Friday, December 23, 2016

Blue Rose and True20

Ok, so there are not a lot of products out there for Blue Rose.  There are for True20. Given that True20 required more of a publisher investment for some companies they really took the time to do them right. In other words, I didn't see a bunch of slapped together True20 products to make a quick buck off of an existing d20 product.
While there were/are a lot of good True20 products that will work with Blue Rose, I want to spend some time with the ones for Green Ronin themselves.

True20 Companion
This book follows the form, if not format, of the Blue Rose Companion. In this case the book covers different campaign models.  This includes Fantasy, Horror, Modern, and Sci-Fi.  Each section includes various character paths, skill uses, feats, and powers.
Outside of the True20 mechanics, there is good advice for running the various genres and sub-genres presented. In particular, I enjoyed the Fantasy and Horror sections. The big surprise to me though was the Modern section.  While I did enjoy the Modern d20 rules, I felt it really lacked something. Turns out it wasn't laking, it was over done. Thr True20 Modern is stripped down to just what you need and it is perfect.   I lament not running more Modern True20 games with these rules to be honest.  Of course, you can mix and match. I pretty much add Horror to everything so Horror-Fantasy, Modern-Horror and Sci-Fi-Horror are all things I do and they are all here.
What makes the PDF better than the print book is the ability to print just the sections you want.  True20 is not 100% modular, like say GURPS, but it is pretty close.
For Blue Rose: The ideas presented in the Fantasy genre mention Blue Rose specifically. Other ideas for incorporating other types of Fantasy are also welcome.  Of course I used the Horror chapter most of all.

True20 Bestiary
If I have said it once, I have said it 100 times. There is no such thing as too many monster books.  This is the book you want to fill your games with all sorts of nasty beasties.  The monsters are largely OGL derived and that is 100% fine by me!  As with the d20 rules, True20 monsters are built like characters, so a creature that has certain powers has to be an appropriate level to have them.  It means that monster building on the fly is a bit trickier till you get the hang of it.  But this book provides hundreds of monsters, so that is not an issue really.
The creatures have a fantasy origin, no surprise, given True20's fantasy antecedents. The creatures here though are constrained to fantasy settings though. Dinosaurs and Dragons can attack in downtown Manhattan and vampires work well in every setting just to give a couple of examples.
For Blue Rose: More monsters are good, but add them with care.

True20 Fantasy Paths
Using only the True20 classes of Expert, Adept and Warrior you can create all the standard, or at least the d20 3.x standard, fantasy classes.  Yes, Wizards in the D&D sense are not the same as True20 adepts, but you can get them there if you have this book.  Each class is defined and then progressions from level 1 to 20 are given. Of course, you can stray from the various paths to do your own thing, that a strength of True20, not a weakness.   Also, an added feature of these fully stated out level progressions is that if you need an NPC, say a 3rd level bard or a 15th level cleric, then you have those stats ready to go.  It doubles as a rogues gallery.
For Blue Rose: The rouges gallery is nice, but also following familiar fantasy paths, or converting characters, is now easier than ever.

True20 Adept's Handbook
Adepts come in many shapes and sizes. Sorcerers, pact-bound warlocks, goddess touched witches, divine clerics, psychics, and even more.  This book helps you figure them out and given them form. Various paths are given and all the expected ones are here; necromancers, occult scholar, wizard, voodoo priest and yes there are even witches. In addition to detailing various types of adepts and the genres they appear in, there are plenty of new adept/supernatural powers, skills, and feats.
There is even a section on items.
For Blue Rose: This should be obvious. Adepts are a key part of the heroes and villians of Blue Rose. A book like this will add a lot of options to your game.

Character write-ups
I also did some character write-ups for True20/Blue Rose using the above books over the years.
I also created True Spell Casting. An alternate magic system for True20/Blue Rose.  Itports over Vancian spell-casting to the True20 system.

1 comment:

Jonathan Linneman said...

True20 is another of those "long admired but never played" systems for me. I picked up the pocket player's handbook at one point, and I really enjoy (reading about) the smoothness of it, but the chance to put it to use never arose in real life. And now, of course, it's hardly ever mentioned, let alone played...