Readin the PHB 2 thread, I saw there was some dissatisfaction between people, and I was curious as to what exactly people want WotC to put out.
For example, some people think the books full of new spells and feats are a little bit of a waste, adding too much ammo for munchkins and stretching the DM on what he must know.
Others apparently dislike "fluff" or any book that is more on characters and adventures, as opposed to options.
I fall somwhere in the middle; I feel like sometimes there are too many books with too many new races adn classes, but sometimes the books that are predominantly "fluff" bother me.
I know what I'd like to see: More books like Libris Mortis and Lords of Madness, which offer new rules and options, but have a healthy dose of background stuff, or books like the ones on Sharn or Waterdeep, giving an extensive background.
Two books I miss from the past of D&D are the Book of Lairs, which has a bunch of mini-adventures, and the Rogues Gallery, which is just a collection of NPCs and bad guys to build around. Somethign like that would be awesome. I enjoy the Fantastic Locations and things like that, too.
What does everyone else want to see? Is there a consensus on how things should be done?
I would like to see a DM's toolbox to help quickly build encounters, towns, NPCs....encounter tables!!! encounter tables!!! Encounter tables and tools using all of the monster manuals and WotC books, not just OGL, which is what 3rd party publishers are limited to.
Something with lots of useful stuff to help me make stuff up on the fly when the players unexpectedly turn left. All in one place, one convenient book I can take with me to games.
....and no more books without an index.....
Entitle it something clever--DMG III (to add crunch to the fluff from DMG II)
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A new Rogues Gallery would be sweet, with the old pc's updated (Phoebus rocks) and some newer pc's of game developers thrown in.
Me, I like Monster Manuals. I buy dang near any monster manual-type book any company puts out; I like to have a sweet range of stuff to throw at people so they won't know what's hitting them. After everybody has memorized the stats of every creature, and has their mirrors for the medusae, clubs in case they come across a rust monster, oil flasks for the troll, silver arrows for any lycanthropes, holy symbol for the odd vampire, bag of flour to throw at an invisible guy, bag of flour to throw at the doppelganger so when he assumes your buddy's shape and grapples him you know which one to hit, silver crossbow bolt for the rakshassa, I'm sorry, what was I saying?
I would like to see a DM's toolbox to help quickly build encounters, towns, NPCs....encounter tables!!! encounter tables!!! Encounter tables and tools using all of the monster manuals and WotC books, not just OGL, which is what 3rd party publishers are limited to.
Check out "Toolbox" by AEG, f2k. It's pretty useful, though it doesn't have "everything" it still has a heckuva lot. Trying to make encounter tables is another project of mine...*sigh* Not enough hours in the day...
....and no more books without an index.....
Please please please please please no more books without an index. I love the City of Splendors : Waterdeep, but what stunning wit decided to make it without an index. Damn near unusable unless you've got an eidetic memory...>:-( *insert lots of loud, foul language at this point, turning air a nice shade of blue*
What do I want to see from WotC...hmmm....
Well, besides a 3.5 Greyhawk sourcebook, I like things in the vein of Lords of Madness, Libris Mortis, Tome of Magic and Magic of Incarnum. I want those books that are crafted in such a way that I can drop them into my campaign without having to rework things from scratch. The Lords of Madness-style books are great because they give a bit more meat to our aboleths and illithids and beholders. Tome of Magic and Magic of Incarnum are great because they give a refreshing way to do something "different" than the standard spell-slingin', fireball-nukin' caster.
I would like to see a bit more lovin' and caressin' given to psionics to make it fit better, but that's just a personal opinion.
Hmmmm, the perfect book. That requires some though. Well, here goes...
As far as the Crunch vs Fluff side of the debate, I like crunch as long as it is supporting the fluff. I love a good setting. Plane Scapes for example, is incredibly alien and evocative while Darksun feels gritty and tough. Background information helps to, allowing me to create a convincing and emmersive world for the characters to interact in. However, without a cohesive and internally consistant set of rules, things start to fall appart.
