D&D General Help Me with My Pathological Aversion to Third Party D&D Products

[TheSword]

So some great 5e stuff we played

• Odyssey of the Dragonlords: D&D in Greece analogue. Great fun
• Scarlet Citadel: dungeon crawling at it’s best
• Dungeons of Drakkenheim: A city exploration based on the Warhammer world.
• Paizo: They’re still producing great stuff that is easy to convert it 5e

Any of these would be a great way to spend 6months - Year

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

From Ptolus I love the decaying henotheistic Holy Lothian Empire for D&D catholic church with a lot of underlying D&D polytheisms. I like the big Greyhawk like Ptolus city. I like the politics of the religious civil war and set that as my campaign timeframe. Also there is a great free 32-page player's guide, which I used as the basis for a Ptolus campaign years before the 700 page monstrosity city setting book came up. I dislike the planar closed thing and the extra moons thing and have never included them.

Yeah, it's the kind of thing that can definitely be divisive. It's not hard to fast forward past [redacted] and open the planes up without much of the setting changing (except for the planar exiles stuck in the city), as the empire isn't likely to get its crap worked out, or the war of the thieves guilds resolved, just because [redacted] happens. (The other main storyline in the big book culminates in [redacted], of course.)

Freeport is a D&D island trade city with a strong pirate past(?) and an undercurrent of Mythos cults. It also has loose history that ties well into the civil war. The statless Pirate's Guide to Freeport is very good with multiple city districts that are distinct and work together with a lot of narrative elements a DM could use as a basis to freeform adventuring in the city.

100%. I put Freeport in the same world as Ptolus and ran the Freeport Trilogy and several other adventures there. A great setting, especially in this book, which is much less silly than the 3E version and not a Pathfinder book like the third gazetteer.

 

[jayoungr]

Also, check this thread:

D&D 5E - Best Third Party (not WotC) D&D Adventures?

What are the best third-party (not WoTC) D&D 5e Adventures according to you?

www.enworld.org

 

[Thondor]

I have found Kobold Press's monster manuals to be indispensible: the three volumes of Tome of Beasts plus the Creature Codex.

Also the two volumes of The Griffon's Saddlebag from Hit Point Press. Each has 100 or so magic items that are flavorful and balanced, with full color illustrations.

And I've been experimenting recently with the classes and subclasses in Valda's Spire of Secrets. It's a good all-round expansion book with a little of everything. From Mage Hand Press.

Griffon's Saddlebag 1 has 365 Magic items -- one for each day of the year. Volume two has over 500.
I should have copies of v2 on our UK and Canadian marketplace next week.

 

[jayoungr]

Griffon's Saddlebag 1 has 365 Magic items -- one for each day of the year. Volume two has over 500.

You're right! I should have remembered that. I updated my post.

 

[Distracted DM]

Some folks tried addressing the aversion to 3pp, some listed recommended 3pps... I'm wondering if any of this helped @MGibster

 

[MGibster]

Some folks tried addressing the aversion to 3pp, some listed recommended 3pps... I'm wondering if any of this helped @MGibster

Yeah. It's going to be a few months before I attempt to run a game of D&D though. At least until the Monster Manual comes out. At least.

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah. It's going to be a few months before I attempt to run a game of D&D though. At least until the Monster Manual comes out. At least.

Basically my take.

Atm l'll allow a player to use a 2024 class or spells that are not in 2014. Where the rules conflict 2014 is used.

 

[The Soloist]

For my last 5e campaign back in 2018, I only used Kobold Press creatures. It kept the players on their toes as if they had never played D&D before. Their creature books are excellent.

 

[Zardnaar]

For my last 5e campaign back in 2018, I only used Kobold Press creatures. It kept the players on their toes as if they had never played D&D before. Their creature books are excellent.

One of them in Tome of Beasts was almost a TPK last campaign. Some sort of ice elemental creature of Boreas. It was vulnerable to fire but flew. That party neglected fire damage (including the druid).