Scott_Rouse
Explorer
qstor said:You're forgetting Greyhawk
Mike
You guys are getting slow in your old age, that took 15 posts
-
NOW LIVE! Into the Woods--new character species, eerie monsters, and haunting villains to populate the woodlands of your D&D games.
D&D Brand Manager of Fluff
- Thread starter Scott_Rouse
- Start date
You guys are getting slow in your old age, that took 15 posts
TwinBahamut
First Post
Well, here are my eight, I guess...
1)A Fey Book Rather than making this a monster book, or something like the Draconomicon, it would focus on trying to convey the feel of old fey stories, and the author would be required to sit down and read some before starting. Would contain rules for turning classic fey creatures like elves and trolls into proper fey, would have "otherworld" rules, and would focus on making fey seem less like strange forest creatures, and more like the mischevious, inhuman, and possibly dangerous spirits they classically are. It would perhaps help brindge the odd gap made in D&D between western faerie stories and eastern spirit stories (which are almost identical, if you don't make an artificial east/west division).
2)The Farmer Boy's Guide to Giant-Killing This is a giant book, written from the perspective of a guy like Jack the Giant-Killer (for those who don't know, after Jack killed the giant from the top of the beanstalk, he went on to kill several more, and became one of the Knights of the Round Table). In other words, it is a guide to kiling giants through trickery and cuning, exploiting their pride and greed, rather than through brute power.
3)The Young Hero's Guide to Dragon-slaying and Damsel-saving Like the above, except based on classic dragon-slaying fairy-tales, like Beowulf or the story of the slaying of Fafnir. Perhaps a reimagining of dragons in which a single warrior can actually fight one.
4-6 would probably be other books in the same series as the first three, re-imagining different ways to use old creatures, based on classic myths. Genies, magical beasts, and evil spell-casters, maybe?
7)Tome of Magic 2 More new ways of casting magic! This time, with better balance and less assumptions of and alterations to existing cosmology.
8)Tome of Battle 2 More new ways of fighting! This time, with a higher page count.
1)A Fey Book Rather than making this a monster book, or something like the Draconomicon, it would focus on trying to convey the feel of old fey stories, and the author would be required to sit down and read some before starting. Would contain rules for turning classic fey creatures like elves and trolls into proper fey, would have "otherworld" rules, and would focus on making fey seem less like strange forest creatures, and more like the mischevious, inhuman, and possibly dangerous spirits they classically are. It would perhaps help brindge the odd gap made in D&D between western faerie stories and eastern spirit stories (which are almost identical, if you don't make an artificial east/west division).
2)The Farmer Boy's Guide to Giant-Killing This is a giant book, written from the perspective of a guy like Jack the Giant-Killer (for those who don't know, after Jack killed the giant from the top of the beanstalk, he went on to kill several more, and became one of the Knights of the Round Table). In other words, it is a guide to kiling giants through trickery and cuning, exploiting their pride and greed, rather than through brute power.
3)The Young Hero's Guide to Dragon-slaying and Damsel-saving Like the above, except based on classic dragon-slaying fairy-tales, like Beowulf or the story of the slaying of Fafnir. Perhaps a reimagining of dragons in which a single warrior can actually fight one.
4-6 would probably be other books in the same series as the first three, re-imagining different ways to use old creatures, based on classic myths. Genies, magical beasts, and evil spell-casters, maybe?
7)Tome of Magic 2 More new ways of casting magic! This time, with better balance and less assumptions of and alterations to existing cosmology.
8)Tome of Battle 2 More new ways of fighting! This time, with a higher page count.
Raven Crowking
First Post
One book on Worldbuilding (and it could draw heavily from the pages of Dragon magazine, going back for years), followed up by "focus" books that focus on building cities, dungeons, wilderness, particular types of cultures, and particular campaign styles. I would actually say that only the Worldbuilding book should be hardcover; you'd get more mileage out of the others if they were softcover.
While all of these books would be fluff-centric, each would include both example crunch, and --most importantly -- a lot of information on how to develop your own crunch. For an example of this approach, think of the Encounter Trap section in Dungeonscape. Rather than merely providing crunch, that section gets you to think about what you want to do, why you want to do it, and then create appropriate crunch. Similarly, a Focus book on jungles might include some templates for "junglifying" existing monsters, might include some ideas for creating lost civilizations, and might include some very real crunchy bits....with a lot of fluff suggesting how those bits could be used, why the DM might include them, and how they might be presented.
