From the introduction:
I think it’s been five years since I envisioned the first edition of Transcendence. With a simple system using a d12 dice pool and set in the fantastic world of Corahen, that was the first time the Awakened champions saw battle. Then came the second edition, a giant project based on the brand-new Nova game engine I had developed. It resulted in a 178-page book with another 100 pages of rules and accompanying material. Gone was Corahen, as this time the game was set on Europe during the dark ages. The Awakened champions now had the chance to roam France, England and other medieval nations in their quest for supremacy.
This brings us to the third edition, which was much needed. Although Nova was a good game system, it was also a very complicated one. I think Transcendence desperately needed a rules overhaul. This time, instead of designing something of my own, I chose to use Wizards of the Coast’s acclaimed d20 system. The idea of promoting the d20 system as a universal engine which anyone can freely use is a brilliant one. It allows for coherency between role-playing games and saves gamers from having to memorise different rules for each game. I’m not a fan of the “one set of rules for all games” concept, but I think that with a little tweaking, the d20 system can fit nicely into any fantasy game (and perhaps contemporary and science fiction ones as well).