Inheritors of 3.5 - An overview of what is out there

[Krensky]

Heh. Bad Axe is what, one guy? Two guys? More? I was surprised when Wulf kept saying "we" when referring to the work done on Trailblazer. I had thought he had done everything from Bad Axe himself (Actually looking it up Benjamin Durbin is listed as the author on Grim Tales and most of the Heroes of High Favor books, Trailblazer is him and another guy, but Slavelords of Cydonia actually has two other authors listed).

And Crafty was 3 and is now 2 guys who have day jobs.

The only company on this list with anything resembling size is Paizo.

 

[Kerrick]

What about all the folks who are doing indie 3.75 projects, but aren't publishing them? Surely they deserve a place on the list as well... You've got Raven Crowking's Fantasy Game, Project Phoenix, and likely a few others that are more or less complete. There's a wealth of revised piecemeal material as well - anyone looking to "fix up" their 3.5 game doesn't need to look far.

 

[Voadam]

There a couple other options as well:

True20 Streamlining d20 down to three classes with most class powers turned into feats, using a damage saving throw instead of hp, and eliminating AoOs.

Mutants and Masterminds 2e plus Warriors and Warlocks. Same thing as True 20 except I believe one class only with more flexibility in creating abilities and powers.

Iron Heroes: Taking 3.5 and making high powered high fantasy warriors with no magic but tons of mechanical combat options and using a lot of token pool mechanics. High Wuxia D&D feel.

Conan: Basically 3.5 with lower magic, toned down spellcasters, and tapered off mechanics for higher level play. Grittier S&S D&D feel.

 

[Voadam]

And Crafty was 3 and is now 2 guys who have day jobs.

The only company on this list with anything resembling size is Paizo.

Yeah, I was going to say I had no idea how big Crafty is but I was betting it was smaller than AEG.

 

[Voadam]

Votan,

I actually should have specified *brand new books*, instead of just *books*. Because, last time I checked (just the other day, in fact ) the second hand RPG book market was HUGE. Seriously, you can get just about anything for anything, and usually at a reasonable cost. If you don't mind second hand stuff, this is, of course.

So really, even if the expected personal library for say, D&D 3.5 happens to be 20 books then if someone needed to, they could probably pick up at least the majority of those, and quite likely all of them, with ease.

Yes, there are some crazily collectible items out there on eBay, or Amazon, or sometimes a place like Noble Knight, perhaps. But for most games and supplements in existence, even if they're quite old, things aren't even approaching that kind of wackiness.

So, if getting (or, in some cases, printing and binding) books isn't a problem. . . what is, I sometimes wonder. But then, I suppose, it's just part of the culture or whatever. Eh, like I said, never mind.


harpy,

Yeah. A lot of it comes down to mileage varying, methinks. Or, in other words, around here we're [sometimes cheap and] easy system sluts, generally speaking. And age? Feh, dosen't matter.

Heh, I was looking on Amazon recently too at some of the 3.5 things I don't have

Magic Item Compendium used copies starting at $47

Book of 9 Swords used starting at $34.

If I didn't already have the Spell Compendium? Used starting at $48.

PH II? Used starting at $40.

I wish now I had snagged an MMIII when it was going second hand new for $.01 (plus $3.99 shipping). I did snag my brother six Eberron hardcovers at that price as a birthday present though.

 

[Helena Real]

More affordable than a $10 Pathfinder PDF or $5 Trailblazer PDF?

More affordable than Ryan's Stoughton's FREE E6?

How's that work? Do they pay me to play C&C?

LOL! Most definitely true Wulf!

Apart from that, I think that the OP wanted to show relatively complete alternatives to 3.5 - whereas in large support for them (Paizo, Fantasy Craft) and/or innovation (Trailblazer, Fantasy Concepts, E6). Castles & Crusades, in comparison, is more of a simplification of 3.5; in other words, it does not advance 3.5, but stripes it out of "fat" (in this case, feats and skills). This type of OGL products is more akin to games such as True20, Micro20, et. al. Still, I really enjoy the classic feeling of C&C - and actually it turns out to be a wonderful system for Dragonlance!

Best regards,

Felipe.

 

[Silvercat Moonpaw]

One of the other elements I like about E6 is the fact that an entire campaign becomes more manageable. You play up to six levels, then perhaps another six to eight levels after that. By that point you've set right what was wrong in the world and the story can end. All told that means you are running only 20-40 sessions, or if you want a really fast pace you could do it all in 12 sessions. In my busy life I can't imagine spending two to three years on a single campaign as we slowly crawl up to level 20 over over dedicated bi-weekly sessions.

Any system can do this, I don't see how E6 makes it any easier. Just start out choosing a level at which to stop.

What E6 does, in my mind, is makes the focus be who the characters are rather than what they are going to be. Sure you can gain new stuff after level 6, but none of it is going to be stuff you couldn't have gained before (barring special feats that have a prerequisite of "Level 6"). You grow out rather than up; you become more defined rather than bulky.

I like Mutants&Masterminds for the same reason: it's not predicated on increasing power, you can stay at one Power Level and branch out your skill, feat, and power choices. So I'd like to second it's nomination for inclusion on this list.

 

[rkwoodard]

More affordable than a $10 Pathfinder PDF or $5 Trailblazer PDF?

More affordable than Ryan's Stoughton's FREE E6?

How's that work? Do they pay me to play C&C?

Also, while I can't afford to pay people to play in my games, I do provide tasty snacks and beer. So, you know, it is like getting paid.

Also, I really like the looks of what you are doing with Trailblazer. Some very nice stuff there.

RK

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

Heh. Bad Axe is what, one guy? Two guys? More? I was surprised when Wulf kept saying "we" when referring to the work done on Trailblazer. I had thought he had done everything from Bad Axe himself (Actually looking it up Benjamin Durbin is listed as the author on Grim Tales and most of the Heroes of High Favor books, Trailblazer is him and another guy, but Slavelords of Cydonia actually has two other authors listed).

Heh heh... I noted the same thing but couldn't figure out a way to correct it without slighting others both bigger and smaller.

For the record, sometimes "WE" is simply an editorial "WE."

 

[SSquirrel]

RC finally put out his 400 pages of house rules (well the SRD plus his changes equaled that, something around that page count) for public consumption?

I'm definitely in the camp of Paizo not going far enough, but at the same time I think syncing the power to stupidly broken products from the end of the 3.5 cycle was a bad idea, so Paizo sort of went too far at the same time. Not far enough to fix what needed fixing and too far on compatibility. And yes, I already know people disagree with me on the compatibility thing.