[3.x] 3rd Party Hidden gems?

[Scurvy_Platypus]

So a lot of the time you'll get someone asking about "good 3rd party supplements" or rules, and you get the usual list of stuff from Green Ronin, Malhavok Press often shows up... the usual suspects.

I'm curious about stuff more off the beaten path.

It doesn't have to be strictly a supplement, it might be a game like Everstone (based off the BESMd20 rules).

For example:

I've only just recently come across Secrets of Pact Magic. It can be found here: Secrets of Pact Magic. I haven't actually managed to get the book yet (since I live in NZ, you can double the dollar cost and shipping out here is usually close to $50 U.S.) but it _sounds_ pretty darn cool. It's also something I haven't seen any real chatter about.

Unusual Core Classes: Spellweaver from Misfit Studios. You can find it here: Unusual Core Classes: The Spellweaver - Misfit Studios | RPGNow.com. It's a nice simple implementation of a drain mechanic for casters, instead of the usual x/day route for D&D. And while there was a bit of gushing before about this mechanic in the True Sorcery book (based on the system used in The Black Company rpg book), this seems to be one of those that's just slipped past folks.

Perpetrated Press long ago (2003 roughly) put out a couple of books: Arsenal, and Factory. One was all about technomagic weapons and the other was about robots (technomagic or not). While these books aren't actually published anymore, they're not hard to pick up either, often at a pretty cheap price. Again, nobody really seems to know/use/talk about 'em though.

d20 Mecha Compendium Deluxe from Dream Pod 9. I admit I've got a soft spot for GoO related products, but this has always seemed pretty solid to me. Again though, hardly anything.

What are other hidden gems out there that aren't actually difficult to get?

 

[Nonlethal Force]

A few of my favorite RPG supplements come from Dreamscarred Press. I love:

Worldthought Medic - Yes, I know the link brings you to Complete Society Mind, but the linked product contains not only the Worldthought Medic but also WTM-esque several PrCs that are cool, too. What is a Worldthought Medic? It is the cleric you've always wanted to play but were never allowed because you had to be a heal-bot. This class lets you heal your allies according to the damage that you deal with certain class abilities. Beyond cool. Far and away my favorite 3rd party class ever. And yes, youcan buy just the WTM here, but for the extra $2 just get the compendium. Trust me. If you have ever used psionics, you want this one.

Halo Knight - A great class that while based on psionic power points isn't really a manifesting class all that much. The power points fuel aura-like effects that are beneficial to the character and often his allies. Much like a marshal for psionics fans.

Sequestral Feats - This is a product that is to psionics what Reserve Feats is to Vancian Magic. And it's pretty cool. Not in a Worldthought Medic "blow your mind" cool, but still cool nonetheless.


And, I won't push my own products except to say that you can see them in my sig below.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Perpetrated Press long ago (2003 roughly) put out a couple of books: Arsenal, and Factory. One was all about technomagic weapons and the other was about robots (technomagic or not). While these books aren't actually published anymore, they're not hard to pick up either, often at a pretty cheap price. Again, nobody really seems to know/use/talk about 'em though.

I mention those all the time!

In addition, check out the Second World Sourcebook- its more of a modern fantasy setting, but its very well done.

And I also like Kingdom of Kalamar- some of their core classes are quite nice- I especially like the Spellsinger, a combo of the bard and wizard.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Book of Broken Dreams - insanity and other associated stuff.
Nature's Wrath - a really nice treatment (so to speak) of poisons and diseases.
Hot Pursuit and Hot Pursuit: On Foot - dynamic chase scenes, involving vehicles, runners, or whatever.
From Stone to Steel - the best d20 treatment of weapons and armour, from stone age through to renaissance; East, West, North and South.
Legends of Sorcery - a neat alternative to pseudo-Vancian casting, for all casters; plus, it provides a number of additional classes for low magic and medium magic settings.
Campaign Options: Mazes - well, I love mazes. 'nuff said.
Fantasy Occupations - like occupations in d20 Modern, but um, fantasy. And a bit cooler, too.
The Noble Wild - it's like d20 does Watership Down, or something. Cool, if that's your bag.

I'll add more as I remember to.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

Man, I love Multiquote

A few of my favorite RPG supplements come from Dreamscarred Press. I love:

I've heard really good things about the Dreamscarred Press psionics stuff. Never been in a game that would allow anything like that, so I haven't actually picked up anything yet. Thanks for those though, they sound nifty.

I mention those all the time!

In addition, check out the Second World Sourcebook- its more of a modern fantasy setting, but its very well done.