Its like a movie with REALLY bad special effects. There might be a good story going on, but if the special effects are incredibly cheesy then its hard to suspend your disbelief. Case in point, Rifts. Great setting, interesting and evocative, yet the rules are incredibly hard to deal with (for me at least) Things can get so unwieldy that I have a hard time narrating simply what is going on.
On the other hand, a game book with a list of just rules and more options can feel a bit lifeless without a good injection of setting information.
Incarnum for example is a cool idea, it just would have been nice if the developers had spent some more time trying to explain how incarnum fits into the setting, how it was found, who uses it, and so on. Sure you can make that stuff up, but then what am I paying for anyhow?
There can be too much of a good thing however. Its easy to make so many rules that you squeeze the life out of your game. FASA sometimes had a tendency to do this, one again, great settings, but I often found myself ignoring half the rules because they just ended up slowing down the game without adding anything to it.
Other times, there is so much fluff that I as a GM feel that I have no room to manuever. I love L5R by AEG, but sometimes there it felt like there was no room for me as a GM to maneuver. Almost EVERYTHING was detailed out, every NPC, major and minor city, while it was very interesting, I felt like there was no room for me as a GM to use some creative license without bumping into published materiel.
So I guess what I am trying to say is that I like my books to have a good skeleton of crunch with the fluff placed on the bones to "flesh" things out. Good examples of this is the 3.5 Forgotten Realms setting book. There are plenty of new feats and prestige classes that really help to define the setting and set the tone of the realms, however there is also plenty of information on major characters, cities and events that help make the setting feel alive and dynamic. Even though each region and city had a write up, it wasn't to such a degree that I couldn't add in my own NPCs and other information. This is why this is one of my favorite WoTC books. Faiths and Pantheons is another great example of what I like to see.
Great examples, with FASA, Palldium and L5R. It can really go both ways, and the convoluted mech rules FASA brought in were pretty out there.
I would like to see a DM's toolbox to help quickly build encounters, towns, NPCs....encounter tables!!! encounter tables!!! Encounter tables and tools using all of the monster manuals and WotC books, not just OGL, which is what 3rd party publishers are limited to.
I second this motion. I'd also like to see completely developed towns and cities, complete with full maps and NPCs. I no longer have the time to build these for myself and would gladly pay somebody to do this for me. I really enjoyed the development of Saltmarsh in the DMG II.
....and no more books without an index.....
Well said!!
....encounter tables!!! encounter tables!!!
Hm, this sounds like a fun internet project! First Lilith's NPC stat block cite and now online compiled encounter tables. And I really don't mean this as a "hint, hint" to Lilith; this could be a great motivation for me to learn up on web creation. (any suggestions where to start?)
F2K: Just to be sure, you're interested in single tables that incorporate many different sources? or a table that comes from MMII, a table from FF, a table from MMIII...?
An official D&D character generator program that actually handles the rules properly and add-ons for the software that are released at the same time as the books that they support.
Single tables by terrain, all books as sources integrated, not by book.
If you have the old Monster Manual II from 1st edition, I LOVED those tables where you had to roll a d8/d12 together (HEY, A REASON TO USE D12'S!!) and the creatures were arrayed by rarity type and by terrain/climate.
Just be sure to include the groundhog ;)
Seriously, if you can do this, that would be very awesome.
An official D&D character generator program that actually handles the rules properly and add-ons for the software that are released at the same time as the books that they support.
Yes, one that works and doesn't have countless glitches that make them basically frustratingly useless (Heroforge, anyone)...include a solid NPC generator and I would pay some serious money for that, especially if it includes all the official wizards material/classes/spells.
Oh...I'd pay for that....did I mention I'd pay for that, but only if it worked and was supported regularly. That would save me SO much time to be worth a lot of money to me.
There are three things that are badly lacking in the WOTC collection.
1) A system of mass warfare. I'm not talking about a minitures game, I'm talking about a resolution system for when heroic PCs gather armies of thousands!
2) Naval Combat. The descriptions are poor at best, in fact boats are little more than sitting ducks. This could also be supporting #1 (above).
