PDF products I'd like to see

[Dimwhit]

Oh and a few quick thoughts:

The animal product we have planned would contain 100 or so animals, maybe more (o.k. probably more because there's a hella lot of critters out there)

It's working title is 101+ Companimals. I know kind of dumb. We're still debating the whole naming schema of our product lines. We have a lot of play on words type titles and Companimals smirks of companion animals. The 101+ thing is also tentative. Seems like there's a current slew of 101 type products and DM's/Players gravitate towards those because over a hundred triggers the thought process "wow that's a lot!". People like lots of stuff when they are making a purchase (well we do any ways!)

Despite it's title the product focus is making sure that the "standard" animals are covered that DM's will populate their adventures with - i.e. cows, chickens, dogs, cats, horses, squirrels, foxes, etc. Of course we'll have alligators, elephants and sure even stats for whales, but to be honest those are really filler. We think gamers need small, farm and riding animal stats more than anything else.

We also wanted to include a section on poisonous insects & reptiles. Not made up stuff like giant centipedes or dire lizards, but actual game info on the bite effects of black widows, tarantulas, rattlesnakes and the like.

This is the kind of stuff WE feel is missing from D&D, but I dunno what do you guys think???

Sounds great! I think that's exactly what is needed. (Or what I'd like to see, anyway.) But don't forget Hummingbirds. Gotta stat out hummingbirds...

 

[jaerdaph]

I would really like to see a big extensive exhaustive collection of d20 animals too.

And I want both an alligator AND a crocodile included!

 

[Nellisir]

Despite it's title the product focus is making sure that the "standard" animals are covered that DM's will populate their adventures with - i.e. cows, chickens, dogs, cats, horses, squirrels, foxes, etc. Of course we'll have alligators, elephants and sure even stats for whales, but to be honest those are really filler. We think gamers need small, farm and riding animal stats more than anything else.

The thing I've learned (from watching what sells) is that I can't guess what other people want. My suggestion is to go whole hog on the book, a la the NPC product "Everyone Else" (from EN Publishing now). Animals aren't particularly complex to stat out, particularly small variations (how many differences can you really establish between a wolf, a war dog, a hyena, a dingo, a hunting dog, a coyote, a fox, and a toy dog? Ditto for lions, tigers, panthers, cougars, smilidons, and jaguars.) Nonetheless, I think people like to see an entry that says "Dingo", even if it's only a difference of 2 Con points between that and a hunting dog.

I was skeptical, but TLG's Book of Familiars is actually really cool, and compliments DQG's familiar book very well. There's very little overlap between the two.

Cheers
Nell.

 

[The Mad Kaiser]

Animals aren't particularly complex to stat out, particularly small variations (how many differences can you really establish between a wolf, a war dog, a hyena, a dingo, a hunting dog, a coyote, a fox, and a toy dog?)

In the Kaiser Bazaar - Book A, I handled similar animals by stating the 'base animal' (or referencing the Monster Manual), then made modifications for each breed:

Newfoundland (Riding): Descended from the Viking
"bear-dogs", this is a popular breed of the northern coast.
Their feet are webbed and they love to swim. The water-repellent
bushy outer coat is flat, oily and slightly wavy
with a thick oily undercoat. Because of their love for the
water, Newfoundlands are used to haul nets, carry boat
lines to shore, retrieve anything that falls overboard and
rescue shipwrecked and drowning men.
Special: +5 Racial Bonus to Swim Skill.

I did it with domestic animals (dogs, pigs, cows, horses, goats, sheep, blah blah blah) but this could easily be done to specialize various wild canines, aligators and crocs, etc.

 

[Jonathan Nolan]

Animal Crackers

We are working on a rather large book of animals and animaloids also. Must be the steam engine time for an animal book.

 

[RCanning]

RCanning: I encourage you to go for it! It sounds like a great idea for a book. If we can help let us know. Personally I really like Druids and have tried several times in D&D sessions to play them (had a fantastic Birthright campaign with a Druid ruler). I've not tried in 3e yet, but I can tell you Druids are woefully underpowered in all previous editions... I felt useless in most combat encounters as I couldn't adequately fight or heal. Druid's are a great concept, but they don't work well in the more dungeon/urban environments that campaigns tend to focus on.
Maybe your book could put a spin on that (hint hint)

I am still working on this, but doing some more detail on the basics at the moment. I am wanting to keep this SRD specific, not introducing any new spells, prestige classes, feats or anything like that. Just how to use the stuff that is already there to maximum effect.

