Buying from Ronin Arts

[MetalBard]

/me swings pocket watch and intones in a seductive hypnotist voice

... buy Phil's planar stuff. We want more planar support...

Which of the Ronin Arts planar stuff would you recommend Psion?

 

[Desdichado]

Well, my rather lengthy review is up now. I was very pleased with the product, but then again I expected it to be as it essentially converts the CoC Sanity mechanic into a more d20 friendly format, which was always a pet peeve of mine. Check it out!

 

[Breakdaddy]

Yeah Psion, tell us which of the planar PDFs are your favorites and maybe a brief description of why. My players are about level 10 now and it wont be too long until we will see a bit of planes-hopping, I suspect. I picked up beyond countless doorways because of the favorable reviews here but havent had a chance to dig in to it as much as I would like yet.

 

[Psion]

LOL. Okay...

My favorite is probably the DM's Directory of Demiplanes, because for a GM who doesn't want adventures so much as adventure seeds (i.e., like me) it's great. They give you a great little exotic site that is just begging to have plot threads hung on it.

Ari Marmell's Planar Factions is also cool if you want characters to either
1) Draw PCs into the planes with, or
2) To populate planar towns with.
(3) I suppose if you wanted to run a non-planar game but with planar antogonists, you could do that too...)
Ari's factions are neat in that they aren't formulaic. They all have a mechanical tidbit to help bring them to life, but it's not like the old "every faction has a prestige class" affair.

More extensive comments:
DM's Directory of Demiplanes
Planar Factions Collected

 

[Breakdaddy]

Thanks, Psion, I will probably pick these up in the coming weeks. You pushed the right button for me, because I LOVE content that has few constraints and is expandable like this. I am constantly mining ideas from just about every source I can find and these sound like the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

 

[philreed]

Well, my rather lengthy review is up now. I was very pleased with the product, but then again I expected it to be as it essentially converts the CoC Sanity mechanic into a more d20 friendly format, which was always a pet peeve of mine. Check it out!

Thanks for the review. I think Bruce did a good job with it.

 

[philreed]

Thanks, Psion, I will probably pick these up in the coming weeks. You pushed the right button for me, because I LOVE content that has few constraints and is expandable like this. I am constantly mining ideas from just about every source I can find and these sound like the kind of stuff I'm looking for.

You sound like exactly the type of person that most of our stuff is written for. Some reviewers (giving Joe the eye now -- we've discussed this in the past) always want a lot more concrete info but I prefer products that give DMs a framework of ideas that they can build on. The goal is to give just enough material so that the product is useful in most fantasy campaigns and enough to inspire the DM.

 

[sjmiller]

You know, I cannot recommend Phil and Ronin Arts highly enough. The work they have been doing is creative, slightly offbeat, and highly usable. I can't tell you the number of things I have used from the DM's Idea Pipeline, the Dozen series, and the Book of Unusual Treasure (Limited Edition).

Phil himself is also a very cool individual. He's gone out of his way on any number of occasions to help out people and make sure that their experience with Ronin Arts is a positive one. I have not met Phil face to face yet, but if I do I plan on not only shaking his hand, but buying him a drink.

I cannot think of a single product I have bought from Ronin Arts that has not been useful in some way, so you cannot really go wrong with whatever you purchase. They give a lot of ideas and suggestions on where to go with things, without leading you by the nose, which is what I like. I have a lot of ideas for my games, but the Ronin Arts stuff is great for filling in the cracks.

Phil, on a personal note, thanks again for what you did. In respose to that I have purchased the Ice Tomb of the Dwarf Lord, the DM's Directory of Demiplanes, and Forbidden Arcana.

Time to go and rest, my doctor would kill me if he saw me sitting here typing when I should be in bed.

 

[Breakdaddy]

You sound like exactly the type of person that most of our stuff is written for. Some reviewers (giving Joe the eye now -- we've discussed this in the past) always want a lot more concrete info but I prefer products that give DMs a framework of ideas that they can build on. The goal is to give just enough material so that the product is useful in most fantasy campaigns and enough to inspire the DM.

Yeah, so far I really like these "A Dozen..." books. I have already begun mining these for ideas, highlighting the parts that inspire me on the spot. I am working on an outline which will become a flowchart which will become an adventure, all based on a few inspiring lines in your PDFs. Thanks!