I've been GMing and playing Pathfinder for a while and I love it. I also love how Paizo sees working with and promoting third party publishers to be a win-win. I really like adventure paths; I've played a few of the Paizo ones and I'm GMing Reign of Winter at the moment. I'd like to start looking at some third party products; any recommendations on what would be some of the best stuff to try first? I'm not familiar with any of the third-party companies.
There's a lot of third party material on d20pfsrd.com - look to the bottom of the page for any given mechanic and it will tell you which product from which publisher it comes from.
There are many 3PP's to checkout. I do freelance work for Rite Publishing, and develop the Kaidan setting of Japanese horror for example.
What kind of settings, content and mechanics do you need? Knowing that will give a direction for publishers that might meet your needs.
I would really like to see something that goes beyond kill them and take their stuff. I like face skills to matter. I prefer adventure paths over standalone modules. I'd also like to see a campaign setting that defies some cliches and isn't just a re-skinned version of Forgotten Realms. Balance is also a concern- so I'd prefer stuff that has been well play tested.
I really like adventure paths; I've played a few of the Paizo ones and I'm GMing Reign of Winter at the moment. I'd like to start looking at some third party products; any recommendations on what would be some of the best stuff to try first? I'm not familiar with any of the third-party companies.
Keolin,
Greetings! Since you are an enthusiast of adventure paths, I invite you to check out "Way of the Wicked", a third party adventure path all about being the bad guy by Fire Mountain Games.
We are also currently kickstarting an all-underground adventure path called Throne of Night where you can play either dwarves or drow.
Regardless, thanks for your interest!
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
Fire Mountain is a great Forum (and mine) favourite; Way of Wicked is at least as good as any AP from Paizo, and Super Genius is great for character options.
^^^ This. FMG Way of wicked. However it is an evil themed AP. keep that in mind.
ALSO for hooks and encounters for GMs, I whole heartily recommend Raging Swan Press’s stuff and Rite Publishing.
For good character development, the Super Genius games Super Genius Guide to XX.
Just to start. Then you can always go after Abandon Arts material, good price for good player options.
For random base classes….You can always try our stuff.
Here
I'm GMing Reign of Winter at the moment.
Since you're GMing Reign of Winter, might I recommend showing your players Book of Magic Insurgency of Summer. This book was designed for players of this Adventure Path It has spells and character options for players that are going to be dealing with alot of cold foes.
For you, I would recommend taking a look at Book of Beasts: War on Yuletide. These monsters are designed with a holiday feel to them (and is slightly comedic), but they are far from out of place in a winter-themed adventure path and are well balanced. Both of these are from my company, Jon Brazer Enterprises. We enhance your world and your adventure path.
Also, I hope you like the Winter Fey template in The Shackled Hut. I wrote that one.
[/shameless plugs]
While not a full adventure path, for Rite Publishing's Kaidan setting of Japanese horror, that posted in my previous post, the introductory mini-campaign is 3 modules for 5th, 6th and 7th levels - basically a party of western adventurers (standard PF party) visiting the exotic far east, called the Curse of the Golden Spear (link points to first adventure module).
We do have a few one-shot modules that fit into and around the Curse of the Golden Spear trilogy. Up from Darkness is a one-shot that fits between the 2nd and 3rd module of the Curse of the Golden Spear, but serves to introduce the NPC bad guys that the party will run into in Dark Path (the third module).
Kaidan supplements include race guides, faction guides and a haunts book. We are currently developing the GM's and Player's guides to the setting following a successful Kickstarter last summer.
But know that Rite Publishing has lots more than just Kaidan. The Coloseum Morpheuon is a setting in dreamland that features an AP from 15th - 20th level (something you won't find from most publishers.)
Legendary Games produces a series called Adventure Path Plug-In's written by many of the same authors who write directly for Paizo's existing Adventure Paths (i.e., Greg A. Vaughan, Jason Nelson, Matt Goodall, Jim Groves, and myself). We've done everything from supplementary side-trek adventures to mini-bestiaries to pregenerated characters to new rule options, magic items, feats, spells, you name it. And the production values for our these products also approach the same scale as Paizo in terms of art, layout, and cartography, as well, because we also use many of the same people contributing to Paizo products already. Though we don't yet have anything that could augment your Reign of Winter campaign, we do have support material for Carrion Crown, Jade Regent, and soon...Kingmaker.
