D&D Essentials

[petenik]

The Battlebox is a small tin of various odds and ends that don't seem impressive at first glance but can relieve some DM headaches. There's an assortment of spell counters, such as the Bigsby's Hands, etherial weapons, lightening bolts, etc, to visually see where the spells are. There's some range templates for things like area affects and cone spells to help determine what and who those spell hit and so on. Other things like a generic dungeon tile set, combat cards that detail things like what a bull rush does or how tripping works, summoned creature counters and a pad of NPC stat sheets are included.

Its put out by Firey Dragon for about $20. Well worth it, I think.

 

[JoeGKushner]

My review goes into some detail.

For other who are using it, please, add some review of it. It's a great product and for it to only have one review is silly!

 

[Nebulous]

There's a lot of choices, but here are some i'd say are "brilliant":

Grim Tales
Monsternomicon
Arcana Evolved (love the classes/magic system, not the campaign setting so much)
Midnight 2nd edition
The Monster's Handbook (from Fantasy Flight, it has some really cool ideas)

 

[Aus_Snow]

Are we talking 'straight' D&D?

I think they're talking 'partly straight and partly not', kind of thing:

So far, I've really liked the suggestions of: Lords of Madness, Monsternomicon, Advanced Bestiary, Dynasties and Demagogues and, the Magical Mideval Society book.

... or something. I think that's what, 1 WotC, 2 large 'competitors', 2 small(-ish) press?


Also, thanks for the heads-ups regarding the Battlebox. Sounds like I might be picking one up, too.

 

[Warbringer]

I'm going to throw out a wierd one..

"The Unapproachable East" from the Forgotten Realms setting

This is proably the best written book that WoTC has put together. It was Sean's last published work before he set sail from Seattle, and it is quite simply striking.

Rip the setting out of the FR and you have a great setting that works in high-magic or low-magic mode. It is also an excellent example of how to build a setting.

Take a peek at it...

 

[MonsterMash]

A short list:

For settings:
Wilderlands of High Fantasy Boxed Set & Players Guide to the Wilderlands (Necromancer Games)

Monsters:
Tome of Horrors II (Necromancer Games)

Adventures/mini-campaigns
Dungeon #83 (may have issue no wrong - 1st 3e issue, couple of good adventures)
The Grey Citadel (Necromancer Games) or Lost City of Barakus (Necromancer Games)

 

[Mercule]

Unearthed Arcana
Dungeon

 

[Breakdaddy]

My review goes into some detail.

For other who are using it, please, add some review of it. It's a great product and for it to only have one review is silly!

Joe, you know if the Arcana Evolved Battlebox contains everything the regular BB does plus the extra, or is it all tailored specifically to AE?

 

[Remathilis]

Dungeon Master's Guide II
Monster Manual III
Expanded Psionics Handbook
Manual of the Planes

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Joe, you know if the Arcana Evolved Battlebox contains everything the regular BB does plus the extra, or is it all tailored specifically to AE?

The AE Battlebox contains some things that are specific to AE (2 maps, rune counters, and some of the material on the CD), but most of it is useable in a regular D&D game as well as an AE game, especially the condition cards, counters, battlemat, d20, and a good portion of the stuff on the CD. If you have the first BattleBox and are getting use out of it, I'd highly recommend the AE box, as it complements the original quite well. Here are links to the contents of both on Fiery Dragons website:

AE Battlebox: http://fierydragon.com/products/prod-bbox-ae.htm
Original Battlebox: http://fierydragon.com/products/prod-bbox.htm