IOW, the fluffy bits exist to psych the DM up so that these things need to be used. I'm sure we can all remember the feeling of cracking a book and reading something that drips so much flavour that we had to do something with it right now, and chuckled happily while we did that work. Then grinned big goofy grins while using it in an actual game.
Preferably, each Focus book would contain 16 pages or so describing an iconic-type location that used the material in the book, with all maps and keys, so that the DM could see how the material was to be used. The iconic locations should, ideally, be site-based "adventures" adaptable to more than one game need. They should possibly be things that can be fleshed out by the DM to create full campaigns, such as a cool large-scale map of a lost city in the jungle that could be worked into greater detail if the DM so desired.
(The idea here would be to not only increase the "cool" factor, but to create something to draw in people on the outskirts.....as in, "Dang, I don't really need a book on designing forests, but the ruined city in WBF: Jungles was so cool that I have to see what they did in this one....."
)
I don't think that you want all fluff without crunch, but I do think that fluff should whet the appetite for crunch. When you sell Worldbuilding Focus: Deserts, the book should not only generate its own profit, but should fuel sales of Sandstorm as well.
RC
While all of these books would be fluff-centric, each would include both example crunch, and --most importantly -- a lot of information on how to develop your own crunch. For an example of this approach, think of the Encounter Trap section in Dungeonscape. Rather than merely providing crunch, that section gets you to think about what you want to do, why you want to do it, and then create appropriate crunch. Similarly, a Focus book on jungles might include some templates for "junglifying" existing monsters, might include some ideas for creating lost civilizations, and might include some very real crunchy bits....with a lot of fluff suggesting how those bits could be used, why the DM might include them, and how they might be presented.
IOW, the fluffy bits exist to psych the DM up so that these things need to be used. I'm sure we can all remember the feeling of cracking a book and reading something that drips so much flavour that we had to do something with it right now, and chuckled happily while we did that work. Then grinned big goofy grins while using it in an actual game.
Preferably, each Focus book would contain 16 pages or so describing an iconic-type location that used the material in the book, with all maps and keys, so that the DM could see how the material was to be used. The iconic locations should, ideally, be site-based "adventures" adaptable to more than one game need. They should possibly be things that can be fleshed out by the DM to create full campaigns, such as a cool large-scale map of a lost city in the jungle that could be worked into greater detail if the DM so desired.
(The idea here would be to not only increase the "cool" factor, but to create something to draw in people on the outskirts.....as in, "Dang, I don't really need a book on designing forests, but the ruined city in WBF: Jungles was so cool that I have to see what they did in this one....."
)I don't think that you want all fluff without crunch, but I do think that fluff should whet the appetite for crunch. When you sell Worldbuilding Focus: Deserts, the book should not only generate its own profit, but should fuel sales of Sandstorm as well.
RC
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Rystil Arden
First Post
Of course, sometimes we know our favourite setting isn't going to be the best seller, though. For instance Spelljammer--I thought immediately of mentioning it, and I love Spelljammer to pieces (Spelljammer is the only line or D&D products I went to E-Bay to find used), but I know it is too niche for me to possibly choose it in my first year of products as Fluff Brand Manager. My sneaky evil plan would be to release settings that will sell better, thus showing that the concept can sell well (I would imagine that Sigil or something else that is high-quality and Planescape-based would be wildly popular just based on how excited people seemed to get chasing at rumours that they thought could possibly be a revival of Planescape) and increasing my prestige and weight vis-a-vis Greg Nard. Then, and only then, would I consider my pet Spelljammer setting book.Scott_Rouse said:
Athenon said:
Heck yeah to all that.
1) Mordenkainen's Return: The World of Greyhawk (a Mona/Gygax production). Greyhawk reset to factory specs by the original author, with Troll Lords "Dunfalcon" IP thrown in.
