Looking back on 3.x-era d20 products: which kinds were most useful?

[Olaf the Stout]

Gareth Hanrahan. He's sort of low on everyone's radar who isn't into B5, because that's been his vocation lately. He's also doing Mongoose Traveller (see the thread about Mongoose Traveller's new initiative system for some recent buzz on this).

My first encounter with his work was with Sorcery & Steam by FFG. I really though the mechanics in that book stunk it up pretty bad. But the campaign sections had some really cool ideas and flavor. I found out he was responsible for the campaign section.

He also did a few of the Quintessential books, but the stuff I know him for best is the material in the classic play series, especially Book of Dragons and Book of the Planes. I find his little idea seeds inspiring.

Gareth has also done a fair bit of work on Mongoose's Paranoia (XP) line, having a hand in writing many of the supplements.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Greg K]

The most useful to me are or will be

For DND
Unearthed Arcana: I love the environmental races, most of the class variants, weapon groups, action points, death and dying, and several other variants (e.g., spontaneous divine casting)

Psychic's Handbook (Green Ronin): I love the treatment of the subject. Mechanically, I think it kicks butt over Psionics Handbook and Expanded Psionics Handbook.

Shaman's Handbook and Witch's Handbook from Green Ronin: The books are well done and I prefer the in depth examination of a single class approach to that of WOTC's Class books.

I have several more books on my list to incorporate into my game. Of them, I see the following as being very useful. Some of these I need to buy and some I have only acquired since my DND game has been on hold.


Currently have:
Artificer's Handbook (MEG): New rules for item creation! I received the pdf and was impressed on first look.

Elements of Magic: Revised and Elements of Magic: Lyceian Arcana : I just got these

Need to buy:

Advanced Bestiary

Beyond Monks

Book of Iron Might: I definitely need to buy this. I love the build a maneuver system. I like that the maneuvers are not organized into schools with built in flavor as per Bo9S as well as an absence of several Bo9s maneuvers.

Book of Templates Deluxe
Complete Book of Eldritch Might (I have a pdf of the first book)
Experts 3.5
Fantasy Occupations
Masters of Arms
Magic Medieval Society: Western Europe
Medieval Handbook
MM2
Fiend Folio

For d20 Modern
For d20M, I found the following books to be most useful. If not for them, I wouldn't have touched d20 Modern.

Blood and Fists: In my opinion, the best d20 treatment of martial arts.

Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth: The way I wish d20 magic had been done from the start.

Psychic's Handbook: Yes, I am listing it twice. I think it is that good.


OGL
I love Green Ronin (or is it just the work of Steve Kenson and Mr. Pramas for hiring him?)

Mutants and Masterminds : I have played more superhero rpgs than I would like to admit and have read several that I haven't played. M&M is my favorite. It showed just how far the d20 system could be tweaked. Then again, I am biased. Shortly after the release of 3e, Monte had a thread on his forums discussing the usage of d20 for supers. In that thread, I specified many of changes I thought would be be necessary, imo, for a great superhero game and most of them are found in M&M.

True20: I haven't had the chance to run it, but I have the pdf and really like what I see.

 

[CaptainChaos]

I got the most use out of adventures and monster books. Book of Fiends was my fave of the latter and saw a lot of use in my last 3.5 campaign. Dungeon was the clear winner for adventures.

As for Mongoose, I find it hard to believe they are still in business.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

I noticed a few patterns in my use of material other than the core three books.

1. I (and my groups) used several modules. Red Hand of Doom, Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, The Dead of Winter (which I found on a promo CD somewhere), and now the Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth.

2. I and my group have made extensive use of the wizards class books. Complete Warrior, Complete Arcane, etc.

3. I have tried to make use of the Player's Guide to Arcanis with limited success.

4. I had limited success using some Fighting Styles prestige classes developed in the House Rules forum years ago.

5. I have made limited use of various monster books.

6. I had no success using any of Monte Cook's Book of ____ Might that I bought online.

7. I have had mixed success using 0one games' battlemap products and the WotC maps from Fantastic Locations.

What can be gleaned from this?

