Please.
I understand that it is a 'rules-light' version of the d20 system. I understand that it operates only off the d20.
But,
could people let me know what they consider its strengths/weaknesses?
How does it hold up at higher levels?
Is it better suited for cinematic play or darker, grittier play?
Thank you.
Please.
I understand that it is a 'rules-light' version of the d20 system. I understand that it operates only off the d20.
But,
could people let me know what they consider its strengths/weaknesses?
How does it hold up at higher levels?
Is it better suited for cinematic play or darker, grittier play?
Thank you.
I've been wondering the exact same thing. Any notes/feedback would be most appreciated!
Hey all,
I'm new to these boards, but this topic came up elsewhere, and as a Pathfinder subscriber and a True20 player, I thought I'd chime in.
To put it simply, True20 is D20 sped up. Its strengths are its simplicity and versatility. For example, you still have your standard six abilities, but it uses a point buy system for character creation and your scores typically range from -3 to +4. In other words, you don't worry about the 3-18 score and then translate it into a bonus that affects everything else in the game, you just use the bonus for the score.
Another example is classes. There are only three classes, called roles, which have a grand total of one class ability. Every level after that you pick a feat. Most feats are general and open to everybody, but there are a few that are specific to each class. The idea here is that you literally build your class as you advance. Things that were class abilities, like rage, are now feats, so you can still do an approximation of a barbarian, bard, fighter, etc. if you want to. In fact, there is a supplement called True20 Fantasy Paths that gives you a level by level breakdown of how you would create characters with the same classes found in the 3.5 PHB.
Some other differences: instead of hit points you get a damage track and a toughness save. If you get hit, you roll toughness against a target number that varies by weapon and attack type, to see what your current condition is. All rolls are made on the d20. Attacks of opportunity are gone (though I added them back in to my game strictly to deal with bonehead combat movement), and you get one single attack per round regardless of level.
What all of these changes do is de-complicate gameplay so that it actually moves faster. It's designed to be a narrative heavy game, in other words a role-playing game rather than a tactical game, or roll-playing game. If min-maxing your character is your thing and you like doing every little thing to squeeze every little bit of power out of the system for your character then this is not the game for you. If you always wished you could fit more game into your four hour session and have a plot heavy game that isn't all cruising through dungeons hacking and slashing then this game was tailor made for you.
Finally, the game offers native support for all roleplaying genres. My personal preference is still D&D 3.5 (or probably the new Pathfinder RPG here pretty soon) for my heroic fantasy and True20 for my modern and future games. In fact, I recently finished writing a new space opera setting called Reign of Discordia for True20, which should be released next month.
Hope that sheds some light on things.
I'm new to these boards,
Hey Whisperfoot. Good to see you. Hope to see you more often on these boards. Thank you for the breakdown.
I love True20 for all the reasons that Whisperfoot mentioned. It will not replace our standard 3.5 biweekly 12 hour Saturday sessions, but I will use it for everything not D&D.
I'm currently running a Star Trek campaign using the True20 rules--it's a spinoff of a series of Star Trek games we played in the late 80's and early 90's using the FASA Star Trek RPG rules.
It's fast. We get about twice as much game play in using True20 than 3.5.
There's very little rule book flipping. The rules are simple and sped up versions of the familiar d20/3.5 rules. Resolution of action is rapid and then you move on. It is much more like AD&D in feel than 3.5 with its 5' square scale.
That's the part I like best--I can now use my hex side of my battlemats again and use a 1 hex = 10 feet indoor scale and 1 hex = 50 feet outdoor scale. I get much more map on to the battle mat, if you know what I mean.
The game can be scaled up in complexity very easily, if you want that. As Whisperfoot mentioned, he added attacks of opportunity back in...it's easy if you want that.
The power curve is much more even in True20--the toughness save system makes a low level attacker a much bigger potential threat to a high level character, since the toughness saves don't advance by level--just by increasing your CON score and by taking the 'tough' feat over and over again. I like that--I like standard orcs and don't want to quit using them after the characters become 5th level, the way 3.5 forces you to.
