So... What'd I Miss?

[GoodKingJayIII]

About a year ago I took a step back from RPGs: the new books, message boards (I frequent Monte Cook's more often), and the general industry news I liked to keep up with. I played minimally, and mostly Arcana Evolved and Iron Heroes, but by and large I was away from the game. Basically I was busy and I wanted to prioritize some things in my life, maybe get some answers I'd been looking for.

It's been a year and I still don't really have any answers, but I keep finding myself coming back to the things that I love. Truth be told I actually have less time to play than I did a year ago, but I'm genuinely curious, interested, and excited about the game again.

I guess the point of this little forward is: what's new? I read all these posts and I see a new spell or feat or class and think Wow, I missed a lot! I've really been out of the loop and I'd like to know what kinds of things I should look for. What have been some of the best books released in the past year, from both Wizards and 3rd party publishers? What have been some of the worst? Whats the new "I'd like to play a Fighter dual wielding a spiked chain and a bag of rats"? Juicy industry gossip? Anything really cool and unexpected happen at GenCon? You know, that sort of thing.

Edited some repetition.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well, as you know from Monte's site, Ptolus is out, and it's exactly what was promised.

There have been several good WotC supplements of late, including Dragon Magic, Fiendish Codex I and Complete Mage.

Red Hand of Doom, WotC's first foray back into adventures in a serious way, was greeted with almost universal acclaim, even if it does boast the accused-of-being-cheesy-by-many spawn of Tiamat, who appear in the accused-of-being-cheesy-by-many Monster Manual IV.

Goodman Games has put out a Mystara-style campaign setting and Necromancer Games finally got out Bards Gate. Both have gotten good reviews, although both products are standard D&D by design, so know that going in.

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

Not opposed to standard DnD in any way. In fact I've been trying to figure out how to play in or run an Eberron game for a few years now! Although I have to admit Ptolus is calling my name, and since I haven't bought a book in about 1.5 years, $119.99 doesn't seem so bad.

But really, I just wanted to see what's floating around out there now that I'm back. Thanks!

Edit: OK, I lied I bought one book this year. See my next post.

 

[Henry]

There was a good bit of buzz, and rightly so, about the Player's Handbook II - I consider it a good book that offers a bit of something to every core class from the past few years, plus it beefs up the high-level fighters in a way that people wanted for a long time.

The new "BROKEN!" argument seems to be centered around the Tome of Battle: Book of Nine Swords, and more specifically the Warblade. Tome of Battle is a book designed to give a "wuxia" feel to non-Asian-themed campaigns, by offering quasi-magical abilities to martial classes. Because of newness, the jury's still out on true "unbalance" or not, but you can find the threads here and at WotC pretty easily.

This may be superceded by the buzz on "Complete Mage", the new splatbook. Think in the tradition of "complete arcane" and you won't be far off - the big buzz is the Reserve Feats, which look pretty neat. I'm surprised no one has mentioned "Transcend Mortality" yet - a spell which may have people playing 17th level Wu Jens JUST so they can play with that spell once or twice.

Welcome back!!!

 

[Slife]

Whats the new "I'd like to play a Fighter dual wielding a spiked chain and a bag of rats"?

Playing a humble little level 1 kobold ardent (or level 5 outside faerun).

 

[GoodKingJayIII]

There was a good bit of buzz, and rightly so, about the Player's Handbook II

Funnily enough, that's the one book I've bought in the past year. I can't remember what made me buy it exactly. I probably read some snippets online and in Borders. I've been really happy with it myself, and I had this funny idea of running a game with the only the PHB II classes, fighter, cleric, rogue, and wizard.

Playing a humble little level 1 kobold ardent (or level 5 outside faerun).

I don't know whether I should be inspired or frightened. Either way that's pretty interesting.

 

[Mark CMG]

There was this thing that everybody hated, but then some people started liking it. Then another thing that everybody thought was broken, but then someone fixed it. Then there was this one thing that everyone loved for a while but I don't think it is still in print.


Welcome back!

 

[Wraith Form]

There was this thing that everybody hated, but then some people started liking it. Then another thing that everybody thought was broken, but then someone fixed it. Then there was this one thing that everyone loved for a while but I don't think it is still in print.


Welcome back!

Exactly. Heh heh.

Goodman Games' Dungeon Crawl Classic series has not merely propogated & multipled, it's actually gotten better with time, and I encourage you to spend money on their products. (No, I don't work for them. )

Oh, and Dungeon Mastering for Dummies was actually a useful book.