Generic Dungeons, Universal Dragons 241
Matthew Sernett, Jeff Grubb, Mike McArtor
Wizards of the Coast
$39.95, 288 pages
A purely functional book for D&D, the Spell Compendium is exactly as the title implies: a text collecting spells. As an 'options' book for players, it's hard to argue with the punch of the content. The book does exactly one thing. Spells from such disparate sources as the Complete series of books, the Wizards of the Coast website, and Dragon Magazine were compiled to provide an interesting, fresh set of magical effects for spellcasting characters. The book focuses solely on providing additional spells; My players objected to the title of 'compendium' considering the absence of the spells from the Player's Handbook (PHB). Unfortunately the search for novelty results in what you'd expect from a product like this: extremely variable. While some entries make you wonder why they weren't in the PHB, there are also many confusing or unbalanced ideas. At forty dollars retail it's hard to recommend a product that has such inconsistency in the content. If only on the basis of player/Game Master (GM) arguments, there's a lot of opportunity for frustration as a result of this book. This is definitely a title you can take a pass on unless you only play spellcasters and have a GM who is willing to negotiate with you.
Races of the Dragon
Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel, Jennifer Clarke Wilkes,Kolja Raven Liquette
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
The Races series attempts to fill the same niche with player species as the Complete series does with player classes. Each book concentrates on familiar races, gives new background for enthusiastic players, and offers up one or two new races suitable for character creation. Races of the Dragon is somewhat unique, in that it focuses solely on new races for players tired of the standard set. Specifically, it details the Dragonborne, Spellscale, and Kobold races as options for D&D characters. The Dragonborne are a race created, not birthed, a proud warrior race touched by the dragon god Bahamut. Spellscales are vainglorious sorcerers, an impish people with an ingrained sense of style. Kobolds are, of course, the diminutive reptilian race usually slaughtered in large numbers by early-level adventurers. Of the races discussed in the book, the Kobold information is far and away the most interesting to me. An often overlooked race, the simple creatures receive a good deal of fleshing out. As a member of a non-standard party or a quirky addition to your typical humanoid group the Kobold seems to have a lot of potential in this book. The other two races strike me as simple cosmetics: Dragonborne are statistically just magical orcs (though the concept of your character being reborn is an interesting one), and Spellscales feel like elves with shiny skin. The book also touches on half-dragons and dragonblooded creatures, and provides the usual assortment of feats, prestige classes, and spells (my favorite: Gnome Blight). As one of the iconic elements of fantasy, I can understand that there are some folks who just have to play dragons, and they'll find a lot to like here. Similarly if you're looking to complete your collection of the Races books, Races of the Dragon meets the standard set by the other titles in the series. Dungeon Masters (DMs) and non-dracophile players can safely pass; this one's pure candy.
Magic of Eberron
Bruce R. Cordell, Stephen Schubert, Chris Thomasson
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
Keith Baker's Eberron setting has taken on a life of its own since it launched almost exactly two years ago. The background for Dungeons and Dragons Online, the pulp/noir/fantasy mashup is now Wizards of the Coast's premier product series. Magic of Eberron does a fantastic job of getting across core elements of the setting, elements that have been so far unclear or under-explained. With only two years of development behind it, there is still a lot about the continent of Khorvaire that's not nailed down. For example, creating magical items with Dragonshards is thoroughly covered. Dragonshards power many of the vaguely technology-inspired elements of the setting, and this fundamental flavour element speaks volumes about the world at large. Nightmarish Daelkyr magic, dragon magic, and grafting magic is also explored. Each of these elements not only adds rules grit to the setting, but explains and expands the background presented in the main campaign sourcebook.The tome also manages to balance the fine line between DM and Player content; background information is mixed well with feats, prestige classes, and spells. The Eberron preoccupation with 'places' also works well here, offering up barely sketched out dungeons to add information by example. This is definitely one of the most interesting and informative Eberron resources that has been released to date. Players and Dungeon Masters who are working with this setting should at least take a look. It may not fit your campaign's playstyle, but there is sure to be something here that will spark ideas for later.
