In Short

The Physical Thing

The Ideas

Now Green Ronin has produced True 20 Adventure Roleplaying which completes the move towards a simpler generic d20 system. No hit points, no dice other than a single d20, no prestige classes, a lot of the nuts and bolts of standard d20 has been purged. Instead players mix and match between three classes and a multitude of skills and feats to create the characters they want. Despite the move towards being a simpler d20 system this is not a “light” system. Combat remains just as complex as normal d20 and character creation is still involved.

Under the Cover

Chapter 1 Hero Creation 14 pages.

The standard six d20 abilities are used here. Those being Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Instead of a 1 to 20 standard scale each ability may range from -5 to +5 with +0 being an average value. Those used to d20 will recognize that True 20 just uses the modifier for d20 stats instead of the whole number.

Many games will use Backgrounds which are generally race or training packages that give feats, skills, and ability score adjustments. The sample backgrounds presented in True 20 include all of the Dungeons and Dragons races found in the 3.0 and 3.5 Player’s Handbook. Those include Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, Halfling, Half-Elf, and Half-Orc.

In True 20 classes are called Roles and there are three to choose from. Adepts tend to use special powers. Experts tend to be very skill focused. Warriors tend to be combat focused. Each role is pretty simple. The Warrior uses Good base attack bonus (BAB) progression, the Expert uses Medium BAB progression, and the Adept uses Poor BAB progression. Warriors use a Good Fortitude save, Experts use a Good Reflex save, and Adepts use a Good Will save. Finally, each of the core classes has a special ability that may be activated by spending a point of Conviction. A character only uses the core ability of whatever class they took at first level.

Conviction points allow a player to reroll a bad roll, get a dodge bonus, or activate a class ability. The maximum number of these is based on level, and they are replenished through sleep and roleplaying. I consider them a welcome change to the system, allowing players a small degree of control in a system with a great deal of randomness. Finally, a very simple Reputation system is introduced.

Chapter 2 Skills 14 pages.

Skills in d20 are simple. Just add the appropriate ability score modifier (just the ability in True 20) to the appropriate skill and roll a d20, add up the result, and see if the value is high enough to succeed. True 20 provides comprehensive descriptions of its skills including various ways in which they might apply to the game world. It even combines some standard d20 skills. For example, Hide and Move Silently are now Stealth.

However, there are still many skills. I wish the designers had gone a step further and made the skill list even more basic. In addition, like the rest of the book the skill list is principally appropriate for playing a fantasy game. Drive, Pilot, and Medicine are the only three skills particularly appropriate to a non-fantasy setting.

Chapter 3 Feats 12 pages.

These are the special abilities that really define characters, perhaps even more than class choice does. These cover everything from bonuses to skills, to better martial ability, to clever tricks a character may perform. Characters begin with 4-6 feats, which seems like a lot at first until a player really looks at their choices. The core classes give very little in the way of special abilities. A Warrior will need to buy various combat proficiencies such as Shield, Weapon, and Armor proficiencies.

The list of feats is lengthy, and while it gives players many options for building the sort of character they want it also adds to the initial complexity of the game.

Chapter 4 Powers 20 pages.

Fans of the Psychic’s Handbook, Blue Rose, and the Jedi powers from the Star Wars d20 roleplaying game will enjoy the section on powers. More abilities are presented here than in any of those other products. As with these other products, True 20 treats powers in the same way as skills. Effects generally scale with power rank, and there are plenty of powers to choose from. The powers tend to be of a fantasy nature, but there are some tech oriented abilities.

Fans of Dungeons and Dragons will find that they can do just about anything with this magic system that they can with the D&D one. For those that are interested, this isn’t an effects based system nor is it just a list of individual powers. Instead it’s a list of the powers most commonly encountered in a fantasy RPG some of which are written to be more effects oriented so that players can add their own flavor.

Chapter 5 Equipment 16 pages.

