Filling out my 3e collection

[The Lemon Merchant]

I'm looking to fill some gaps in my 3e collection over the next couple of months (not "upgrading" to 4e) and want some advice. I have Races of Stone, but never got around to picking up the rest of the Race series, is it worth my money to try and get them? I'm also wondering about Cityscape, it's the only environment book I haven't picked up, based on the opinion of one person, I'd like to hear some other thoughts on that one as well.

 

[amethal]

I'm looking to fill some gaps in my 3e collection over the next couple of months (not "upgrading" to 4e) and want some advice. I have Races of Stone, but never got around to picking up the rest of the Race series, is it worth my money to try and get them? I'm also wondering about Cityscape, it's the only environment book I haven't picked up, based on the opinion of one person, I'd like to hear some other thoughts on that one as well.

I don't rate the various Races books very highly.

I don't own any of them (unless you count Races of Eberron), so this is all from browsing in the FLGS, but :-

most of the fluff annoys me
I don't like the new races
the crunch was (understandably) race specific but I couldn't see why, for example, only dwarves can take feat x or prestige class y

I like Cityscape, but I seem to be very much in the minority on that one. I guess not everyone finds splitting cities up into wards to be fun

If you are missing any of the "type of monster" books - Draconomicon etc. I'd suggest getting them instead.

 

[Eldragon]

I've never been very impressed with the Races series either. Whenever I'm rolling a character, I usually stick to the Complete X book that matches the class I took. It always seems the feats/spells/etc added in the Complete series go nicely with any character, making the book more versatile.

 

[Mark Hope]

Depends on how much they're going to cost you. I was so unimpressed by the original three Races of... books (Stone, Wild and Destiny) that I never bothered to pick them up. Eventually I was lucky enough to stumble across the slipcase gift set at an absurdly low price. I bought it and pretty much got what I paid for, lol.

There are some interesting bits and pieces here and there. The variant versions of the core races are pretty interesting (whisper gnomes and stuff like that) and fitted well with my homebrew. The racial substitution levels are also pretty neat. There are some funs bits of equipment and some of the feats are worth a look.

I don't like the new races, though, or the pages and pages of fluff. I'm a gamer who builds his own races and his own fluff and so gets little mileage out of those sort of things in published releases. YMMV, on the other hand.

By comparison, I found Races of the Dragon to be stonkingly good, but then I have a homebrew with widespread draconic elements. I'm not fond of Eberron, so I haven't really looked at Races of Eberron, but an Eberronophile buddy of mine rates it pretty highly, both from crunch and fluff points of view.

So, yeah, I'd see if you can get them for cheap

I'd also echo the comments above that - if you don't already have them - you should definitely get the Monsters series (Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, Lords of Madness and, sigh, Drow of the Underdark.) They're great.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Races of the Wild and Races of the Dragon have served our group admirably and usefully. The others some, but nowhere near as much.

Cityscape, I just re-read that this weekend for an upcoming game, and yes it is quite good. I actually wish it was 50 pages longer, but it covers nearly all the basics and lots to steal from.

-DM Jeff

 

[ivocaliban]

I have the original three and I can say that they all offer something of interest. Unlike many, I dislike all three of the new races (including the much lauded Goliaths), but I do enjoy the chapters on "other races." Some of my favorites include the Whisper Gnomes (from Stone), the Killoren (from Wild) and the Mongrelfolk (from Destiny). I also enjoyed the descriptive chapters on Dwarves, Gnomes, Elves and Halflings, though the chapters dedicated to Humans and Half-elves/orcs seemed relatively vague and pointless.

I think Races of the Wild is certainly worth picking up if you can get it at a fair price. Races of Destiny has less to offer, but does include some interesting feats and substitution levels. Though I wouldn't really recommend it unless you can get it at less than half price.

 

[GAAAHHH]

I like Cityscape, but I seem to be very much in the minority on that one. I guess not everyone finds splitting cities up into wards to be fun

I also liked Cityscape. It is useful for pre-made city maps, NPCs (guards, thieves, merchants, etc.), and adventure ideas. Some of the feats are less than useful, but overall it was a good (if a little too short) book.