What Are The Top 10/25 D20 Fantasy Product Must Haves?

[JoeBlank]

Speaking of FD, their old NeMorens Vault module doesn't get near enough love. It is the very first module I ran my kids through and we had a blast!

Interesting, my kids are finishing this up too. It is their first module after finishing the D&D Basic Game, and we started with new characters as we had used the pregens.

I threw in Buzz on the Bridge from Dungeon magazine to make the trip to NeMoren's more interesting and, like your kids, having a blast.

 

[Man-thing]

Interesting. Didn't Adrian Bott also write the Book of Hell for Mongoose?

Yes.

Classic Play
Book of Adventuring
Book of Hell
Book of Strongholds & Dynasties
Collector Series
The Quintessential Human
The Quintessential Rogue II
Complete Campaigns
The Drow War I - The Gathering Storm
The Drow War II - The Dying Light
The Drow War III - The Darkest Hour
Encyclopaedia Arcane
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Components and Foci
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Sovereign Magic
Encyclopaedia Arcane: Tomes & Libraries

 

[Cavalorn]

Its a great book and very well done- if you like horror critters, this is a must have.

Thank you very much! It's one of my favourite projects to date. Wrapping words round Dave's horrendous concepts was a great deal of fun.

- Adrian

 

[librarius_arcana]

1) Iron Heroes
2) True Sorcery
3) True 20
4) Setting sourcebooks (fluff, rather than crunch).

With those first three, and the DMG and Monster Manuals, and a healthy selection of category 4, I am able to play any and all fantasy games with ease, pleasure and a minimum of DM mechanics jiggling.

Does True 20 work well with Iron Heroes?

 

[Wombat]

I am curious to know which fantasy D20 products are considered to be a makeup of a quintessential d20 collection.

The Book of the Righteous -- best D20 book on gods and religion out there.
Arcana Unearthed/Evolved -- fantastic variations on the core rules, including a far superior magic system.
Swashbuckling Adventures/I] -- despite some broken PrCs and the like, there is some amazing material in here.
Skull & Bones -- wonderful material for pirates!
Nyambe -- the best attempt to do a pseudo-African setting that the D&D line has ever seen.
Liber Mortis -- wonderful material on my favourite villains! Only WotC book on my list...
A Magical Medieval Society -- Western Europe -- best world-building book out there. Provides lot of thought material on how societies really function, as opposed to vague meritocracies.
True 20 -- What D20 could truly be; the most innovative vision of the rules to date!
Elements of Magic Revised -- the best retooling of magic for a core D20 game for those willing to go the distance; tricky, but good.
Dynasties & Demogogues -- wonderful material on how to run games of intrigue and dynastic powerplays.

Not a bad group.

 

[wakedown]

Hmm. That's pretty subjective. For me, I'll cast my votes for

-Whatever issue of Dragon that had "The 7 sentence NPC"
-Whatever issue of Dragon that had "How NOT to play D&D" (I belive it was Tracy Hickman that wrote it)

In case others are planning to hunt these down (I did)... the issues are:

Dragon 184 for the 7 sentence NPC. It was reproduced in Dragon Compendium (minus the stellar examples in issue 184).

Dragon 277 for Hickman's How to Play D&D... this article is pretty damn good to convince your players on how to really play and enjoy the game with great examples.

 

[Odhanan]

1, 2, 3. The 3 D&D Core Rulebooks
4. DMG 2
5. PHB 2
6. Unearthed Arcana
7. Fiend Folio
8. Libris Mortis
9. Tome of Horrors
10. Bard's Gate
11. Wilderlands of High Fantasy
12. Shackled City AP
13. Rappan Athuk Reloaded
14. Ptolus
15. Arcana Evolved
16. Transcendence
17. Iron Heroes
18. Complete Book of Eldritch Might
19. GR's Book of Fiends
20. A Game of Thrones RPG
21. C&C Player's Handbook
22. Battlebox
23. A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe
24. Eberron Campaign Setting
25. Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting

 

[ValhallaGH]

Does True 20 work well with Iron Heroes?

No, I use them for things that the other doesn't do well. Want conan-style warriors wandering around killing monsters are looting temples? Iron Heroes. Want jedi mind powers, crazy light swords and first level characters that refuse to die, no matter how many catapult rocks hit them, yet succumb to a four year old girl with a butter knife; or want a 1,001 Arabian Nights campaign without all those pesky hit points keeping Sinbad from suriving the dangers of his many voyages? True 20.

It just depends upon what setting and style I want my fantasy game to have as to which rule set I use.

 

[Nightfall]

Glad to see both Bard's Gate and RAR getting some love. But come on, some Scarred Lands stuff HAD to be good once a long time ago...

 

[fusangite]

I am curious to know which fantasy D20 products are considered to be a makeup of a quintessential d20 collection.

Welcome back Fru. Long time no see!

The problem with having D&D brought back from the dead by the makers of Magic: The Gathering is that, although there is a low rate of return on doing so, it is basically true that the more money you spend, the more flexible and powerful your game will be. As someone raised on AD&D, where all that was really sold were adventures, I am a big fan of having the smallest, most basic set of books.

Although it's not marketed this way, I think you are going to get the most creative, interesting game if all you own is the PHB, DMG and MM. So put me down for as few must-haves as possible.