D&D Brand Manager of Fluff

[humble minion]

A couple of ideas (though 'pure' fluff books are a bad idea imho - there should always be a balance between fluff and crunch)

Fey book. Unlike everyone else on this thread I've got no clever suggestions as to what it should be called, but I agree with them that it's got enormous potential. Should include a variety of new fey over a wide CR range, guidelines for replacing the standard inner/outer planes with 'faerie' for a non-regulation setting, extensive details on fey themes, like oaths, bans, banes, curses, destiny, the seelie and unseelie, fey manners and nobility, fey magic as a very distinct entity from mortal magic, etc, etc, etc, and on running a game to properly reflect these. Mr Nard should be willing to mess with a few of the sacred mechanical cows (by disallowing saving throws etc) in order to emphasise the capricious nature of the fey and their odd abilities.

The New Old Empires (or some similar name). FR sourcebook covering Mulhorand, Unther and Chessenta post the conquest of Unther. Mulhorand section should focus on the changes the place has undergone - the pharoah's loss of divinity, the military and economic resurgence, the encroachment of Western gods (romance between the pharoah and the Red Knight-worshipping commoner mercenary captain from the FRCS would make things very interesting). Unther should focus on the various resistance movements, the attempts to reforge a national identity after the obliteration of the pantheon, and the influence of Thay etc who want to destabilise Mulhorand. Chessenta should focus on Tchazzar rebuilding the nation and what that means - red totem dragon shamans becoming commonplace, how other nations are dealing with trading, diplomacy, and generally living next door to a CR40 dragon-god-king, etc. General theme of the book is muddled morality, political irony, and difficult choices of loyalty. Mulhorand is an unwelcome occupying power in Unther but is heavily LG with lots of paladins. Lots of (good) Untherites want to be out from under Mulhorandi rule but the independence they once had was under the heel of an evil tyrant. Do Untheric freedom fighters accept Thayvian help? Is anyone trying to revive any of the less unpleasant members of the Untheric pantheon, or convince Hoar to be Ramman/Assuran again? How DO you deal diplomatically with a dragon who has a +80 Diplomacy modifier, and Intimidate to match? Will the traditional worshippers of the Mulhorandi pantheon be able to stave off intrusion from the Western pantheon without breaking down a successful alliance? How will the Harpers and the like deal with Mulhorand's semi-benevolent system of slavery? What exactly IS buried beneath the ruins of Gilgeam's palace?

Arabian Adventures. A single book in the manner of OA and Ghostwalk, covering Arabian-style games. Your standard few prestige classes and new/variant base classes in the front, plus a handful of feats and monsters etc as per usual. Then, you have load of background/ecology material on geniekind (you'll never be able to do a Genie-nomicon, so look on this as an alternative) including the City of Brass, Great Dismal Delve and the rest, Arabian society/manners/culture and how to work them into game in an evocative way (the stuff in the old Al-Qadim line was great), hints on running games that may include slavery/monotheism/gender inequity, and about 20-odd pages covering a sketched-out basic world setting/home city.

Mightier than the Sword - a book entirely devoted to non-combat adventures and activities. Improved systems for social skills and knowledges, rules for libraries and research, ways and means to run mystery/investigation/political plots. Resources on building political support, running intrigue, recruiting followers/henchmen/employees, governing a city/town/kingdom, promoting a religion, operating a spy ring or a thieve's guild, handling magic used in a non-combat situation for civic improvements and the like (wall of stone, continual flame, etc). Do it all without any mention of an attack roll - Cityscape covered city-based *combat* perfectly well.

Edit: and another one!

Revolution - dealing with social, technological, and political change in a typical fantasy D&D setting. Assume someone develops basic industrialisation, moveable type, gunpowder, labour-saving magictech etc, and deal with the consequences. Dark satanic mills, rabble-rousing bards (can you hear the people sing?), political theorists, revolutionaries, Luddites, desperate druids turning terrorist, the near-extinction of the barbarian and ranger way of life, the increasing centralisation of power in nation-states (and the rise of democracy - do summoned or called creatures get to vote? Clones? Intelligent monsters or undead?), the impact of the tech and population boom on magocracies (Gutenberg's spellbook?), religions, powerful non-humanoids like dragons, and traditionally medieval cultures. Should include the basics of new engineering and craft skills and the like, as well as details on steampunk equipment, firearms, constructs, etc, but first and foremost it should be a toolkit from which the GM can take what he likes, rather than a proscriptive set of changes. What it means to be a low, medium, or high-level character in a world where things are changing and the old ways are making way.

