Willow & Tara: True20 and Blue Rose

I like True20.  I do.  I am also rather fond of Blue Rose.

In terms of game play and ease of use it is the closest thing I have found like Cinematic Unisystem.  Back in the mid 2000 (2005 - 2007 or so) I was looking for another system.  Not that I was tired of Unisystem or D&D, I just wanted to try something new.  I had played Mutants and Masterminds and I liked it.  I had heard of Blue Rose, but had not tried it yet.

So I picked them both up and did some playing I really liked them.  I wish I could have gotten more people into both games, but it didn't really work out that way.

I have detailed already why I think Blue Rose is a perfect setting and system to do Ravenloft, but you can read those posts here: Black Rose.

I did get a chance to play an online game of True20 set in a modern supernatural world similar to that of Witchcraft/Buffy/Ghosts of Albion and it went great.  It was about a seedy area of Vancouver that was a front for a demonic brothel and swinger's club.  Not for the faint of heart or immature of mind.

True20 has some great untapped potential and to me at least it is a shame that more people don't see that.

Part of the idea of "Vacation in Vancouver" started out for WitchCraft.  Soon though I converted it to True20 and I was pleased with the results (even if I had a couple of people drop out).  Here are some notes from that process.

Converting Unisystem and True20

For attributes take the True20 score (-5 to +5) add 6 and divide by 2, round up.  The table below helps.  I am working on the idea that +5 in True 20 and 6 are both the human maximums and very few people have those.

True20	Unisystem
-5	1
-4	1
-3	2
-2	2
-1	3
0	3
+1	4
+2	4
+3	5
+4	5
+5	6

All True 20 feats would be qualities, skills are skills.  Skills work like M&M skills, so 2 points of True20 skills equal 1 point of Unisystem skills.

Converting Characters
Converting characters is not too bad really.  True20 tries to do a lot of the same things Unisystem does, just in different ways.  I convert characters to get a rough idea of what I want, but then I stat them up from scratch.  It works better than a direct conversion.

Given that my interest in True20/Blue Rose was right after finishing up with Season of the Witch I did do Willow and Tara versions for True20.  No, they did not appear in "ViV", but I did toy with the idea of Vampire Willow and Vampire Tara showing up in it..

These builds are based on the girls during Season of the Witch.   I used True20 as a base but I also like the Calling aspect from Blue Rose, so I am using that as well.

Willow Rosenberg

Human
Expert 2 / Adept 10

Abilities

STR:	-1	INT:	+5
DEX:	0	WIS:	+3
CON:	0	CHA:	+3

Combat
Initiative: 0
Defense: +6
Base Attack bonus: +6  (Melee +6, Ranged +6)

Saving Throws
Toughness: +0
Fortitude: +3
Reflex: +6
Will: +8

Virtue: Curious (Queen of Rods)
Vice: Domineering (Nine of Rods)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Adept, Master of Arcane Arts
Reputation: +4
Prog Skill: Business Owner

Skills
Acrobatics +2, Bluff +7, Computers +16, Craft (Chemical) +13, Craft (Electronics) +13, Diplomacy +6, Disable Device +10, Research +13, Intimidate +6, Knowledge (Science) +15, Knowledge (Occult) +16, Medicine +9, Perform (Ritual) +10, Notice +7, Search +8, Sense Motive +7, Sleight of Hand +4, Concentration +13, Survival +7

Feats
Contacts, Talented (computers, craft electronics), Master Plan, Attractive, Wealthy, Innate Power (Move Object)

Powers
Computer Link^M, Fire Shaping^F, Elemental Blast^F, Illusion^{FC MC}, Light Shaping^F, Manipulate Object^F,M, Mind Shaping^{F, MC}, Mind Touch^M, Move Object^FM, Ward^C

Special Abilities
Expertise

Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)

Conviction: 8

Notes: Starts out as an "Expert" to reflect her computer hacker skills but picks up "Adept" pretty quickly.
Adept powers are based on Intelligence.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.


Tara Maclay

Human
Adept 9 / Expert 1

Abilities

STR:	+1	INT:	+4
DEX:	-1	WIS:	+4
CON:	+1	CHA:	+3

Combat
Initiative: -1
Defense: +9
Base Attack bonus: +4  (Melee +3, Ranged +3)

Saving Throws
Toughness: +2
Fortitude: +4
Reflex: +2
Will: +10

Virtue: Devoted (Queen of Chalices)
Vice: Inhibited (Three of Chalices)
Calling (Blue Rose): The Star, Artistic mastery (Though The Moon is also good here)
Reputation: +4
Prof Skill: Teacher (Art History)

Skills
Acrobatics +1, Bluff +6, Computers +8, Craft (alchemical) +6, Concentration +9, Diplomacy +5, Research +9, Handle Animal +6, Knowledge (Art) +11, Knowledge (Occult) +12, Medicine +8, Perform (song) +8, Perform (dance) +8, Perform (Ritual) +9, Notice +13, Search +7, Sense Motive +8, Ride +4, Survival +7

Feats
Attractive, Supernatural Talent (Heart reading, second sight)^B, Empower, Defensive Roll (+1)

Powers
Cure^F, Enhance Senses, Heart Reading, Light Shaping, Manipulate Object, Aura Reading,
Mind Touch, Move Object, Plane Shift, Second Sight

Special Abilities
The Talent (use convection for any power)

Other
Languages: Latin, French, Hebrew, Greek, Russian, English
Equipment: Dolls Eye Crystal (Empowering Focus)

Conviction: 8

Notes: Starts out as an "Adept" and picks up a level of "Expert" to cover her monster hunting days (gains defensive roll).
Adept powers are based on Wisdom.
Philosophy: Witchcraft.

So the idea here is I did Willow and Tara slightly different than their Unisystem counterparts. Here each approached their magic from a different point of view. While this has no real in game effect, it does give each a different feel, and something I really liked about these versions. I did in fact stat up a witch that uses Charisma as her power source too.

Makes me want to do more with this game.