Equipment is very general, typically giving a bonus to a skill check or a damage roll. A Wealth score is used to purchase equipment, and each piece has its own difficulty for purchasing. The equipment section does present a good mix of gear from different time periods. The game tends to treat similar weapons the same way. Longswords, shortswords, hand axes, and other similar weapons are all going do the same damage. I like that but some folk wont.

Chapter 6 Playing The Game 24 pages.

This section primarily covers combat. Like normal d20 rounds are six second increments during which a few different combations of actions may occur. Characters may use a Standard Action and a Move Action, two Move Actions, or a Full Action. Attacking (typically involving no more than one attack in a round) is a Standard Action, so characters tend to be more mobile in combat here. The often misunderstood Attacks of Opportunity are not present in True 20.

Damage involves making a Toughness Save against the total damage bonus the character was just hit with. Example: An orc strikes the farmer with his fist dealing a 14 (2 from Strength + 0 from weapon since he is unarmed + a roll of 12 on 1d20). The farmer has a Toughness save of +2 (+2 from Constitution, +0 from Armor since he is just wearing work clothes, +0 from Feats because he has no relevant feats). The farmer must roll at least a 12 (giving him a 14, same as the orc’s damage roll) in order to escape harm.

Depending upon how much a character fails the Toughness save by the character could suffer anything from a Bruise to instant death. Damage is cumulative and multiple wounds of the same sort tend to progress down the damage scale. Ultimately this means that being hurt is a much bigger deal in True 20 than it is in normal d20 games. Keeping track of all the different damaged states alone could be taxing for a GM (there are eight of them) but the rules provide a nice solution. Rules for Minions are present, which are weaker adversaries that will fall upon taking damage of any sort. I like that but it does tend to make True 20 more of a high adventure game.

Despite the changes to the system combat is still involved in True 20. There are many maneuvers, some available or modified through the feat system. Without a doubt combat resolution is much faster here than in normal d20, at least at higher levels. The Minions rule is an especially nice addition.

The result of social actions and environmental effects round out the chapter. I like how Haggling works in the system as it modifies the Wealth score making smooth talkers better able to acquire good quality equipment.

Chapter 7 Narrating The Game 4 pages.

These four pages generally explain that GMs should feel free to hide the result of rolls from their players and make up whatever outcomes they think will be most fun. While I appreciate this perspective and consider illusionism to be a perfectly valid way of running an RPG I wish the author had invested some time into learning about other ways to run a game. Pretending to use rolls and inventing whatever results the GM thinks will be fun has pitfalls of its own that an interested reader can no doubt learn more about here on RPG.net or at another gaming website.

Chapter 8 Adversaries 24 pages.

This chapter begins with general rules on how to create beasties. These rules definitely show the influence of Dungeons and Dragons as templates are provided for all of the major creature types found in that game. There are various interesting supernatural abilities to tack on to an existing creature and the beastiary, while brief, provides a solid basis for creating monsters of all types. The chapter has a strong fantasy basis with no specific support for other genres.

Worlds of Adventure 74 pages.

Green Ronin put out a call for original settings to produce with this book and they have their four top picks included. Unfortunately, each of these entries is incomplete. They either lack enough rules to be useful without quite a bit of GM work or there just isn’t enough setting information to work with except in the most vague of campaigns. What they do succeed at is giving the reader a feel for how True 20 can be tweaked and expanded upon to support a given setting, which is helpful.

Caliphate Nights is a setting based around A Thousand And One Nights with a strong focus on Islam. Of the four settings I found this one to be the highest quality as it is the most playable out of the box and provides the most interesting ideas. Unfortunately I felt that one of the most interesting ideas was also the least developed. The setting suggests a mechanic that allows a player to roll to spin off a side story/game to influence current events. It’s a neat idea, but I suspect that in play it would consume so much additional time that it will only work well for the most well coordinated roleplaying groups.

The setting offers its own changes to magic, example character concepts and how to select feats and the like to build them, setting specific feats, and a fun mechanic that allows players to describe something which becomes true. I would happily run or play in this setting, though it needs more material to be playable for more than a one shot without a lot more GM work.