3) Rulership. At 20th level how many people's PCs were not Kings? How many 4th level NPCs are Kings? Domain upkeep, resources, etc, can be fun you know.
These three things are important in a fantasy world, simply denying PCs the ability to use their 200,000gp on anything except magic items is lazy.
As a note:
a) Yes, I have read the Stronghold Builder's Guidebook. It was an excercise on how to build houses, little more.
b) Yes, I know there are stats for ships out there and weapons for naval combat, how well were these playtested?
c) Perhaps Rulership should be a role-playing thing, but perhaps there are somethings that cannot be controlled simply by PCs making good decisions.
I'd like to see more modules. Thank goodness for Dungeon! Modules I can use. I don't think we need any more races, feats, or rules. Those books are great, don't get me wrong, but I'd like to see more modules.
I also miss the boxes. So much data. Handouts, maps, sometimes the rare poster... *sob*
I like the ideas mentioned here. I'm also interested in large-scale warfare, as I dabbled in it somewhat a couple years ago with the Githyanki Incursion campaign arc. Heroes of Battle is as close as I'm going to get for a while. Those rulership rules can be found in the FR book Power of Faerun.
1) A system of mass warfare. I'm not talking about a minitures game, I'm talking about a resolution system for when heroic PCs gather armies of thousands!
There was something like that in one of the old D&D boxed sets (Companion I think) but can't quite recall.
Not exactly what you were after but it might help.
Cheers, Chris.
how about some support for the new ideas they have published
like incarnum,tome of magic and the psi books
or even a book of compiled feats (like spell compendium)
new rules for grappling(i think there fine but a lot of people have there quirks)
how about laws per alingment per city (a list of crimes and punishments)i know i could do this my self but going in to greyhawk and what you can get away with compared to homlet
chances of being caught or seen buy the size of the city and whether they would report it
rules for cost of feats or even special abilities(rhino)added to magic items
i know an evil campain module where they are foreced to work together (geas)"smart evil not phycotic" but have a chance to fight good creatures, raid the temple or ruins of pelor (undead protecting it, i think not) destroy good artifacts, plan ambushes
sorta like Midnight but flipped
1) A system of mass warfare. I'm not talking about a minitures game, I'm talking about a resolution system for when heroic PCs gather armies of thousands!There was something like that in one of the old D&D boxed sets (Companion I think) but can't quite recall.
It was in the Companion set, and was called Warmachine (or, possibly, War Machine). It was almost certainly reprinted in the Rules Cyclopedia.
It was quite a good system. That said, I think I prefer the Heroes of Battle approach, where in the large battle you focus heavily on the deeds of the PCs, and narrate the rest.
Now, things I would like to see from WotC (a partial list):
For them to authorise Paizo to produce an Age of Worms hardcover, a Dungeon Compendium, Dragon Compendium II, and a Greyhawk hardcover (if they haven't already authorised any and all of these).
Fiendish Compendium III, dealing with the NE outsiders.
Monster books dealing with evil humanoids (very useful, if rather cliched), Giants, and Fey.
Environment books for Forests, Swamps, Mountains, Plains, and Planar environments.
Heroes of the Ages: a book discussing running generational campaigns across centuries of game-time. The notion of running a campaign with the scope of the Silmarillion appeals to me.
More adventures. Ideally new adventures (not another Ravenloft), with less cliched plots (Red Hand of Doom was great, but it's been done now. Let's have something different).
Fewer, bigger books.
And, my #1 biggest wish:
An all-singing, all-dancing PC tool, including character generator, encounter generator, map making software that is easy to use, adventure preparation software, and anything else that they can think of to make the DM's life easier. Must include all the material from all existing books, must be capable of being expanded when new books are released (and must be supported by Wizards accordingly), and must be configurable by the DM to allow the use of House Rules. (Also, they must release whatever is required to allow third-party publishers/loyal fans to support the tool.)
Of course, such a tool is a practical (if not actual) impossibility, and any watering down of the requirements I've just listed would make it something I wouldn't buy, so never mind.
Hmmm.
