"Planar Handbook" - completlely useless?

[Arnwyn]

I feel your pain. These days, I don't care at all about new feats, PrCs, spells, and/or magic items - and I completely ignore books in which those are the focus.

I have always believed that all these 'character options' are worthless if you don't have a place to use all these options in. Other than a bit of campaign setting material, the lack of DM support from WotC is appalling.

I it any wonder why I only buy FR books, Dungeon Mag, and Necro Games adventures these days? (And some Rokugan books - that upcoming Way of the Daimyo looks fricken' awesome.)

Of course, I look on the bright side of this - it saves me a ton of money, since I buy virtually nothing from WotC, except for FR accessories. So it's not so bad at all.

 

[Mystery Man]

From the Races of Stone interview on wizards.com:

"Wizards: What are you working on now? Any future plans for Stonier Races or something similar?

Jesse (Decker): I'm just now wrapping up another book in this series and moving on to a big DM-focused product that won't see print until the end of 2005."

So this is either the 4th edition DMG (just kidding ), or something new or DMs.

END of 2005? Cries.

Thanks for that bit of news though.

 

[Wraith Form]

I want campaign seeds, encounter ideas, demographics, descriptive areas, ideas on power groups, secret organizations, and so much more that these new books just don't really provide.

Me too. I'm feelin' you, MM.

 

[akchf]

*shrug*

Books for DMs only appeal to about 1/4 of the RPG market, or thereabouts. If it doesn't hold anything for players, then most folks arn't going to be looking through it. It sucks, but it is unfortunately very understandable. They're trying to make products that will appeal to all of their small niche market. A niche within a niche won't be terribly profitable, eh?

Not that you shouldn't be frustrated, but at least they have some kind of reason behind it.

DMs may only account for 1/4 of the Market, but in my experience it's the DMs who buy 3/4 of the books. As a player I only buy one or two books that work for the classes I like to play the most, and several of my players only buy the PHB and maybe a splatbook for their favored class. As a DM I've bought some campaign settings and world builder guides to help inspire me. If the books were a bit more friendly for DM's I think it would also help some of the players who want to run settings see that stuff is there to help them.

 

[ForceUser]

The Planar Handbook was so underwhelming that I didn't buy it; a first for me with regard to the brown-cover WotC books. I'll stick with my 2E Planescape material if I ever want to run a Great Wheel campaign. Meanwhile, Beyond Countless Doorways is inspiring!

 

[Pants]

I want campaign seeds, encounter ideas, demographics, descriptive areas, ideas on power groups, secret organizations, and so much more that these new books just don't really provide.

Eberron, Serpent Kingdoms, Draconomicon.
Eberron especially...

Speaking of the Map Folio - this is the most overrated, overpriced piece of trash that I can't believe WoTC has the nerve to sell. Sure, some people will buy it that don't have internet access, but WoTC put every single map in that folio on their website for free before ever bundling the. Additionally, a map or two aren't even original (The Wedge Castle is really Hellgate Keep.) As a DM, I don't need this product. The only thing I could see it being useful for is for non-RPG miniatures skirmishes.

It's $10 bucks! I don't know how that's overpriced probably overrated, but certainly not overpriced.

 

[Wraith Form]

Of course, I look on the bright side of this - it saves me a ton of money, since I buy virtually nothing from WotC, except for FR accessories.

E-Bay is also my friend for this.

Finding a book, even a PrC-heavy, non-DM friendly book, cover priced at $34.95 for under $10?

I'll take it! (That's how I discovered Mutants & Masterminds, for example.)

Yay, E-Bay!

 

[quigsworth]

To tell the truth, I think that most of the new books that are "player's" handbooks have some great ideas in them for any campaign. With all of the PrC's there are infinite possibilites for new challenging encounters and adventures. I can't defend the planar handbooks since I have not yet read it, but for the other recent books that have come out, they have great ideas within them. The most recent two that I have purchased are player's Complete Warrior and Divine. These two have great ideas for most challenging monster encounters. Just slap a couple of PrC levels on them and a monster that is fierce just become uncanny monstrosity.

I'll agree that they havn't put out a good DM oriented book since Draconomicon, but I still think that the new PrC, feats, and spells can give some good ideas on how to change an old monster. The organizations that a lot of the PrC belong too can make good enemies or allies to a PC group. I mean no party wants to piss off a group of Pious Templars of Bane, that's just trouble wanting to happen.

There does look to be hope in the future though, Frostbite and Sandstorm look promising. Book of Bad Latin and the Abberation's handbook look like they might give some wicked ideas on how to make your baddies even more wicked.

 

[BruceB]

If you want game-related inspiration, then I am going to throw two names at you from left field:

Gamma World Game Master's Guide (Sword & Sorcery) - this is very cool because it takes a post-apocalyptic situation and writes about it in at least four different voices: Comedy, Horror, Myth & Legend to name a few. It is easy to notice the difference and it really jumped out at me.

I'm passing this along to the author of that chapter, Doug Oglesby. He'll be pleased. Doug's an artist at Redstorm Entertainment, and has experience in the initial design part of computer game design - figuring out the intended tone and all, and how to convey it in play. I was really, really happy to get him to discuss it for rolegaming. One of my goals as a developer is to make books that cover things I wish someone had told me back when I was 13 and just starting out, and he did that in a big way.

 

[RenoOfTheTurks]

i've been saying the same thing since around 1985 or so.

nothing new or even worthwhile coming from the industry for my campaigns...

Heh. To take the book in question as an example, compare it to Planescape. To one who hasn't had his eyes shut since 1985, it is clear that D&D has lost something over just the last few years. It's the style, the ambience, the backstory. The Forgotten Realms products are OK for 'feel', but they're incredibly superficial compared to previous products. Too much crunch crowding the pages, you know.

If this is the 1st edition feel that brought so many back to D&D after the evil 2nd edition, well, they can have it. I don't buy any of these ridiculous new books which, like new Magic cards, give you new officially sanctioned tricks to use on your opponents. We play with the core books and get the fun information (and rip ideas) from our 2E FR, Planescape, Dragonlance, and Dark Sun books. Also, all those lost great spells from the wizard's spell compendium, and the items from encyclopedia magica that aren't so boring and predictable as the available 3E items. Spells and gadgets can be ok, but they shouldn't be the focus of nearly every freaking product.

People say that it is all about giving players the game options--the "balanced" and never-ending options that we just have to have--and letting DMs create any world they want with all that lovely crunch. Conveniently this is a stake through the heart of many of the non-Greyhawk settings that boiled the blood of so many oD&Ders. In fact though, it is all about selling slightly more copies, and a generic, kewl-power laden product line is the result. Which is fine; corporations always want more money, and it is quite a corporation that controls D&D now. There is certainly middle ground somewhere between the insolvent TSR and the chase-the-talent-away schema of WotC/Hasbro. Unfortunately the new stuff is just not as fun to me. My group games in 3(.5)E because it's a more solid ruleset, but we're still buying more OOP 2nd edition stuff than 3E stuff. The latter is mostly deadly dull.