Fast Forward Entertainment: Best Books? (Updated: August/2012)

[Knightfall]

Well, I took the FFE plunge...

A FLGS had a copy of Deadliest Creatures Tome. I got it for 50% off (around $18.50 CAN [no tax]). It looks like a interesting little monster book; plus, it is v.3.5, so I didn't mind paying a little more for it.

The store has tons of FFE books left on its shelves including Cloud Warriors, Complete Monstrous Fighter Guide, Complete Monstrous Wizards Compendium, Enchanted Locations, Encyclopedia of Angels, Encyclopedia of Demons and Devils I & II, Encyclopedia of Villains, Green Races, etc, etc, etc.

It wasn't that surprising since I knew there were a lot of FFE books left in the store, but I had never noticed how many different "titles" there were.

I've dismissed almosty all of them as "bleh." Green Races was completely uninteresting... Encyclopedia of Angels looked kind of plain... Cloud Warriors, maybe, if I can find it for a lot less. Plus, it didn't look like it was a v.3.5 book.

More opinions on the following titles is much appreciated: Complete Monstrous Wizards Compendium, Enchanted Locations, Encyclopedia of Exotic Weapons, and Encyclopedia of Villains.

I didn't see a copy of Book of All Spells, but then again, I wasn't looking for it.

 

[Knightfall]

Casting... Thread Resurrection. Heh.

I'm revisiting my interesting the various FFE books. Here is the list I'm considering...

General Accessories
Annotated Player's Handbook
Book of All Spells *
Cloud Warriors (†)
Devilish Devices (†)
Devil's Player Guide (†) *
Swords of Evil (†)

Books of Power
Occult Items of Power (†)
Rings of Power (†)
Swords of Power (†)
Wondrous Items of Power (†)

Encyclopedia Accessories
Encyclopedia of Angels (†)
Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils (†)
Encyclopedia of Demons & Devils Volume II (†)
Encyclopedia of Exotic Weapons *
Encyclopedia of Prestige Classes *
Encyclopedia of Villains (†)

Adventures and Adventure Anthologies
Enchanted Locations (†)
Enchanted Locations: Crypts & Tombs (†)
Orcfest (†) *
Treasure Quests
Treasure Quests: Tombs of Ra *

Dungeon World
Dungeon World (†)

Catacombs (†)
Secrets of the Enemy Capital (†)

Elara *
Green Races (†)

The Complete Monstrous Fighter's Compendium (†)
The Complete Monstrous Undead Compendium (†)
The Complete Monstrous Wizard's Compendium (†)

Elara - Green Races Trilogy *
Fortress of the Ogre Chieftain (†)
Temple of the Troll God (†)
Slave Pits of the Goblin King (†)

(†) The book is available to me locally but not necessarily at a discount. The Devil's Player Guide, for instance, is one I might have to pay full retail for.

The books/sections marked with an asterisk are "must haves" for me. I've pretty much made up my mind. Most either are related to the Elara campaign setting or are very interesting for me, personally. A few of the choices are based on the reviews I've seen or recommendations I've received on this thread. (Thanks all! )

Of course, a lot of what I'm likely to get will depend on the price I can find them for. One FLGS here in Edmonton, in particular, has most of the FFE books (except for the v.3.5 books), and I'd only have to pay half of the US cover price. Still, for some of them, that might be too much.

So, I guess I'm looking for more opinions. I want brutal honesty from all of you. Yet, I want 'constructive' brutal honesty.

Specifically, the Annotated Player's Handbook, Devilish Devices, Devil's Player Guide, and the Encyclopedia of Villains.

Cheers!

KF

(Note that whether or not a book is v.3.0 or v.3.5 isn't as important to me as the fluff in-between the crunch.)

 

[DaveMage]

I don't think the annotated player's handbook was ever made.

 

[Knightfall]

I don't think the annotated player's handbook was ever made.

I wasn't sure, but I did find an [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Players-Handbook-Fast-Forward/dp/1932201432/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346561800&sr=8-1&keywords=Annotated+Player%27s+Handbook"]Amazon.com listing[/ame] for it. Of course, there isn't any information on that page, but I still wanted to check to see if it was a real book that wasn't cancelled.

 

[DaveMage]

IIRC, Skip Williams was originally going to write it, but something happened on the legal side with the book and while they were working through that, Fast Forward went belly-up.

 

[Knightfall]

IIRC, Skip Williams was originally going to write it, but something happened on the legal side with the book and while they were working through that, Fast Forward went belly-up.

Okay, good to know. Thanks DaveMage!

Anything else you wish to comment on?

 

[TerraDave]

FFE seemed to be a classic case of:

"How do you make a small fortune in RPG publishing...


...start with a large fortune."

FFE had the worst reputation among d20 publishers (there are various old threads here slamming them) even worse then, say, Avalanche Press--which, for example, at least sometimes got good marks for its historical fluff, and of course Avalanche had those covers.

 

[DaveMage]

The "problem" with FFE in my opinion was that they were fluff first and rules second, which isn't a good recipe for 3.x (with everything being as codified). Therefore, the rules stuff they made really wouldn't "plug and play" well with other 3.x products. When you have CR 9 creatures that can summon multiple Balors, well, it's not exactly following the standard CR paradigm.

They seemed to have the 0E/1E/2E style whereby DM rules/style arbitration is very important, unlike 3.x, where a rules interpretation by the DM isn't needed as often (at least, in my experience).

One other issue with FFE is that Jim Ward was very sensitive to criticism. He tended to ignore or "fire back" against critics and consumers who had issues rather than say "thank you, we're always looking to improve". I think doing that turned people off. Still, I do think they had some great ideas even if the execution wasn't successful.

 

[Wycen]

I always thought it would be interesting to play in the Dungeon World setting, but never did. I think it was also interesting because I had tried at one time to program a Neverwinter Nights module where the players had to fight their way out of a dungeon only to discover they were dead petitioners of some god. Unfortunately I'm not good at coding.