"Planar Handbook" - completlely useless?

[Mystery Man]

I'm confused by this post. I've never seen a book designed for a player that the GM couldn't also use. I've seen many books for GMs that players couldn't use.

It's not that as a DM I can't use anything in the book. It's as a DM it's so completely uninspiring. As a DM I do not need more spells, feats, blah blah blah.

Keep in mind I don't want or need to be spoonfed anything but....
I want campaign seeds, encounter ideas, demographics, descriptive areas, ideas on power groups, secret organizations, and so much more that these new books just don't really provide.

 

[Voadam]

There is the new Campaign setting book Eberron from WotC which might inspire some DM thoughts as well as the soon to be accompanying module. Or Serpent Kingdoms, and there is an upcoming MM III which would seem DM oriented, as well as the Undead book and I think an aberrations one and the map folio. These seem to balance out the complete divine, races of destiny, planar handbook player oriented books.

If you want adventure seeds get the short pdf book Seeds, its free on www.rpgnow.com and by a respected pdf publisher.

 

[Whisper72]

Mystery Man: I understand your feelings. I get the same idea. As to ppl saying that DM's are only about 1/4th of the market, market research by TSR/WOTC from some time ago showed that DM's shell about 10 times as much money out for books then players, so the DM market is definately a lot bigger money wise...

Even books like the Draconomicon, though nicely done from an artistic pov, had nothing new in terms of campaign ideas etc. All old stuff there. I was very disappointed by that book, which I bought after all the rave reviews here on ENWorld. Personally, I did not think it worth the price...

Campaign settings, now those let the ideas flow. I absolutely LOVED Eberron. Am I going to play an Eberron campaign? I don't know yet, but there is definately tuns of ideas for me to chew on... IMHO FR has been milked out completely. Books such as the Underdark, with 'generic' underdark info are still useful...

I have switched to buying old material through Ebay, and actually cancelled several orders I had previously set out on Amazon for new stuff. Nothing like flicking through an old basic DnD module to get ideas rolling. I'll prolly never run such a module in its entirety, but they provide nice ideas, especially in terms of atmosphere...

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Also when you see lots of prestige classes and start to have the vein in your head about to burst in frustration, remember that PrCs are really for the dungeon master.

Not too useful if they're too uninspiring or unbalanced for a DM to use. The former is a point when it comes to players... as a player (I play about 75% of the time now) I almost never use PrCs for exactly that reason.

I was browsing this book yesterday at the bookstore and suddenly was awash is a kind of frustration that took me to a whole new level of pissed off. Wizards is really just not getting a clue are they?

I had a similar reaction to Complete Warrior.

 

[BradfordFerguson]

If you want game-related inspiration, then I am going to throw two names at you from left field:

Gamma World Game Master's Guide (Sword & Sorcery) - this is very cool because it takes a post-apocalyptic situation and writes about it in at least four different voices: Comedy, Horror, Myth & Legend to name a few. It is easy to notice the difference and it really jumped out at me.

Star Wars Galactic Campaign Guide (WOTC) - this book has tons of short adventure ideas, and maybe a dozen campaign ideas. Though it wasn't the right genre for me, I liked all the ideas.

www.roleplayingtips.com has a bazillion tips for the DM.

I also just finished a preview review of Dave Arneson's Blackmoor. The preview isn't up yet in the D&D/d20 section of Silven Crossroads, but it should be later today. The gazeteer section of that book has MOUNTAINS of ideas, but they are more specific to Blackmoor (which the new one is high fantasy with a lot of danger and a touch of horror).

 

[BradfordFerguson]

For the DM, unless a PrC is simply ungodly, it doesn't matter if it is unbalanced. It simply doesn't. If the PCs face them, then they should be able to handle that CR if it's a CR they can handle. Otherwise, they are great characters to encounter in diplomatic situations. You can't just have towns and cities be places for characters to stock up, they gotta be alive with interesting people to meet. Many PrCs have an interesting look to them, but if they don't you can just describe that character a lot more or have them do something.

You got over 100 prestige classes, DMs, put them to use!

 

[3catcircus]

There is the new Campaign setting book Eberron from WotC which might inspire some DM thoughts as well as the soon to be accompanying module. Or Serpent Kingdoms, and there is an upcoming MM III which would seem DM oriented, as well as the Undead book and I think an aberrations one and the map folio. These seem to balance out the complete divine, races of destiny, planar handbook player oriented books.

If you want adventure seeds get the short pdf book Seeds, its free on www.rpgnow.com and by a respected pdf publisher.

The thing about books that a DM can use isn't "Wow, a cool new prestige class I can use to spend an hour building an NPC." It is "Cool, this has just the handy little table for me to come up with random [insert person/place/name/object/etc.] on the fly." As a DM, I want something akin to the 1st edition DMG - oodles of tables in back to come up with stuff on the fly. I *still* use the 1st edition DMG in my 3.5 game because of this.

As far as the Undead and aberrations books - as long as they are of the same calibre as Draconomicon then I'm all for it. I'm a bit leery of Libris Mortis, though, since I already have all of the Van Richten's Guide to ___ books.

Speaking of the Map Folio - this is the most overrated, overpriced piece of trash that I can't believe WoTC has the nerve to sell. Sure, some people will buy it that don't have internet access, but WoTC put every single map in that folio on their website for free before ever bundling the. Additionally, a map or two aren't even original (The Wedge Castle is really Hellgate Keep.) As a DM, I don't need this product. The only thing I could see it being useful for is for non-RPG miniatures skirmishes.

 

[Mr. Patient]

I just thought I'd chime in in support of Mystery Man here. I have a pretty small d20 shelf (maybe 12-15 books, including the core books), and I already feel like I have enough prestige classes, feats, spells, etc. for a lifetime of gaming. Then I walk into my FLGS, and I see row after row of books (not just from WoTC) offering more of the same. But I can't find a city book that I really like. It's pretty frustrating.

 

[morbiczer]

From the Races of Stone interview on wizards.com:

"Wizards: What are you working on now? Any future plans for Stonier Races or something similar?

Jesse (Decker): I'm just now wrapping up another book in this series and moving on to a big DM-focused product that won't see print until the end of 2005."

So this is either the 4th edition DMG (just kidding ), or something new or DMs.

 

[Pielorinho]

Interesting different DM styles!

I can't be bothered to create NPCs with prestige classes; I get annoyed enough with having to stat up leveled NPCs, and usually rely on Jamis Buck to do that work for me.

The main thing I use published material for, in my DMing, is:
* Adventures (including maps)--I modify the bejeebers out of them and use em.
* Monsters and races, on which to slap levels, templates, and so forth; often I'll change their appearance, just for kicks.
* Spells! I love grabbing weird, bizarre, freaky spells from one of my sourcebooks, giving it to an appropriate caster, and letting fly with it.

I therefore find player's books to be very useful to me, inasmuch as they're full of cool spells.

Planar's Handbook has already helped me, despite my not having a copy of it: the first critters the PCs in my new campaign fought were Spikers (a modified version of the ones they published online, as a teaser for the book), and they got very high reviews from the players as an evocative critter. Based on what I'm hearinga bout the rest of the book, I'll probably not buy it, but at least some of the material in it has already been useful to me.

Daniel