2) Sea of Pearls (by Eric Mona): Fluff for WoG about the region of Cauldron, Isle of the Apes, the Amedio Jungle (Latin American RPG), Hepmonland (African RPG), and the Scarlet Brotherhood. Yes, it's all been done, but it could be combined nicely and reworked.
3) The Icy Sea (by Wolfgang Baur): Fluff for WoG about the region of Greyhawk's Blackmoor (possibly including Dave Arneson's material), the Rovers of the Barrens (American Indian RPG), Wolf/Tiger Nomads (Mongol/Hun RPG), Stonefist (Slavic RPG), and the Thilronian Peninsula Suel (Viking RPG). Leaves the Land of Black Ice and the City of the Gods untouched and unexplained.
4) The Village. Deeply detailed village or villages. If you can do only one, make it Hommlett.
5) The Valley. Slightly less detailed campaign setting in one small valley.
6) The Castle. Deeply detailed castle or castles. If you can do only one, make it the Keep on the Borderlands.
7) Fast Play D&D (by Gary Gygax). Simplified beginners rules based on Castles & Crusades. Not fluff, but needed. It could include a short fluffy reference guide to the Known World if desired.
8) Throw a bone to Forgotten Realms or Eberron.
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Greyhawk Guide
And yes, books on Fey & Giants would be good!
With fluff compared to the old boxed set and LGG together with crunch comparable to the FR book.
Greyhawk Gods All the various gods and pantheons (including demi-human & monstrous pantheons) covered in detail, core beliefs style.
And yes, books on Fey & Giants would be good!
BigFreekinGoblinoid
First Post
Sorry i'm late to the meeting! These are some terrific ideas. Before I share my list with you, I'd like to say two things:
Just because a 3rd party publisher has published a similarly themed book in the past doesn't mean we can't play in that sandbox. We have the time, money, resources, channel and brand awareness that will allow us to improve and expand on any worthwhile idea.
Books that people 'want to read' WILL be commercially successful. Products that try and appeal to all segments of our customer base end up pleasing few, as the breadth of content has been stretched thin and focus is lost.
Here are my recommendations for projects to greenlight for production assignments as requested. All of these books are fluff heavy, although a few require varying degrees of game statistics.
1) Worldbuilding Guidebook. The 2E product was terrific, and is still used by gronard players today. This update will go beyond the primary physical geographic concerns of the original to cover economic guidelines by low/medium/high magic prevalence. The Ebberon setting has done a great deal to add plausibility to the existence of magic in a fantasy world, but there are many other ideas to explore.
2) A Guide Book to Fey: Fey have been dissed big time by the D&D game; More beautiful than elves, more cunning than Kobolds, with some attention and the right treatment, they can become antagonists as popular as the Drow have been in the past.
3) FC3: Loths, 'leths and Hordelings. Oh, and this idea is gold, don't share it outside this room: Is it true that the 'leths are disappearing and their creation stones are being used to birth an entirely new, more powerful, race of fiends some are calling "Wastelings"? Is it also true that Anthraxus has been rumored to be their progenitor, representing the culmination of a long scheming plan to regain power and serve up some cold vengeance?
4) Tactics: Not a book teaching power gaming techniques based on rules bloat, but a book that helps characters best synergize party abilities and roles by composition, situation and level. A dual purpose book, DM's will also learn how to best pair monsters with complimentary abilities and use terrain, traps and more.
5) Artifacts: It isn't even the item's abilities that are the most interesting aspect, it is the history, how it was created, who used it and how, where it might be now, and how to destroy it, that fire the imagination into usefulness.
I'm throwing the Steamtech idea back over the fence to Greg. I think this is a super idea, but this will end up being a very crunch heavy project. Also, I love the idea for releasing large one off Campaign guides for various settings, and agree that Planescape should definitely be the first one.
The Law/Chaos/Nuetrality extraplanar series book idea also has some merit. What exactly motivates the Slaadi and what to they do with themselves? Are the Githzerai finally ready for that all out assault on the Astral plane? Does the new Primus have things under control? How do the Rilmani keep the multiverse so well balanced?
Oh, and Scott, when you see Kelly next week, please tell her I said "hello", and that I had a great time hanging out together in the Hamptons last month...
