Best Books of 2003

[Mercule]

I wouldn't have any idea how the rules are as the flavour stuff Monte put on his site put me off. Never even looked at the books in the shop.

I spent quite a bit of time looking at it in B&N. After all the great reviews it got here, I was trying to find the "cool stuff". I understood from the get-go that the default world was a bit higher magic than I liked, so I didn't have particularly high expectations. Still, the flavor the mechanics pushed turned me off.

I can't say there is anything "unbalanced" or anything like that. The best example I can think of is that I'm currently trying to develop a light fighter-type class for my setting (a long trip, but I finally decided it merited a core class and the one in CW doesn't thrill me). I remembered the fact that Monte had split Fighter into the Warmain and Unfettered for AU and several people had raved, so I thought I'd look again and pick up the book if it helped (I look before I buy, but I buy before I use).

Long story short (too late), after a lot of review of both classes, I can't see any features of either I'm inclined to pull from. Not a single one. Mechanically, they might be fine. I just don't like 'em. Same could be said for most of the rest of the book (so far as I've read). Not a single idea that I want to pull. Some of them, like the races, actually turn me off.

Monte seems a nice guy, and I wish him all success. I just haven't found a reason to give him any money, yet.

I think AU is just going to end up being one of those popular, raved-on things that I'm just never going to understand. A bit like Planescape or Forgotten Realms.

 

[Mr_Nox]

My Best Book

For me, best book of the year has to be <b>Lords of the Night:Vampires</b>, its was just was I was looking for, didn't conform to the staid old formula of most D20 books you saw on the market, fresh story elements and very cool content. all this and this was the first Bottled Imp Games release.

I hope Bottled Imp continue to bring us great books and I wish them the very best for the New Year.

 

[Michael Tree]

Arcana Unearthed, Skull & Bones, and Testament are my favoritre d20 books of this year.

If we're including other RPGs, then I have to include Savage Worlds and probably Angel (just a few more days...).

 

[comrade raoul]

... and one more plug for AU. So many great ideas, and the first rules expansion I've noticed that represents a genuine evolution over the ideas in the PH.

Also, the Urban Arcana d20M supplement had its moments, despite some questionable balance decisions and poor editing.

I think 3.5e is, on the whole, one step forward and two steps back.

 

[Nightfall]

I'd hope someone would have enjoyed Shelzar. I thought that was a great book. That or Blood Bayou. (Odd I'll grant you but still fun! )

In anycase I will say Draconomicon is one of the books for 2003 I enjoyed.

 

[Carnifex]

I found AU useful to steal some things from, like the Unfettered, but not in and of itself an inspiring product.

Draconomicon is very nice, though I doubt I'll use much of the stuff in it. But it's so pretty!

Magical Medieval Society... well, I had much too high expectations of it, so all I can say is that it did nothing for me really. However, this is because I'm in my third year of a history degree at university and specialise as much as I can in the medieval period, so basically I knew a lot of the info that MME had in it anyway, I don't find the charts for economies and cities very interesting, and it seriously lacked the 'magical' side of the 'Magical Medieval'. I bought it hoping for rules to mesh what I knew of the medieval with fantasy, but there's very little in the book that does that. For other people, it'll probably be much more useful.

Bought Monsternomicon, truly loved it. Wonderful book

 

[Gothmog]

I spent quite a bit of time looking at it in B&N. After all the great reviews it got here, I was trying to find the "cool stuff". I understood from the get-go that the default world was a bit higher magic than I liked, so I didn't have particularly high expectations. Still, the flavor the mechanics pushed turned me off.

I can't say there is anything "unbalanced" or anything like that. The best example I can think of is that I'm currently trying to develop a light fighter-type class for my setting (a long trip, but I finally decided it merited a core class and the one in CW doesn't thrill me). I remembered the fact that Monte had split Fighter into the Warmain and Unfettered for AU and several people had raved, so I thought I'd look again and pick up the book if it helped (I look before I buy, but I buy before I use).

Long story short (too late), after a lot of review of both classes, I can't see any features of either I'm inclined to pull from. Not a single one. Mechanically, they might be fine. I just don't like 'em. Same could be said for most of the rest of the book (so far as I've read). Not a single idea that I want to pull. Some of them, like the races, actually turn me off.

Monte seems a nice guy, and I wish him all success. I just haven't found a reason to give him any money, yet.

I think AU is just going to end up being one of those popular, raved-on things that I'm just never going to understand. A bit like Planescape or Forgotten Realms.

Gotta agree with you Mercule. I picked up AU a couple weeks after it was released, hoping for some great things from what people have raved about. I read through it, and its the most mediocre book of the year. Nothing really bad, but nothing grabbed me either that I wanted to use. The idea of scaled spells was neat, but practically useless outside AU since each spell has specific scaled versions. The classes don't do anything the core D&D classes don't, and in some cases come off as being a little too "out there" for my tastes. The races are just plain silly to me (furries), and in general I don't like as much magic and exoticness in my games as Monte does. Not to say that its a bad book, but its got a niche spot and limited appeal. Basically, to use AU, you'd have to scrap large portions of existing campaigns and worlds, which is something I'm not willing to do. I won't be picking up the other AU stuff, simply because it has no appeal to me.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Here are my picks from 2003:

Ultimate Alien Anthology
Arcana Unearthed
Menace Manual
Crooks!
Darwin's World 2 (Forgot to add this one, though it was at the forefront of my mind when I decided to post...)

The most underrated book of 2003: Savage Species

The Most Disappointing: Gamma World Player's Handbook

Kane

 

[Bran Blackbyrd]

D20 Menace Manual and Races of Faerûn.
The Fiend Folio wasn't bad either.
I didn't buy the Ultimate Alien Anthology, but I bought the original for a friend. If the new one is better (looks like it) then it has to be good.

That's about all I checked out this year, I'm no millionaire.
I got the 3.5 Gift Set (for $3.97 ) but I haven't had much of a chance to read through it yet, so no opinion there.

 

[Gizzard]

To summarize what people have said so far:

1) Arcana Unearthed: 16 recommendations
2) Dracinomicon: 11
3) Midnight: 8
3) 3.5E: 8
4) Skull & Bones: 7