And I also like Kingdom of Kalamar- some of their core classes are quite nice- I especially like the Spellsinger, a combo of the bard and wizard.

Oh. I ummm... I guess I just don't hang out in the same threads you do...

Thanks for the Second World Sourcebook mention, I actually have it as well as the pretty cool Master of Arms. While I think the Master of Arms is an order of magnitude more complicated than it really needs to be (kinda like using the CR system from Upper_Krust), it's also a pretty darn cool thing nonetheless.

Book of Broken Dreams - insanity and other associated stuff.
Nature's Wrath - a really nice treatment (so to speak) of poisons and diseases.
Hot Pursuit and Hot Pursuit: On Foot - dynamic chase scenes, involving vehicles, runners, or whatever.
From Stone to Steel - the best d20 treatment of weapons and armour, from stone age through to renaissance; East, West, North and South.
Legends of Sorcery - a neat alternative to pseudo-Vancian casting, for all casters; plus, it provides a number of additional classes for low magic and medium magic settings.
Campaign Options: Mazes - well, I love mazes. 'nuff said.
Fantasy Occupations - like occupations in d20 Modern, but um, fantasy. And a bit cooler, too.
The Noble Wild - it's like d20 does Watership Down, or something. Cool, if that's your bag.

I'll add more as I remember to.

Some of those sound cool, but I know that Hot Pursuit isn't available anymore. Adamant yanked a huge chunk of their stuff; otherwise I'd have put Foe Factory: Modern out there as a hardcore kick-ass way of simplifying down NPCs and even monsters.

Is that Fantasy Occupations from Skortched Urf or the one from Big Finger?

The Noble Wild sounds nifty too. In a vaguely related thing, Octavirate Games did a whole pokemon sort of thing which is pretty nifty. Octavirate Presents Vol #5: Collectabeasts! - Octavirate Games | RPGNow.com

 

[Aus_Snow]

Is that Fantasy Occupations from Skortched Urf or the one from Big Finger?

Adamant, actually. Sorry, I'd forgotten about that ah, 'slight issue' with a couple of the things I listed. They could put them on sale again, from what I understand of changes to the GSL and such. But maybe they just don't want to, or can't be bothered. Dunno.

 

[Greg K]

What are other hidden gems out there that aren't actually difficult to get?

Well, several Adamant products would have been on my list. However, as mentioned, they were yanked.

From Stone to Steel which was mentioned is on my list.

Others
Artificer's Handbook (Mystic Eye Games)
Book of Templates Revised, Deluxe (Silverthorne): This may not count as the print version was released by Goodman Games
Poisoncraft (Blue Devil)
d20 Status cards (EN Publishing)
Advanced Rules For Beginners (EN Publishing)
Elements of Magic: Revised (EN Publishing)
Elements of Magic: Lycian Arcana (EN Publishing)
Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth (EN Publishing)
Experts 3.5 (Skirmisher Press)
Ink and Quill (Dragonwing/Bastion): a free supplement that I thought was interesting, but may not be for everyone.
Noble Steeds (Avalanche)
Redhurst Academy (Human Head)
Fewer Absolutes (Sean K Reynolds): some free web articles
The New Argonauts (Sean K Reynolds): some cool mechanical stuff and it is free

I haven't seen the full versions, but I found the previews for the following to be promising:
A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe (Expeditious Retreat)
Behind the Spells (Tricky Owl Bear)
Alchemy and Herbalists (Bastion/Dragonwing)
Torn Asunder (Bastion/Dragonwing)
Fantasy Fiends: Kobolds (Mythic Merchant)
Goblins! (Mythic Merchant)
The Bestiary: Predators (Betabunny)

 

[Voadam]

Monster Geographica series 200 page 3.5 OGC monster compilations along terrain themes organized by CR. No art but you could pick up the companion Counter Collections by Fiery Dragon.

Bits of series by Tabletop Adventures. 100 Boxed text descriptions for various terrain types plus little 3.5 bits like new hazards. Very useful for adding ready to use at the table descriptions, with enough entries for use as a random generator if you want.

Book of Templates by Silverthorne Games. I like it better than the advanced bestiary by Green Ronin. I particularly like the original 3.0 BoT's elemental templates, best of the half dozen or so versions I've seen in various sources including WotC. Their minor magicks book of non adventuring cantrips and their race books are nice too.

E.N. Publishing has a lot of neat stuff.
1 War of the Burning Sky, 1-20 Adventure path with war theme and lots of non dungeon adventures.
2 EN Critter series, 3.5 medium-sized critter books based on terrains with a neat little background setting.
3 The Fantastic Science, a wierd science as new type of magic (arcane/divine/psionic/tech) sourcebook with a neat warlock style alt caster class in the back of it.