Heroes of Horror
James Wyatt, Ari Marmell, C.A. Suleiman
Wizards of the Coast
$29.95, 160 pages
Most D&D products focus on the specific: a sourcebook covering a geographical area, a type of magic, a class or race. Heroes of Horror is the second book in a more thematic series that attempts to add a new twist to the standard Dungeons and Dragons game. Horror, and the previous book Heroes of Battle provides rules and guidelines to focus your campaign beyond the traditional fantasy tropes. As you may guess from the title, Heroes of Horror offers ways in which to include elements from the suspenseful and supernatural we normally associate with games like Call of Cthulu. I'm a big Lovecraft fan, and I was skeptical when I cracked the book if such delicate setting elements could be incorporated via a core book. I should have respected Mr. Wyatt's name on the cover more, because Horror is an unmitigated success. The secret to that success is the light touch the authors take with the source material. Instead of attempting to convey the genre in one go, they break the milieu down into digestible chunks. First they explain how to set the stage for a horror-style encounter (one specific fight, or scene). Then, using the language established with the encounter they expand that to an entire adventure. The Lovecraftian use of suspense, of lurid language, and the need to heighten tension over time is explored with ghoulish examples. Then they take the final step and work with the reader to understand what would be involved in a horror campaign. A series of adventures all with a horror theme could take the players into relatively untrod territory in D&D, and the book is a great guide for the journey. They add a mechanic for 'taint', the psychic residue left behind by dealing with the horrific, but that's just crunch thrown in to make sure you feel like you got your money's worth. Definitely not a book for every Dungeon Master, those that are willing to experiment a little with the traditional D&D experience will find a very worthwhile read here. Players need not apply.
GURPS For Dummies
Adam Griffith, Bjoern-Erik Hartsfvang, and Stuart J. Stuple
Wiley
$13.99, 410 pages
Wiley's series of cheery yellow books continues to expand beyond the borders of technology. This title, along with Dungeons and Dragons for Dummies and Dungeon Master for Dummies seems to represent a new commitment to pen-and-paper gaming. I'm not going to question it, I'm just going to enjoy it. With GURPS for Dummies, there's a lot to enjoy. GURPS stands for Generic Universal RolePlaying System, and is designed with the idea that you can run any kind of game you like using the rules they provide. Anything from fantasy schlock to post-apocalyptic sci-fi to hard-science space adventure can be represented with the system. The downside to the flexibility the system provides is that it's ... a little fussy. GURPS character creation relies on set of advantages and disadvantages, each of which has a point cost or payout. This entry in the Dummies series distills down the complexities into the most basic elements, and then walks the reader through point expenditures step-by-step. Even if used as nothing other than as a first-time player aid, this text is well worth the price of admission. Above and beyond that, they walk through combat, running a GURPS game, and provide some guidance on creating a campaign world suitable for use with the rules set. The combat section is especially brilliant, breaking down options, actions, and skill rolls, and explaining what the best route to finishing a fight is likely to be. My players often joke that no one actually plays GURPS, because the popularity of the system's sourcebook content far outweighs the popularity of the rules-set. Just the same, if you do find yourself looking to get in on a game this is a worthwhile explanatory text for a very ambitious system.
GURPS Space
Jon F. Zeigler and James L. Cambias
Steve Jackson Games
$34.95, 240 pages
While it might be that no one plays GURPS, it's easy to understand why the books sell so well. GURPS supplements are works of art in the roleplaying industry. They're well researched texts, something similar to an informational piledriver. I've known grad students in difficult college courses who refer to GURPS books as a way to get a handle on the assigned subject matter. GURPS Space is a new edition of a classic sourcebook for the line, complete with updated scientific information and new rules to match the fourth edition of the rules-set. Quite simply, this book is the finest resource you will find for running a campaign set in space. It covers, exhaustively, every detail you'll need to consider when your players blast off into the black. The granularity of the subject matter begins quite large, expounding on information like methods of propulsion, interstellar organizations, and the theme of your campaign. It then quickly descends into the nooks and crannies of off-planet science, offering up the rules governing a moon's tidal force on a planet ((T = 17.8 million x M X D)/R^3), as well as the proper placement of planetary orbits around a star. The text has random generation rules for everything from individual alien species to entire solar systems, and ties it all together with a great discussion of future societies at the end. They even include guidelines if your players decide to conquer a planet or two, and what that would entail. ('The Cortez Option', as they call it.) Even if you don't play GURPS, it's hard to recommend against this book if you're considering running a game in the briny black. Heck, even if you don't roleplay, there is enough here to keep a space nerd happy for a month's worth of afternoons.