 

[meomwt]

Hmm, let's ignore all that Marketing Stuff we've seen already and throw together some ideas no one would want to publish.

Until the dark months before a New Edition, that is.

1 Angelic Codex - details on Lawful Good extra-planar creatures for any DM to drop into a campaign when a deus ex machina is required.

2 Kuo-Toa Unearthed - details on the iconic amphibian race of the Underdark. More information on their deities, society, hunting habits and enemies. Includes complete language primer and pronunciation guide.

3 Greenwood - a guidebook to the forests: what to hunt, what to avoid being hunted by, tree guide, Treant identification tips, and how Druids relate to the trees. Includes detailed maps of tree-dwelling communities and tips on wearing Lincoln Green and getting away with it.

4 Catalogue of Libraries - from a single Tome to the vast archives of the Wizards' Guild, this is a guidebook to the books of the medieval world. Details on the different types of paper, inks and illumination, plus a Random Title Generator to add spice to your Library Campaign.

5 Cart & Carriage - 101 ways to get about which aren't on foot. Carts, carriages, sedan chairs, boats and magical flying machines, complete with adventure hooks and detailed illustrations.

6 The Complete NPC - suggestions for improving NPC's - funny voices, nervous tics, descriptions of facial disfigurements and how to dress them according to social class.

7 Fetes and Fairs - how to have fun at festival time: tournaments, markets, parades and sports events for fantasy role-playing games. Includes menus for the food stalls, how to run book for PC's and some easy rules for determining the winners of the Grand Tourneys.

8 Campaign Primer - generic fluff on designing, plotting and running an ongoing campaign. I think there were some 2e books we can photocopy for the bulk of this one.

There's also an Invisible Stalker handbook (we can save $$$ on the artwork for this one) and the Ghouls and Ghasts Guide that people haven't been asking about for ages.

 

[kenmarable]

Wow. I so want some of these books (and would consider selling my soul to help work on any of them as well).

Although some of the ones I really like would delve heavily into crunch as well, I think the fluff content would be high enough to be included, such as:

Law, Chaos, and Neutral books equivalent to the Vile and Exalted ones (though Neutral about be far the most difficult to come up with, that also makes it the most needed).

Giants book and Constructs book (modrons!!!).

Also an environment book on wastelands - not just the desert stuff from Sandstorm, but Mournland-like magically obliterated wastelands.

Fiendish Codex III - I mean, come on. I know the yugoloths have managed to hide themselves well for most of 3.x, but it's time to turn the tables on their evil plots and fully expose them!


As for ones that I think should be pretty much all crunch, I'd second:

Sigil (Technically, I'd third it. Rules of Threes, ya know.)

Demiplanes

The Uncivilized West and Savage East Eberron books mentioned above. At the very least some thorough discussion and detailing of monster societies.

Heroes of Intrigue/Mystery - Like the Neutral-themed book above, this one is hard enough to pull off well that a good book on it would be extremely helpful.


Oh, and as an aside, when is Greg going to be done with Tome of Magic 2?

 

[The_Gneech]

Thank you for the offer, but I'm afraid I must decline.

-The Gneech

 

[crazy_monkey1956]

Some of mine are seconds to what's already been covered...

1. Arabian Adventures: Seconded.

2. Beyond Shadow - A Guide to Fantasy Adventures in the Modern World: Some rules, mostly fluff, on crossing D20 Modern characters into a D&D world and vice versa.

3. The Setting Builder's Guidebook: Step by step process on building a campaign setting, from the ground up, or the pantheon down, whichever you prefer.

4. Heroes of Intrigue: Seconded.

5. Complete Epic: Seconded.

6. Celtic Adventures: In the style of Oriental Adventures and Arabian Adventures, a book that adapts D&D to Celtic myths and legends.

7. Divinity: A bit more rules than fluff here, a guidebook to becoming a deity and gaining divine ranks.

8. Council of Wyrms: Another cheat on the rules as there will be a lot of them, for advancing Dragon PCs from hatchling to Great Wyrm. Plenty of fluff in revisiting Io's Blood Isles, including notes on using it as a setting for "normal" non-dragon PCs.

