True Sorcery and True Class at Green Ronin

There’s been quite a discussion over at EN World’s forums about Green Ronin’s new True Sorcery book. I’ll admit, I was one of those who didn’t read closely enough to realize that it is a book for d20 gaming, and not specifically for the True20 system. Not that much conversion appears to be necessary. However, it’s quite clear that the system described in True Sorcery doesn’t fit the same style as True20. For instance, one of the beauties of True20 is the low level of book keeping required. True Sorcery’s system, however, is pretty math intensive with a new set of magic points that need to be tracked. For that extra effort, you get a very flexible sorcery system that transforms spell slingers from mobile artillery into subtle strategists and puzzle-solvers.

There’s also been some discussion about errors in the original PDF release. The sharp eyes of EN World readers have really given the book a good going-through, Army of Davids style. While this is great for Green Ronin, I’m a little disappointed this conversation took place at EN World and not in the Green Ronin forums.

Green Ronin is very clever about their releases. By making the PDF available before the print run is finalized, they get the benefit of reader feedback to improve the product before it’s shipped to stores. Other companies apparently feel it’s better to push out the hard copy first, afraid that they’ll lose money to customers who will choose the cheaper PDF to the pricier dead tree copy. Green Ronin, on the other hand, apparently believes the benefits of an additional round of editing are worth whatever the loss in hard copy sales would be. Assuming there even is one. (More on that thought later.)

Proving that they are, in fact, a very classy company, Green Ronin has just released the updated PDF of True Sorcery on their web page, including many of the corrections mentioned on the EN World forums. If you’ve already purchased a copy of the PDF, the update is free for you. How’s that for customer service?