Just because a 3rd party publisher has published a similarly themed book in the past doesn't mean we can't play in that sandbox. We have the time, money, resources, channel and brand awareness that will allow us to improve and expand on any worthwhile idea.
Books that people 'want to read' WILL be commercially successful. Products that try and appeal to all segments of our customer base end up pleasing few, as the breadth of content has been stretched thin and focus is lost.
Here are my recommendations for projects to greenlight for production assignments as requested. All of these books are fluff heavy, although a few require varying degrees of game statistics.
1) Worldbuilding Guidebook. The 2E product was terrific, and is still used by gronard players today. This update will go beyond the primary physical geographic concerns of the original to cover economic guidelines by low/medium/high magic prevalence. The Ebberon setting has done a great deal to add plausibility to the existence of magic in a fantasy world, but there are many other ideas to explore.
2) A Guide Book to Fey: Fey have been dissed big time by the D&D game; More beautiful than elves, more cunning than Kobolds, with some attention and the right treatment, they can become antagonists as popular as the Drow have been in the past.
3) FC3: Loths, 'leths and Hordelings. Oh, and this idea is gold, don't share it outside this room: Is it true that the 'leths are disappearing and their creation stones are being used to birth an entirely new, more powerful, race of fiends some are calling "Wastelings"? Is it also true that Anthraxus has been rumored to be their progenitor, representing the culmination of a long scheming plan to regain power and serve up some cold vengeance?
4) Tactics: Not a book teaching power gaming techniques based on rules bloat, but a book that helps characters best synergize party abilities and roles by composition, situation and level. A dual purpose book, DM's will also learn how to best pair monsters with complimentary abilities and use terrain, traps and more.
5) Artifacts: It isn't even the item's abilities that are the most interesting aspect, it is the history, how it was created, who used it and how, where it might be now, and how to destroy it, that fire the imagination into usefulness.
I'm throwing the Steamtech idea back over the fence to Greg. I think this is a super idea, but this will end up being a very crunch heavy project. Also, I love the idea for releasing large one off Campaign guides for various settings, and agree that Planescape should definitely be the first one.
The Law/Chaos/Nuetrality extraplanar series book idea also has some merit. What exactly motivates the Slaadi and what to they do with themselves? Are the Githzerai finally ready for that all out assault on the Astral plane? Does the new Primus have things under control? How do the Rilmani keep the multiverse so well balanced?
Oh, and Scott, when you see Kelly next week, please tell her I said "hello", and that I had a great time hanging out together in the Hamptons last month...
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Terraism
Explorer
Hey, thanks! [Grins.]blargney the second said:
Yes. We might want more, but a well-done, one-off book to update older settings really is enough. Except for Ravenloft; frankly, I think Arhaus did well enough with that while they had it licensed to not be worth putting out a "WotC-version." I feel the same way about Dragonlance and Ms. Weis's stuff.Scott_Rouse said:
GreatLemur
Explorer
Okay, I couldn't resist typing 'em up in more detail. Here they are, in release schedule order.
1 - Magic: The Great Art
Outside of the Forgotten Realms, we've never really heard a lot about exactly how magic works. This book would offer information of the workings of the various types of magic in D&D, and seek to answer such questions as what material components are for, how Sorcerers know the words and gestures to unlock their inherited powers, and why Clerics have to pray for specific sets of miracles each day before they use them. What is "preparing a spell", anyway? Major sections would be devoted to arcane magic, divine magic, and psionics, with additional smaller sections for the various non-core magic systems. Alternate explanations and few optional rules might also be offered to help DMs tweak the workings of magic according to their preferences.
In addition to this, the book would detail magic's place in the world, and its impact on both civilization and the environment. This would include such issues as where all those magic items are coming from, who can be a Wizard and what it takes to get the necessary training, what kind of impact healing and resurrection magic might have on society (given different levels of availability), and how things like law enforcement, transportation, entertainment, and warfare might be changed by magic.
A section on different magical organizations (schools, unions, watchdog groups, military units, etc.) would also be cool, but such a topic could run long enough to be a book in its own right.
