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For this review I am going to assume that you already know something about Green Ronin’s True20 role playing game. Here I will focus on the style and content of the Pocket Players Guide and compare it to the full sized version of The True20 Adventure Roleplaying Game. This is not a review of the True20 system rules.
The Pocket Players Guide is soft cover and measures 9 inches tall, 6 inches wide, and about 1/2 inch thick. It contains 157 pages including the credits page and the OGL page. In addition, there are also three pages of ads for other Green Ronin products. The font size is smaller than in the full sized book but not so small that it is a problem.
The contents are very complete for a "pocket" guide and include a 1-page table of contents and a four page index. In fact the six chapters in this book contain almost exactly the same information and artwork as the first six chapters of the full sized version. Unfortunately this includes all of the errors that have been identified from the larger book. And, while there is an errata document from Green Ronin, it does not match the page numbers in the pocket guide so it is a little more difficult to identify where these changes need to be included. There was also at least one ‘sidebar’ from the larger book that was not included here.
The layout is generally two columns per page with the occasional sidebar, table, section heading, or artwork taking up the full width of the page. There are a few places (near some of these full width items) where I had to re-read a couple of lines to be sure I had found the correct continuation from the previous section, but nothing too distracting. The black and white artwork selected for each section seems appropriate for the rules and is generally of good quality with only a couple that I would consider poor. Not all of the artwork from the larger book was included but the difference is minor and does not affect the overall flow of the pocket guide. The frequency of artwork is still about one piece for each two pages.
Another difference I noted is that some of the tables have been reformatted to fit the smaller pages. In most cases, this is a good thing because tables that were broken up into two columns in the larger book have been laid out in an easier to read single column format. This is good because it increases the readability of the pocket guide.
The text in the six chapters is quite thorough, covering every topic needed to play the game. It starts out in the Introduction chapter with the standard ‘What is role-playing’ and introduction to the True20 system then continues through the Hero Creation, Skills, Feats, Powers, and Equipment chapters. It finishes up with a detailed chapter on Running the Game that contains all the rules, tables, and definitions that even a novice GM would need to get started.
Overall, this is a great little book that should be a welcome addition to any True20 game. It is well worth the $14.95 price tag and could even work as a ‘budget’ RPG for any GM who wants to take his own setting and run with it.
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