Swords & Wizardry Light - Forum

Sunday, January 6, 2013

What Ever Happened to True20?



What ever happened to True 20?

For a time, I actually thought it was going to catch on and be the main "alternative" OGL system, but obviously that didn't happen. I remember there were a large number of setting books and the like being talked about by Green Ronin and third party publishers - I just have no ides what ever happened to them.

I remember grabbing the True20 Pocket Player's Guide after reading about the system on an ENWorld thread (my, how times have changed). I grabbed a bunch of stuff back in 2007 or so, both in print and PDF, but the game itself seems to have slid into oblivion in the mean time.

Was it done in by Dragon Age and the DC Comics RPG that Green Ronin moved it's focus and resources to?

I never actually had an opportunity to play True20, so I have no idea if it plays as well as the different settings actually read. Actually, I did play in a short play by post game of True20, which if I recall correctly was fantasy based - it didn't last long or I didn't last long, but it's hard to get a feel for a system via play by post gaming.

Is there anything going on with the system these days?

8 comments:

  1. I liked True20 a lot, I wish there was more for it to be honest.

    Don't think we will see more from it though.

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  2. I thought that Green Ronin had out-and-out declared the system dead. I seem to recall reading it on their website, though this was some time ago.

    It is too bad. I vastly preferred it to straight-up d20. Of course, I could never get my groups interested in it except for one guy, so perhaps that was telling.

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  3. A friend introduced me to it a couple years ago, but he's since moved on to Castles & Crusades, which is also a simplified version of the d20 system. I thought it was a pretty good version of d20. Apparently Green Ronin has moved on to bigger and better things. I think the last full product release was around 2009, which is just after Pathfinder and D&D 4E came out. Maybe those two new lines pulled away the sales.

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  4. We played it for a semester, and found that some of the stuff from the Adept's and Warrior's Handbooks caused serious issues. I think Green Ronin basically ended up taking the True20 core and using it for Mutants and Masterminds, and that's where the system's legacy lives on most strongly. Personally, I liked most of the core rules of True20, but my group was always very resistant to the toughness save mechanic for reasons unclear to me. Oh, and Lucky + Cha-based casters was troublingly good.

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  5. I had some good times with the Mecha VS Kaiju setting, but I hadn't thought much about it since Mutants and Masterminds. It was a nifty system, but I moved onto the OSR and stopped following news on the system.

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  6. It was a great concept, and it worked. It's one of the books that I'll be hanging onto, even though I never play it. Plus, it reminds me of Blue Rose, which despite being... you know, was a pretty fascinating setting.

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  7. I'm still fond of True20. I think I'll hang on to the books with the thought that this will be the preferred d20 rules in this house.

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