Product Description

True20 Adventure Roleplaying is the next evolution in game design from the company that brought you Mutants & Masterminds and Blue Rose. True20 offers a simplified and streamlined game system for all your roleplaying adventures. This core rulebook contains everything you need to get started, from character creation and combat to special abilities, supernatural powers and equipment. True20 also contains several sample campaign settings, including the winners of Green Ronin's Setting Search. Each setting provides something different and shows off the strength and flexibility of the rules. If you want a fast, simple, and fun game system that's still familiar to players of the world's most popular RPGs, if you want a vehicle for creating worlds of adventure, then True20 is for you

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #951095 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781932442571
• BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

Customer Reviews

True Adventure, Truly Good
True20 is an excellent evolution of the Dungeons and Dragon model into new territory. It uses an adaptation of the base rules system in Mutants and Masterminds (just roll D20 and add numbers) and focuses it down to apply to normal rather than costumed adventurers. It adapts systems from other role playing games (challenges from Iron Heroes, damage saves from Mutant and Masterminds) and blends them into a focused whole.

Overall the system runs like a charm; it is fast, fun and encourages the players to try things.

This book includes four settings which, I feel, do not show the power of the system and prevent me from giving this book 5 stars. The settings are:
Caliphate Nights. The good one focusing on playing tales from the 1001 Nights. New roles, new rules and the djinni!
Kaju vs. Mecha. Giant robots versus bigger monsters. Not my cup of tea but adds new sci-fi rules.
Lux Aeternum. An attempt to merge swashbuckling and sci-fi which feels a little like a Star Trek episode.
Borrowed Time. A great idea to do The Matrix with time manipulators but which doesn't include a complete setting or fully functional rules. A let down.

Truly what D&D should be!
Pros: The system is quick, streamlined, and open to limitless possibilities. Magic now requires a dice roll to cast a spell. The Caliphate Nights setting example in the back of the book is intriguing, although I don't like that is set in a quasi-historical world. The combat system is based on Mutant & Mastermind's system which is streamlined but some will miss their "hit points"...I for one won't.

Neutral: They use the D20 Modern Wealth score system (with Wealth checks to buy something.) I would have liked if they included the quick conversion rules to keep it currency based If one chose to do so.

Negative: Aside from the Caliphate Nights, the other three settings that are included (as examples of True20's versatility) are...um...goofy. Really, I cannot say anything good about the other three. Thankfully they don't take up too much space but I wish they had published the settings separately. Also, the artwork is really hit and miss. They should hire the artist who works with I.C.E.'s HARP line, whose pen and pencil drawings are excellent. The poor art can make this feel amateur-ish.

All in All...I highly recommend this game! Just stop reading once you finish the Caliphate Nights section. The other settings are sad really. There seems to be an active community on their forum boards which is always a good sign.

Not sure? Green Ronin (publishers) offer a free Quick Start guide on their True20.com website. Check it out!

D20 Done Right
I am not a fan of the d20 system. Its proliferation of feats, skills, prestige classes, and templates seems to always lead players to power gaming instead of role playing. Green Ronin's True20, however, gets it right and delivers a clean, fast playing set of rules that allow for play in fantasy, modern, or sci-fi genres, all in a 224 page rule book.

Character classes have been eliminated in favor of the three "Roles" of Adept, Expert, and Warrior. The feats and skills systems will be familiar to anyone who plays d20 games, but their application is more balanced and there are no prestige classes or templates to complicate matters. Spell casting is feat-based, so an Adept player must balance his spell acquisition against his need for useful feats as he progresses in level. Combat does away with hit points in favor of a damage track in which Toughness saves determine a character's injuries, leading to some fast and deadly engagements.

On the down side, the game uses a wealth system instead of having actual costs for items. Functioning somewhat like Resources in a White Wolf game, it eliminates the need for keeping track of a character's money and treasure but seems to drain some of the fun out of the fantasy side of the game.

The last 71 pages of the book are devoted to four sample campaign settings. Sadly, none of them are very well detailed or interesting. In my opinion, those pages could have been used to expand the equipment tables (which cover modern well but only glosses over fantasy/medieval items), increase the number of Power feats available to Adepts, or add more creatures to the bestiary.

In conclusion, I recommend True20. It is fast playing, fun, and allows the players and game master to customize characters and game elements to their tastes without unbalancing the game, offering a leaner, rules-light version of the d20 system that I find very refreshing.