Only 8? Are you sure?

 

[I'm A Banana]

I have just hired you as the Brand Manager of Story, Settings, Funny Names, and Bardic Song Lyrics. I've cut Greg's line in half and given it to you. Tell me what books you are going to put out. You have eight titles this year.

I have an important dinner with Russ Morrissey, Larry King, Stephen Colbert, Regis & Kelly, and Oprah a week from today at GenCon and I need short descriptions of each to give to them.

So my job is to crank out 8 fluff-heavy titles, yeah?

Not a problem. I'll start off with the more ambitious projects, though in practice it might be smarter to spread those out over a few years, while keeping a more steady pace of smaller, less-ambitious projects. Most of these are one-shots.

I think a lot of the books mentioned above are books I'd love to see, but would require a good amount of Crunch to pull off well in my mind.

BIG NOVEL TIE-IN
Similar to what ENWorld is doing with Metamorphosis, we tie a source book in with a novel release, perhaps even packaging them together. Stat out the heroes, the monsters, tell the DM how to mimic this novel, or what adventures are taking place along with it. Give the players a sense of helping out the novel's characters -- reference stuff from the adventure in the novel in an offhanded way.

BIG MONSTER DOCUMENTARY
You know those nature documentaries where they take a segment of the planet and just watch it for a while? Do that, but with a region of a D&D world. Check out how monsters function as wildlife, with advice for DMs making cohesive ecologies and even monster cultures. Of course, this also includes bits about magical applications of monster pieces, an environmental-specific PrC, or whatnot. Total fluff is never a good idea, but this book would focus on it. Think of this like a Monster Manual that's more about quality per monster than quantity of monsters.

ARTSY EXTRAVAGANZA
Art is considered fluff, I'm assuming. It's definitely not rules and math. So big, brilliant pieces from new and established D&D authors. Make it a huge coffee-table style book, release it 'roundabouts Christmas time. One one side of the page, you have the scene, the creature, the character. On the other side, statblock.

'HOW TO FLUFF'
Let's face it, everyone needs a little here and there. This book is for DMs who know their crunch and don't need help with their statblocks, but who might want to add a bit of richness and detail to the world anyway. Help with verisimilitude, advice on setting a mood, motivations for characters (carrot and stick logic), tables of 100 ideas a la the 100 adventure ideas tables, a crash course in improv, etc. This can include a bunch of crunchy rules for fluffy things, like hard skill mechanics for political negotations. It's supposed to be a bridge between the two focuses, so having a bit more crunch than average might not be a bad idea.

ADAPTATIONS
Or "How to use existing rules in cool ways." Going back to kind of a 2e strategy of defining every viking and knight as a "fighter." Don't change the rules or offer anything new, just show DM's how to get what they want out of the rules as they exist and why the game really doesn't need more of certain things. This includes cultural adaptations (Asian, Arabian, African, Amerindian, etc.), historical adaptations (dinosaurs and lasers), cinematic adaptations (how to add film genre feels to your games), etc.

BOOK O' ORGANIZATIONS
The Affiliation System is great, but it's often kind of crammed in with books that are really about other stuff. Give it a chance to shine. Give me a book about the machinations and movements of large groups of people, and give my PC a chance to belong to them.

GODSMACK
Punny project title aside, this one is all about gettin' some religion. You know how Dieities and Demigods was 3/4ths about Zeus's +100 attack bonus, and 1/4 about what his D&D faith would look like? Flip it. Reverse it. DON'T go into Zeus's actual history, but what he is in D&D, distinct from his Greek roots. Something like my Deitiy-A-Week Thread, which was pretty much all fluff and the occasional feat.

FLUFFY ADVENTURE
Political intrigue! Romance! Character deapth! Honor! Royalty! And PC's who need to save the day without resorting to much combat!

Those are a few of my best proposals.

 

[Li Shenron]

A guide to high-level campaigns

A practical handbook for DMs to organize their job when the level of the game is between 12th and 20th.

At least one chapter focuses on sensible high-level topics such as divination/scrying, travel with exceptional means, and resurrection. How to challenge these high-level abilities, without having the game succumb to them. How to make high-level games different from low-level games and not just using bigger numbers.

Another chapter deals specifically with high-level combat, and provides help about running it in the smoothest possible way.

