I wish all publishers would go systemless.

[Sundragon2012]

Right now as I bang out the first draft of my new setting (new as in published and codified, old in terms of its use as a homebrew) I am definately considering making it systemless and including materials tying the setting to given rule sets. Right now the rule sets I'm considering are:

True20 (we'll see what the next year brings with this rule set in the next year or so)
4e
Runequest
Conan D20 (dumped the idea with the coming of 4e)

However, it is a lot of work for a publisher/writer to restat for several systems especially wildly divergent systems. I know it might take a lot of additional work to do so without partnering up with a real rules wizard to help me with the job. Plus, I can rip out good fluff in no time because I am more a writer than a rules lawyer type. The mechanics take me much longer to create than the fluff.

I think a main campaign book along with free additional supplemental materials for different game systems could work very well. The idea of not adding mechanics for popular RPing games and expecting a DM/GM to do it all without help seems like a very , very bad idea.



Sundragon

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The Flying Buffalo stuff is great, although they (well, he) seem really ambivalent about actually selling the books to anyone. They're hard as hell to find at retailers, despite them all nominally being in print.

I'd love to see a white knight sweep in, make a deal with FBI and publish the books with new art and covers and maybe a Freeport-style supplemental volume with all the crunch. Grimtooth's Traps line is more in need of crunch than the Citybook line, although those books also introduce new forms of magic the DM either needs to stat up himself (like magical tattoos) or junk.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

For "companion crunch," I'd target some broad categories:

1. d20 3E. Most d20 variant systems could use this, too.
2. OSRIC or 1E OGL. Any of the older editions could use this, as could C&C, BFRPG, etc.
3. d20 4E. When it arrives.

Obviously, if I have a "house system" (e.g. Green Ronin's True20) it would top the list.

I don't know if I'd go beyond that, or not. However, I support (and perhaps even host) fan-created crunch-books for other systems (e.g. Runequest, etc).

 

[Hstio]

I support any attempt to put out systemless setting material. Like many GM's, I rarely use the statted out NPC's as writen, having to adjust levels, abilities, and items to suit the current needs of my campaign. Lots of stat blocks limits the amount of setting material you can get into a book. I'd rather have more interesting location ideas, plot hooks, etc., then stat blocks that I may never use. I have the Pirate Guide to Freeport (still reading it) and I'm not sure I'll pick up the companion guide for the reasons stated above. I hope the Pirate's Guide sells well and Green Ronin continues their systemless experiment.

Hstio

 

[jdrakeh]

Just so we're clear, there is ALSO a company named Catalyst. They were born out of the remains of FanPro, and publish Battletech and Shadowrun 4e. Cool guys, excellent products.

I didn't know that. That said, I do know that Flying Buffalo published the City Books line under the Catalyst imprint

 

[JoeGKushner]

And Spherwalker, a sourcebook for another game whose name I forget. Spherewalker is a great read and very entertaining for any system.

Tons of ideas from that book.

 

[DM_Jeff]

The Pirate's Guide to Freeport is out and has been in stores for a few weeks now, along with the True20 Freeport Companion and the adventure Dark Wings Over Freeport (which has both d20 and True20 stats). The first of these is the True20 Freeport Companion and it will be followed by the d20 Freeport Companion (a 3.5 book).

Not to thread hijack, but when is the d20 companion book slated for release? As it is the Pirate's Guide to Freeport page notes that book as "coming soon".

-DM Jeff

 

[Pramas]

Not to thread hijack, but when is the d20 companion book slated for release? As it is the Pirate's Guide to Freeport page notes that book as "coming soon".

The d20 Freeport Companion PDF ought to be out next month. The print version is due to January. That'll probably make it our final 3.X release, which is appropriate I suppose since we started with Death in Freeport in 2000.

 

[Dan Bell]

Most of the material published for Harn is systemless. (See the free downloads at http://www.lythia.com/ for examples.)

Harnmaster is a rules system that is also printed by the same publishers but it is not needed for the HarnWorld setting material.