Avalanche Press: Best Books?

[Mercurius]

To be honest it is hard to get past the cover art which is just plain ludicrous, if not quite on the level of Evony. They look as if they were designed by 40-year old nerds catering to 14-year old nerds.

So if this thread was asking, "Which Avalanche cover is the worst?" I'd probably vote for the Odin one, but since it isn't I'll stop jacking your thread now.

 

[jeffh]

To be honest it is hard to get past the cover art which is just plain ludicrous, if not quite on the level of Evony. They look as if they were designed by 40-year old nerds catering to 14-year old nerds.

I was just going to say they were the Evony of their day.

 

[Knightfall]

To be honest it is hard to get past the cover art which is just plain ludicrous, if not quite on the level of Evony. They look as if they were designed by 40-year old nerds catering to 14-year old nerds.

I'm not concerned with the covers. However, I have to admit that I've balked at buying more of the Avalanche books because the covers are so... wanton.

I'm concerned about the contents of the books. I'm looking for good crunch and interesting fluff. I want material that I can put into my homebrewed setting, World of Kulan.

Of note, here are some of the other d20 Systm sourcebooks that I'm using for the semi-historical fantasy regions of my setting: Lore of the Gods by Bastion Press; A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe and A Magical Society: Silk Road by Expeditious Retreat Press; Egyptian Adventures: Hamunaptra by Green Ronin Publishing; Streets of Silver by Living Imagination, Inc.; Frost & Fur: The Explorer's Guide to the Frozen Lands and Tsar Rising by MonkeyGod Enterprises; Gary Gygax's Necropolis and Ancient Kingdoms: Mesopotamia by Necromancer Games; Relics & Rituals: Excalibur and Relics & Rituals: Olympus by Sword & Sorcery Studios.

 

[haakon1]

A "special" theme

I've got the Last Days of Constantinople, and Greenland Saga, and possibly one more.

I ignored the illustrations and tried to take it seriously, since these were interesting historical events.

I figured maybe it would be like the old Historical Resources books in 2nd Edition, which were high quality writing with respect for the subject matter.

Sadly, I don't think that's the case with Avalanche. When I was reading Constantinople, I thought it was quite odd that a fair amount of space was devoted to prostitution and that the incontinence of a major NPC -- due to being a eunich, if I recall correctly, seemed to be an importance theme. But I bore with it and just ignored that as an attempt at flavor.

When I saw in Greenland Saga that one of the major NPC's was incontinent, I quietly closed the book and never reopened any of them again.

That's at least one step too freaky a fetish to belong as a theme in a series of otherwise unrelated adventures . . .

 

[Crothian]

I'm concerned about the contents of the books. I'm looking for good crunch and interesting fluff. I want material that I can put into my homebrewed setting, World of Kulan.

With this purpose I think you can skip these unless you find them really cheap. If you really want good historical books then I'd go buy the GURPS books. The rules are easy to ignore and they are much better researched and give quite a bit more information. At many summer cons for the past several years they have also been sold for very cheap. I've gotten lots of them for 3 for $10 so much so I actually have paused and thought about not buying some that were marked at $5 at another booth. Of course some of the books are harder to find and a bit more expensive but they've always been worth it.

 

[Minicol]

I think I own most of their books.

Honestly, rules-wise, they did not impress me. Some good ideas, but ...

For ideas and representation of European Folklore, roleplaying realism ... I think they're pretty good. In the case of the Celtic and Viking book, VERY Good.

The best part, IMO, is the trilogy of adventures : Constantinople/Greenland/Vlad.

I think that if you up the grim side, tone done the choice of characters, and up the opposition (too weak ...) you can get a quite decent scary medieval setting. Inflict permanent wounds, gangrene and such on your players ... and no cure light wounds cleric around ... MWAHAHAHA !

For rules though, I'd recommend the Medieval Player Handbook by Green Ronin.