A Player's Guide to Ptolus
Monte Cook
Sword and Sorcery
$2.99, 32 pages
Five copies of this small sourcebook showed up in my mailbox last week, a harbinger of the release this August of the massive 600+ page Ptolus setting book from Malhavoc Press, in conjunction with the Sword and Sorcery imprint from White Wolf games. The book being released in August is going to be an enormous campaign setting book thoroughly exploring a single city. The five copies I received in the mail were 'rewards' for preordering the book, intended to be given out to my players to excite their appetite for the setting. I'm a sucker for a setting, so here's one of my cynical player's assessment of the book: "Who know if the final price will be worth it, but the little promo looks good. Admittedly I read it pretty late at night, but I didn't notice anything really worth complaining about. I liked how there's a strong element of evil in the setting, not just 'island of civilization beset by darkness' type stuff." In short, the Player's Guide gives every indication that the larger book will offer up a pretty unique setting. Firearms sit side-by-side with swords in the markets, and the populous is well-informed about the dangers of spellcasting. Minotaurs and cat-people walk the streets without incident (or, at least, little more than subtle glares), and every street in the city will be named and numbered. Here's hoping this year's GenCon will see the release of another really worthwhile campaign setting from Malhavoc.
WOTC+D&D (Score:2, Interesting)
GURPS Space (Score:5, Interesting)
Eberron and the state of D&D (Score:5, Interesting)
A long time ago, probably in someone's basement Ed Greenwood developed Forgotten Realms. He developed it for his group, and someone caught wind of it. It turned into phenomenon. It was home grown, made purely for fun, and spawned countless wonderful hours. He wasn't a professional, he didn't do it for money, he did it to enrich his group's play.
WoTC tried to duplicate that by soliciting submissions from everyone and creating a new line based on their original home grown idea. They had judges, a competition, etc. I'm surprised Fox didn't air it. Forgotten Realms was far from dead, and many continued to enjoy playing in it. They decided to abandon what was working, and try and force the same success the line had had under TSR.
I'm not sure how this has worked out for them. I've only just gotten the Eberron Campaign setting, from the bargain bin, over 50% off. That is probably pretty telling.
What else have they done besides trying to capture old glory? They gave the video game license to Atari. I really hope they gave the license itself a tube of KY after doing so. Atari has done nothing but produce crap. Temple of Elemental Evil was the only product that showed promise, and Atari bungled that beyond recognition. Its actually shown so much promise that a group of fans have gone on to work diligently in recreated B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Atari long ago abanonded it. This engine had the potential to be the next "Gold Box" line of games. Instead they created a mediocre RTS, and a mediocre MMORPG. Because those are all the rage. They also had that bad LoTR rip-off with Demon-stone or whatever it was.
Sometimes the right thing to do is suck it up, give Troika a little more money and realize that you could probably sell 5-10 more games using that engine without a problem.
What else is around the corner for D&D? NWN2. Ah...Bethesda. The providers of such quality games as Oblivion. Anyone with a critical eye can easily realize what a bad console port the PC version of this game is. Its VERY shiny. Its a lot like that hot model with the vacant stare. I don't really want to talk to it the morning after. I'm not particularly optimistic about NWN2.
Re:No news about Palladium? (Score:2, Interesting)
The old DragonLance is the New D&D (Score:2, Interesting)
Things have been coming around lately, over the past year I'm starting to see more and more interesting stuff being released. Its like a new wave of D&D hype is building up, and i'm already prepping for it. I stumbled across a full (level 1-20) campaign for dragonlance. The products that have been published for D&D 3.5e Dragonlance can be seen here [dragonlance.com]. I have picked up and read the 'Key of Destiny' and 'Spectre of Sorrows'. This campaign storyline is immensely epic as your PCs (Player Characters) play as the heroes of the new age (Age of Mortals). I have also picked up all the core and resource books that goes along with this new campaign. All that is left is for the 'Price of Courage' to be released later this month so that I can run my friends through it in June.
