Best d20 or OGL 3rd party games?

[Moon-Lancer]

What is your most favorite 3rd party core d20 book?

I just looked at mongooses Conan core 20 book and it really made me want to watch the Conan movies again, and perhaps play a Conan game. It made me a bit nostalgic too.

Whats your favorite book? I want to limit the best books to core books/games/systems. The Conan book is a example. Mutians and Masterminds is also a very good example. its a core book that describes how to play a game different from d&d rather then something that is just an add on to to d&d. Its self contained. try to limit examples to one that uses the OGL or d20 license. But if you think something deserves note, and is truly exceptional, please don't hesitate.



Also, I'm going to sneak in a publishing question... hehehe

whats better in your opinion? a book that assumes you know about d&d and is more like a setting or a book that publishes alot of the core d&d game mechanics as a spring board for its self contained game/world/system/setting... like the Conan d20 book.

Is it better to publish something self contained, or something meant to addon to d&ds core rule books?

 

[Crothian]

You mean OGL?

My favorite is Thieves World.

As for your other question I prefer to read things that are self contained but I find that addons are just easier to use.

 

[DungeonMaester]

Swashbuckling Adventures from Mongoose Publishing.


---Rusty

 

[MoogleEmpMog]

d20 or OGL? Conan is OGL.

Anyway, my picks would be, for full-scale settings/game lines rather than individual supplements:

OGL:
Arcana Evolved
Conan
Iron Heroes
Mutants & Masterminds
Spycraft 2.0
True20

d20:
Dragonmech
Iron Kingdoms

 

[jdrakeh]

OGL:

Iron Heroes
Conan*
Castles & Crusades**
Everquest RPG***

d20:

Legends of the Samurai
Northern Crown



[*The Atlantean edition. The first edition was an error plagued mess.]

[**Releasing said game under the OGL makes it an OGL game, as much as some of its fans fight the notion.]

[***Came back and added this. It was, so far as I know, the first truly standalone OGL fantasy game. I used it in lieu of D&D 3e when it was first released. In fact, I still wish I could find players for it -- if I could, I'd snap up the whole game line again.]

 

[Vigilance]

Conan
Medieval Players Manual
True 20
Mutants and Masterminds
Sovereign Stone
OGL Ancients

 

[Moon-Lancer]

[**Releasing said game under the OGL makes it an OGL game, as much as some of its fans fight the notion.]

i don't understand. why would fans fight ogl? forgive my ignorance.

i also changed the title of the thread to include OGL even though the text already did. no biggie. I use d20 to mean OGL sometimes. really they don't seem them as too different even though i know they are. Im interested in both really.

 

[jdrakeh]

i don't understand. why would fans fight ogl? forgive my ignorance.

Because many die-hard fans of old school games, the target audience of C&C, hate (no, not too strong a word) new things.

 

[CaptainChaos]

Swashbuckling Adventures from Mongoose Publishing.

Wasn't that by AEG?

 

[scourger]

Omega World. Hands down the best d20 game I've seen. Published on the Polyhedron side of Dungeon 94.