What would you want in a sourcebook?

[Psion]

Fayredeth: What's wrong with new skills? Provided of course that they're interesting and useful?

Spiteful Dwarf: Everything in it will definitely be "plug and play."

New skills are pretty much by definition not plug and play, unless you are redesigning from the ground up. You have to retrofit any new skills to the existing classes. Further, 90% of the new skills I have seen have encroached on the existing very general classes' territory.


Unless you are making new categories for craft, knowledge, and profession, you should seriously consider NOT making new skills.

 

[DMaple]

To be honest I really don't want to see anything "new".

1) I've had to already learn a whole new rule set for 3rd Edition. 2) Three core rule books are heavy enough to carry around.
3) Both the player's and the DM need to know about anything new for it to be used effectively and I'm not expecting everyone to buy every sourcebook.

What I'd really like to see is useful application of the existing rules.

Locations and ecounters that I can drop in almost anywhere, like Dungeons old sidetreks.

Encounters for different terrain types (okay perhaps you could do new monsters here).

Interesting NPC's (perhaps they could have a new Prestige class if you really need "NEW!" stuff to sell your book).

Stuff like that all as generic and flexible as possible.

 

[Palcadon]

Campaign Settings are out (at least for awhile) across the board.

Skills and Feat seem to be following the same route.

I would say:

Magic Items
Plug and Play Encounters and Adventures.
Combat Tatics (War Rules)
Creatures (everyone loves new monsters)
Races
Places and Maps (towns, cities, hamlets, dungeons, buldings)

 

[Talaysen]

Skills

Well, now I've got a question for y'all -

One of the sourcebooks I may be writing involves a magic system based entirely upon skills and feats. (This just seemed to be the most convenient way to handle it - I can't explain why just yet.) Towards this end, a new class of skills/feats is introduced. These abilities are available ONLY to the prestige classes that have access to the magic system in question, so retrofitting won't be required. (Unless, of course, an enterprising GM cares to tinker with the system, and perhaps make it available to some of the core classes.)

Is this a Bad Idea? Or would you say I've found a loophole in the "No New Skills" rule?

 

[FungiMuncher]

Regarding Skills:

The way I see it, the number of skills available, and the number of skill points given to a character, really need to be considered and balanced with respect to each other. Doing this well is really an art in game design. I've played in a some games (I particulary remember a sci-fi Hero game) where the GM added more skills, but didn't allow more skill points. While it certainly added detail to the game, it was also really frustrating creating a character. I never felt a character was competent or moderately well rounded like a real person would be.

The skill points in D&D3e are rather stingy. As a player, I've never created a character that was well rounded, but at least I felt they were competent. The FUDGE system handles this well. If there are a lot of detailed skills, there are a lot of skill points for the players. If the skills are general, then there are fewer points given out. In D&D, the skills are fairly general, and they seem to work well; I'd be reluctant to add too much more.

Talaysen, if you add more skills to a new magic system, be sure to add new resources for the characters to take advantage of them. Just be careful on how you build the system, if it can be abused, it will be abused.

James, some of the things mentioned, I'd like to see. I especially like the plug and play locations and encounters. Also, if done well, I'd also like to see variations on the wizard/sorcerer classes. The generic take on the wizard never thrilled me, and the specialists aren't really that special. Something like the proposed witch in the DMG sounds neat, but more examples.

FM

 

[trancejeremy]

I really like new core classes. Many people don't, but I do.

I also like new races, and new spells.


New skills are not really needed unless it's for a non-fantasy campaign, or non-medieval campaign. And even then, a lot can be covered by the profession, knowledge, or craft skills (as mentioned).

I also like new magic systems.

 

[Grayswandir]

None of the above.

Having purchased more d20 products than I care to think about right now, I've got more than enough feats, spells, monsters, magic items, and Prestige Classes.

What I would really like to see is something entirely new. A product that addresses an actual need in the d20 ruleset instead of just adding more of what we already have. For example: mass combat rules, rules for ships and ship combat, alternate magic systems that can be plugged in, guidelines for deconstructing existing classes / spells / monsters and for creating new ones that can be shown by the numbers to be balanced. Of course, all of the above already exist.

Sorry if this isn't too helpful. But at this point, I think the market is quickly filling up with monsters, spells, etc. Something more unique would catch my attention much more easily.

 

[Aeolius]

...rules for ships and ship combat...

These were touched upon in "Seas of Blood" and "Seafarer's Handbook".

Me, I'd like to see "Of Skies and Seas: a Guidebook for adventuring in aquatic, aerial, and planar environments".

 

[BiggusGeekus]

Re: Skills

One of the sourcebooks I may be writing involves a magic system based entirely upon skills and feats. Towards this end, a new class of skills/feats is introduced. These abilities are available ONLY to the prestige classes that have access to the magic system in question

Is this a Bad Idea?

(I did some snipping in the quote above)

Anyway. I don't think it is a bad idea, but my concern lies if people will "get it". I think there are lots of good ideas to be had or even ideas that people haven't explored throughly. Some people have stated that there are enough settings, PrC, feats, skills, whatever. Really? Are there enough or are there lots that simply aren't that great?

The obvious answer is that we can always use something that's new and innovative even if it is rehashing an old idea (your skill/feat/magic system reminds me of Star Wars d20's force, but I haven't read your stuff yet and it is probably very good).

But back to the topic at hand: Folks have suggested new adventures. Please. This hobby has been active for roughtly 30 years. There is more than enough free stuff out there to level a party from 1-20. We don't need more adventures. New races? Well, the latest Dragon just opened up the entire monster manual, so I think we're set for awhile. New magic items? There are thousands. Spells? Ditto.

We have everything we need and more. The problem isn't coming up with something creative and new like Athena sprining from Zeus' brow. The problem is making it good. And that is a problem because -- let's be honest -- good RPG writers are few and far between.

So my advice, for what it is worth, is to use the old axiom of "write what you know". Like horses? Write about a culture that has people who were born in the saddle. Like scuba diving? Write about being underwater. Like carousing? Write about a tavern. Take a topic you know a great deal about and write the seminal RPG book on it. That's my advice.

 

[Sulimo]

None of the above.

Having purchased more d20 products than I care to think about right now, I've got more than enough feats, spells, monsters, magic items, and Prestige Classes.

What I would really like to see is something entirely new. A product that addresses an actual need in the d20 ruleset instead of just adding more of what we already have.

Yeah. I've said it before and I'll say it again what I am after is a sourcebook on the creation and administration of domains. Something like a campaign generic revision of the Birthright system but focusing on small scale dominions rather than whole nations.