Freaking Awesome 3rd Party Books That Don't Get Enough Praise

[jdrakeh]

RAR is much more stylish and is not laden with bizarre assumptions and a redundant first level.

It's also not the same kind of product (WLD is a 1-20 dungeon adventure path, while RAR is a high level dungeon adventure)

 

[Ghostwind]

Darkwalkers The Evil Within by DragonWing

http://enworld.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=7598&

I have not read another source that put evil into a framework that lets evil have a goal\strategy. It keeps everyone from killing each other just to prove how evil they are and has a lot of crunch!

Wow. That's high praise. Thank you very much for it. Slowly, more and more people are picking this up and adding it to their collection. It will be even easier in a few weeks when the print version comes out. It will also be at Gen Con (for those making shopping lists).

 

[Teflon Billy]

Man, I hardly know where to begin. 3rd party uf is the lion's share of what I use...

This should be quite a list, please bear with me...

• Dawnforge. Awesome setting that manags to be both high-powered and non-cheesy.
  
  
• From Stone to Steel. A truly massive equipment book broken down by historical era with appropraite classes and such tossed in for great justice.
  
  
• The Black Company. Nice low-magic rules, but the real winner here was the rules for equipment.
  
  
• Alchemy and Herbalists. One of the few books that actually made me pay attention to an ignored "nich" in my own campaign.
  
  
• Magical Medieval Society: Ecology and Culture. Best Fantasy Worldbuilding handbook ever. Presented in a very readable fashion (it could've very easily read like a textbook)
  
  
• Denizens of Avadnu. Already well documented in this thread. One of three "go to" books for monsters in my campaign (Tome of Horrors and Monsternomicon being the other two)...maybe the most unfairly overlooked product of all time.
  
  
• Beyond Monks. Took what I considered to be a very limited and "cookie-cutter" class and jazzed them up considerably, without going the route of overpowering them.
  
  
• Advanced Bestiary. Not sure this one meets the "doesn't get enough priase" requirement of the thread. The praie heaped on it is well-deserved.
  
  
• A Game of Thrones: Released in a storm of controversy as the publisher went under on a sour note. The product itself is maybe the finest 3rd party effort seen to that point.
  
  
• Necromancer's Legacy. Took a subject I considered both "juvenile" and "done to death" and breathed new life into it.
  
  
• Poisoncraft. Much like Alchemy and Herbalists before it, pretty much forced me to expand a niche in my game due to it's awesomeness.
  
  
• Airships. Didn;t think I would like it...seemed gimmicky. Triggered a 9-month campaign that is still talked about fondly.
  

...and if you aren't meaning just "D&D Fantasy"...

• Sidewinder: Recoiled. About as fine a Cowboy game as I could wish for.
  
  
• Mutants and Masterminds. Again, not sure if this meets the "no praise" requirement...but it's awesomeness is inarguabl. I wouldn't have thought that D20 would've been a very good model for displacing Champions as the Best SUpers Game ever...I was wrong.
  
  
• Spycraft 2.0. Infinitely better than the already pretty good Spycraft. Awesome game.

 

[caudor]

Thank you, man. Seriously. I really feel that DoL is one of the best projects I've designed, and certainly the best of the various adventures I've written. It's always bugged me that, since it came out at the beginning of Necromancer's partnership with Kenzer, it (and several other modules that came out about the same time) never got all that much attention.

Yeah, I was puzzled why Doom of Listonshire didn't get much attention at the time. You are probably right...just a quirky timing thing.

DoL can't be praised enough

 

[Bacris]

Wow, I missed this thread the first time around - and the very nice words about my first book on the first page, to boot!

My vote goes to Hyperconscious - it's the 3rd party sourcebook I use most frequently when I game (although mostly for the psicrystal staff and mindscapes combat system... love both!)

 

[TarionzCousin]

Some of my favorites:

Malhavoc's Chaositech and Book of Iron Might
Green Ronin Shaman’s Handbook
Necromancer Games' Eldritch Sorcery
AEG's Toolbox

P.S. I dub this thread the "most expensive thread ever," as it is going to cause me to spend mucho dineiro.
Great recommendations here, folks.

 

[Arrgh! Mark!]

It's been mentioned, but Atlas Games Splintered Peace is a very interesting module; I picked it up for ten bucks from the second hand store, and it is an excellent way to incorporate depth into games. I've been meaning to run it for some time.

Not for everyone, but certainly for people who don't mind dealing with mature topics.

Privateer Press: IK line. I don't much care for the mechanics, but I love the setting. Witchfire Trilogy wasn't very good, though.

True 20 deserves a mention also. I like it.

 

[Yair]

I've always wondered why Atlas Games' Love & War didn't get more love. It's a fantastic book. Ruleswise, it's head and shoulders above the PHBII knight, introducing a half dozen knight prestige classes, tons of feats, and a very satisfying amount of discusson. It's a whole book full of ideas relevant to "would a knight do X" or "would a paladin do X." I feel it's a great look at medieval romance, something D&D could use more of.

I'll second that. I really loved Love & War.

 

[Darrin Drader]

This thread actually caused me to buy Denizens of Avadnu (many months ago, back before the foul necromancy brought it back), and I agree that it is one of the best monster books ever made. I know nothing about the world of Avadnu, but this monster book doesn't revolve around the setting, and the monsters are very usable in standard D&D.

 

[Aus_Snow]

The monster book actually came before the setting (er, the setting book anyway), which is yet to arrive on the scene (that is, the Avadnu Primer). The Broken Isles PDFs came out not too far back though, detailing one smallish section of Avadnu. Very cool.


Just thought I'd second the Book of Broken Dreams and Nature's Wrath, too, while I was at it. Underappreciated, I'm sure.