[GR] Advanced books? Anyone else excited?

[jester47]

It just doesn't sound like anything special me. Sorry.

I mean this is just it. This is a great example of the problem of the glut. It could be a great product, but Keep It Simple Silly.

Aaron.

 

[jester47]

what d20 needs

What I'd be hoping for is a series of "how-to" books. How to design a monster and assign the correct CR. How to adjust the monster's CR for various party compositions so that you don't get either a walkover or a TPK. How to design your own balanced core classes and prestige classes. How to modify an existing core class or prestige class to what the player or DM wants (e.g. rangers without spells, rangers without weapon styles, rangers without evasion, rangers without Hide in Plain Sight , etc) and maintain game balance. How to design balanced feats. How to design balanced spells. How to design scenarios that allow each PC a chance to shine. How to run games with higher-powered characters (e.g. 36 point buy, an ability score increase every even level, a feat every odd level, etc). Stuff like that.

This would be a product I would buy. The thing is, we have seen books that are supposed to do that, but fall way short of the mark. Good examples are Book of Vile Darkness and Book of Exalted Deeds. I wouold greatly welcome long essays on the very topics given short order in those books. A good example of hitting the mark is the Villian Design Handbook. Its not that these books do badly. Its that they ussually are just not that good.

GMs need more stuff like Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering, NPC essentials, Listen Up You Primitive Screwheads, and Roleplayingtips.com.

We need lists of pre statted foes, WITHOUT THE BACKGROUNDS WE ARE NEVER GOING TO USE!!! We need tower designs unstocked. We need dungeons we canchange without ignoring pages of text. We need cities with enough room to customise. Freeport is wildly successful, Bluffside was a hit, Rappan Athuk ruled. Give me generic places, magic items, and NPCs. Make it so I don't have to write if I don't want to. And so I dont have to go digging for stats if I don't want to. We need "heres the map of the monestary. Here are a bunch of generic monks. If they are evil, they are different in this way. Here are some things that might be going on." And then leave it at that! Aside from the map The Abby of Green Steel was frustrating cause it was dso god darned specific about the people who lived there!

Now if what firelance described is what these books are, then great, I am interested.

Johnn Four gives the best advice away for cheap. So he is the Dungeon Mag of DM advice.

My challenge to the d20 publishing community:

Give us a book that will help experienced DMs prepare an adventure in the time that it takes a player new to the game to make a character.

That's the stuff that we need. Not Advanced PHBs, MMs, and DMGs. Not more templates, prestige classes, or feats. We need scenery, props, and extras.

Aaron.

 

[Sirius_Black]

I like Green Ronin's stuff, but these leave me feeling empty inside.

Not sure empty is the right word. I like the company, but I just don't have enough information right now on these products to form an opinion about them. Then again, empty would be the rigth phrase, not positive or negative, just empty until I'm better informed.

 

[Alzrius]

I just wanted to echo the posts that voiced confusion and uncertainty over this new product line.

"Advanced d20, more than just normal d20" is the message we're being sent. Okay, but...what actually IS it?

What do we know so far? That the monster book will have over a hundred new templates...great, but hardly what I'd call advanced. WotC has already given us a whole book about building monsters and monster's as PCs, monsters as class levels, etc., so that won't be anything new. Likewise, Upper_Krust's Challenge Rating system is more than adequate (IMHO) for making monster CR's, so that angle is covered. Honestly, what's left?

These Advanced books will need the WotC core rulebooks to use, so they obvious build on them, and not rewrite them. But apart from a few things, such as more options for actions in combat (which I already got with BESM d20), I'm not sure what they could offer.

It's not that I don't think these will be good products (it is Green Ronin, after all), it's just that right now, I'm working with virtually no description of them.

What is the Advanced d20 line? I have no idea.

 

[Heretic Apostate]

Maybe some advice, in the DM book, on scaling the system for different levels of power?

I doubt it.

 

[johnsemlak]

It's ironic that this thread is titled '...Anyone Else Excited [about GR's Advanced d20]?", and the thread has devolved into a mass of confused and disappointed posters.

I supposed it's best to wait for more info on what this line is really about.

 

[Wraith Form]

We need lists of pre statted foes, WITHOUT THE BACKGROUNDS WE ARE NEVER GOING TO USE!!! We need tower designs unstocked. We need dungeons we canchange without ignoring pages of text. We need cities with enough room to customise. Freeport is wildly successful, Bluffside was a hit, Rappan Athuk ruled. Give me generic places, magic items, and NPCs. Make it so I don't have to write if I don't want to. And so I dont have to go digging for stats if I don't want to. We need "heres the map of the monestary. Here are a bunch of generic monks. If they are evil, they are different in this way. Here are some things that might be going on." And then leave it at that!

Hear, hear! Bravo, well spoken.

 

[Gez]

1) Expanded discussion of cities and their population. The DMG's section is very short on this, and serves as an OK base, but there are some things that could be better handled. Like, *IF* you choose to use Prestige Classes, how to determine their highest level & supporters. Some classes, it seems to me, would be more prevalent in smaller settlements and less so in larger; while other classes would be the reverse of that. That might also vary by culture.

2) PC Domain Management rules ? Please ? This is an area that has been done, but so far, I haven't seen it "done right". That *IS* Green Ronin's motto, right ?

Have you looked at Expeditious Retreat's Magical Medieval Society book ? 'Cause it's that.

Except for prestige class. But they're prestige classes, not base classes. If you want a city to have loremasters, you simply has to see whether there's room for a loremaster cabal (a power center), and then how many wizards are part of that power center, those high-level enough will be loremasters. Simple.

 

[Pramas]

What is the Advanced d20 line? I have no idea.

It's late and I'm full of smoked turkey, but I'll give you a rough idea.

Imagine that WotC published Player's Handbook II, Dungeon Master's Guide II, and Monster Manual II for Dungeons and Dragons. Those books would be aimed very broadly at D&D players and would try to provide material that would enhance the game for everyone. Some of the material would be brand new, some of it would be new takes on D&D standards, and some of it would simply expand on the baseline of the core books. All three books would be highly modular and designed to give players and GMs new tools to work with. In short, they would be books that any serious D&D enthusiast would want to have.

Now, forget about WotC because we are doing the books instead.

 

[Brother Shatterstone]

Now, forget about WotC because we are doing the books instead.

Which is the best news I've heard all day.