The Question:
Technically speaking, only the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide" and the "Monster Manual" are necessary. Books like "Tome and Blood" and all the class builder books do help but are strictly optional. As such they are a kind of "crunch light" game mechanic. The same is true for the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes" and the "Epic Level Handbook." They all help the game, they are more game mechanics - i.e. "crunch" - than they are superfluous story - i.e. "cream" or "fluff" - but at the end of the day they are all still optional game mechanics -"crunch light" to coin a term.
The same will be true for the forthcoming "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" and "Savage Species." They will help the game, they will be more game mechanics - "crunch" - than superfluous story - "cream" - but at the end of the day they will still be optional game mechanics - "crunch light."
After the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide," the "Monster Manual," the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes," the class builder books, the "Epic Level Handbook," the "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" and "Savage Species," what other books - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - can be done? (This does not include pre-prepared and pre-canned adventures modules.)
After these ten books are published, there will be dozens of playable races, dozens of playable classes and prestige classes, hundreds of spell, hundreds of feats and probably thousands of magical items ranging from the great to the small. Everything from good to evil to arcane magic to divine magic to psioncis to fist fighting to castle building and beyond will have been covered.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - before it begins to become redundant? This is not a rhetorical question.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - that will not start to belabor the point? This is not a rhetorical question.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - that will not stretch thin the game mechanic, customer plausibility and the market? This is not a rhetorical question.
***
A Possible Answer:
It seems that there are only two subjects not yet covered for d20 by Wizards of the Coast;
1. Politics
2. Mass Combat.
1. The use of the term "politics" here is not meant to describe contemporary political action, such as the English Parliament or the American Presidency or anything similar. Instead it is meant to refer to how player characters can amass, maintain and try to accomplish something with *in-game* politics and *in-game* political power. That is the politics of being a feudal lord or the mayor of a city of master or a monastic order or head of a local church or leader of an arcane order or master of a guild or what-have-you.
The "Epic Level Handbook" is quite good for running 20+ level characters in battles with force dragons and the bastard children of deities and the undeadwereterraskcolossus. The "Stronghold Builders" book is good for building your standard castle, tower, keep or fortification. Both books serve their purposes well.
However, there is more potential to gaining character levels than just building castles and beating Devil Princess to death with your bear fists.
There is the possibility of running a village (for nearly any class), or becoming master of a local church (for clerics), or becoming a respected general (for a fighter), or master of an arcane order (for wizards and sorcerers), or a monastic order (for monks) or head of the thieves guild (for rogues). This is just to name a few possibilities.
These would be situations were not everything can be resolved by the application of martial force. Or at least trying to solve every problem through the use of martial force might just exacerbate problems. A book that discusses these problems -keeping the fields productive, ensuring trade continues to flow, making certain traitors are caught, fighting crime, dispatching people to deal with small troubles like orcs, maneuvering to keep rivals from getting the upper hand, etc, etc - would be useful. This same book would also discuss how to deal with these problems. It would look at how to maintain power and how to run a village or a feudal holding or an arcane order or a church, and so on and so forth.
Even if theirs is a gloomy take on the subject White Wolf excels at this sort of thing. However, there is no defensible reason why in-game politics should be the exclusive domain of the Wolf.
This would be a book for players and DMs who are not satisfied with simply roaming around and killing things. This would be a book for players and DMs who wished to build - in-game - something and maintain that something.
***
2. Mass combat is the clash of entire armies. It is not simply the skirmishes of player characters battling antagonists. It is the roll of hordes and forces and navies and militias and smashing them together.
The basic books handle simple skirmishes quite well. However, that is not necessarily enough. Supposedly, "Chainmail" was to someday cover mass combat. However, this was dropped even before the minis line was canceled. As such there are no books in the WotC repertory that handle rules for clashing armies.
It is characters becoming generals and admirals and leaders of people. It is working out the logistics of feeding, supplying, maneuvering and motivating an entire army. This is altogether a different set of challenges than simply having a single party fighting it out with some orcs.
A book on mass combat would deal with the use of strategies, logistics, morale, travel and similar issues. I t would also cover traditional land-bound fighting, naval fighting and even air-borne fighting (dragons, griffons, pagesi, flying spell casters, etc.) It would cover how to run an army, a navy or and sky force.
Mass combat can go hand-in-hand with politics (perhaps both issues can be covered in the same book). It can be for those feudal lords and mayors and church leaders and so on defending what they have built. It can be campaigns of conquest or defending a home against invasion.
Warhammer excels at this sort of thing. However, there is no defensible reason why mass combat should be the exclusive domain of the Hammer.
Both politics and mass combat essentiality ask, "Why settle for just being an 21st level whatever when you can be an emperor?"
***
Some players and DM would be happy to just run small parties and never engage in politics or mass combat. As such, this book would not be for everyone. It is admittedly an optional game mechanic/"crunch light" book.
However, none of the books - aside from the core three - are for everyone. It is unlikely that any single campaign, or player or DM gets anything like equal use of the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide," the "Monster Manual," the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes," the class builder books and the "Epic Level Handbook." This includes the "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" "Savage Species," and "d20 Modern."
Just because not everyone will use this book does not mean than it can not be useful for many gamers.
If you reject these two subjects - politics and mass combat - as somehow unacceptable, I defy you to name some subjects that are acceptable that will *not* be redundant, or stretch thin the products and consumer plausibility and in-general belabor the entire - "crunchy" - aspect of the game.
