I'd like to hear everyone's favorite non-WotC supplement, and why it's their favorite.
Mine is Cityworks by Fantasy Flight Games, because it details everything you would want to know about running a campaign in the city. It includes several city-specific prestige classes (Kingpin, Speaker of the City), as well as lots of random generation tables for city block generation. By far, though, my favorite thing out of this book is Speaker of the City - an "urban druid", if you will, who is able to tap into the city's life essence and use it to track down people within the city, or even turn the city against them.
Anyone else?
If I had to pick a "top-three RPG books of all time":
1. Delta Green/Delta Green Countdown (tie)
2. D&D Rules Cyclopedia
3. Fudge 10th Anniversary Edition
1. Iron Heroes by Malhavoc Press. A great variant player's handbook, with the best classes EVER, a great spellcasting system, a boatload of innovative feats... Everything you could want!!
2. Traps & Treachery and Traps & Treachery II by Fantasy Flight Games. Lots of EVILLL! traps to spring on your PCs, as well as some puzzles/riddles.
3. The Book of Rougish Luck by Malhavoc Press. New roguish classes, expanded sneak attack rules, new feats, rules for chases, contacts and bribes and much much more! Awesome.
P.S. Lilith, do you think Cityworks is worth $25? I am intrigued by it, and seeing as it is not at my FLGS, was wondering if you could tell me more.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
Medieval Magical Society: Western Europe (Expeditious Retreat Press)
If you want the nitty gritty details on how much cash PC's can squeeze out of running a manor, this is it! I only use about 20% of this book, but there are is so much detail, tables and information crammed into this book that even that 20% is a hell of a lot of stuff to use.
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AEG "Toolbox", invaluable when you have to come up with a full-fledged location and you suffer from the dreaded "DM burnout syndrome".
Green Ronin "Fang & Fury", with variant vampires. Building a whole campaign around it right now.
Also from GR "The Noble's Handbook" and "Mindshadows", a truly inspiring psionic setting.
Both "Complete Guide to Werewolves" and "Complete Guide to Beholders" from Goodman Games, with great new perspectives on classical monsters.
Oh, and everything Scarred-Lands related.
I'll heartily second the Delta Green motion -- it just doesn't get any better.
For monster books I'm partial to Necromancer Games' Tome of Horrors 1 & 2 (and 3 comes out this year!)
I haven't run anything out of it yet but Malhavoc Press' Chaositech. Follows the eldritch and wicked mind that Monte Cook seems to write from (I'd love to play in Monte's games, they sound dark and gritty and eeevvviiillll!)
- Chris Shadowens
I find that when designing adventures ... I've come to rely on the the Villain Design Handbook (Kenzer). Regardless of the game system, this book has lots of tips on providing good, strong villains and adversaries. Plus, there's a healthy number of statted NPCs in the back of the book.
I have to agree with Lilith on the CityWorks manual from FFG. I never would have gotten my campain up and running this year with out it. The sections on how to accuratly size the different portions of a city so that it makes sense to the players was a real find for me. I knew it had worked when I handed my players a map of the city and no one even blinked, they bought it wholesale. Definitly worth the 25$ I spent.
The other favorite I have right now is Tournaments, Fairs & Taverns by Mystic Eye Games. This book has a ton of cool games and challenges packed into it that have had my players laughing many times. Comprehensive rules for drinking matches with the local toughs (better than a bar fight that gets the party thrown in jail) and contests of skill that let each class show off the hard bought skill points that sometimes get overlooked in dungeon settings. At 20$ it has more than payed for itself in my opinion.
I really like Paizo's material.
P.S. Lilith, do you think Cityworks is worth $25? I am intrigued by it, and seeing as it is not at my FLGS, was wondering if you could tell me more.WaterdhavianFlapjack
Absolutely worth the $25 - it's invaluable if you've got cities to build or an urban campaign to run. For me, the book was worth it alone for the Speaker of the City prestige class. It turned a ho-hum elven druid into a "Holy *#(@! I didn't know a druid could do that!" kind of character.
Wow - lots of cool ideas, everybody else! My local game store is lax in non-WotC RPG books, will have to talk to the owner about that!
Hello Lilith,
Apart from the fabulous work of Dungeon Magazine, I take a little help from a few websites wich offer map, character and treasure generators. There's one in particular (dndadventure.com) wich has a gazillion links to all sorts of useful stuff for DMs and Players alike. A real time-saver. It's really worth a look.
In no particular order-
1-Beyond Monks (Goodman Games)
2-The Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc Press)
3-Hyperconscious (Malhavoc Press)
Hello Lilith,
Apart from the fabulous work of Dungeon Magazine, I take a little help from a few websites wich offer map, character and treasure generators. There's one in particular (dndadventure.com) wich has a gazillion links to all sorts of useful stuff for DMs and Players alike. A real time-saver. It's really worth a look.
