Amazon listing for the Book of Vile Darkness

[Barastrondo]

Martial Power 2 was so stuffed with unnecessary filler to actually pad it out to book-size that it mainly just added bloat to the classes or create new conceptual mechanics that would never be touched, mentioned or looked at again (Martial Rituals, anyone?). The only real reason I think they produced the thing was to be able to add Martial Backgrounds to the system... but that in itself is no reason to write a whole stupid book.

[bias]No, the brawler fighter was the reason that Martial Power 2 was necessary.[/bias]

 

[Herschel]

I don't mind the content so much as the packaging. Enough with the boxed sets already! They take up too much room, and besides the Monster Vault this year, I'm not buying any more of them.

Except a LOT of gamers were yelling FOR boxed sets. You can't please everyone, especially gamers. At least their boxes double as terrain being two squares high, etc. and many of them gridded.

 

[Herschel]

[bias]No, the brawler fighter was the reason that Martial Power 2 was necessary.[/bias]

And the Skirmishing Warlord.

 

[Herschel]

Yeah, not interested.

What I want (I'm a DM, btw):

- A character builder that rocks
- A monster builder that rocks
- Feywild boxed-set (companion to Heroes of the feywild)
- Hell boxed-set
- More Monster Vaults w/tokens (especially since Threats to the Nentir Vale looks excellent)
- Rogue Gallery (a box of tokens for all kinds of NPCs, concentrating on humans and the more usual races, no stats or any game information, this product could be very useful for pathfinder and other fantasy rpgs also; alternatively, reduce the number of tokens and include a softcover with stats and character info for the NPCs).
- Another mini-set (I can wish...)
- Demonomicon 2
- Condition cards (would be great especially for newbies, I know I can make some myself, but I would prefer "professional" cards)

Nothing else really springs to mind.

As a DM and player I want from your list:

-Another mini set.

I like the character builder, when the monster builder is done I'll be good and Monster Vault vs. Monster Manual is.... well, okay I like the Manual books but the vault box and map/adventure add-ons are nice.

 

[Phaezen]

Robert J Schwalb mentioned the listing on his blog today. He notes that the sales text is incorrect.

 

[MatthewJHanson]

Robert J Schwalb mentioned the listing on his blog today. He notes that the sales text is incorrect.

But he does not actually say what about it is wrong.

 

[The Little Raven]

Does nobody else here remember just how bad the *last* attempt at this kind of book was? I mean genuinely awful and actually bad.

Then it's a good thing that Monte Cook isn't writing this one.

 

[Zaran]

Does nobody else here remember just how bad the *last* attempt at this kind of book was? I mean genuinely awful and actually bad.

Sounds like it would fit with the material SyFy puts out.

 

[ggroy]

Wonder how much of the 4E "Book of Vile Darkness" consists of "leftover" material which was originally intended for the now cancelled 4E Ravenloft rpg box set (originally announced at Gencon 2010).

 

[ggroy]

Really, we're giving up books that would add useful options for a wide variety of players like Arcane Power 2, Divine Power 2 and Primal Power 2 for this.

It appears "Heroes of Shadow" (HoS) is minimally serving the niche of an Arcane Power 2 and Divine Power 2.

HoS has shadow themed powers for the wizard, warlock, and cleric. It also has an anti-paladin class (blackguard).

What exact crunch will appear in Heroes of Feywild, Shadowfell, Neverwinter, and the Book of Vile Darkness, is not known yet. But it probably wouldn't be too surprising if they also minimally serve the niches of Arcane Power 2, Divine Power 2, Primal Power 2, etc ...