I have not been this excited to run a campaign in a long time. So much material was developed to assist a DM run an incredible full feature story line that i'm sure it will be the most memorable. I for one appreciate the work that all these publishers have been working into this style of gaming.
It'll be one hell of a ride and I recommend that any DM that reads this comment to check out the dragonlance.com site and see all the new goodies.
What I like about Eberron (Score:5, Interesting)
These are some of the things I like about Eberron:
1) It takes familiar D&D staples and makes them interesting. For people who feel constrained to stick the to the Rules As Written, Eberron gently gives them permission to bend (or break) them; this can also serve to wake up players who might feel compelled to attack every goblin on sight, because "everyone knows goblins are evil". Chromatic dragons and metallic dragons are not constrained to their usual alignments. A cleric of an Eberron deity is not required to be within one step of their deity's alignment (although they still get the undead turning/rebuking options and, more importantly, the holy/unholy aura generated by the connection to their god). Clerics in Eberron are not tied to being a follower of a single deity; the Sovereign Host pantheon and the Dark Six pantheon are valid options, and Player's Guide to Eberron has clerics of an entire plane of existence and of the nation-state of Riedra. With two nations of non-humanoids -- the goblinoid empire of Darguun and the monstrous lands of the Shadow Reaches, ruled by a trio of night hags -- PC options are more varied while making intergrating backgrounds easy.
2) It makes it easy for the PCs to stand out. One of the design goals of Eberron was that the majority of NPCs will not have PC levels; they use the generic "NPC classes" from the DMG a lot, and introduce a new NPC class, the magewright (a magically-enhanced craftsmen). It also makes it easy for casual players to get up to speed in a relatively short amount of time. Many NPCs as written top out around 8th or 9th level -- the two exceptions that spring to mind are the Lord of Blades, a 12th-level NPC who is the leader of a group of warforged that assert superiority over the "fleshy" races, and the head of the Church of the Silver Flame, who has the powers of an 18th-level cleric so long as she remains in the capital city of Thrane. So in a relatively short amount of time, players can rise to the top of their game. One downside of this is that WotC provides few options for epic- or near-epic-level play in Eberron, although the Player's Guide to Eberron suggests taking one of the major themes and building a campaign around them.
3) The focus of many of the Eberron products is adding options for storytelling. There are certainly DMs who don't need a book to tell them what a human who was tainted at birth by the horrific daelkyr is capable of, or what a knight sworn to the service of the necromancy-friendly nation of Karrnath can do. But not everyone has the creativity (or more importantly, the time) to work such things out, and a gaming business doesn't make money off of the Dms who just need the core books. I tend to think of WotC products (or any D20 product, really) as options; you can either use what they provide you verbatim, you can tweak something for your own campaign -- maybe the bone knights of Karrnath become the sentinels of K'Dar, God of the Underworld in your campaign -- or you can simply use the ideas presented for inspiration. (Thrane, a nation under the mostly-benevolent rule of the Church of the Silver Flame, is a pretty good model for how a theocracy might operate in practice.)
4) Some of the Eberron products are really well-designed. Although the Ptolus sourcebook may end up surpassing it in size and depth, Sharn: City of Towers was a well-written product focused on the signature location in Eberron, taking you from the top of the highest towers t
Re:More than that... (Score:3, Interesting)
I've had fun playing one of the worst game systems (Doctor Who) designed by one of the worst game companies (FASA) on the entire planet.
I've had fun playing RPG's with no rulebooks at all. Just a DM willing to wing it.
If the game system is the most important thing to you, then I would suggest you are doing it wrong.
I agree that D&D is not perfect, but I wouldn't call it the "Budweiser" of games. I'd call it the "vi" of games. It might not be your favorite tool, but you can find it on every *nix server you log in to. Likewise, d20 may not be as well-designed as several others out there, but you can count on finding players who know how to play it.
I'm currently playing in a GURPS campaign, and have found it to have become (as of version 4) just as bad as, if not worse than, D&D 3.5. We're still having fun with it, though.