One more chapter provides many ideas about high-level adventures design and truly epic encounters.


A guide to world building

A practical handbook about how to build a rich custom setting at all scales (from the detailed tavern the PCs see all the time, to the whole layout of the land, universe and beyond) and maintain verisimilitude during a campaign. Includes focus on a few more difficult topics such as: consistent economy, large scale-politics and warfare, travel facilities in the setting, and the role of knowledge availability/education in the setting.


1001 Tales - An adventures designer's treasure chest

Nothing but plot hooks, adventure schemes, interesting NPCs and locales...


The holy and the profane

This book presents a wide range of information about how to make religions and beliefs more important in your game, or simply create a variation on the theme.

At least one chapter covers topics about wholly alternative systems in order to implement among others the following gaming options: monotheistic religions, dualistic religions, clerics of multiple deities, clerics of different/opposite alignments than their faith.

Another chapter provides practical ideas to enrich any pantheon the gaming group is using at the moment, and includes detailed lists of religious codes (including paladins codes) and ethos, religious practices/celebrations/festivals, quests and more mundane activities as part of a religious groups, unusual temples/shrines and para-religious organizations.

One more chapter describes different approaches to deity intervention in the real life. It provides variant systems for different degrees of how much the deities interacts with their followers (from being completely distant to totally dependent on their worshippers in order to keep their powers). It also provides lots of ideas about direct divine interventions, avatars, miracles, manifestation through animals, natural events, oracles/prohets, visions/dreams and more.


The book of ethics - A treatise on alignment

The book discusses in depths the key features of the classic alignment system, and its possible problematics. It explains different ways of handling alignment, from strict and rigid to the most flexible, and by showcasing the advantages and disadvantages of each approach it helps a gaming group choosing their favourite way of handling alignment issues.
A dedicated chapter suggests various methods about how to handle alignment arguments at the gaming table in a smooth way.
The book also proposes some alternative alignment systems, including for instance: a customizable point-based system which directly ties character aligment to her in-game actions, a couple of systems that replaces the classic good-evil-law-chaos with a completely different set, and a completely alignment-less system. All of these include explanations on what are the consequences on the game, including mechanical consequences (e.g. what happens to alignment-related spells, and what related changes should be considered).


Monsters ecologies I - Classic beastiary

This book revisits 30 famous classic monsters from the original MM, and vastly expands the information about their societies and cultures. Everything from daily life to relationship with other races, with particular focus about how to use this information in order to embellish encounters or provide adventure hooks.


Monsters ecologies II - Creatures of legend

The second tome focuses on more rare and legendary monsters.


Monsters ecologies III - From beyond

The third tome focuses on the most alien of the monsters, likely to come from entirely different worlds.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

I just want to understand why a Brand Manager is cranking out anything.

Isn't R&D supposed to do that?

You are setting the line not making the books.

Now this is actually a combined function where either Brand or R&D can contribute ideas but Greg Nard is so spot one R&D has been very comfortable with all his recomendations so far, so don't blow it.

 

[RangerWickett]

I'm struggling to come up with fluff ideas that don't contradict the style of existing D&D products, because D&D is so crunch-heavy these days. A lot of flavor is already implicit in the mechanics, so while I'm hesitant to endorse books that might split the D&D fanbase (which was one of the disastrous flaws of 2nd Edition's "many settings" style), I think there is an audience for such books.

Another flaw is that players tend to be less interested in fluff, since the game is designed to only really give them control over their characters' crunch. The setting, and thus what 'fluff' is available, is tacitly decided by the DM. So we're going to change that paradigm a bit, so that we don't cut out a large percentage of our buying market.

1. A Magical Medieval Society. This has already been written, but I'm sure the original authors would not object to a nice WotC-illustrated, hardcover version available in game stores everywhere. This book gives ideas on how societies would believably be influenced by magic. Toss in the bestiary to show how people interact with monsters while you're at it. Everyone here already knows this book is amazing. Let's share it with a broader audience.

To give players incentive to buy this book, we might squeeze in a chapter on what motivated people in real medieval societies, and what would motivate them in a magical medieval society. Give ideas to players for what their characters would want, and reinforce the trend of empowering players, so they feel comfortable telling their GMs, "My character is going to work toward this."