Drawbacks--open ended rules puts a lot of weight on the narrator (True20 calls the GM the narrator, an encounter a scene and an adventure/campaign a story) to be fair. It's not a game for inexperienced GMs--you have to take the spirit of the rules and make up a lot of stuff as you go sometimes. Experienced GMs understand what True20 is and what it is trying to accomplish, but inexperienced GMs may need more guidance than the game gives you.
The toughness save system is tough to get used to. It's brutal and can put a hero (True20 term for PC) down very fast. Conviction points (kind of like action points) help, but the game can be very hard on those who like stomping about the battlefield with their tank-like 15th level fighter for 15 rounds, bashing in heads until they're below 20 hit points. Luckily, the fast narrative style of the game means that if your hero drops, you'll be back in the story by the time you come back from your smoke break.
I love it so much, I even wrote a book for it.
True20 is a great break from 3.5. It's familiar enough to 3.5 that it's super easy to learn. Characters are set up in about 15 minutes and you can finish a dungeon that might have taken 8-10 hours in less than half that time. You can improvise battle maps and don't even need to use miniatures or a battle mat at all. You can narrate battles without any visual aids, especially smaller ones. The game puts a lot on the narrator's shoulders and rules-lawyer players who love to use their superior knowledge of the tricks and tucked away rules of 3.5 to gain an advantage over the game or the GM are going to hate True20. But...it would be the game of choice for me to introduce new people to role-playing.
Gritty or cinematic? It's both...gritty because combat can be f'ing brutal and cinematic because the story is the focus, not the mechanics.
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I just purchased the True20 revised through my local FLGS
and was wondering if the exclusion of the settings from the original
book is a big deal? Am I going to be missing out on a lot?...especially since the new revised is supposed
to contain info from the True20 Companion rulebook.
Also, I have played Savage Worlds( which I love) and was wondering if
True20 is as rules compressed/light as that system?
Thanks for the info guys.
How varied are the characters with only 3 roles? Also, are there a fair amount of player options?
Thanks again, and in advance.
farewell2kings,
I have a question as well.
When playing 3.5 I noticed that it is very hard to play any character for an extended time and have him or her survive without acquiring skill enhancing magic items. Some fantasy literature settings are magic "lite" and the protagonists survive and thrive in spite of this lack of "external crunch"; I want to play a PC that can stand on his or her own successfully without the "item-crutch". Can True20 PCs do this?
Thanks for your thots.
Cheers
Sounds like they took the rules for Mutants and Masterminds and modified them a little
farewell2kings,
I have a question as well.
When playing 3.5 I noticed that it is very hard to play any character for an extended time and have him or her survive without acquiring skill enhancing magic items. Some fantasy literature settings are magic "lite" and the protagonists survive and thrive in spite of this lack of "external crunch"; I want to play a PC that can stand on his or her own successfully without the "item-crutch". Can True20 PCs do this?
Thanks for your thots.
Cheers
True20 lends itself readily to being very magic light. The rules for creating magic items are just a few paragraphs and the "powers" that adepts can "cast" are few, flexible and learned the same way feats are (and take the place of a precious feat slot!).
Story is the focus of True20. A narrator can certainly add a lot of magic items to his or her story and make it more like D&D/3.5, but you don't HAVE to HAVE level appropriate magic to be an appropriate challenge in True20.
Sounds like they took the rules for Mutants and Masterminds and modified them a little
I don't have Mutants and Masterminds, but I'm told that this is true.
Hah, Paizo now carries my True20 book as well!
/shameless self promotion
Sounds like they took the rules for Mutants and Masterminds and modified them a little
The precursor for True20 was actually their Blue Rose series but you're not far off. In certain ways they took three of the NPC classes in D&D and used them as a template of sorts to simulate all the classes of the game. Although in True20 they are defined as roles rather than classes. Magic and Psionics are all lumped into the Adept class which exists as the games role of person who focuses on supernatural abilities instead of skills (which is the Expert's role) or fighting ability (what warriors do best). Even skills are all lumped together in a pile and the player picks and chooses which ones are best for his or her character. It's an extremely versatile system that can simulate just about any sort of character. You just need a clear vision of what you want and build the character from there.
How compatiable is it with 3.5? Am I going to be able to run Pathfinder with True20?
