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about it that really prevented me from wanting to take a look at it further (for example, thinking that it used some version of Hit Points). I was most pleased to discover a system that had been adapted from the d20 SRDs into its own very well designed multi-genre game.
The System
True20 really boils down to the basics of d20: Attribute + Skill Rating + d20 to beat either a static Difficulty Check or opposed check. Where it differs from more "traditional d20" is that the middleman of the attribute number has been eliminated and the True20 Attribute is what would normally be the bonus from said d20 attribute. While this is pretty easy to grasp, I can say from personal experience that not everyone will take to it so well as one of my gaming friends - who is well familiar with standard D&D 3.5 d20 - can't quite seem to make the disconnect and dislikes the idea of negative attributes rather intensely.
Chapter Breakdown
I'll be honest; I skip most of these sorts of bits in most books, and this was no exception. I did skim enough of it to find out that the Revised Edition not only has the errata fixes from the previous edition, but also has the better part of theTrue20 Companion folded in vice the original settings.
The Basics
As one would imagine, most the majority of the system is touched on in these seven pages, from how Difficulty Checks should scale to the flow of combat. A very good primer for what follows, and the majority of it can be previewed here.
(re-rolling poor rolls, etc.) with an additional use dependent on the "base" Class (read: level 1) that the character has chosen. I have included Chapter Nine in this as well as it goes and breaks down how each of the three Classes have been configured from a balance perspective so that more specialized Classes can be made for specific character concepts/campaigns; this many points allotted for Feats, Skills, Combat Bonuses, etc. Seeing the "under-the-hood" of the design was quite a refreshing change for me personally, as I haven't personally experienced many games that have stepped through the "whys" of how things were done so that changes can be made that won't unbalance game play.
The particulars of converting over all that D&D 3.X material you might have are gone over quite thoroughly for being covered by two whole pages.
Overall
I really liked True20 and can't wait to implement this in any number of game ideas I have been kicking around in my head. The setting specific information is - for the most part - superb and allows for quite a bit of focus that you might not otherwise think of while either adapting or creating a setting. I would make some slight changes to the mechanics to suit my personal tastes, and the way that the mechanics are presented - with the "whys" of the way that many of them have been implemented - make those sorts of changes very easy to do. I wasn't too fond of the way that the text was broken up; it seemed like most of the book had large black chunks that were fairly distracting. I will also say that the art wasn't spectacular, but it got the point across. I'd also like to point out that while I can see it handling a number of genres particularly well, I wouldn't necessarily say it could be used to run everything. The Powers section makes a note that superhero games can be done, but given some of the alterations that would need to be taken into account I think that I would just use True20's close blood relative,Mutants & Masterminds instead. There's a wealth of support for the system online as well as Quick Start Rules for further consideration.