1. Anything that requires multiple player/DM buyin has much more limited success. The WotC class books succeeded because most everyone in the play group had them and everyone used them for their characters and NPCs. As a player, coming in with a book that the DM doesn't have is difficult because the DM may not like the rules and balance. As a DM, offering players access to things in books that they don't have is largely pointless--especially if it is a core item like a class or race. Players tend to develop character concepts on the basis of what they know and the possibility of using Hallowed Mage from Monte Cook's Book of Hallowed Might instead of Divine Oracle or Sacred Exorcsist from Complete Divine (or even Exalted Arcanist from BoED) doesn't mean anything to them.

2. Things that need to find space in the game are more difficult to use than things that make their own gamespace. For instance, I have used various map products in my games but they get a lot more play when there is a module that goes with them. Otherwise, my drow temple from the Fane of Lolth or my beautiful dwarven clanhold from 0one games get little use.

3. Things that only require DM buyin are easy to put in a game. Monster Manual V fits nicely in my game because, as the DM, I'm the only one who needs to have it and I can use stuff from it without worrying about if the players understand how it works.

 

[Voadam]

I'm not sure why many DMs are saying class/feat/spell books are not useful to them when the DM has them but players don't so the the players don't use them. I use these for creating NPCs all the time.

As a DM I make many more characters than players in my games do.

 

[buzz]

I'm not sure why many DMs are saying class/feat/spell books are not useful to them when the DM has them but players don't so the the players don't use them. I use these for creating NPCs all the time.

As a DM I make many more characters than players in my games do.

FWIW, I generally don't have enough time for generating full-blown NPCs. But, like I said, I run published stuff; I don't homebrew much.

 

[TerraDave]

Focusing on use (not want to use or liked to read):

Looking back (in order of use first goodness second)

NeMoren's Vault: FDG adventure, if only the whole campaing had been like this
Tome of Horrors 1: Necromancers monster book, the 4th core book for me
Testemant: not just well written and inspiring, but main source of 3rd party player crunch
Magic Medieval Society: Western Europe Good for all sorts of campaing building fun.

And, except for tiny bits here and there, that is pretty much it actually used.

Looking forward...based on the above

Magic Medieval Society: Western Europe Hey, I can still use this. But a 4th edition revision or adendum could be interesting.
Tome of Horrors: The 4th book I will buy, if Necromancer keeps there promises. Other monster books also high on the list.
Adventures: Looking forward to these
Funky setting stuff: What will the new Testament be?
Player stuff??: Ah, the pride I feel on not buying all those splat books. And yet. If there is no druid in the PHB, will I wait, or look at what the 3rd parties have to offer?

 

[Cyberhawk]

I was very happy with Call of Duty (the paladin book by Chain Mail Bikini Games) when if first came out, and it still holds up pretty well today.

There are a couple of game lines that I've found both fun and useful to mine ideas from: Iron Kingdoms, Midnight, Spycraft, Ravenloft (sword and sorcery), Weird Wars.

Tomes of Horror is very useful and I'll be grabbing the 3.5 update today from rpgnow.

Relics and Rituals is neat although I found I haven't used it as much as I thought I would.

A lot of the Mongoose fantasy products I found interesting but didn't end up using in my games (except for a Hedge Wizard I played for awhile..it was amusing..)

 

[Voadam]

FWIW, I generally don't have enough time for generating full-blown NPCs. But, like I said, I run published stuff; I don't homebrew much.

I can empathize with that. Sort of the difference between being able to template and advance monsters yourself versus the utility of having a predone statblock in a monster book you can use immediately at the table.

I've still used a bunch of NPCs from stuff like Call of Duty and Crimson Contracts (and the NPC wiki) and plunked them down straight in my games. Others I have taken and modified slightly such as from Complete Guide to Wererats or even the ones from modules I'm running.

I expect to get more use out of the Lazy GM's Guide to Goblins in the future as I'm running a game with lots of goblins. Over a hundred pages of goblin stat blocks for various standard niches with some neat variations that I can copy and paste directly for my own use is something I expect to use.