Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="mythusmage" data-source="post: 2276126" data-attributes="member: 571">When I hear of a book that purports to cover Earth's past the first thought I have is, the whole thing? Even if you limit it to human history you're dealing with over 5,000 years. What did I see with d20 Past? Thin gruel.<a href="http://www.sjgames.com" target="_blank">Steve Jackson Games</a> produces a number of historical sourcebooks for GURPS. From Classical Greece to World War II, but nothing yet for the Ancient Near East. Well done, comprehensively researched, and well written. If you don't have the time to hit the library they are a good substitution.In addition, if you know the GURPS and d20 systems well it shouldn't be that hard to convert GURPS stats to d20.My point? Methinks Wizards would do far better to produce historical sourcebooks. Start with d20 Imperial Rome, then d20 Classical Greece. The Medieval Period, Renaissance, the Age of Exploration (pirates are popular, if you hadn't noticed ) ), and the Cold War could be sellers. Hell, done well most any period could gain an audience.Which is the sticking point. SJG's GURPS historical sourcebooks have an audience because they are done well. By and large d20 products - Wizard and third party - suffer in comparison. Compare GURPS Fantasy (4e) (William Stoddard) with D&D itself sometime. Bill is simply the better writer. With an author of his caliber D&D would be a very different and much better work.Compelling writing, engaging writing is what a publisher needs to make any book sell. Sidewinder Recoiled works in large part because it is a better written book than most other d20 efforts. The same applies to Green Ronin's Medieval Players Handbook and The Black Company.Select a period, research it, make it come to life. Do it well and your book will do far better than most anyone expected.Here's a challenge for you: Do a d20 historical sourcebook on early Sumeria. The period from about 5,000 to 4,000 BC when the Sumerians descended from the Zagros Mountains into Upper Mesopotamia and largely displaced the Ubaid Culture. Make the period and the people come to life and you will have a bigger success than you could ever expect.d20 Past failed because it fulfilled the old saying; no guts, no glory. Go for the gold, and if you do fail, at least it won't be for lack of trying.</blockquote>

Verification