2 - untitled Keith Thompson campaign setting
One good look through his site will show that this man clearly has several good campaign worlds in him already, if only he could be given the publishing deal to get them out. Paired with a good developer, and put in charge of a team of other artists with compatible styles, I have no doubt that he would produce a distinctive, flavorful, and playable campaign setting, as well as one of the most beautiful, coffee-table-friendly books WotC has ever published. I'm imagining this as a slim, heavily-illustrated, crunch-light (or even crunch-free) book, with a distinctly different style of art direction than other D&D books. It should be intended to inspire and awe, rather than serve as a campaign bible or world atlas.
3 - Heroes of Intrigue
A lot of people have been asking for this for a while, and it's a subject that can encompass a whole lot of material. The "intrigue" the title refers to would include both mystery stories and political intrigue. At its core, this book would be about non-combat, non-athletic challenges, focusing instead on the social and informational tasks that PCs might face.
It would include articles about (and new mechanics for) tracking, clue analysis, library use, NPC contacts, reputation-building and reputation-ruining, scrying, cryptography, and other ways of obtaining information or denying it to your enemies.
Additionally, there would be DM advice for running mystery-based adventures, engaging PCs as political pawns, and managing PCs who become political powers. A lot of "How to make sure what's going on makes sense, and that your players have a handle on everything that's going one, without giving away the stuff you want them to find out on their own" advice, along with things like faction influence/relationship flowcharts and how they can relate to PCs during and between adventures.
Finally, the book would offer a sample city--one described more by a faction chart than by a map--with several of sample organizations including political parties, criminal gangs, religious groups, merchant cartels, trade guilds, and so on. This might also include some NPCs, but full statblocks wouldn't be as necessary as lists of personal values, alliances and enmities, and short-term and long-term goals.
4 - untitled Brom campaign setting
I know he all but defined the look of Dark Sun, but Dark Sun is long out of print, and Brom's work clearly shows a greater array of ideas than ever made it into that setting's visuals. I'd love to see what he'd come up with these days.
5 - Tome of Alchemy: Fantastic Science
Taking alchemy--which is a more popular concept these days than it's generally credited as--beyond a simple Craft skill, this book would expand it to a kind of non-magical "magic" with its own particular capabilities, limitations, and subsystems. It would include the following:
While he's known primarily as a science fiction illustrator, if you've seen Barlowe's Inferno or his various Thype sketches, you know he has even more to offer fantasy. For that matter, if you've read Expedition, you know he's got the capacity to develop and deliver whole worlds. Getting this guy to head up a campaign setting book would be a tremendous coup, and pure gold.
7 - Base Matter: The Book of Constructs
There aren't many monster types in D&D with the infinite possibilities, cool visuals, and modern feel of constructs. This book would discuss the whys, hows, similarities, and differences of familiar construct types such as golems, homunculi, and clockwork automatons, just how what kind of orders a "mindless" creature can follow, the morality of creating constructs, and their place in society in various types of settings. It would also be cool to examine constructs in terms of the nature of their animating force: arcane, divine, psionic, alchemical, mechanical, and so on.
Naturally, this book would also include a moderate selection of new constructs, along with the requirements for their creation. It would be particularly cool to include one or two new (non-Warforged, non-robot-like) playable "races" of constructs, and to explore the idea of a construct lich-equivalent: powerful spellcasters who have transferred their minds or brains into immortal, artificial bodies. And I really like the idea of construct animation as a kind of magical disease, which some kind of "wild" construct spreads to inanimate objects of one type or another.
One of the most interesting things about constructs, though, is that they can be custom built. They can be made from a wide variety of materials, can be constructed to look like almost anything, and can certainly be built with non-standard features and components. These could be represented mechanically through templates and built-in magical items, and would add the same kind of mileage to the clay golem that class levels add to the orc.
Furthermore, a lot of PC options could be included in a book like this: We definitely need new, low-level (even non-combatant) constructs for PCs to create, and I think there's room in the game for task-specific "constructs" which are statted up as magical items rather than monsters (think spider-like spy drones sent to infiltrate a fortress, and relay images back to a viewing device). And, ever since I saw the half-golem template, I've been dying for a more viable way for PCs to have golem-like cyborg parts.
