Cults of Freeport True20 Web Enhancement [458.4 KB download]

True20 Appendix II: d20 System Conversion [82.4 KB PDF]

Escape from Ceranir True20 Adaptation [139 KB PDF]

Temple of the Death Goddess True20 Adaptation [121 KB PDF]

A Dreadful Dawn True20 Adaptation [121 KB PDF]

Dirge of the Damned True20 Adaptation [114 KB PDF]

Beyond the Towers True20 Adaptation [128 KB PDF]

Mansion of Shadows True20 Adaptation [77 KB PDF]

True20 Thieves' World, Part 3 [147 KB PDF]

Although True20 offers a lot of flexibility in terms of hero creation, some traits are relatively fixed, based on role. Two warriors of the same level, for example, share the same basic Combat bonus before things like abilities and feats are taken into account. Likewise, two experts of the same level can be expected to have similar skill ranks, albeit modified by their respective Intelligence scores and choices in assigning those ranks to different skills. Options for mixing role levels provide more ways to customize, but only at higher levels where players have more than just one or two levels to apply, and mixed-role heroes are more complex.

For those who desire more individuality in their heroes, Chapter 1 of the True20 Companion opens up the basic True20 roles, going "under the hood" to provide players and Narrators with the tools to create their own custom-designed roles. By following just a few simple steps, you can create virtually any role your concept or setting requires, giving you as many or as few roles as you want!

Note that the guidelines in this chapter are an optional expansion for True20 Adventure Roleplaying. Narrators who prefer the simplicity of using the three basic heroic roles can continue to do so.

Role Components

A role is made up of several components, including: the role’s core ability, Combat Progression, Skill Progression, Saving Throw Progression (in each of three saves: Fortitude, Reflex, and Will), Power Progression (if the role has access to supernatural powers), and access to feats.

To create a role, choose Combat, Skill, Saving Throw, and Power Progression options from those given in the Companion. You "spend" a budget of points on these options, so there are trade-offs: you can’t have a role that’s the best in everything, but you can have roles less specialized than the core three roles, more of a "jack of all trades, but master of none," by spreading out your priorities rather than focusing them on a particular area of expertise.

Sample Customized Roles

The following are examples of custom-built roles using the guidelines in the True20 Companion. They are suitable for use alongside existing True20 roles. By way of example, these roles also use some new core abilities described in the Companion.

Martial Artist

Combat Progression: Unarmed Fast, Armed Medium, using the option for Split Combat Progressions.

Skill Progression: 4 + Int

Save Progression: All Medium

Power Progression: Slow, Narrow Power List

Feat Access: Expert, with Improved Strike as a standard feat at 1st level.

Core Ability: Amazing Reflex Save; when rolling Reflex saves, roll two dice and use the better of the two rolls. If you spend Conviction to re-roll a Reflex save, roll only one die and compare it to the better of your original two rolls.

The martial artist is a specialized warrior focusing on unarmed combat, becoming a kind of "living weapon." The role’s unarmed Combat bonus equals that of a warrior, although its skill with weapons lags behind. The role also has access to a narrow set of supernatural powers involving enhancing the body and unarmed abilities, including Body Control, Enhance Ability, Enhance Senses, Supernatural Speed, and Supernatural Strike. It also focuses on more wily expert feats rather than martial warrior feats.

Holy Warrior

Combat Progression: Fast (+1 per level)

Skill Progression: 2 + Int

Save Progression: Medium Fortitude and Will, Normal Reflex

Power Progression: Medium, Narrow Power List

Feat Access: Warrior

Core Ability: Higher Purpose; You serve a higher purpose or calling. It might be a nationality, religion, philosophy, or anything else approved by the Narrator. When faced with a challenge directly related to your Higher Purpose, you may spend a Conviction point to gain either two feats or a single power you can use for the duration of the encounter or scene. The feats or power are chosen when you acquire this ability and cannot be changed. If you ever abandon your purpose, you lose the use of this core ability.

The holy warrior combines the martial skills of a warrior with access to a narrow set of powers suited to the role’s devotion to a particular deity or pantheon; essentially a narrow subset of a priest’s broader powers. Holy Warriors are better fighters than priest-adepts, but have fewer skills and less access to powers overall. They also lack access to power-modifying adept feats, having combat-oriented warrior feats instead. They’re front-line fighters against the enemies of their Higher Purpose.