I have noticed a problem with using the powers of a druid in an urban or dungeon setting. I will be spending some time looking at this and trying to come up with various things that both players and GMs can do to make things better.

Once I have done this for druids, then I might look at it for some of the other classes as well.

This may seem all a bit redundant, but with all of the class books I have seen the publishers try to sell them on new feats, skills, magic items, etc; I think this is taking away from an already great system. What I am trying to do is to get the most flexibility out of the SRD for people who want to create characters using only the SRD, whether for publication, or because they don't have the money to purchase a lot of class books to get all the feats, magic items, etc.

Note: This does not mean if I have any good ideas for feats or spells I won't include them, but they will be an appendix at best.

Just thinking onto the keyboard.

Richard Canning

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

PDF product I'd (desperately) like to see

Hijacking back a little to the original subject, here's one product I would love to see pop-up on RPGNow.com right now:

A pdf (or series of pdfs) detailing sailing vessels: I want to see accurate (as historically as possible) deck plans, elevation diagrams, and cut-away diagrams for a variety of historical sailing ships like a frigate, galleon, caravel, man-o-war, etc. And it would be heaven-sent if the maps were declared OGC.

Why? I find myself for about the fifth time in two years writing an adventure either set inside a ship, or heavily featuring a ship, and I cannot find good deck plans to use. I am not a mapmaker, let alone knowledgeable in maritime lore, so while I can make a map of a ship, it would be completely made up with no bearing on reality save from what I can glimpse from History International documentaries. I have found some products with deck plans, but they are usually only of a ship's upper deck (I'd like the lower decks as well), and they are mostly fantasy versions (elven this, dwarven that, etc.).

If I were to do this product, or if I could order it to my specifications, I'd make this product a series of PDF releases, one per ship: frigate, galleon, man-o-war, etc. Each PDF would have deck plans for all decks on a ship, plus an elevation map and cut-away map, along with a concise introduction to the ship, a brief history (to put the ship in historical context), and some generic stats (real-life speed, weight, lentgh, width, crew, armaments, etc.) that a GM could then flesh out into numbers in his favorite system. Then I'd make the whole thing OGC (or at least the maps) so that, if Joe Freelancer wants to do a seafaring adventure and he needs a ship, he can extract the maps from the PDF and include the copyright in his OGL section 15.

I would pay for a product like this anywhere from $5 to $8 per ship PDF (perhaps up to $10 if the quality is outstanding), and heap praises everlasting upon whomever made it.

Here's an idea. Let's see if anyone bites.

 

[Nellisir]

A pdf (or series of pdfs) detailing sailing vessels: I want to see accurate (as historically as possible) deck plans, elevation diagrams, and cut-away diagrams for a variety of historical sailing ships like a frigate, galleon, caravel, man-o-war, etc. And it would be heaven-sent if the maps were declared OGC.

Me too, me too!!!


Nell.

 

[madelf]

Hijacking back a little to the original subject, here's one product I would love to see pop-up on RPGNow.com right now:

A pdf (or series of pdfs) detailing sailing vessels: I want to see accurate (as historically as possible) deck plans, elevation diagrams, and cut-away diagrams for a variety of historical sailing ships like a frigate, galleon, caravel, man-o-war, etc. And it would be heaven-sent if the maps were declared OGC.
-portion snipped-
Here's an idea. Let's see if anyone bites.

Y'know this sounds like something I could really get into.
I may just have to hit the library and see what I can come up with.

Any preference for a first ship?

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

The galleon. I'm thinking the more versatile, generic kind of galleon used by the Spanish, English and Portuguese until right before the conflict of the Spanish Armada (by then Drake had the racebuilt galleon at his command, and that one is more military in nature).

I think the galleon would be a good first product, since it can serve a multitude of purposes, from merchant and passenger vessels, to low-end military vessels.

Remember what I said, I would heap praises everlasting upon those who release such a product.