2. Myth and Mystery. While there have been D&D books in the past that provided stats for stuff like Aztec critters, or spells that appeared in Chinese ghost stories, this book isn't about that. The point of this book is to examine what myth means, and how people interact with the unknown, both the inhabitants of a world of magic, and to the players playing the game. The book explains how people of different cultures view the mysteries of their world, including very flavorful vignettes of folklore in a typical D&D setting. I'm talking real 'folk tale' sort of stuff, the kind of stories like the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, or Cinderella, or all manner of urban legends, the stuff that all too often gets lost in high level games when you're too busy fighting hordes of demons to dwell on the shadowed corners of the nearby forest.

Additionally, it provides DM advice, explaining out classic archetypes and how to use them to make your stories resonate mythically, and it presents suggestions on how to spin your campaign to evoke different styles of cultural myth -- D&D through the eyes of Greek playwrights, or traditional tribal perspectives, or viking warriors, or even French revolutionaries.

For player incentive, we have the few mechanics that are here, which would be like Bad Axe's "Mythic Heroes," which rewards characters for playing to archetype.

3. Arcane Arts. This book is devoted to the art of magic, intended to give spellcasters the ability to not just pick spells and power, but style and meaning. How does a character connect to his magic? How does it affect him? Why does he pursue magic? Also included are different magical traditions (such as what I did in the E.N. Publishing book, Mythic Earth), which give a crunch hook to the different flavors of spellcasting.

The first chapter would be the overview, and the rest of the chapters would each present one magical worldview.


Now, let me mine the ideas of others in this thread. They've already explained why these books would be good.

4. Sigil: City of Doors. To quote an expert:

Pure undiluted awesome.

Sigil could easily be the anchor of a series of planar-themed products for a year, such as miniatures, a 10th to 14th level adventure a la Red Hand, fantastic locales, and . . .

5. Demiplanes. Another idea courtesy of Shemeska. In my opinion, Manual of the Planes was one of the best 3e books. It gave me tons of ideas, which was great for me, since I like to make my own settings and adventures. This book is for the more time-strapped DMs, providing them more detailed "Plug and Play" planar locations, with a little something for all character levels.

6. Dark Woods, Distant Peaks. This is a combination of the fey and giant books so many people want. Since the two creatures go together so well in northern European folklore, I think it's natural to put them in the same book, because they were scarcely separate entities in the original myths. We would discuss the nature of these creatures and what they represent -- a somewhat simple question for giants, but for fey the answers are always somewhat ambiguous. The book would include not just actual 'fey' and 'giant' creature types, but also any creatures that would ostensibly be part of the same folklore, like goblins.

7. Grognards and Graybeards. Inspired by diaglo. This will be perhaps the first comedy book put out for 3e, tapping the power of nostalgia to draw tons of sales. It will be a mix of tongue-in-cheek "History of the World, Pt. I" stuff, and explanations for all the weird jank that exists in D&D because it grew organically over three decades. If you don't believe in the power of nostalgia, ask the Magic: the Gathering team how well their latest set has been selling.


And finally, an idea that is close to my heart:

8. Campaign Guide - The Grand Tour.
The first in a series, the campaign guides give advice on how to run and play in a campaign of a particular style. Later books will include high romance, noir drama, and epic saga. This one focuses on "showing off the world," the style of campaign where every adventure is a new location, and the heroes constantly travel across the world in exploration, in pursuit, or in flight. Sample campaign ideas and example locations give the fluff some meatiness, and it's all tied to a discussion of how to pull out all the stuff you own in the rest of your D&D books, and get a chance to use it in the same campaign.

Brilliant, eh?

 

[GreatLemur]

The Book of Speciality Priests - a bit heavier on the crunch - but with a large emphasis on ritual, holidays, dress, and philosophies.

Yeah, the loss of 2nd Edition's deity-specific custom Clerics is one of the few steps backwards in 3rd Edition.

Cultures
A sourcebook detailing a series of non-bordering countries in the default setting, each of which would be rich in world detail and mood, and easily rippable to home games.

I think there's a lot of possibility in this idea. It could have about twenty semi-fleshed-out cultures for every climate and all the major D&D races, with a few suggestions on what kind of crunch to use for them (by God, we do not need more prestige classes) and also (this bit is important) suggestions on how they might be customized to fit into a DM's campaign world (other races that could use the same set of cultural traits, alternate environments and niches, etc.).