You can never have enough info to keep the players guessing! My thanks also go out to all the suggestions here, I can use some of the stuff you all have mentioned.
-Rath
You can never have enough info to keep the players guessing! My thanks also go out to all the suggestions here, I can use some of the stuff you all have mentioned.
-Rath
I know. I've got a brand new wish list...:-P
In no particular order-
1-Beyond Monks (Goodman Games)
2-The Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc Press)
3-Hyperconscious (Malhavoc Press)
Roland,
If you like The Book of Iron Might, you might want to check out Iron Heroes. It improves and expands on the material in BOIM, without making it obsolete. I also posted on another thread (you might have to search the archives) about IH to farwell2kings, so if you want to know more, check that out.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
In no particular order-
1-Beyond Monks (Goodman Games)
2-The Book of Iron Might (Malhavoc Press)
3-Hyperconscious (Malhavoc Press)Roland,
If you like The Book of Iron Might, you might want to check out Iron Heroes. It improves and expands on the material in BOIM, without making it obsolete. I also posted on another thread (you might have to search the archives) about IH to farwell2kings, so if you want to know more, check that out.
WaterdhavianFlapjack
Hello WaterdhavianFlapjack!
I am VERY interested in Iron Heroes but I'm kinda worried about all the work I'd need to do to integrate it into the current system. What I am worried about is having to modify everybody else in the world. 5 PCs are ok, the rest of the world sounds like a lot of work.
Top Picks:
<P>
1. Iron Heroes, by Monte Cook
2. X Crawl, by Pandahead. Dungeon-Crawling as an extreme sport!
3. Encyclopedia of Demons and Devils 1&2, by Fast Forward Games
4. Book of Fiends, by Green Ronin
5. Devil Player's Guide, by Fast Forward Games
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I really like Mongoose Publishing's "The Quintessential Chaos Mage". Very cool take on chaos magic and good mechanics for setting it up (they are a little chunky at first, but it gets easier quickly). I brought this up before, but I being a big fan of DC's 'Shade the Changing Man' comics and his power to harnes the forces of madness has always appealed to me and I have always thought it would be neat to fit it into a D&D game... this product lets you do just that. If you want a really different mage kind of character, I strongly suggest this one.
I also reeeeeeeeeeeeeally like Necromancer Games 'Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia'. Excellent resource if you are wanting to design a game with bronze age flair (and if you are, you should also pick up the GURPS Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome books...they are just awesome for reference).
And I agree with Cold Steel, the Slayers Guide books frequently offer some lovely nuggets of goodness (or badness) about specific speices. Worth a look in the FLGS to see if it has anything of interest for your campaign.
For converting old 1ed/2ed stuff, the Tome of Horrors has been fantastic.
I really liked the Sun & Scale concept that Gaslight Press was trying to produce...started by the great adventure "The Gryphon's Legacy". Sadly they up an vanished from the gaming world leaving their nation building ideas to die on the vine. Their website may still be up and is worth a look.
I like the Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games, but I'm a sucker for Old School D&D dungeon crawls from time to time.
Most adventures by Necromancer and the stuff in the Kalamar line have been good.
Still DUNGEON is the best Adventure value I've found.
My _ANTI_ value is anything by Fast Forward Games ::Shudder:: ... Talk about crap. Horrible adherence to 3.0/3.5 rules. Basically someone took old gaming notes and stuck them together and sold 'em. Check out my reviews for Temple of the Troll God, and Fortress of the Ogre Chieftain on EN World if you are interested.
ASEO out
My first choice...
- "Poisoncraft: The Dark Art"
by Justin D. Jacobson, Blue Devil Games
If you like rogues, assassins and/or poison use in your game, this is a must have.
If future books from these guys match this first release for actual useful content to apply in game, they're going to do well. It's a lean book of feats, listings and game-data without a lot of exposition, theorizing and fluff.
M
I *love* the Tome of Horrors by Necomancer Games, the Kalamar books by KenzerCo and the Faeries book by bastion Press.
The Tome of Horrors rocks.
Mike
Yeah, that book is going to be nasty later on in my campain, I am running Necromancer Games' "Rappan Athuk" modules now, and an avatar of Orcus(the one from Tome of Horrors) is at the end. Talk about bad news for the players, i love bringing back old school badies...
There've been a whole bunch of my favorite non-WotC stuff mentioned in this thread:
"Toolbox" from AEG is great when you can't come up with names, descriptions, etc. Really good stuff.
