What would you like to see 3rd parties produce for 4E?

[jaerdaph]

Conversion appendices for 3.5e/Pathfinder and True20, either as part of the book or as a Web extra.

 

[mevers]

So like Dungeon Delve, but separated into individual delves?

Basically, yeah. But done well.

To be honest, Dungeon Delve does sound like exactly what I am after, but I am loathe to trust WotC's adventure design given what I have read about them. Certainly the free excerpt did nothing to sway me to buy the book. A Level 8 ELITE in an encounter with Level 3 PCs?!?! What on earth is going on there?

Plus, more plot that I fear I would get from that. Basically, what Mustrum_Ridcully said.

 

[Amadeus Windfall]

I'd love to see a big book of GSL-available appropriate monsters converted into PC races, with feats, pseudo-classes á la Spellscared, Paragon Paths, and Epic Destinies as options to get more monsteryness into your character. Savage Species was probably my favourite 3E book, so something that takes ideas from that while embracing 4E's removal of annoying things like LA and ECL that led to the race/class blends that they had to use then would be awesome.

 

[Pseudopsyche]

The Monster Manuals need companion books: Tomes of Terrain Elements. Many of us are accustomed to designed encounters primarily around the antagonists, but 4E encounters demand interesting settings. Traps are good, but I'd also like to see neutral objects or features that spice up the battlefield and encourage more dynamic combat.

Imagine a book filled with terrain elements that borrow from the concept of object-oriented programming. Each inanimate object includes a list of powers, like a monster, but those powers are activated using the combatants' actions. Example: a tavern table. Move action: hop onto the table and gain +2 to all attacks while on the table. Standard action: Strength vs (hard DC), up-end the table, knocking anybody on top into an adjacent square and dealing 1d8 damage. Immediate interrupt: Acrobatics vs (medium DC), land safely in an adjacent square if the table is up-ended beneath you. Up-ended tables provide cover, etc. Even if the players don't immediately catch on to the available powers, they will as soon as the enemies start doing so! This example is relatively mundane and a good DM could probably improvise it (although you could say the same about many monsters), but a book of well-designed more fantastical elements would be awesome.

Working bottom-up, then I want to see a book of battle maps with complementary terrain elements, along with a few suggestions of encounter groups of monsters to populate the room. Finally, some adventures and APs that add world-class fluff, artwork, and production values. (And excellent examples of more structured and dynamic skill challenges.)

 

[HorusZA]

Dungeonless Adventures

Easy: Adventures that
(a) do not feature a single underground complex that's more than 3 rooms in size! Yes, I know the game is called Dungeons & Dragons, but I find the former to be the single most tedious aspect of the game. YMMV, of course.
(b) Combat Encounters that are dramatically appropriate and not just thrown in to eat up valuable session time in order to create the illusion of substance.

 

[Drkfathr1]

1. Skill Challenges

2. Class support books with additional powers and options for the existing classes.

3. Adventures linked together in Adventure Path length/style.

 

[Urizen]

I was scanning through the 4E products on RPGNow and I noticed a distinct lack of variety. Just counting non-free prodcuts, there are about 20 different products that just give players a new race to play. That is close to the total number of adventures that appear on the site (including collections of encounters as adventures).

Then we have a large number of books that enhance classes or introduce new ones (about 15-20). Five of them are Adamant's series giving new pacts for warlocks.

There are about 6 books that focus on magic items, but they are all in the "buck-a-batch" series that, while cool and cheap, is hardly substantive.

Monster books are there, but outside of Goodman Games, only Fiery Dragon has a real presence and that's because of the massive Creature Collection. Strange for what I consider one of the main markets for 4E - monster statblocks.

So, what do you want to see third parties publish for 4E?

For me...

1) Monster collections - 4E does allow you to make a monster on the fly easier than in 3E. However, the design still rewards DMs with a wide selection of monsters and monster statblocks to choose from. I really could use these.

2) Artifacts - The changes to artifacts are among the most interesting 4E changes. I am very surprised that a third party hasn't jumped on a 4E book of artifacts. That book would be rich in both fluff and crunch, and set up many campaigns. Even WotC has barely scratched the surface here.

3) Adventures - Goodman has done a decent job here. I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of their adventures. They do the job, but rarely inspire me like works from such companies as Necromancer Games, Fiery Dragon or the like. I really want more choices and variety in adventures.

What about you? What do you want to see done for 4E?

I think Scarrport: City of Secrets is pretty different than most of the stuff on sale at rpgnow right now (Obviously I'm biased).

It's a very good "points of light" style mini setting you can drop into any campaign.

It has a new character class, new gear, hazards,a mini adventure.. lot's of cool stuff.

 

[Mircoles]

Adventures, adventures, adventures and more adventures. Rule books not so much so.

 

[roguerouge]

I'd like to see a farcical comedy adventure produced and a colonization module produced. The former would be more story and skill focused. The latter would be sandbox in style, as the PCs are part of a colonizing group entering a "new world" for the first time. Can the PCs avoid being Roanoke 2?

 

[JeffB]

I did not read all ot he posts as I see it's devolving into more "edition wars" so sorry if any of these have been said prior.

Goodman is doing a bang up job with adventures, but I'd like to see more from people like Necromancer, Judges Guild Fiery Dragon, etc.

I'd also like see a general "magic" book that takes on rituals, magic items and artifacts .

I think there has been a pretty big dearth of Campaign Setting material, unlike with 3.x. I'd like to see some classic style worlds as well as some of the more "variant" settings as well.