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Also, more "shameless plugging" here but one of the primary goals of the magazine "d20pfsrd.com Presents: Open Gaming Monthly" is to present high-quality content by a selection of 3rd Party Publishers. Each issue (the second was just released last night) contains multiple articles from a variety of writers and publishers who hope that their article gives you a taste of both the KIND of content you can expect from them AS WELL AS the quality thereof.
The magazine is available at the d20pfsrd store (#1 is currently 50% off), RPGNow and will be here in the Paizo as soon as it gets posted so you can get it wherever you prefer to shop.
I would really like to see something that goes beyond kill them and take their stuff. I like face skills to matter. I prefer adventure paths over standalone modules. I'd also like to see a campaign setting that defies some cliches and isn't just a re-skinned version of Forgotten Realms. Balance is also a concern- so I'd prefer stuff that has been well play tested.
In terms of well playtested and balanced character options, super genius games is among my favorite 3rd party publishers. They are quite good at frustrating ones inner (or outer) munchkin. You would be hard pressed to find anything unbalanced in their collection of products (except their april 1st release of the genius guide to horrifically overpowered feats ofcourse).
If you are looking for campaign setting material, Kobold Press' Midgard Campaign Setting is rather good.
In terms of adventure paths I definately have to say Way of the Wicked is among one of the more original AP's I have seen, though I have not played it.
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If you're looking for good 3pp material, you can't go wrong with using the reviews written by Endzeitgeist as a guide.
Since you're running Reign of Winter I'd like to offer you a free copy of The Genius Guide to Ice Magic. Just PM me with your email address and I'll get it sent to you.
And depending on the level of your PCs, our Loot 4 Less line gives GMs access to magic items that are appropriately balanced for low level PCs. Like the product text says, each item is generally under 2,500 gp and the vast majority of the items aren't one-shot (or even two- or three-shot) magic items or scrolls, potions, talismans or fire-and-forget tattoo magics. Every magic item is a legitimate permanent magic item, free of charges and able to be used in adventure after adventure.
Finally, a number of our Mythic Menagerie books might be useful as well.
Thanks for looking into 3pp!
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Contributor; Publisher, Kobold Press; RPG Superstar Judge
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Well, as long as we're all promoting our own stuff:
Tales of the Old Margreve is a well-tested series of small adventures that people have used in conjunction with Kingmaker and other forest-oriented settings.
Courts of the Shadow Fey is a well-tested adventure heavy on roleplaying, dueling, and demon-fighting among the fey. There's a free preview of its maps and handouts available.
Streets of Zobeck won the Gold ENnie for Best Adventure of 2012. Urban, noir, and gritty adventure series.
You might also enjoy the Midgard Bestiary for Pathfinder, written by Paizo developer Adam Daigle, and well-tested.
Thanks for checking out 3PP! You'll find quite a few jewels in these posts (and smart of you to ask everyone to list their best!).
Or just browse here at Paizo whats available and then look for specific things that interest you
Problem with that is that we currently only browse by company for Pathfinder products...and there are over 2,000 Pathfinder RPG compatible products to choose from...
Or just browse here at Paizo whats available and then look for specific things that interest youProblem with that is that we currently only browse by company for Pathfinder products...and there are over 2,000 Pathfinder RPG compatible products to choose from...
Thats true, if you didnt already know what you were looking for (already familiar with most of the pathfinder 3pp's) it would be nice to be able to sort by adventures, feats, base classes, sub systems etc.
Thats true, if you didnt already know what you were looking for (already familiar with most of the pathfinder 3pp's) it would be nice to be able to sort by adventures, feats, base classes, sub systems etc.Or just browse here at Paizo whats available and then look for specific things that interest youProblem with that is that we currently only browse by company for Pathfinder products...and there are over 2,000 Pathfinder RPG compatible products to choose from...
This is a topic that comes up frequently, and we're trying to figure out the best way to implement a kind of "product tagging" that would allow people to find material easier (adventures in a certain level range, for example).
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If you are looking for 3PP adventures / campaigns, Fire Mountain Games, Kobold Press, Legendary Games and Frog God Games are definitely worth checking out (these are ones whose materials I have had the opportunity to look over ... nothing personal to other 3PPs with adventures / campaigns out there, I just haven't had a chance to look over your stuff yet).
If you are looking for other content (bestiaries, spells, feats, magic items, etc.), I would strongly recommend checking out d20pfsrd.com so you can check out content online and then purchase the publications that fit what you are looking for.
