Player's Advantage: Rogue
Hello all! Glad to see some interest in our new series of products! Doug asked me to swing by and post some info and answer some questions.
First of all, the debate on whether or not this is a "splatbook" has already started. I'm not sure you can write a book on a specific class and not have someone dub it a "splatbook". However, it is a bit different than what is already out there. So, the proper answer to that question really depends on what you consider a splatbook. In my opinion, it's both yes and no.
When asked to do this book, I was given a tremendous amount of freedom in what I could do. As an active player of the d20 system, I sat down and tried to think about what I would use, as both a DM and player. I wanted to devise a book that could have an appeal for anyone. From the DM perspective, I wanted solid crunch that could be used in a custom campaign. That ruled out making it a world-specific product, even in our setting of Gothos! I also wanted to include some tools to make the DM's life easier. That's where the Killer Combos section started. I wanted to make it easier to present multi-class NPCs with a minimal of preparation.
I wanted to make a book that would appeal to players who have been gaming for 20 years as well as those who are rolling up their first rogue. This gave birth to the archetype section. This gives the player numerous ideas on how to develop a rogue with a history, interests, specializations, etc. It gives advice on what feats, skills, abilities, races, multi-class combos and whatnot make sense with a given "type" of rogue. In other words, I wanted to help the new player paint a detailed picture of his character and get him off the ground quickly. This came from my own experience of seeing players rolling up rogues without much thought of their training and focus other than "jack-of-all-trades".
For the longstanding player, I wanted new core classes. Some come from other cultures, others are variations on the "stock" fantasy medieval. If you have played a rogue for the past 3 years of d20 or even before that, you may be ready for some variation. Along with that came feats, lots of them. What good is a character without heroic feats?
As this started coming together, I started turning to Open Game Content. I set out to please three kinds of people. The first doesn't buy very many products. For this person, I wanted to included tried and true OGC rather than re-invent the wheel. The second person buys just about everything he can get his hands on. For him, I wanted to include relevant OGC relating to rogues but not so much that he feels "I've seen all this before". Hopefully I've reached that balance, and that person will see the OGC in this book as a convenient compilation from diverse sources. And third, I thought about the person who has bought all the rogue "splatbooks". This person doesn't want to see rehash of material in other splatbooks, even if it is OGC. Except for one exception, I tried to hold this precept true, even if a book had something really cool! This person wants to find new material, not simply another way to do the same thing. For example, you're not going to find any rules for traps or poison in this book. There are tons of great books out there that focus just on one or the other of those topics. I won't do the consumer the injustice of doing a little on the topic when so much else is available. This is a book on the rogue class, not poison.
There was a post about Epic Level material in this book. This is not an epic level gaming supplement. This book includes the information you need to carry all of the core classes and prestige classes into epic levels. For those playing epic games, they can use these classes right into their games with no conversions or figuring. For those not using epic level rules, you're missing a paragraph per class/prestige class.
This book includes some psionics. Again, it is not so much that people not using psionics will feel they've been cheated out of space. However, there is enough that those using psionics will feel they have some material useful for their campaigns as well. Once again, it's a balancing act, but hopefully one we've done well.
One person I spoke with asked "Do we really need another book of prestige classes?" Are there prestige classes in this book? Sure, a few. However, the focus isn't the prestige class. I've created some to fill some niches I haven't seen much (or any) material for. But I didn't set out to include x number of prestige classes or anything like that. There are numerous prestige classes out there. This product is not designed to replace any of the splatbooks available. It serves to provide tools, new information, and compile some great OGC applicable to rogues that wasn't necessarily printed in a product dealing with rogues at all.
Anyway, I've waxed unsupervised long enough.
In the end, I simply say this is a book about rogues. It's a resource for players and DMs of any amount of experience. For those curious about its current state of completion, I'm wrapping up the writing in the next week or so, and playtesting and editing are getting underway already.
I'll gladly entertain questions and answer the ones I can. For those interested in the book, thank you and I hope you enjoy it! For those who are not, please keep in mind we publish a vast array of products. Perhaps something else we've done (or are working on) is more to your tastes!
Thanks for reading!
Charles W. Plemons III