8 - Worlds Without End
The Great Wheel cosmology doesn't work for everyone. Many D&D campaign settings offer alternate planar arrangements, but they're generally very strongly tied to those specific settings. Therefore, I think there'd be a lot of use in offering a set of alternative cosmologies, including both new ways to organize the standard planes, and whole new sets of planes (along with different ways to organize them). It would be nice if this was a somewhat art-heavy book, offering both illustrations and diagrams to make the natures of these planes clear to gamers.
It would also be nice to work details on the Far Realms, the Plane of Shadow, the Dreamlands (or similar), and possibly even Sigil into this book, but honestly, they all deserve their own books. On the other hand, giving each of them a short section in this one would be a good way to gauge people's interest in seeing more material on them.
1 - Magic: The Great Art
Outside of the Forgotten Realms, we've never really heard a lot about exactly how magic works. This book would offer information of the workings of the various types of magic in D&D, and seek to answer such questions as what material components are for, how Sorcerers know the words and gestures to unlock their inherited powers, and why Clerics have to pray for specific sets of miracles each day before they use them. What is "preparing a spell", anyway? Major sections would be devoted to arcane magic, divine magic, and psionics, with additional smaller sections for the various non-core magic systems. Alternate explanations and few optional rules might also be offered to help DMs tweak the workings of magic according to their preferences.
In addition to this, the book would detail magic's place in the world, and its impact on both civilization and the environment. This would include such issues as where all those magic items are coming from, who can be a Wizard and what it takes to get the necessary training, what kind of impact healing and resurrection magic might have on society (given different levels of availability), and how things like law enforcement, transportation, entertainment, and warfare might be changed by magic.
A section on different magical organizations (schools, unions, watchdog groups, military units, etc.) would also be cool, but such a topic could run long enough to be a book in its own right.
2 - untitled Keith Thompson campaign setting
One good look through his site will show that this man clearly has several good campaign worlds in him already, if only he could be given the publishing deal to get them out. Paired with a good developer, and put in charge of a team of other artists with compatible styles, I have no doubt that he would produce a distinctive, flavorful, and playable campaign setting, as well as one of the most beautiful, coffee-table-friendly books WotC has ever published. I'm imagining this as a slim, heavily-illustrated, crunch-light (or even crunch-free) book, with a distinctly different style of art direction than other D&D books. It should be intended to inspire and awe, rather than serve as a campaign bible or world atlas.
3 - Heroes of Intrigue
A lot of people have been asking for this for a while, and it's a subject that can encompass a whole lot of material. The "intrigue" the title refers to would include both mystery stories and political intrigue. At its core, this book would be about non-combat, non-athletic challenges, focusing instead on the social and informational tasks that PCs might face.
It would include articles about (and new mechanics for) tracking, clue analysis, library use, NPC contacts, reputation-building and reputation-ruining, scrying, cryptography, and other ways of obtaining information or denying it to your enemies.
Additionally, there would be DM advice for running mystery-based adventures, engaging PCs as political pawns, and managing PCs who become political powers. A lot of "How to make sure what's going on makes sense, and that your players have a handle on everything that's going one, without giving away the stuff you want them to find out on their own" advice, along with things like faction influence/relationship flowcharts and how they can relate to PCs during and between adventures.
Finally, the book would offer a sample city--one described more by a faction chart than by a map--with several of sample organizations including political parties, criminal gangs, religious groups, merchant cartels, trade guilds, and so on. This might also include some NPCs, but full statblocks wouldn't be as necessary as lists of personal values, alliances and enmities, and short-term and long-term goals.
4 - untitled Brom campaign setting
I know he all but defined the look of Dark Sun, but Dark Sun is long out of print, and Brom's work clearly shows a greater array of ideas than ever made it into that setting's visuals. I'd love to see what he'd come up with these days.
5 - Tome of Alchemy: Fantastic Science
Taking alchemy--which is a more popular concept these days than it's generally credited as--beyond a simple Craft skill, this book would expand it to a kind of non-magical "magic" with its own particular capabilities, limitations, and subsystems. It would include the following:
- Alchemist base class - Similar to the Artificer, but with a more specific focus. Would learn and use "concoctions"--alchemical mixtures with a one-day shelf life--in a manner similar to a Wizard's spells, and create alchemical items, poisons, exotic materials, and non-magical potions using the Craft (alchemy) skill.