"Cityworks" from Fantasy Flight Games is another great book. I like a lot of the stuff from FFG, and I was saddened to learn they won't be making d20 products any more. Somebody else mentioned "Trap and Treachery" and that's another great book. "Dungeonworks" is another really good book in their Legends and Lairs series of d20 books.
Necromancer Games' "Tome of Horrors" is one of my favorite monster books. It's fun seeing the conversion of the old stuff, and I especially like the little bits of history that tell you about where the monster first appeared. I especially liked that they worked with Wizards to get permission to reprint all those monsters. I haven't had a look at ToH2 yet, though.
Gavgolye mentioned "Quint. Chaos Mage" from Mongoose. While I don't have that particular book, I find a lot of the other books from Mongoose to be useful. "Quint. Monk" has some wonderful ideas; several of the books in the "Ultimate" series - particularly prestige classes and feats - also have some wonderful concepts. One thing I find about Mongoose, though, is that a lot of their ideas are good, but the implementation is broken. That's OK - I don't mind fixing stuff if it's cool enough to use in my games, and I get plenty of great ideas from their books.
Rothandalantearic mentioned the "Rappan Athuk" series of adventures from Necromancer Games. I have these, but I've never run them - though I have ripped stuff out of them. I had the misfortune of getting these about the same time my group that I was DM'ing for at the time got tired of spending all their time in underground caverns. Go figure.
Some other books I like that haven't been mentioned are "Evil" and "Dragons" by AEG. These books were out way before Book of Vile Darkness and Draconomicon, they're fairly well written, and when used with the WotC books they make great secondary supplements.
Another AEG book I love is "World's Largest Dungeon." I didn't buy this one, though - I won it at Paizo's GenCon booth two years ago. :) I don't think I would ever run a gaming group through it (though you never know). But it's awesome for grabbing rooms from when you're in a pinch as a DM. I'm looking forward to the "World's Largest City" when that finally comes out.
Finally - a question.
Both "Complete Guide to Werewolves" and "Complete Guide to Beholders" from Goodman Games, with great new perspectives on classical monsters.
How is "Complete Guide to Beholders" possible, given that beholders aren't open content? Does Goodman Games have a licensing agreement with Wizards for that one?
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One thing I find about Mongoose, though, is that a lot of their ideas are good, but the implementation is broken. That's OK - I don't mind fixing stuff if it's cool enough to use in my games, and I get plenty of great ideas from their books.
You sound like me, game with dice in one hand and a ratchet set in the other. And FWIW, I agree completely. Sometimes their ideas don't pan out very well but are worth a 'tinker'.
My _ANTI_ value is anything by Fast Forward Games ::Shudder:: ... Talk about crap. Horrible adherence to 3.0/3.5 rules. Basically someone took old gaming notes and stuck them together and sold 'em.That someone would be Jim "Angry Mothers from Heck" Ward.
--Erik
Yeah,...I wasn't going to name names. His name pulled me to the product line, but then the quality sent me reeling away faster than Vyth could be knocked out in battle.
ASEO out
Eberron fans who doing a lot with airships and airborne adventures should look into Airships by Bastion Press. It really gets into the nuts and bolts of running an airship, crewing an airship, and of course, airship battles.
The vast majority of the non-Wizards of the Coast books that I have purchased is from the Fantasy Flight Games' Legends & Lairs line. Here's my favorites, and the ones I've got the most use out of:
1. Cityworks. I used it extensively for use in my two Shackled City campaigns. Without it, I don't think I could have brought so much life into Cauldron.
2. Seafarer's Handbook. I went out of my way to include water and under-water adventures in and around Cauldron, because this book inspired me. I still haven't really looked at Stormwrack, so I'm not sure how the two stack up against each other.
3. Path of Shadow. I've used a lot from this book, more than the other three of the books in the "Path of the" line put together. I love the alternate classes, the PrCs, and the Legendary Classes (PrCs for 12th level and above).
However, in between campaigns, I've picked up Wildscape and Darkness & Dread as well. I'm trying to find a way to use some of the rules in Darkness & Dread to brink a dark tone to Age of Worms, but so far I haven't introduced them.
And my favorite book that I've never used:
Mythic Races. I've had so many ideas on running campaigns with the players all being one of the races, but so far that hasn't happened. My dream campaign would be using the Artathi in a Dragonstar campaign. Can anyone say "Thundercats?"
One of my players lent me D&D for Dummies last week and I skimmed through it. Suprisingly good stuff. I was curious though, was that put out by WotC? I didn't bother to look when I had the book.
One of my players lent me D&D for Dummies last week and I skimmed through it. Suprisingly good stuff. I was curious though, was that put out by WotC? I didn't bother to look when I had the book.
Yes.
WaterdhavianFlapjack