Well what I want is probably off of the beaten track but.
A collection of classes and PrCs
With specific historical/firctional references including a bibliography of the novels, texts, art, movies, comics, etc that specifically inspired them. Illustrated with images from those sources.
I think something like that would enrich more than just my gaming.
Progressions for fighters along specific developmental tracks:
Two weapon fighting with an limited suite of weapons
Spear and shield fighter
Sword and scabbard fighter
Sword and shield
etc.
Shield mastery
Martial Artists with locks throws
Arcane fighters - magical combat abilities - multiple classes along these lines.
Spell like ability feats similar to invocations.
Artifacts withh detailed stories and possible current keepers, placement.
Magic items that don't really fit into the cookie cutter format.
Magical places - groves, grottos, volcanic rifts, etc.
Flaws and abilities with a scale and balancing mechanism
minor flaw - bonus skill point
major flaw - equivalent of invocation/multiple feats
Richer more detailed descriptions of specific game cultures and alternatives along with the rationale for how these fit in the world and help to make it work. Along with encounter examples.
Expanded critical fumble rules
More detailed skill descriptions
Broad rules for the creation of enchanting/enhancing mounts, familiars, and animal companions
Broad rules for enchanting characters and NPCs
Detailed rules on curses (more folkloric)
Long time casting - spells that draw on fvast energies and take hours/days to cast
Well thats of the top of my head.
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- A Greyhawk 3.5 sourcebook
- A fillable PC sheet in .pdf form
- More on the Yugoloths and their lords
- More modulesI also like someone's suggestion from earlier on books about Giants, Fey and Evil Humanoids (Goblinomicon?). I think that a "Book of Giants" would be especially cool.
"The Singing Sheet" isn't bad as a fillable pc sheet. Have you tried it?
FH
An official D&D character generator program that actually handles the rules properly and add-ons for the software that are released at the same time as the books that they support.
Man I'm on board for this. Make it modifiable so that I can add any house rules I am using including things like new classes. Almost as importantly I'd like to be able to filter out material. If I decide Dusk Blades are not in my campaign World then I should not be bothered by the program with having them listed. Same deal with feats.
I've been working with PCGen but there is no way to add house rules and they have not released a number of books I'd like to use material from.
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It was mentioned a little bit here and on a different thread --
I would really like to see a 3.5 summary HC on a number of the older "worlds". These would include Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Dark Sun, Hollow World, the many times mentioned Greyhawk, & Planescape (but see below).
I loved the Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness. I would love to see a book on Fey and Magical Beasts as well. I would also really like to see a book that focused on one plane at a time more than I would want to see a Planescape book. (It looks like they might be doing that with Hordes of the Abyss.)
I know that some people don't like the compendiums, but I think that they can be and are very useful. That being said, I would really like to see a feat compendium. This is something that can be used by all classes -- not just spell casters.
Just a few things that I would like to see.
1) A system of mass warfare. I'm not talking about a minitures game, I'm talking about a resolution system for when heroic PCs gather armies of thousands!
Cry Havoc from Malhavoc Press contains d20 mass Combat rules can be found in.
2) Naval Combat. The descriptions are poor at best, in fact boats are little more than sitting ducks. This could also be supporting #1 (above).
I'm surprised that's not in Stormwrack.
3) Rulership. At 20th level how many people's PCs were not Kings? How many 4th level NPCs are Kings? Domain upkeep, resources, etc, can be fun you know.
I think Powers of Faerun covers this.
More Greyhawk stuff. Would it kill them to put out a 3.5 source book on Greyhawk? It would likely make money since most of us geezers (35 years old and up) actually have the money to buy their products.
All I ask for is a Player's Guide to Greyhawk with 3.5 stuff in it. Something that I can refer my players to when they are being introduced to the setting for the first time. Seriously, if a new player wanted to play in Greyhawk, they'd be S.O.L. in regards to a single resource from which they could at least get the basics.
You know, it'd be great if Wizards could somehow compile the library into a DVD for easy access through a laptop. That would be a God-send. Do a quick search for rules, monster stats, etc... Wishful thinking.
