2006 WotC D&D Product Survivor - Round 3

[Razz]

Sticking with Dragons of Faerun for the same reasons as last time. At least products like Mysteries of the Moonsea and Power of Faerun, while not quite what I would have liked them to be, had some interesting and useful setting information and history. Dragons of Faerun is just pages of NPC dragon stats, which are only so useful during any given campaign, IMO.

But it brought back Bahamut, the rest of the draconic pantheon (sort of), and gave the Dragonborn a new home in the Realms. I could've lived without the NPC dragon stats for something more useful, though, so I agree there.

 

[Endur]

I didn't vote Power of Fearun off, but ... I have to agree it was not that good.

I like the concept, the execution was blaaah.

 

[the Jester]

I voted for Races of the Dragon, because I read through it planning to buy it and ended up putting it back on the shelf instead. It just didn't thrill me, and the "new race bloat" (1-4 new races in almost every damn book) has really turned me off.

 

[Mr. Wilson]

While it doesn't surprise me that the FR books are getting voted off, I personaly thought Dragons of Faerûn was the best supplement that came out last year. To each his own. Even so, Mysteries of the Moonsea deserved its fate.

I'm voting for a random Fantastic Location until they are all gone. I don't want to give the impression that the RPG should be tied any closer to the minis game than it is already.

 

[Glyfair]

It just didn't thrill me, and the "new race bloat" (1-4 new races in almost every damn book) has really turned me off.

Well, in defense of that, they have hit all the core player races already. A new race book is pretty likely to either tread a lot of new ground (i.e. lots of new races) or else focus very narrowly, perhaps on already covered ground (i.e. a dwarf only book).

About the only exception I can see to this might be a book covering a grouping of MM races. Most likely would be a 3E "Complete Book of Humanoids" type book. I'll bet we see an Eberron book with a good goblinoid chunk first, though.

 

[Glyfair]

I don't want to give the impression that the RPG should be tied any closer to the minis game than it is already.

Even though they are marketed heavily to the minis crowd, the mini game isn't really that dominant in the series (assuming you use mini in your D&D game at some level). The actual pure DDM content consists of the way the maps are marked (victory areas, starting areas) and a single page of rules.

In fact, I think this would be a good series without any miniature content. They are effectively tools for building an adventure. You get several encounter areas that form the skeleton of an adventure. A more combat focused game can be set up to lead directly from one to another. A less combat focused game can put a lot of flesh around those encounters instead.

 

[Pants]

I really wanted to like Tome of Magic, but I just found the Pact and Truename magic to be unuseful, for my campaigns. I wanted the book for the Shadow magic, but when I saw that it was "designed" for Forgotten Relams first, and other campaigns second, I passed on the whole book.

Such a waste,

KF72

How was it designed for FR first?