The Argyle Lorebook A neat points of light 3.5 setting, set 100 years after a magical empire is struck down by magical plague leaving wild monsters, summoned demons, lost wizard ruins in its wake with small villages fighting to eke out survival after the collapse of high magical civilization.

Bastion Press has some good stuff. I like Complete Minions, a 3.5 monster book, and Oathbound/Wildwood. Oathbound is huge high magic setting where creatures from all over are sucked in like in old ravenloft, empowered and encouraged to struggle against each other to attain ever greater power under the observation of powerful divine overseers. Good reasons to have a ton of D&D fantasy races, classes, cultures, monsters, etc. in the party and in the setting interacting with each other.

For 3.5 Psionics you want Dreamscarred Press with their Untapped Potential and series of short class and psionic race books. Good quality stuff in a field without much support (WotC, Hyperconscious by Malhavoc, and these guys are the big three).

DragonWing Games is a successor to Bastion and has their later stuff including the "Into the" series of terrain books, Torn Asunder (a d20 crit book with easy to implement crit system that layers on top of normal 3.5 crit system confirmation roll) and lore of the gods (real world ancient mythology god book).

Lazy GM series of 3.5 statblocks for generic humanoids of specific types. Super useful if using one race as big campaign enemy and want varieties of standard, appropriate enemies (warriors, skirmishers, shamen, mounted, at various levels/CR).

Betabunny, I like both their predators book of 3.5 stats for real world predator animals, and their apes of nature and myth with the emphasis of intelligent pulpy apes.


Living Imagination has a fantastic ritual rules set for 3.5 in Spellbound. Their Broadsides has the most realistic ship movement rules I've seen incorporating momentum and wind directions into tactical ship to ship combat, but its a bit crunchier than most want for their pirate games. Streets of Silver is a huge 3.5 renaissance style city.

Bad Axe Games has a nice little ley line magic system in its elf book. I wish he would put the whole Grim Tales Book online for sale.

RPGObjects has a nice Legends of Fantasy line with mythic Japan and Camelot and dark ages series with tons of new classes and using a nonvancian d20 magic system based on skill rolls.

I'm also a little partial to The Le's unorthodox class books and the viking one. I got great flavor out of unorthodox pirates for my freeport game.

 

[Sir Robilar]

I know we're not voting but I'm giving my vote to "Ancient Kingdoms - Mesopotamia" by Necromancer Games. It is one of my favourite supplements.

 

[kitsune9]

So a lot of the time you'll get someone asking about "good 3rd party supplements" or rules, and you get the usual list of stuff from Green Ronin, Malhavok Press often shows up... the usual suspects.

I'm curious about stuff more off the beaten path.

It doesn't have to be strictly a supplement, it might be a game like Everstone (based off the BESMd20 rules).

For example:

I've only just recently come across Secrets of Pact Magic. It can be found here: Secrets of Pact Magic. I haven't actually managed to get the book yet (since I live in NZ, you can double the dollar cost and shipping out here is usually close to $50 U.S.) but it _sounds_ pretty darn cool. It's also something I haven't seen any real chatter about.

Unusual Core Classes: Spellweaver from Misfit Studios. You can find it here: Unusual Core Classes: The Spellweaver - Misfit Studios | RPGNow.com. It's a nice simple implementation of a drain mechanic for casters, instead of the usual x/day route for D&D. And while there was a bit of gushing before about this mechanic in the True Sorcery book (based on the system used in The Black Company rpg book), this seems to be one of those that's just slipped past folks.

Perpetrated Press long ago (2003 roughly) put out a couple of books: Arsenal, and Factory. One was all about technomagic weapons and the other was about robots (technomagic or not). While these books aren't actually published anymore, they're not hard to pick up either, often at a pretty cheap price. Again, nobody really seems to know/use/talk about 'em though.

d20 Mecha Compendium Deluxe from Dream Pod 9. I admit I've got a soft spot for GoO related products, but this has always seemed pretty solid to me. Again though, hardly anything.

What are other hidden gems out there that aren't actually difficult to get?

Okay, if you rule out GR, Malhavoc, Necro Games, I'd say my votes are:

1. Torn Asunder: Critical Hits from Bastion Press.
2. Arms and Armor from Bastion Press. I liked the weapons.
3. Blood and Space from RPG Objects.
4. There was a book from Monkey God Enterprises called Something and Steel which was a supplement on historical arms and weapons from various periods. Pretty cool.