True 20 - Who here has played it, and what was your experience?

[Thomas5251212]

Well, IME the higher level the character, the more likely he is to use conviction for something other that toughness rerolls. Conviction to remove fatigue save modifiers (The Talent) are essential to make the master spellcaster effective for more than 3-4 rounds. My players get a lot of mileage out of Expertise, since a +4 edge in opposed skills gives quite the boon (and my players love to stunt or feint). And Determination also get's used more often the higher level the warrior. That's only with respect to core abilities.

Higher level character IMC tend to use Heroic feat and Heroic Surges a lot more often. They also tend to use Extra Effort, and then conviction to reduce fatigue.

I'm suprised Surge (given how effective it can be) wasn't used all the way up. I can see the issue with the arcane ability fatigue offset; it looks like if you don't watch it it can get ahead of the save as you advance.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Just my $0.02.

Bento just ran a True20 one shot at the Dallas Gameday in which I was a participant.

My personal take on True20 is that it has certain streamlined features that make sense (your attribute IS your bonus) and a combat system that is simultaneously more abstract than Original D20 in certain ways and less abstract in others. It was cool that our PCs were able to take down opponents- even powerful ones- with a single, well placed (excellent roll) shot. It was equally cool (for different reasons) that we couldn't take down the final enemy despite rolling extremely well.

At this point, I'm going to track down a copy of it to take a closer examination of it.

 

[Eric Tolle]

But again, if there's not a rules element dependent on it, its pretty much a non-issue; if the player says his character is cowardly, but he doesn't act that way from the GM's POV, it might create some dissonance in their interactions, but it doesn't really mean anything as long as the player is playing his characters as he sees fit and the GM is having NPCs react as he sees fit.

Personally, if a player is playing his character completely at odds with his character description, then questions over personality mechanics is the least of my concerns- something has gone seriously agly. Fortunately, I can easily talk over such issues with the people I play with.

Also, as a thought, it seems like any question about the appropriateness of Conviction rewards could be avoided by simply using the "Say Yes" principle of game mastering. That avoids any issue of rewards and punishment, but I don't think it would probably fly with the impression I have of the far more adversarial group atmosphere you play in.

If leaving Conviction rewards completely up to the player rankles too much, a "Resolution" system could be used: any player can nominate any player for a Conviction reward, including themselves; if any player seconds it, then the player gets the point. Weird, but then I LIKE Roberts Rules of Order.

Point being, there's a lot of fun ways to arrange the Conviction syystem without throwing the bahby out with the bath water.

 

[Thomas5251212]

Well, to be honest, _any_ system that puts this into the grounds of subjectivity, whether its being managed by the GM or the players seems undesireable to me, but since others have mentioned a relatively objective system that makes it a non-issue, that's fine.

 

[barsoomcore]

I have found a significant change to Conviction use I can make is to take all restrictions on its use away when a character is disabled. Normally you're only allowed to use one Conviction point for a given purpose per round, but when a character is disabled they can do whatever they like as long as they have the Conviction.

This allows for characters to make those last-ditch heroic efforts as they teeter on the brink of death. If the they botch a roll, even their second Convictioned roll, they can still try again. Just knowing that they can try again encourages the craziness, I find.

 

[iwatt]

Just knowing that they can try again encourages the craziness, I find.

More crazy that ninjas, pirates, monkeys and dinosaurs?

 

[Aus_Snow]

Will possibly run 'true cyberpunk' at some stage.

Well, it's been exactly one year, not counting hours or less.

It's kinda cute, is all, given that Interface Zero is just about to be released (by Reality Deviant Publications.)

'True Cyberpunk' indeed, after a little wait then. And the convenience of posting about it brought to you by the spammer X, Y or Z (not sure which - or are they all the same one?)

 

[Urizen]

Mmm....

Interface Zero..

This book's gonna rock the house.

Here's a few pieces of the newest art to come in for ya to check out.

http://realitydeviants.net/iz/Cyber-Progress.jpg

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

To answer the original question, I played True20 at ENWorld Dallas Gameday at GenerationX Games in Euless, Tx., alongside der_Kluge and Bento.

Had a blast. Its a good enough D20 variant. It was quite transparent to roleplay and was pretty easy to pick up on the fly.

That said, I haven't picked it up yet.

I may yet do so, though. I don't care for 4Ed, and True20 and Pathfinder are both high on my list of potential future purchases.

 

[Razuur]

We had an awesome session last night.

It was part one of the two part season finale of our Star Wars / Dune campaign.

The True20 rules are "stellar" - pun intended.

Razuur