D&D Brand Manager of Fluff

[Uzzy]

Myths & Legends Realms - Folk tales, legendary figures, urban myths and more of the Forgotten Realms. Given the epic nature of the realms, this will have more crunch, but it'll also have write-ups of events and characters from the novels in a format that makes them useful for DMs who have never read (and have no interest in the novels) and never-before-seen setting details about the more obscure corners of the Realms, with an eye toward ideas and areas that would make for compelling adventures.

I was going to suggest just that! My suggestions are rather FR centric, seeing as that's my favourite setting. Don't know enough about the others to give good suggestions.

A Book of Intrigue would be great. 160 pages of details on Harper plots, Zhentarim politics, how infiltration works when your enemy has lots of magical divination spells, stuff like that.

Bardic Songbook. What Songs are sung in the Realms? What is the Bard in the Inn going to be singing? Exactly what sort of rumours are going round the realms? Just chain Elaine Cunningham to a typewriter and have her pump out songs!

Faiths of Faerún. Long overdue. A sourcebook looking in depth at the various religions, their rituals, holy days, what the churchs look like, what they say. Things like that. Would need to be huge to fit everything in though.

Finally, a Volo's Almanac. 32 pages every December detailing the latest changes to the game world.

Hope these suggestions help Scott!

 

[Richards]

Well, as long as I'm dreaming, I'll throw this into the pot, since it's specifically fluff that Scott's looking for:

The Complete Monster Hunters Association: Each of the previously-published "Ecology" articles featuring the Monster Hunters (updated to 3.5, where necessary), plus their "Rogue's Gallery" article, plus as many more "Ecology" articles as are needed to fill up the book to whatever page count has been decided upon. These would all be in the old "fiction and footnote" format that Dragon's "Ecology" articles used to follow, where the majority of the article was "fluff" in the form of the short story, but it also included the appropriate "crunch" in the footnotes that provided the game mechanics. Throw in artwork by Tony DiTerlizzi and/or Mike May, and we're good to go.

And dream or not, I've already got the next three such unpublished "Ecology" articles completed, with ideas for several more, should such a suggestion ever be seriously considered.

Johnathan

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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.

O RLY?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I can't help but be amused by how many of the books suggested have already been done by 3rd party publishers.

I'm not sure "amused" is really the right word, but I noticed the same thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

True, but for many people (such as myself) if the book wasn't done by WotC, then it may as well not exist.

Any DM not picking up, say, A Magical Medieval Society: Western Europe because it's not done by WotC is giving his game some serious self-inflicted wounds. This is especially true given the lavish praise heaped on it by WotC designers themselves.

Likewise, to not buy a third party product created by past, present or future WotC designers (i.e. products they did before going there) because it doesn't say WotC on the cover doesn't make a lick of sense.

And then there's Year's Best D20, in which the author of the 3E DMG hand-picks the best third party stuff, sticks it all between two covers and offers it up for a ridiculously low price.

I offer to personally write "Wizards of the Coast" on any of these products, if that's the big hang-up.

 

[Kobold Avenger]

Sigl: Yes without a question I definitely want a book on Sigil. Bring the cage back to life again, with a well illustrated, surreal and high-quirky concept books. Showcase the factions and guilds (I'm not advocating restoring Sigil to the way it was before Faction War, that would be uncreative). Make the Hive, Lower Ward, Lady's Ward, Clerk Ward, Market Ward, Guildhall Wards and Undersigil each distinct settings all in own unique ways. Offer plenty of hooks for more ideas... Even make some small tie-ins to Planescape: Torment to possibly draw in others. But emphasize the interesting ideas unique to planescape, and have plenty of stuff to use for all levels. Even ways to make low-level adventuring ideas such as gang-warfare, walking in the bad part of town or magic shop madness in Sigil interesting.

Campaign Setting (Limited Releases or One-shots): Of course you can always bring back Planescape, or Dark Sun, or any number of older settings. I'd certainly support them as a limited or oneshot release.

FCIII: Yeah I'm another voice that wants to see a book on the Yugoloths. They're certainly my favourite fiends, and the book should find some very good niches for these fiends to fill. Explain the lore about the ancient and mysterious Baernaloths, shine the spotlight on the General of Gehenna, the Oinoloth, Anthraxus, Charon, Bubonix, Apomps and more. Also throw in Gehreleths/Demodands, Hordelings and Night Hags since they're neutral evil fiends.

Celestial Codex: I want a book on the residents of the upper planes too. And I certainly want such a book to be more than just on the LG ones. I like the CG celestials a lot better, Paizo publishing seems to like them a lot better too, as you should notice how recently Queen Morwel and Gwynharwyf have factored a lot into the background of the Demon Lords. Such a book should be about all the celestial races (because I don't see there being enough support for this being a series) a celestial version of the Fiendish Codex, but parts of Book of Exalted Deeds II and Savage Species thrown in. It should cover how to use them in campaigns, how to use them without overshadowing the PCs, and even how to play them as an option.

Faeries & Folklore: Basically my idea of of the Fey book, cover not only the Fey, but also faerie-tales and folk-lore from all around the world in a D&D campaign. The book should cover faerie societies, the faerie world and what happens when they meet mortals, for good and ill.

Heroes of Intrigue: This needs to be a book, there needs to be a source for campaigns based more around roleplaying and character interaction. A look into playing with politics, intrigue, trade, romance and other things that don't involve swinging a sword around.

