General RPG DiscussionDiscussion of all RPGs and non-system-specific topics. DM/GM/player issues, settings, etc. Rules discussion belongs in one the forums below.
At launch? Not much - after 3.0, I am wary of releases immediately following a new edition.
Now? I would buy what I bought for 3e - excellent settings and their sourcebooks. And modules - those, too. My favorite 3pp 3e purchases were Arcana Evolved and Wilderlands, and I purchased most of the product lines for both. I like settings that bring fresh perspectives to the game world, which is why I'm looking forward to Earthdawn 4e.
Also, for 4e, if the price were right, I'd love to buy a book of random encounter and treasure tables. (See: Mother of All Encounter Tables.)
I might buy a monster book, too, especially if it were done well.
I don't have much use for generic-setting or player-drive third-party supplements, with a few rare exceptions. I stick with WotC for those. I don't need new classes or anything of that nature from a 3pp. I abhor books of spells, whether it's WotC making them or a third party, but I'd trust WotC more with them when it comes down to it. I have no need for any kind of book of feats. I didn't buy them for 3e, and I won't start for 4e.
Adventures. That's the one thing that's really lacking in WotC's offerings currently. Actually, in my ideal world, WotC would let 3rd party publishers create adventures for their campaign settings, since they have less interest in doing it themselves.
edit: oh and more DM's tools. I'd love a book of traps, hazzards, and awesome locations. Or a book of RP centric skill challenges.
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Last edited by malraux; 19th June 2009 at 09:57 PM..
Crunch and monsters are all fine and good, but what I really wanted to see when the system was launched, and still am waiting for is a top notch, creative and new 4E setting built from the ground up strictly for showcasing 4E's flavor. Not the ret-cons (FR ... I'm looking at you!) that we've been offered to date. Where are the new settings that make a player and GM say "Now that is a world I want to run." ?
When I look back at the many great 3E settings that not just impressed but literally made me buy their products (Iron Kingdoms, Midnight, Scarred Lands, Eberron etc) I wonder if we'll ever see that type of creativity again? I wouldn't bet on WotC doing anything, but hopefully someone else will pick up the dropped 4E setting baton and run with it.
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Last edited by Khairn; 19th June 2009 at 10:04 PM..
Paizo Pathfinder adventures in 4E... I'd still be a subscriber if those materialized. Other than that, the Tome of Horrors would have been my only other for certain purchase.
No offense to the authors, but I found most of the listed products rather broken or badly designed when I got the 3e versions. So, I would have been very wary of them now, let alone at 4e's launch.
Having been infected by the collector's virus in 2000/2001, I have way too many 3e books gathering dust on my shelves. There are some class items, some stinkers and a ot of stuff which, while being okay, saw no use in my games.
So when 4e was announced I told myself that I'd keep myself under control. My only 3pp book for 4e is Goodman Games' Sellswords of Punjar, of which I'm rather disappointed, plus a PDF by Adamant. Now I'm sitting here, waiting for a book to really interest me. It might be an adventure by an author whose name I equate with quality, an adventure receiving good notes on the forums three months after being published, or a campaign setting which ignites the flames of curiosity.
Crunchy stuff? No, thank you! We'll never ever fully explore the WotC crunch up to PHB2 and MM2.
Another thing has changed for me in the last years, too. I'm no longer a voracious reader of RPG books. I see nearly all of the books in the field as much too boring to read at leisure. 256 pages of monsters? Gazillions of powers? Nope, I'd rather get me a decent novel for my comfortable evenings on the sofa.
One product that springs to mind was actually Mongoose's Necromancy book. A lot of their stuff I found horribly powerful, but the Necromancer book was less so.
I didn't get to use much of my 3e stuff, alas. DMs would say no to most things that weren't CORE, and players weren't interested either.
You know, I take that back. There is a book I would have bought at launch:
Monstronomicon 4e.
Preferably not just a conversion. But the same guys who wrote the Monstronomicon to do a 4e monster book, I'd snatch that thing up so fast.
My favorite 3pp products are adventure-seed type things. The Foul Locales and En Route products were nice. A little rough around the edges, but I liked the notion. The GM Gems book by Goodman is another example; all fluff, but basically fodder for interaction, to fill in the gaps between battles.
I'm not real fond of 3pp character books - my experience from 3e was generally poor and soured me on the concept, mostly on balance issues.
I'd like to see settings, NPC's, monsters, traps, and other cool ideas to crib from. I thought Scarred Lands was great, and would love to see a conversion.
I don't play 4th ed, but I still might pay money for new Scarred Lands material. Depends on the crunch (which is useless to me) to fluff ratio. I fact, I was pushing for "sytem neutral" Scarred Lands before people started using the term!
So, what of the list did you actually have and liked? And if that's none, then what did you not buy?
I liked Relics and Rituals. It had flavor to it, although I never actually used anything. I just dug reading it. (I liked Scarred Lands in the 3.0 era). One thing I really liked about R&R is that the spells indented the fluff text. Then it had a section for the spell origin/place in the setting. THEN it had the section for the rules. It really cut down on mixed interpretations.
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