Bella Sara Charter Superscriber
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I posted this on the Greyhawk thread, but what I'd like to see is a 3.5 treatment for (almost) any out of print campaign setting. I'm not asking for full bore support for the setting, just a one shot product to bring the setting up to date. Ideally, the product should include a thorough index for all the 2e products in the line. That way, you can always go grab the pdf if you want more detail.
It goes w/o saying that Greyhawk should be the first, but I'd dig seeing Spelljammer or Planescape.
Wizards doesn't have much faith in Greyhawk at the moment. The writers might like it but to the businessmen it's not exactly a hot property. There's no real need for a 3.5 revision because a setting is mostly fluff. Settings, by their nature, are pretty stagnant things, and since there are already 3rd edition Greyhawk books out there (not to mention 2nd edition).
Now, I'm not saying that a new Greyhawk book couldn't be successful. Far from it; some solidly marketed Greyhawk material could take advantage of it being the "default" setting, and perhaps if Eberron goes belly-up we'll see Wizards having another go at Greyhawk. Something to please the hack-and-slash players (including plenty of crunch), something to please old-time Greyhawk fans (new material that DMs and perhaps players can use, without contradiction heavily-established fan canon or changing things people really like, so maybe fuddle around with Sterich), and finally, something to appeal to the roleplayers, storytellers and urban investigators at whom Eberron was offered.
How about a revised setting book with extra for-players content to inspire character creators, extra guidance for DMs to build a campaign that really takes advantage of the world? Next, a re-release anthology of 3.5 revised adventures, like the online Tomb of Horrors, and so forth, but to keep the interest of the roleplayers, some new urban adventures in the City of Greyhawk itself, taking advantage of celebrity NPCs such as the Circle of Eight, and portraying their influence.
Having recently been introduced to the world of Greyhawk I'm almost surprised that Wizards isn't pushing the "It's the natural progression from the core rules" angle. Of course, the failure of the early 3ed Greyhawk books and the traditionally poor returns on campaign settings discourage further Greyhawk publications. Still, what I would suggest is a version marketed at players and DMs, offering adventure-building guidelines (unless DMG2 covered this in enough detail) as well as ways for players to create truly memorable characters beyond "Bob the fighter", "Bob the cleric", which many of them I'm sure are bored of by now. So you're a barbarian; but what particular land are you from. So you're a wizard, but in what city did you learn magic, and under who did you apprentice, and does he or his guild have any links to the Circle of Eight? That last one is a good inspiration because it makes a cabal of high level wizards a benefit to the setting rather than a drawback.
Greyhawk was made by some old-school dungeon crawl players, and there's nothing to say your players shouldn't be able to paint their own actions into the world's canon as seen by your DM. Of course, your DM's Greyhawk canon might not fit into the real world, but unless you're playing RPGA that won't really matter. It's your DM's campaign his players' campaign, not Wizard's campaign.
Oops, I seem to have rambled on for a while. I hope Paizo and Wizards are reading this; if I can't get published by them, I'd at least like them to appreciate me as a guy who has interesting but flawed ideas that only work in theory!
Adventures. Big ones. My last three purchases have been big adventures--City of the Spider Queen, Red Hand of Doom, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Coming up with a great adventure is so, so hard, and I want all the help I can get. I like the scope and ambition of longer adventures, how they allow the players to change the status quo, not just maintain it. Because the amount of official under-playtested character-building options are so vast, my interest in additional rules is limited. However, I like the flavor of magical locations from the DMG2 or affiliations from the PHB2, so I'll take more stuff like that. I understand that DM-exclusive material isn't economically feasible for a publisher--everyone in the group might own a copy of the PHB, while only one person (hopefully) has a copy of the adventure.