And of course, here is the obligatory shameless plug for Iron Hills Games.
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In the mean-time - the reviews on my (relative young) site are tagged by product-categories. While I'm still busy tagging my backlog, all new reviews will come tagged for your convenience. ^^
I do between 6 and 18 reviews of 3pp-products a week, so there'll bound to be some pieces you'll like!
Oh: And thanks to Hyrum for the shout-out! ^^
What are you looking for?
Thanks for all the quick replies. I'll have a look at everything mentioned.
@FireMountainGames: Are you planning a reprint anytime soon for Way of the Wicked? I see that it's listed as backorder at the moment. I prefer to run games from print copies- PDFs always seem too unwieldy at the game table.
I'm not quite a third party publisher, but if you have any of the new Reaper Bone miniatures heading your way (or even if you don't) you might consider checking out the free adventure I just wrote, The Fall of Fairhaven.
You can download it at Heroes' Rest
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In the mean-time - the reviews on my (relative young) site are tagged by product-categories. While I'm still busy tagging my backlog, all new reviews will come tagged for your convenience. ^^
I do between 6 and 18 reviews of 3pp-products a week, so there'll bound to be some pieces you'll like!
Oh: And thanks to Hyrum for the shout-out! ^^
Not only does Endzeitgeist reviews a lot of products in a small time, but his reviews are actually top notch quality.
5-stars (and even better seal of approval) from EZG had me buying some products I would never have considered before and I never regretted it.
I am in a similar awe of Dark Mistress' reviews too.
@FireMountainGames: Are you planning a reprint anytime soon for Way of the Wicked? I see that it's listed as backorder at the moment. I prefer to run games from print copies- PDFs always seem too unwieldy at the game table.
Keolin,
First, thanks for your interest.
Yes, another restock is coming to Paizo.com. I've actually made two rather large deliveries of books here in the last month or so, but I can't seem to keep them in stock. This is a good problem to have, but I do apologize for the inconvenience.
But in the meantime, you can get everything at DrivethruRPG right now. These are the same books.
Gary McBride
Fire Mountain Games
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Really there is a ton of good material out there, depending on your setting. I didn't know Endzeitgeist had his own website, but sorting by topic is genius. Super Genius even. A third party pun!
Check out our The Malefactor Base Class or Dwellers in Dream. Both may be of interest to you as a player or GM.
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I didn't know Endzeitgeist had his own website,
Now you know.
And knowing is half the battle!
*All together*
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There are a lot of good companies mentioned in this thread.
Since Raging Swan Press haven't popped in to plug their products yet, I'll add myself to the list of those recommending them.
Their Lonely Coast setting is available as a free PDF. Lonely Coast
I recommend downloading it and seeing what you think. If you like it, you'll like their other stuff.
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I don't think it's been mentioned yet, but I really like Frog God Games' take on Rappan Athuk. It is a dungeon crawl, but it's a smart, dynamic, old-school dungeon crawl, and "face skills" can matter quite a lot.
Actually, I like it so much that I'm running a campaign journal for it at present.
As far as crunch and plug-and-play material, Abandoned Arts has quite a line-up for sale, but (for whatever my opinion is worth) Raging Swan Press does better work than anyone out there. They print modules, too. Just browse Endzeitgeist's Raging Swan reviews if you want confirmation.
Good luck, and welcome to the world of third-party goodies.
Cheers,
Daron Woodson
Abandoned Arts
I've been GMing and playing Pathfinder for a while and I love it. I also love how Paizo sees working with and promoting third party publishers to be a win-win. I really like adventure paths; I've played a few of the Paizo ones and I'm GMing Reign of Winter at the moment. I'd like to start looking at some third party products; any recommendations on what would be some of the best stuff to try first? I'm not familiar with any of the third-party companies.
If you are really unsure and not familiar with any third party companies I would suggest that you look at the FREE 3PP Pathfinder releases first. When you do this you canget a taste at what these people do and better still it doesn't cost you anything so there is no risk. Here are a few free products from LPJ Design that I would suggest:
Undefeatable 21.5: Cavalier (PFRPG)
I hope you find this helpful.
Louis Porter Jr.
Louis Porter Jr. Design
My recommendation is to look at Endzeitgeist's Best of 3PP year in review that appear in the February issues of Pathways as the issues are free.