recent property foreclosures. Not that I didn't want a player to shine, I just wanted to make sure there were options available to the players.
Once you're players are ready to try True20 on a more permanent basis, take them through the character creation. If you're trying out True20 with a group, I suggest running a one-shot with pre-made characters. Character creation is another shining area of the game as players have a relatively clean slate to start from and build the character they envision. Since True20 doesn't follow the same strict character feats as D&D you can have two players building Ninjas that are completely different. Players don't have to wait until 6th level to get feat "x".
Azgulor said:
So, what's the great/good/bad/ugly of True20 from actual play? Genres of interest include fantasy (more swords-n-sorcery than D&D's "genre"), sci-fi, and modern (action or horror).
Great:
Excellent for using in games that cross genres.
Easy to translate D20 feats and critters
Let's players create the character THEY have in mind, not what D&D rules dictate
Good:
Lots of optional rules and support material
I think it gets players to think a little more out of the box
Magic system allows multiple use of same spells (no fire-and-forget)
Minion rules (hit the mook once and they go down) make large scale combat a fun fight and not a record-keeping nightmare
Action points (second chances)
Bad:
If you're players are die-hard D20-ites it might be hard to convince them to try something different
Rulebook is, frankly, unimpressive from a visual standpoint; I've read complains from some that the book's illustrations are plain and not inspiring
Hit-damage rules in the book aren't explained well; pick up the clarification sheet on the True20 web site
Because its generic, True20 probably isn't a good replacement for D&D 3.5 if all your group is going to play is a D&D-genre game.
Sometimes the dice doesn't go your way and you get knocked down or close to being killed, but that's why you have action points
Ugly:
The rhythm of "roll to hit - roll Toughness save" takes getting used to; we're so conditions that when we hit, the opponent is damaged
You'll find at times that there aren't rules available yet to govern something you want to do; you may have to modify D20 rules (I did this with flintlock weapon rules)
I hope this helps and let us know if you have any success!