Re:Eberron and the state of D&D (Score:3, Interesting)
I like the warforged for several reasons:
*They're not just "humans made of metal" (role playing not withstanding)
*They impose unique needs on players
*Their background isn't based on mysterious, powerful "ancients" who are gone now
*They can add as much or as little steampunkishness as you like
The other races are fairly par for the course, but I don't dislike any of them. The fact that some otherwise minor monsters (e.g. Rakshasa) play a major part in the world is nice. The use of dragons was fairly novel, but not overbearing (such as the way they were used in Arcana Evolved, which is a very nice system modification, but sometimes grating as a setting for me).
Overall, it's just a high-magic D&D world like you would expect, and I think it caps off the spectrum nicely when viewed in combination with the other D&D worlds including Greyhawk (I run a game set here), Forgotten Realms (I love the basic concept, but haven't been able to make the time yet to dive in), Dragonlance (not a fan personally, but I know a few people who enjoyed it), Ravenloft (S&S did some good work on this, under their license from WotC), etc.
Re:Slashdot needs regular tabletop RPG stories! (Score:4, Interesting)
But yeah, even if the mainstream, Linux-n-PC gamin' Slashdot crowd doesn't invest heavily in P&P RPG, I think it definitely falls in the "Nerds' Interests" category that would make it worthy of deeper, more frequent Slashdot coverage.
Re:Why 3e sucks (Score:3, Interesting)
None of these statements are true.
"Stacking modifiers for combat - While initially appearing like a simple idea, it actually is very complex, because you're adding, for example with a missile weapon, your base combat bonus, your dexterity bonus, your range bonus, any bonuses that are applicable because of class abilities or feats, and magic bonuses. Further, not all of these bonuses apply in every situation, so one can quickly lose track of what they should be adding together and what they should not. Again, this is bean counting that does not enhance game play."
read this as: "the old way of rolling and consulting a chart was MUCH better than rolling a number and adding 2-4 numbers to it to see if you beat a target number"
"Feats - although some may argue a way to individualize a character, actually complicate the process of level advancement tremendously. Further, with the possible exception of a handful of them, they seem largely geared towards producing the power-character... a character who is, by the time he reaches 20th level, a pen and paper version of some sort of anime fighter character from Dragonball Z."
First of all, the vast majority of characters created in 3.0+ d&d are significantly less cheesy and anime-ish than the olde editions. NO LONGER can you become as strong as a god by adding 5 to your strength score. (assuming you have a strength of 20)
"Any class can do anything at the cost of a feat or cross class skill - This option almost completely dissolves the class archetypes that were once a staple of fantasy roleplaying games."
Good. your old system was fucking stupid. The idea that a race can be contrained to as little as one CLASS is so inherently wrong that I'm surprised you know how to use the internet.
Yeah. remember way back when Elves were rogues, and they were just called "elves"?
"And speaking of reaching 20th level - WTF??? I can count on one hand the number of characters I played for years in pre3e AD&D that even made it past level 8, and I only had one ever make it as high as level 12. With WotC's new rules, a player can very easily and within the framework of the rules as given acquire a 20th level character within a few months of gaming a few hours every week."
COMPLETELY up to the DM. No book writes in stone how much XP the players get any given adventure. If you don't like it, DON'T DO IT!
"Overall mechanics - 3e, when all is said and done, is little more than a pen and paper version of a computer game like Diablo or some such thing. It is a poor, poor replacement for classic AD&D and I, for one, mourn its loss. AD&D had a balanced ruleset in the sense that making changes to the game, or house-ruling, was not only possible, but encouraged, and that doing so was unlikely to cause any serious ramifications outside of the domain in which the house rule was made. However, 3e goes overboard, trying to meticulously "overbalance" the rules, and the result is a result so firmly laid out that sometimes even the simplest change by a DM can have far reaching implications that throw game balance out the proverbial window."
HA! You do realize that Diablo had more robust character creation than the old D&D game? You've taken everything bad about the old D&D, attributed it to the new D&D (which fixed those problems) and then claimed that the new D&D sucks because of it. I don't think there's even a name for a fallacy this stupid.
This is about as "Insightful" as when President Bush, the most liberal President America has ever seen, uses the word 'Liberal' as a 4-letter word and accuses his opposition of being "As Liberal as they can be" and at the same time "a flip-flopper."