One more thing. I think a book outlining how to build a campaign and/or a campaign world would be awesome. I mean something really meaty, with multiple examples, and modular rules. How to construct a pantheon; how to play in a world without gods; origins of magic; power structures for churches, thieves' guilds, and organizations for fighters and spellcasters; power structures for nations; how to make global events important to the players, and player events important to the globe; how to make the weaponsmith and the general outfitter and the tavern wench compelling characters that have an impact on the players and the campaign; creating long-term antagonists and rivals (without railroading the players); alternate cultures for core races (why does every elf know how to use a rapier, why are all dwarves good at fighting orcs?); etc. And, as I said, the key thing is to show how the flavor of a campaign comes across in the rules. This, in my mind, is what the DMG ought to be.
I'd love a REAL Manual of the Planes. Not manual of the planes of Greyhawk and some others we made up to fill space. Not manual of the planes of Greyhawk and some real world gods we thought you might like to have for no good reason. I want a book that covers the gods and cosmologies and other planar goodies of the published settings. That means Faerun, and Eberron, and Dragonlance. I would love that.
Oh and it'd be nice, yes if the kind folks at Wizards did do some work to adapt some of the new stuff to the various settings out there...then again that's what Dragon is for, right? Actually I've been stewing that idea in the article requests for some time now--Integrating Incarnum and the New Magics.
And yes I would also love to see other settings brought back--though again Dragon seems the medium for that too. Dark Sun was wonderful! You guys do good.
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Adventures. Big ones. My last three purchases have been big adventures--City of the Spider Queen, Red Hand of Doom, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil. Coming up with a great adventure is so, so hard, and I want all the help I can get. I like the scope and ambition of longer adventures, how they allow the players to change the status quo, not just maintain it.
Me too! Specifically, I'd love some kind of supermodule set in NE Greyhawk, perhaps as a continuation of the "Howl from the North" and "Five from the North" modules. Stonehold and the various barbarian tribes are very underdeveloped (besides "Iron Orb of the duergar", I can't recall any other adventures set in that region), and Sevvord Redbeard is one of the coolest and most iconic characters of the Greyhawk setting. It could combine harsh weather conditions and grandiose vistas with barbaric Erythnul cultists, white dragons, frost giants and all sort of other goodies - in short, it would be awesome, and should appeal all those who liked both "Ill made graves" and, hopefully, "Kings of the Rift" adventures in Dungeon 133, as well as oldies like the "Steading of the hill giant chief" and "Glacial rift of the frost giant jarl".
A book of backdrops that are setting neutral, with little sidebars for suggestions for placing them in Eberron, FR, GH and Dragonlance. Towns, regions, deepearth locations, especially towns. For regions I'm thinking "barony size" about 500 to 750 square miles that can be readily dropped into an existing "undescribed" area.
I gobble up all the backdrops and cities published in Dungeon and Dragon magazine and I want more of them.
The wonderfully done Saltmarsh in DMG II left me wanting a whole lot more. I know that 3rd party publishers do this already, but Wizards could get pretty specific with their established settings and I like the artwork and quality of the Wizards' published fluff, which is usually excellent, as compared to their crunch, which is sometimes iffy.
Some halfway viable way of actually inegrating all these bloody products together into a usuable form. Its just not reasobable to try and say design a major villian if I need to have 16 books open in front of me just to pick his or her feats.
Anyone read KODT? I want B.A.'s DM program.
The deluxe adventures are always awesome.
If you like the deluxe adventures with story arcs and ongoing drama, look at the Age of Worms or Shackled City. I think they have proven that big adventures with good background will go over well.
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- A Greyhawk 3.5 sourcebook
- A fillable PC sheet in .pdf form
- More on the Yugoloths and their lords
- More modulesI also like someone's suggestion from earlier on books about Giants, Fey and Evil Humanoids (Goblinomicon?). I think that a "Book of Giants" would be especially cool.
"The Singing Sheet" isn't bad as a fillable pc sheet. Have you tried it?
FH
What is "The Singing Sheet"? And where can I find it?
An official D&D character generator program that actually handles the rules properly and add-ons for the software that are released at the same time as the books that they support.
Yes! More that life itself.
I've been waiting for just such a product.
More Greyhawk stuff. Would it kill them to put out a 3.5 source book on Greyhawk? It would likely make money since most of us geezers (35 years old and up) actually have the money to buy their products.
