It's almost official: FanCC is dead. Come to the Funerals.

[der_kluge]

In the early days of 3E the netbooks were great sources of information and new ideas brought about by the use of OGL, I would say most of those ideas have been incorported, redone, or introduced into the d20 world through one supplement or another at this point.

I think you hit on another good point, Diremede - the usefulness of netbooks has been overshadowed by the many third party publishers out there. How can a netbook of spells compete with the resources of 3rd party publishers out there? How can the netbook of traps compete with FFG's products?

In 2nd edition, there really was no other alternative, other than the netbooks, but now there are other choices, which include art, a physical form, and editing!

 

[bradleyb1972]

From the Ashes

Hello all. My name is Brad Bemis, and I'm the guy who started the whole FANCC movement (back when it was the DNDCC). I wrote the first few iterations of the Netbook of Feats, created the rating system followed by most of the netbook projects, and organized the entire community structure that was used. I had a lot of help along the way, and when I left there were a LOT of FANTASTIC people that stepped in to keep it going...

The hayday of the FANCC was during 3/3.5E, but it pretty much died out as 4E began to find its way into the marketplace. Now, with the advent of D&D Next and the possibility of a new 5E OGL that returns the game to the players (fingers crossed) it may be time to revisit the project and get things moving again.

Right now it's a little early, but if you're interested in participating just make a note here and when we get closer to the release of 5E this summer, I'll check back in and let folks know whats happening...

This time the group will be built as the 'D20 Community Council' - and I've already snagged the D20CC.org domain to be safe (since FANCC.org is now owned by a sales group that wants a few $K for it (boooo).

For now, you can find the entire library of DNDCC/FANCC netbooks (and some nostalgia documents from my startup efforts) on my personal website, but I'll get them moved over to the new domain this week...

Fun fun ;-)

 

[Janx]

Good luck with the new netbook projects then.

My name's in one of the 2e era netbooks. Which back then was just somebody collating every spell they could find it seemed when they asked to include mine from my website.

From what I saw of the 3e netbooks that some friends in another group were using, some of the stuff seemed over-powered. Likely to happen when you've got a massive volume of material, whether there's good editing or not, unforseen synergies are going to happen that players are going to find.

Given what somebody a few pages back said about feeling that the FanCC was a little too restrictive compared to the old 2e era netbooks, consider this idea:

Whether you heavily balance the material or not, a GM has to review, approve and probably tweak whatever gets used from a netbook anyway.

Therefore, consider a new format where your site can accept spell, feat, skill, monster submissions. Visitors can rate them, and the d20CC focuses on editing them for readability/mistakes/consistency, rather than acting as a gatekeeper. Then provide an output tool from this database to produce the "latest" netbook based on what's been submitted to your database.

So more like a wiki/database, less like a dead tree.

Might be worth noting, EN World's working on such a database right now (might not have the Rate This feature). Imagine a bit of teamwork, where you guys focus on editing, EN hosts the content.

 

[bradleyb1972]

Therefore, consider a new format where your site can accept spell, feat, skill, monster submissions. Visitors can rate them, and the d20CC focuses on editing them for readability/mistakes/consistency, rather than acting as a gatekeeper. Then provide an output tool from this database to produce the "latest" netbook based on what's been submitted to your database.

A good idea. The ease of managing a feature-based website with the kind of functionality you mentioned has indeed become quite a bit easier over the past 10 years (seeing how the last versions of the 3E netbooks were published in 2003 or so) ;-).

Actually, depending on which NetBook you are looking at, there is a whole rating system that was built in... It was structured to give the reader an idea of how an entry might impact a game. In the NetBook of Feats for instance, a feet with an overall power rating of a 5 (near perfect) would be allowed by most DM's without issue. If it had a rating of a 2 then it was probably trash - but someone could still use it if they wanted to. In most cases we only published items that rated 3 or higher...

I like a broader community-based ranking system though... and the ability to generate a personalized version of the netbook. Definitely something to keep in mind if/when things start moving forward with 5E.

 

[darjr]

http://www.d20cc.org/
http://www.d20cc.org/3rd-edition-netbooks/
http://www.d20cc.org/5th-edition-library/

 

[GMMichael]

I think you hit on another good point, Diremede - the usefulness of netbooks has been overshadowed by the many third party publishers out there. How can a netbook of spells compete with the resources of 3rd party publishers out there? How can the netbook of traps compete with FFG's products?

How can a Netbook compete? Price. Netbooks are done for love of the game, 3rd party publishers do it for the money.

Ever heard of the Wonderful World of Eamon? It was a free text Apple II E roleplaying game. It flourished when it was free, and floundered when it went commercial.

The RPG I'm playtesting is based on the same community-love model as Eamon, with core mechanics that resemble D&D. The game has been simplified to facilitate community contribution. Examples:

- Conflict resolution is based on an ability score, and a d20.
- Skills are streamlined down to 20, and saving throws, base attacks, combat maneuver bonuses, armor class, and grid combat don't exist.
- Classes, races, and perks are uber-easy to design and add to your own home game.
- The core rulebook contains a chapter on adding rules and adventures to the game.

Any FCC members who still have a passion for grass-roots gaming are more than welcome to help me get this project off the ground.

 

[Morrus]

How can a Netbook compete? Price. Netbooks are done for love of the game, 3rd party publishers do it for the money.

Nobody goes into RPG publishing for the money.

 

[der_kluge]

How can a Netbook compete? Price. Netbooks are done for love of the game, 3rd party publishers do it for the money.

Would you be surprised to know that you responded to a post I made nearly 9 years ago??

lol

I was just sitting here, when I got a message about being quoted on ENWorld, and I was like, wtf?

 

[GMMichael]

I was just sitting here, when I got a message about being quoted on ENWorld, and I was like, wtf?

Yeah, 'cuz [MENTION=78250]bradleyb1972[/MENTION] necro'd the thread. My plea for help stands, though. I'm surprised that your thread survived the Great ENworld Hack.
[MENTION=1]Morrus[/MENTION]: Let's be more specific. Nobody goes into RPG publishing for BIG money. Obviously, they want some compensation. The Netbookers didn't even want that; they just wanted to have fun playing D&D3, from the looks of it.

I would have been highly interested in FCC nine years ago. But RPG design (and Pathfinder) has shown me that d20 is clunky and slow. So it would be hard to want to add to that system now.

 

[Mark CMG]

(. . .) it may be time to revisit the project and get things moving again.

All the best to you in the renewed efforts!