D&D General M. T. Black made his own 5e clone. Iskandar Players Handbook.

[mamba]

I was disappointed too. It is basically a reprint of books I have. I was expecting more new and/or revised content. The one thing I did get from it was a simplified layout. But as far as I can tell it is just a reprint of the PHB. I didn't see anything new. But it was just a quick scan.

well, a lot of what is in the PHB is not in the SRD, so if it is on par with the PHB, then he must have created something, at a minimum the subclasses.

Here is what he wrote in the mail about the changes / what the content is

• A complete set of rules for the fifth edition of the world's favorite roleplaying game (no other rulebooks required)
• 12 amazing ancestries (no elves!)
• 36 superb subclasses (including the acrobat, spellsword, troubadour, and many more)
• Dozens of new and remastered spells
• Countless hints, tips, and optional rules to improve your game
• Never-before published lore about Iskandar and the world around it
• And much, much more!

 

[AnotherGuy]

@DND_Reborn and @dave2008 the blurb in the OP speaks of new subclasses, nofications to spells and new optional choices - are you sure it's just a rehash of the PHB?

Edit: Ninja'd by @mamba

 

[Yaarel]

Well, it’s easy to set a wiki up. Go for it!

I have never set up a wiki, not sure how to go about it.

It could even include proprietary content by allowing the creator to lock the page. The Talk page can openly discuss it. The creator can decide which comments in Talk to include on the "official" page.

Meanwhile, the vanilla aspects of 5e would be mostly straightforward, modeling the SRD with cautious addons.

Maybe the most difficult aspect is avoiding copyright violations, but Wikipedia seems to manage this challenge.

 

[Morrus]

I have never set up a wiki, not sure how to go about it.

It’ll take you 5 mins on Google and a quick creation of an account on whichever platform you like the look of. There’s a bunch of them.

 

[dave2008]

well, a lot of what is in the PHB is not in the SRD, so if it is on par with the PHB, then he must have created something, at a minimum the subclasses.

Here is what he wrote in the mail about the changes / what the content is

• A complete set of rules for the fifth edition of the world's favorite roleplaying game (no other rulebooks required)
• 12 amazing ancestries (no elves!)
• 36 superb subclasses (including the acrobat, spellsword, troubadour, and many more)
• Dozens of new and remastered spells
• Countless hints, tips, and optional rules to improve your game
• Never-before published lore about Iskandar and the world around it
• And much, much more!

@DND_Reborn and @dave2008 the blurb in the OP speaks of new subclasses, nofications to spells and new optional choices - are you sure it's just a rehash of the PHB?

Edit: Ninja'd by @mamba

EDIT: I took another look and I have changed my opinion. You can read my thoughts here: Iskandar PHB 2nd Look. I am keeping the comment below intact so as not to censure my past mistake!

---

As mamba pointed out, the list of new stuff is what made me purchase. here are my comments on what I found (in bold). Now, I realize that though I was disappointed, I was being to harsh with my criticism.

• A complete set of rules for the fifth edition of the world's favorite roleplaying game (no other rulebooks required). This what I mean by a reprint of the PHB.
• 12 amazing ancestries (no elves!) Honestly, I didn't look at this because I don't care about them.
• 36 superb subclasses (including the acrobat, spellsword, troubadour, and many more) Honestly, I didn't look at this because I don't care about them.
• Dozens of new and remastered spells I haven't reviewed these yet as they too are not high on my list of things I need / want.
• Countless hints, tips, and optional rules to improve your game. This is what I really wanted and I couldn't find any really. Maybe I need to do a deeper dive, but I just didn't see "countless hints, tips, and optional rules.." I didn't see much at all really.
• Never-before published lore about Iskandar and the world around it. I don't care about this setting so I haven't looked at it yet.
• And much, much more! no comment

 

[Morrus]

As mamba pointed out, the list of new stuff is what made me purchase. here are my comments on what I found (in bold). Now, I realize that though I was disappointed, I was being to harsh with my criticism.