Could not agree more... well except for the geezer line. ;)
E-Tools is still out there, and thanks to the hard-working folks at CodeMonkeyPublishing (http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com) it works pretty well these days. So that angle's covered for me.
What I want from WotC is:
1) Adventures
2) Adventures
3) Adventures, and
4) Adventures.
Fortunately, we've got Dungeon, which helps. :)
-The Gneech
E-Tools is still out there, and thanks to the hard-working folks at CodeMonkeyPublishing (http://www.codemonkeypublishing.com) it works pretty well these days. So that angle's covered for me.
I'm very familiar with E-Tools' current status as well as it's history well enough to say that it's not a satisfactory, nor is the support in terms of documentation and Data Set availability and accuracy. For example, the Monster Manual II data set is still missing information, and there are data sets for more recent sourcebooks being produced while older sourcebooks have yet to have a corresponding Data Set.
In a nutshell, E-Tools takes more time to figure out workarounds and find errors, miscalculations, and missing information than it does to simply create things by hand. At this point, I just use E-Tools as a database, and even then. WotC's consolidated lists have taken over that role.
As I said in my earlier post, I want an official D&D character generator program that actually handles the rules properly and add-ons for the software that are released at the same time as the books that they support.
-A 3.5 update of Faiths and Panteons, with more Initiate feats and deity-specific prestige classes
-Feat Compendium
-Books on Evil Humanoids, Monstrous Humanoids, Elementals, Giants, Celestials, etc. in the vein of Draconomicron, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness
Some really good ideas here. . . I too want to see a system for Mass Warfare, and a bigger treatment of the D&D Cosmology and its alternatives (like Planescape did fo 2nd edition).
I also want more campaign settings. I'm really starting to get into Greyhawk, and I've always liked Dragonlance, Planescape, Spelljammer, and Ravenloft. However, I also want to see some more alterative ideas for settings.
There were 11,000 submissions to the WOTC campaign setting contest, which Eberron won. Eberron is awesome, but what about the work of the two other finalists? The final eleven? Many of them did some work and got paid, so why not make a seperate sourcebook out of each of their ideas?
I'd buy a dozen core sourcebooks that introduce inspiring, never-before-seen 3.5 D&D worlds, over a dozen extra suppliments that only serve to narrow the "canon" of one setting (and all of its prerequisite limitations of flavor).
-A 3.5 update of Faiths and Panteons, with more Initiate feats and deity-specific prestige classes
-Feat Compendium
-Books on Evil Humanoids, Monstrous Humanoids, Elementals, Giants, Celestials, etc. in the vein of Draconomicron, Libris Mortis, and Lords of Madness
I'm with you, Byron. The series of fluff and crunch in the pages of Dragon Magazine detailing the various religions based around some god in the Greyhawk setting are some of the best written, informative, and emminantly playable features that give the clerics, paladins, and even regular religious folks something to base their roleplaying on. The ONLY problem I have with these articles is that they are mainly Greyhawk deities, and (at the risk of sounding like a jerk and being ousted from the lists here) Greyhawk is no longer supported.
I understand that there are many, many folks that love this setting, and I agree with the folks above that want an updated 3.5 version of the setting they love. WotC did the same thing with GammaWorld. One shot and then done. I have no doubt that there are still folks out there that do Mystara and hollowworld, and planescape, and dark sun - all had their hay day and are now on a vacation. Well, Greyhawk is still living through all the core books. Their gods are not FR gods or Ebberon gods, gods that need support within the pages of Dragon because they are still living settings. If the write up on the new Church of Mask is anything like the Church of Ollidamra...
Magical Beasts should be the next beek that features a sub-type of creature and I can only hope it's in the same vein as Libris Mortis.
A feat compendium would be nice.
Something for new players to introduce them to the setting would also be great. If I tell my players that they will be starting out in Corm Orp, on the far border of Cormyr, I want them to be able to have some player knowledge about the place that I don't have to type up before hand. And I think that should be done for Ebberon and Greyhawk (as part of the one shot 3.5 update omnibus maybe).