Technically speaking, only the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide" and the "Monster Manual" are necessary. Books like "Tome and Blood" and all the class builder books do help but are strictly optional. As such they are a kind of "crunch light" game mechanic. The same is true for the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes" and the "Epic Level Handbook." They all help the game, they are more game mechanics - i.e. "crunch" - than they are superfluous story - i.e. "cream" or "fluff" - but at the end of the day they are all still optional game mechanics -"crunch light" to coin a term.
The same will be true for the forthcoming "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" and "Savage Species." They will help the game, they will be more game mechanics - "crunch" - than superfluous story - "cream" - but at the end of the day they will still be optional game mechanics - "crunch light."
After the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide," the "Monster Manual," the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes," the class builder books, the "Epic Level Handbook," the "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" and "Savage Species," what other books - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - can be done? (This does not include pre-prepared and pre-canned adventures modules.)
After these ten books are published, there will be dozens of playable races, dozens of playable classes and prestige classes, hundreds of spell, hundreds of feats and probably thousands of magical items ranging from the great to the small. Everything from good to evil to arcane magic to divine magic to psioncis to fist fighting to castle building and beyond will have been covered.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - before it begins to become redundant? This is not a rhetorical question.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - that will not start to belabor the point? This is not a rhetorical question.
What else can be made - even optional game mechanics/"crunch light" books - that will not stretch thin the game mechanic, customer plausibility and the market? This is not a rhetorical question.
***
A Possible Answer:
It seems that there are only two subjects not yet covered for d20 by Wizards of the Coast;
1. Politics
2. Mass Combat.
1. The use of the term "politics" here is not meant to describe contemporary political action, such as the English Parliament or the American Presidency or anything similar. Instead it is meant to refer to how player characters can amass, maintain and try to accomplish something with *in-game* politics and *in-game* political power. That is the politics of being a feudal lord or the mayor of a city of master or a monastic order or head of a local church or leader of an arcane order or master of a guild or what-have-you.
The "Epic Level Handbook" is quite good for running 20+ level characters in battles with force dragons and the bastard children of deities and the undeadwereterraskcolossus. The "Stronghold Builders" book is good for building your standard castle, tower, keep or fortification. Both books serve their purposes well.
However, there is more potential to gaining character levels than just building castles and beating Devil Princess to death with your bear fists.
There is the possibility of running a village (for nearly any class), or becoming master of a local church (for clerics), or becoming a respected general (for a fighter), or master of an arcane order (for wizards and sorcerers), or a monastic order (for monks) or head of the thieves guild (for rogues). This is just to name a few possibilities.
These would be situations were not everything can be resolved by the application of martial force. Or at least trying to solve every problem through the use of martial force might just exacerbate problems. A book that discusses these problems -keeping the fields productive, ensuring trade continues to flow, making certain traitors are caught, fighting crime, dispatching people to deal with small troubles like orcs, maneuvering to keep rivals from getting the upper hand, etc, etc - would be useful. This same book would also discuss how to deal with these problems. It would look at how to maintain power and how to run a village or a feudal holding or an arcane order or a church, and so on and so forth.
Even if theirs is a gloomy take on the subject White Wolf excels at this sort of thing. However, there is no defensible reason why in-game politics should be the exclusive domain of the Wolf.
This would be a book for players and DMs who are not satisfied with simply roaming around and killing things. This would be a book for players and DMs who wished to build - in-game - something and maintain that something.
***
2. Mass combat is the clash of entire armies. It is not simply the skirmishes of player characters battling antagonists. It is the roll of hordes and forces and navies and militias and smashing them together.
The basic books handle simple skirmishes quite well. However, that is not necessarily enough. Supposedly, "Chainmail" was to someday cover mass combat. However, this was dropped even before the minis line was canceled. As such there are no books in the WotC repertory that handle rules for clashing armies.
It is characters becoming generals and admirals and leaders of people. It is working out the logistics of feeding, supplying, maneuvering and motivating an entire army. This is altogether a different set of challenges than simply having a single party fighting it out with some orcs.
A book on mass combat would deal with the use of strategies, logistics, morale, travel and similar issues. I t would also cover traditional land-bound fighting, naval fighting and even air-borne fighting (dragons, griffons, pagesi, flying spell casters, etc.) It would cover how to run an army, a navy or and sky force.
Mass combat can go hand-in-hand with politics (perhaps both issues can be covered in the same book). It can be for those feudal lords and mayors and church leaders and so on defending what they have built. It can be campaigns of conquest or defending a home against invasion.
Warhammer excels at this sort of thing. However, there is no defensible reason why mass combat should be the exclusive domain of the Hammer.
Both politics and mass combat essentiality ask, "Why settle for just being an 21st level whatever when you can be an emperor?"
***
Some players and DM would be happy to just run small parties and never engage in politics or mass combat. As such, this book would not be for everyone. It is admittedly an optional game mechanic/"crunch light" book.
However, none of the books - aside from the core three - are for everyone. It is unlikely that any single campaign, or player or DM gets anything like equal use of the "Players Guide," the "Dungeon Masters Guide," the "Monster Manual," the "Psionics Handbook," "Deities and Demigods," the "Manual of the Planes," the class builder books and the "Epic Level Handbook." This includes the "Monster Manual II," the "Book of Vile Darkness" "Savage Species," and "d20 Modern."
Just because not everyone will use this book does not mean than it can not be useful for many gamers.
If you reject these two subjects - politics and mass combat - as somehow unacceptable, I defy you to name some subjects that are acceptable that will *not* be redundant, or stretch thin the products and consumer plausibility and in-general belabor the entire - "crunchy" - aspect of the game.
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