- Refined base class - Warrior/hyrbid class focused on an internal, biological alchemy, referencing both the immortals of Chinese myth and the matter-into-spirit magnum opus sough by Western alchemy. This class would focus on temporary self-buffs, such as stat boots and bodily transformations.
- Catalog of rare materials - This section would detail hard-to-obtain (that is, impossible to simply purchase) animal, vegetable, mineral, and supernatural materials with useful magical and/or alchemical properties. Primarily, these things could be used to decrease the GP costs and Craft DCs of certain alchemical projects (and possibly the XP costs of creating certain magic items), and might even be completely necessary for some recipes. Further, some of these materials could be useful in their own right, either for their basic properties or as spell components (possibly using the metamagic components rules from Unearthed Arcana). Recognizing and harvesting many of these materials (whether from plants, mines, or dead monsters) will generally require skill checks.
- Catalog of alchemical items - The game's existing array of alchemical items would necessarily need to be greatly expanded, taking them from their current status as weaker magical items to a class of objects all their own. Alchemy's status as non-magical--and thus essentially a kind of technology--would be played up, here. Also included would be components of the well-equipped alchemist's lab, including the expected "+X to Craft (alchemy) checks" items, and odder things like protectives against lab accidents and detectors for specific classes of rare materials.
- Expanded poison rules - Poison-making and -use hasn't gotten much attention in D&D 3.x, so far, and this would be the perfect place to address this. Additionally, we could use a longer list of poisons with more varied and interesting effects than some ability damage, and then more ability damage exactly one minute later.
While he's known primarily as a science fiction illustrator, if you've seen Barlowe's Inferno or his various Thype sketches, you know he has even more to offer fantasy. For that matter, if you've read Expedition, you know he's got the capacity to develop and deliver whole worlds. Getting this guy to head up a campaign setting book would be a tremendous coup, and pure gold.
7 - Base Matter: The Book of Constructs
There aren't many monster types in D&D with the infinite possibilities, cool visuals, and modern feel of constructs. This book would discuss the whys, hows, similarities, and differences of familiar construct types such as golems, homunculi, and clockwork automatons, just how what kind of orders a "mindless" creature can follow, the morality of creating constructs, and their place in society in various types of settings. It would also be cool to examine constructs in terms of the nature of their animating force: arcane, divine, psionic, alchemical, mechanical, and so on.
Naturally, this book would also include a moderate selection of new constructs, along with the requirements for their creation. It would be particularly cool to include one or two new (non-Warforged, non-robot-like) playable "races" of constructs, and to explore the idea of a construct lich-equivalent: powerful spellcasters who have transferred their minds or brains into immortal, artificial bodies. And I really like the idea of construct animation as a kind of magical disease, which some kind of "wild" construct spreads to inanimate objects of one type or another.
One of the most interesting things about constructs, though, is that they can be custom built. They can be made from a wide variety of materials, can be constructed to look like almost anything, and can certainly be built with non-standard features and components. These could be represented mechanically through templates and built-in magical items, and would add the same kind of mileage to the clay golem that class levels add to the orc.
Furthermore, a lot of PC options could be included in a book like this: We definitely need new, low-level (even non-combatant) constructs for PCs to create, and I think there's room in the game for task-specific "constructs" which are statted up as magical items rather than monsters (think spider-like spy drones sent to infiltrate a fortress, and relay images back to a viewing device). And, ever since I saw the half-golem template, I've been dying for a more viable way for PCs to have golem-like cyborg parts.
8 - Worlds Without End
The Great Wheel cosmology doesn't work for everyone. Many D&D campaign settings offer alternate planar arrangements, but they're generally very strongly tied to those specific settings. Therefore, I think there'd be a lot of use in offering a set of alternative cosmologies, including both new ways to organize the standard planes, and whole new sets of planes (along with different ways to organize them). It would be nice if this was a somewhat art-heavy book, offering both illustrations and diagrams to make the natures of these planes clear to gamers.
It would also be nice to work details on the Far Realms, the Plane of Shadow, the Dreamlands (or similar), and possibly even Sigil into this book, but honestly, they all deserve their own books. On the other hand, giving each of them a short section in this one would be a good way to gauge people's interest in seeing more material on them.
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