The Apocryphal Codex: This book should be about the LN, CN and N outsiders, the ones that don't quite fit in. It should be about the Modrons, Inevitables, Slaad, Rilmani and other LN, CN and TN outsiders. Even ones undiscovered before such as the mentioned in passing Aphanacts, for all those who for example want CN outsiders being something else other than giant frogs. This book should explain some of the ancient war of the Vaati, and the consequences it brought on all existence. It should detail Primus, Ssendam, Ygorl, Renbuu, Chourst, Centre-Of-All and more...

The Goblinoid Book: A book on playing goblinoids and orcs as player characters. I want this book to present many different goblinoid societies from the classic savage humanoids, to an enlightened parallel humanoid society, to social pariahs as goblinoids living in a ghetto in a human city. This book should for example provide you with compelling ideas for example if you wanted to play something like a LG Hobgoblin Paladin, and other different ideas.

Steamtech D&D: I want a book on WotC's take on steam-punk settings, specifically steam punk in D&D. It could be a D&D and D20 Modern bridge book, but I want there to be things for playing wizards and bards in a steam-punk world. Emphasize different aspects and parts for a setting that's more technologically advanced with examples of Victorian London, the Wild West, and even old worlds like other parts of Europe or Asia or Africa colliding with technological progress. Put tools in for a world with airships, strange wonders and inventions and new ideas and schools of thoughts coming out.

 

[Klaus]

First, I'd check with Greg what he's cooking to see if any niches are left uncovered.

Then I'd consider what would make the game more appealing, specially to gamers used to CRPGs. The main advantage a CRPG has over the tabletops is the graphics side. So I'd tap the artist base WotC can access and have them do illustrations that would be useful when running a game set in one setting, the kind of stuff that used to be in the Dragonlance calendars. Which begets:

- A Visual Guide to Eberron

- A Visual Guide to the Forgotten Realms

- A Visual Guide to the Planes

Since Bardic Music is within my new purview:

- Complete Minstrel: A Guide to Music and Myth for All Classes

I'd also make sure every "generic" D&D book has at least two (preferrably three) fluff options for each major crunch addition (like classes).

- Book of Campaigns: much like the campaign models for d20 Modern, this would offer several "templates" to be applied to the baseline D&D world, making it more Howard/Lieber, Tolkien/Anderson, etc, adjusting treasure, deadliness and (guess it!) fluff.

Following the "creature book" line, which is fluff-intensive:

- Sidhe Libram: A Guide to Fey.

- Gigantonomicon: A Guide to Giants.

And to use an in-house property that is experiencing a resurgence in exposure and popularity:

- Transformers d20 (using Star Wars Saga as a baseline)

And as soon as the other movie comes out:

- G.I. Joe d20 (once again, Saga-ized).

As for my last product, I'd work specially hard to put together:

- Urban Arcana TV series. Increase the exposure of D&D with a reversal of the old D&D cartoon (instead of modern kids in fantasy world, fantasy creatures in modern world).

So that's 10 projects. You can help me pare them down to 8.

 

[Oryan77]

So I'd tap the artist base WotC can access and have them do illustrations that would be useful when running a game set in one setting

- A Visual Guide to Eberron

- A Visual Guide to the Forgotten Realms

- A Visual Guide to the Planes

That's a great idea. I would kill for a book of nothing but brand new illustrations. Not simply of people, but of landscapes and towns/cities ect.

I'm always searching the web for landscape artwork that I can use to show my players an example of what the environment looks like.

There's some really good illustrations in the new FR & Eberron books. I really like the style of those paintings.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's a great idea. I would kill for a book of nothing but brand new illustrations. Not simply of people, but of landscapes and towns/cities ect.

I suspect new art is a LOT more expensive per inch than new text. How few pages would you be willing to accept in a Visual Guide for the same price as a regular book? Because I suspect WotC would think such a product is a good idea, too, if enough people agreed with your page count/price point (and it fell within their standard expected guidelines).

 

[3catcircus]

Let's see:

1. From Our Fields to Your Table: a description of the trade routes of the Forgotten Realms. Details on carvans and merchant fleets, an expansion and clarification of the trade maps in FRCS, and typical caravan makeups. You could also do the same things for Greyhawk and Eberron all in the same book.

2. Armies of Faerun: a survey of the military forces of the Forgotten Realms. Orders of Battle, Tables of Organization and Equipment, specific military ranks, awards and insignia, biographies of key leaders. Jerry Davis's "The Military Forces of Cormyr" on Candlekeep.com is a perfect example of the type of detail I would expect.

3. Poor Wizards Almanac Redux: I would love to see a treatment of Greyhawk, Forgotten Realms (and throw Eberron a bone) that is similar to the old Poor Wizard's Alamanac. The stuff that is glaringly absent is the mundane stuff: average height of a mountain range along with it's highest peak, weather patterns, average high/low by month, etc.

4. Atlas of the Universe: release an updated electronic atlas for Forgotten Realms, along with for Greyhawk and Eberron. Make sure they include topographic maps and are scaleable to the 1/4-mile range (so you can print out battlemaps for wilderness encounters).

5. Inscrutable Mysteries of the East: Redo Kara-Tur and Zakhara. Full treatment, maps, etc.

6. What's Over There?: a treatment of Greyhawk outside of the Flanaess.

7. FCIII: give the 'loths some love.

8. Intrigue in Thyatis: I loved the political intrigue aspects of the two old Thyatis adventure modules. They gave some very practical advice for running a campaign revolving around political intrigue.

Do I get more than 8?