Lux Aeternum is meant to be a 3 Musketeers meets Star Wars sort of game but it fails to deliver. The basic idea is that a bunch of humans are transported from “dying earth” to an area of space with four close planetary systems where other alien races have also been brought. A variety of tech levels are present and two major religions exist, a giant quasi-Christian church and an alien church.

I found the setting to be frighteningly generic. Star swords, robots, disparity in tech levels, and all powerful aliens running a grand experiment make me question why I would want to use this setting when I could just play in one of the source material settings. No rules are presented for starship combat. Sadly, one of the more interesting alien races in the setting is briefly described with no stats and the book goes on to state that the race isn’t a playable race until a future product is released. For me this was the second best setting of the four.

Mecha vs. Kaiju is a setting where mecha fight giant godzilla like monsters. Each of the three classes is modified in that they are required to take certain feats. None of these includes mecha piloting, which I would consider essential in a game entirely about fighting monsters with mecha. This greatly reduces initial character customization options.

At least there are mecha, right? Well, there are four mecha presented in stat blocks about the size of a paragraph each. These mecha sharply escalate in power, so it is likely that no more than two of the types will be used in a given game. The mecha are stated up and function exactly the same way as characters, and some mecha specific abilities such as special laser cannons are included. The additions are sorely lacking and there isn’t enough material here to do more than run a one shot. As for the big monsters, three are presented. Once again, I appreciate that the material is here to give an idea of what the setting is capable of but it ultimately means that a large portion of the book is filled with ideas that aren’t easily implemented by the purchaser.

The setting is a Japan vs. North Korea setting where North Korea is creating the giant monsters which Japanese mecha pilots fight. The plot hooks given for the setting are laughably bad, often including nothing more than a single very simple sentence.

The premise of Borrowed Time is an interesting one. Special people hide away pockets of free time that they may then use to move in bullet time, performing dazzling abilities. While the setting is very sparse, at least is provides a list of factions and example members for characters to encounter. Unfortunately, the entire setting is based upon a time using mechanic that I find questionable at best. Characters take a feat that allows them to manipulate time to an extent and may take additional feats for more time related abilities.

Unfortunately the time mechanic is poorly implemented. First, it allows a maximum number of additional actions based on a characters Dexterity modifier. That doesn’t really jive with what I think of when I think of altering time. Why not Intelligence? Why not just have a flat value? At any rate, that combined with this being a modern setting using firearms easily makes Dexterity the most important stat in the game.

Secondly, a player may add as many additional actions as they like up to their Dex mod when they do the time warping deal. They then rolls against a Difficulty and if they beat that difficulty they get all the actions. If they do not beat the difficulty they get all the actions they would have gotten for what they actually rolled, so if a character attempted four actions but only rolled well enough to get three then they still get three actions. The penalty is that characters suffer a -2 penalty to Initiative for the next round for every action missed. Those familiar with d20 game mechanics, especially those aware of the limited number of attacks in True 20, will realize how meaningless of a penalty that is compared to the power of taking many actions at once. I have difficulty imagining any player doing less than the maximum every round.

The time altering system could be modified, but then we’re back in the realm of additional GM work. The setting feels strange conceptually and I’m uncertain whether the authors were able to convey the concept they were really going for here. Matrix style combat in a game that doesn’t involve The Matrix is what I suspect they wanted, and the system may deliver on that at times. I think this entry has promise that could have been better realized with some more play testing.

My Take

I think this product would have been much better if optional rules and more content was included instead of the four example settings. Still, I think a lot of folk will enjoy trying out True 20. If you like Dungeons and Dragons but have problems with d20, or just can’t play non-d20 games with your group, then it is likely you’ll find something to love here. The True 20 magic system alone makes the purchase worthwhile for those that enjoy magic systems, and a lot of it could be adapted to a d20 game.

Fans of the system introduced in Blue Rose will like True 20 and may even be able to port some of the magic over. However, be aware that the system is largely the same and a person that owns Blue Rose could easily run True 20 fantasy games without the need to purchase this book.

I’m content with my purchase and may even run True 20 in the near future, but I was hoping for more than I got in this product.

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