Again, thanks for the info.
I am thinking about running a darker, edgy, gritty fantasy game, with low magic . . .I may have to check this out.
Again, thanks for the info.
I am thinking about running a darker, edgy, gritty fantasy game, with low magic . . .I may have to check this out.
If that's what you're after, you may want to check out The Blood Throne by Reality Deviant. It is exactly what you describe and its getting a great deal of support right now. Blight Elves and Blighted Bestiary (both of which are excellent) just came out to support it.
If that's what you're after, you may want to check out The Blood Throne by Reality Deviant. It is exactly what you describe and its getting a great deal of support right now. Blight Elves and Blighted Bestiary (both of which are excellent) just came out to support it.
While I may mine it for ideas and crunch, I have plans for my own campaign. Thanks for the reference though.
I have more questions though --
Monsters. Rules to convert come with the core book, I imagine? Also is the encounter system designed differently? Is there one?
Wow. I think this thread sold me on True20. At least as a great alternative. I'm going to have to pick up the core book now and give it a whirl.
Hi guys!
I thought I'd drop in to help out with any information and insight about True20 that I can, though it looks like Darrin and Stefan are doing a great job.
I myself am a freelance writer and have been heavily involved with True20.
My work can currently be seen in:
True20 Adventure Roleplaying (the core book)
True20 Bestiary
True20 Companion (Fantasy and Space Adventure chapters)
True20 Expert's Handbook (the traps section)
True20 Adept's Handbook
As well as some setting specific True20 books like:
Roma Imperious True20 (an alternative history/historical fantasy Rome setting.)
The Blighted Bestiary (a fantasy bestiary for Blood Throne)
As has already been mentioned, True20 is an adaptation of the rules set originally presented in Blue Rose, Green Ronin's romantic fantasy RPG. As such, it takes the d20 rules, streamlines them and shifts their focus from tactical combat (5 ft. steps, Attacks of Opportunity, Battle Grid all but required) to a more narrative game that focuses more on advancing the story/plot at a good pace and emphasizes character interaction.
For example there is no restrictive D&D style alignment that shoehorns your character into a relatively narrowly defined pattern of behavior. Instead each character has a Virtue and a Vice. These can be anything appropriate that the player chooses, but the 7 deadly sins (Greedy, Lustful, Prideful, Wrathful, Envious, Slothful, Gluttonous) and 7 virtues are examples of what you might choose for these.
Each character also has Conviction points, which are similar to d20 action points. They let you re-roll bad die rolls, emulate a feat you don't have for 1 round and a bunch of other neat tricks.
Each time your character roleplays in accordance with their virtue or vice in a significant way, the re-gain a point of spent Conviction.
In play I find this system far more intuitive and RP encouraging than the D&D alignment system.
Cheers,
-Matthew E. Kaiser
Whisperfoot Wrote:
"it uses a point buy system for character creation"
Just to clarify, the ability scores are assigned with a simple point-buy system (your ability bonuses are your ability scores and they must add up to 6 points). The rest of character creation is a simple class and feat based which has almost as much flexibility as a point-buy system without all the bean counting and tedium of assigning every single point and re-checking your totals.
Well, I have most of the stuff for True 20 Revised and I am reading through the Pathfinder beta right now. My players want to start a Pathfinder game soon but honestly I'm finding the system to be very crunchy, bogged down, and kind of tedious from what I'm reading so far. I am considering pitching the idea to them of converting Pathfinder into True 20 since it is more my style but I am not sure even with the conversion documents I have how I would convert certain spells, cleric domains, etc. Any ideas on how to convert/handle these more specific aspects of the Pathfinder rpg?
The True20 Adept's Handbook might help you out there.
Well, I have most of the stuff for True 20 Revised and I am reading through the Pathfinder beta right now. My players want to start a Pathfinder game soon but honestly I'm finding the system to be very crunchy, bogged down, and kind of tedious from what I'm reading so far. I am considering pitching the idea to them of converting Pathfinder into True 20 since it is more my style but I am not sure even with the conversion documents I have how I would convert certain spells, cleric domains, etc. Any ideas on how to convert/handle these more specific aspects of the Pathfinder rpg?