• A complete set of rules for the fifth edition of the world's favorite roleplaying game (no other rulebooks required). This what I mean by a reprint of the PHB.
• 12 amazing ancestries (no elves!) Honestly, I didn't look at this because I don't care about them.
• 36 superb subclasses (including the acrobat, spellsword, troubadour, and many more) Honestly, I didn't look at this because I don't care about them.
• Dozens of new and remastered spells I haven't reviewed these yet as they too are not high on my list of things I need / want.
• Countless hints, tips, and optional rules to improve your game. This is what I really wanted and I couldn't find any really. Maybe I need to do a deeper dive, but I just didn't see "countless hints, tips, and optional rules.." I didn't see much at all really.
• Never-before published lore about Iskandar and the world around it. I don't care about this setting so I haven't looked at it yet.
• And much, much more! no comment

I think for a book mainly containing the type of content you don't care about... maybe this isn't the book for you?

 

[dave2008]

No there was not. Not sure where you might have heard about it, or if you are mistaken about that

Probably completely made it up! It seemed completely familiar when I read Darjr's post. Maybe I was thinking about the Perkins 4e dragon-themed campaign - Iomandra? Who knows!

 

[dave2008]

I think for a book mainly containing the type of content you don't care about... maybe this isn't the book for you?

EDIT: I took another look and I have changed my opinion. You can read my thoughts here: Iskandar PHB 2nd Look. I am keeping the comment below intact so as not to censure my past mistake!

---

I buy a lot of (PDF) books for very little content that I am interested in. Pretty much every RPG product I buy is mostly stuff I don't want or don't care about. I guess I would save a lot of money if I followed your suggestion!

I wouldn't complain at all if this book fulfilled that one promise (Countless hints, tips, and optional rules to improve your game.), but I didn't see it. However, I will look deeper this weekend. Maybe I just missed it.

Like I said before, I was happy to give M.T. my money for his Dragon magazine review series here.

 

[DND_Reborn]

@DND_Reborn and @dave2008 the blurb in the OP speaks of new subclasses, nofications to spells and new optional choices - are you sure it's just a rehash of the PHB?

Well, as a 5E clone I expect a lot of verbatim from the PHB/ SRD or whatever (and there IS TONS!). However, I found the layout annoying right off the bat. It is quoted at 500+ pages, so I was excited for that, but the large(ish) font and spacing bloated it. Also, it is set to print at 5.5 x 8.5 (half page), which is okay I guess, but I was hoping for "more" frankly and the ratio seems done more for smartphones (which I am an anomaly because I abhor smartphones like the plague!!! they are the greatest contributing factor to the current decline of civilization! oh, and get them off of my darn lawn!!! ).

I won't have a chance to review much more until Sunday maybe as I am playing tomorrow, but from peoples' acclaim for the author I'm pretty disappointed so far. Granted, I guess what should I expect for $4?

 

[M.T. Black]

Hi folks,

I appreciate you taking the time to chat about my new book! I think there are going to be a lot of 5E clones released this year after the OGL situation, and I know they will be a bit contentious. I think this will be similar to the OSR where a lot of retroclones were released and people picked their own flavor, but everything was roughly compatible.

As others have pointed out, a big chunk of this book is a reprint of SRD content. I have reworded more than a few items (such as surprise and alignment) and I've also rewritten a few rules, such as the overland travel. Otherwise, where I've got optional rules I've included them as sidebar comments. It's a bit of a challenge for those of us publishing 5E clones - Black Flag is facing the same issue where some folk are saying "But this is just 5E." Truthfully, the low price point is meant to help head off this discussion, even though I put a crazy amount of labour into this book.

For some, where the value comes in is with the subclasses, ancestries, new/remastered spells, and setting lore, which might be 80-100 pages of the total. Most of that should be reusable in any setting, but I've very much presented it as an integrated package for my Iskandar setting. There are folks charging $4 for a single subclass, so I hope $4 for all that content represents some value

Regarding the single column digest-sized layout, I've adopted that for all my books the last couple of years. As dnd_reborn noted, it's so you can use the material on mobile devices. If reading on a regular screen, I recommend you go 2UP.

cheers,
MTB