Any book that helps players to understand their characters better, helps them roleplay and interact with their world - even if it's in a metagaming manner, is something I will definately buy.
Just my thoughts - please don't send me hate-mail about the greyhawk stuff... ;) I'm sure I'll feel the same when FR goes out of print.
Yeah, a 'Complete Book of Encouter Tables' with an encounter table for every type of terrain (Hills, Grassland, Mountains, etc...), climate (Warm, Temperate, and Cold), time (Night or Day), and patrolled or wilderness (sort of like in the old DM Guide (which I'm still using for random encounters!!). Using monsters from every book available (WITH number of monsters encountered).
An EASY to use map maker... Choose a grid (squares, hexes, or none), click on the forest icon (a little tree), then click in the hexes you want trees in. Click on the hill icon (two little bumps), then click in the hexes you want hills in. Add color (optional). Click on a color (dark green), then click on the hexes with those trees in them and they turn dark green. Get it? EASY!!! Would produce maps that look like what we got in the old Gazeteers. That's all we want people!
It's nice to dream isn't it.
Ultradan
an encounter table for every type of terrain (Hills, Grassland, Mountains, etc...), climate (Warm, Temperate, and Cold), time (Night or Day), and patrolled or wilderness
I just calculated : Ten types of terrain, three types of climates... It would give us 120 Random Encounter Tables. A bit more if you add things like "DARK forest" or "EVIL swamp". Certainly a do-able project.
Ultradan
I'd like to see an "official" modes and philosophy of gaming text from WoTC. There are several comprehensive texts that address modes of gaming published by other companies, but none that i've seen that exclusively deal with D&D (most grapple with RPG games in general). I think that it would broaden many of the younger gamer's grasp of WHY the game is played and HOW different apporaches to the game dictate the outcome of gaming under those philosophies.
As ever,
ACE
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I just calculated : Ten types of terrain, three types of climates... It would give us 120 Random Encounter Tables. A bit more if you add things like "DARK forest" or "EVIL swamp". Certainly a do-able project.
Ultradan
I have done some of the "leg-work" on this kind of project. I have compiled a database (of sorts) in excel that has a list of all the creatures from as many official sources as I could get my hands on (including Dungeon and Dragon magazines). The list includes creature type, subtype (Fire, Swarm, etc.), size, CR, temperature, environment, modes of movement, templates, and a few other items. With excel filters, it is actually a nice tool. Part of the problem with making this a do-able project is the inclusion of templates as well as keeping a reasonable range of ELs appropriate for the party.
If anyone is interested in what I have done, I would be happy to forward it on to people. You can email me at moffrimmer (at) viafamily.com -- include "Creature List" or "Encounter Table" or something similar so that I don't automatically delete your email.
You would probably still need to customize your own encounter table, but this could go a long ways towards making it seem plausible and still fit for your own campaign.
By the way -- there are 157 templates and 2,498 other creatures.
There were 11,000 submissions to the WOTC campaign setting contest, which Eberron won. Eberron is awesome, but what about the work of the two other finalists? The final eleven? Many of them did some work and got paid, so why not make a seperate sourcebook out of each of their ideas?
I had this discussion with someone the other day.
As it stands, you have, aside from standard out of the PHB D&D, two Campaign worlds. One, FR, is high fantasy. Eberron is skewed high fantasy. There is plenty of room for a new setting that will not step on those two. alot fo the books coming out are just option, options, options, and so it might be nice to see a new world.
A good example: Ghostwalk. A one-shot hardcover with its own little setting, and you can run with it. They could do the same more often.
When 3rd Ed was comign, out I was at GenCon and someone said that WotC data showed the average campaign lasts 10 months. So every 10 months people start over. After 6 years of 2 settings, I think people may be ready for another one.
I'd like to see a 3.5 Greyhawk Hardback book that doesn't just regurgitate everything we've already read. And I want to see WoTC contract with Gary Gygax to produce 1 or 2 Greyhawk adventures per year, that's all, just 1 or 2. You do that, he'll outsell everybody else.