Re:WOTC+D&D (Score:3, Interesting)
The pure anal-retentiveness of the design is what sucks about it. Bonsues and penalties are divided by types and most can't be stacked. You get a +1 to something because of this or that and another +1 but you don't get a +2. No, you still only get a +1. This is worse in computer-based D&D games like NWN, where many magic item are pretty much random instead of chosen by a sensible DM.
The spells are divided into separate spell lists for each and every spellcasting class. Why do paladins and rangers need a separate spell list from clerics? One of the most innovative things about 2nd Edition rules was that they combined most of these together. WotC threw the baby out with the bathwater and made a whole new system -- and that's not the only time they did that either. I don't supposed it occurred to anyone that this might create a little more work for the DM, as some players might be tempted to cheat and use a spell that's not on his list, knowing good and well that the DM hasn't go them all memorized?
Combat. WTF?! This system is more complicated than real combat! You spend over a minute calculating attacks of opportunity for each round of combat. And they give attacks of opportunity for the stupidest things! Why should someone get a free attack against you just because you're not armed? Why should doing virtually anything provoke an attack of opportunity? Why is evreything divided into 5-foot squares? If I'm not mistaken, you can't attack soemone in the same 5-foot square as your character. Huh? You can't attack someone who is within 5 feet of you?! Talk about unrealistic. And how come your utterly helpless when you're knocked down? What, do your arms and legs automatically become paralyzed every time you're prone? Lie on back and tell me how much sense that makes.
Now, I'll fully admit the combat rules for AD&D always felt incomplete, so I completed them for my campaigns, but there was no need to over-complicate it to this extent, let alone throw in a bunch of "because I said so!" rules that don't make sense in the first place.
Psionics. It's nothing but an alternative magic system with a different spell list. Others have, fortunately, come up with a much better system based on skills and feats. Look up "d20 Skills Feats Psionics" with a search engine to find it; it's a free download in .pdf format. Pay no attention to the crass rip-off of it that Green Ronin wants you to buy from them.
Alignment. I've never liked the alignment rules and I'm sick of having them forced down my throat. To show how bad that has gotten, here's a special quote: "Malefica are always evil and should not be encouraged as player characters. This game should be about heroic fantasy. Malefica make great NPCs to challenge player characters. They should be played as the typical "wicked witch" from fairytales or stories." Well, excuse me, I didn't know my game was subject to their approval. And here I thought we could play however we wanted. How foolish of me. With some books, there's hardly a page without a reference to "good-aligned" or "evil-aligned". And some books reduce complex social situation and mental states to alignment, nothing more; example, the 3rd Edition Ravenloft rules for madness. Schizophrenia is reduced purely into the individual swithcing alignments -- a game mechanic. Well, I guess that was easier than actually bothering to look any info on the subject, wasn't it? Many are way over-dependent on the alignment rules and even use them in a heavy-handed attempt to control how others play the game.
XP costs. We played just fine for over 15 years without that nonsense. Yes, they say it's an optional rule, but then they try hard as they can to browbeat you into using it, over and over again with spells and magic items stats.
Armor and weapons. Did you know that the longsword of D&D isn't? And why is the bastard sword an exotic weapon? It was a popular weapon in Europe for centuries! And what's with it weighing 10 pounds?! Bastard swords should weigh ab
Re:Eberron and the state of D&D (Score:2, Interesting)
2) Consoles do have fun games, but if you're going to release a high quality PC game, you need to make it for the PC. It was lacking a lot of basic features, like key-mapping, and some of its mechanics were dumbed down to account for the 360. The AI was also trashed because of it. Something I've already linked to and explained several times on
3) Read the whole thread before commenting, I already corrected the Bethesda/obisidian mistake. I meant to compare the subpar performance with kotor II
4) Wow is crap. All MMORPGs are, because they're not roleplaying games. They're hack n slash crap. Not all, Eve is reasonable since its not about the level grind, and Wish would have been amazing but was canned (I was in the Beta). I also really liked Temple of Elemental Evil, as you can see I praised its quality, I didn't like the way Atari handled it and killed the franchise before it had the chance to get off the ground.
I'm also a big fan of D&D in general. I'm not particularly happy about the way WoTC passed off on FR and tried to make a "new FR" by trying to force the process with Eberron. I also quite enjoy Palladium's Heroes Unlimited and After the bomb games.
I like quality, I don't like garbage shovelled out by a company to try and make a buck.