The True20 Companion fills-in the space between: it is for Narrators interested in creating their own worlds of adventure, or simply expanding upon the material found in True20 Adventure Roleplaying and Worlds of Adventure. The book is a guide to four popular roleplaying genres for the True20 system: fantasy, outer space science fiction, horror, and modern action-adventure.

The Companion takes more of a "do-it-yourself" attitude than previous True20 books, giving you the tools to create your own settings rather than providing pregenerated ones. You can also use the information in the book alongside existing True20 settings to expand and refine them, adding fantasy variants to Blood Throne or horror ideas to Razor in the Apple or Nevermore. You can even use the Companion as a guide to help you adapt your favorite roleplaying adventure setting for use with True20 Adventure Roleplaying, using the guidelines for the appropriate genre(s).

The True20 Companion provides a short chapter on custom-designing your own heroic roles, followed by four chapters on the major adventure roleplaying genres and suggestions for using the True20 system to create and run games set in them.

Chapter 1: Role Creation breaks down the structure of the heroic roles from True20 Adventure Roleplaying into its component elements and provides guidelines for creating your own roles from scratch. You choose the role’s Combat bonus, saving throws, skill progression, feats, and access to powers as well as defining the core ability to fill any niche in your game. The chapter also provides some sample roles, such as the martial artist and priest.

Chapter 2: Fantasy Adventures looks at the most popular genre of adventure roleplaying. With True20, you can create worlds of high magic, myth, and adventure, where heroes struggle against the forces of evil or simply try to survive from day to day. Chapter 2 shows you ways to vary backgrounds, races, and magic in a fantasy setting to get the feel you want for your game. It provides new heroic archetypes for legendary heroes, supernatural philosophies for fantasy powers, and a wide selection of weapons and equipment, including magical items.

Chapter 3: Space Adventures takes your True20 game to the stars with the science fiction genre. Here you can find varying technology levels, backgrounds and rules for alien heroes, expanded skills, and a detailed equipment-design system. It also looks at spaceships and other vehicles, as well as designing your own alien species and strange new worlds.

Chapter 4: Horror Adventures takes True20 down a dark path, showing you how to run horror-themed adventures in the True20 system and pitting the heroes against their worst nightmares. It offers backgrounds and roles such as the arcanist and the blessed, supernatural rituals, and rules for handling all the fear, terror, corruption, and madness you can throw at the heroes. It concludes with a set of frameworks for starting up your own horror series.

Chapter 5: Modern Adventures concludes the book by returning to the modern world. Here heroes can take on roles from action-adventure movies, going up against organized crime or working together as an elite commando unit. This chapter provides modern backgrounds and customized roles, rules for bartering on the black market, and guidelines for creating specialized equipment and building cutting-edge gadgets for spy and agent heroes.

Using The Book

The True20 Companion is intended as a supplement to the basic game systems in True20 Adventure Roleplaying. The book contains a lot of optional material, rules you can add on to the True20 system to achieve a particular style or to suit a particular genre. Don’t feel you have to use any of the options presented in the book, and you certainly don’t have to use all of them! In fact, you’ll find some options are mutually exclusive.

Sometimes the Companion does the same thing in different ways in order to suit a particular genre. For example, the equipment-building system in Chapter 3 is intended for advanced technology of the sort you’ll find in space adventures, while the customization system in Chapter 5 is aimed at modern technology and the gadgets from espionage fiction. Use whichever approach best suits your game.

One of the benefits of True20 is its versatility. If you want a space adventure series with fantasy races and supernatural rituals, by all mean, go right ahead! Mix and match options from this book to create the setting you want. The same is true if you want fantasy heroes going up against eldritch, sanity-blasting horrors from the dawn of time, or modern adventures within a secret world of fantasy beings and magic. It’s your world, so have fun with it!

True20 Damage and Recovery Clarifications [28 KB PDF]

True20 Errata & Clarifications [48 KB PDF]

True20 Thieves' World, Part 2 [131 KB PDF]

True20 Thieves' World, Part 1 [138 KB PDF]