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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kaptain_Kantrip" data-source="post: 154228" data-attributes="member: 546">Oops! Never say never, eh?. I did go back and remove that bit from my Skraag rant after I realized you had done other things, LOL. Saying "never" was an overreaction on my part due to the extreme disappointment I had in the product. But I still had no clue you were head honcho at FFG... The writing itself wasn't bad, it was just that it didn't fulfill the perceived promise I saw in the cover--to give me a detailed orc city to run or base adventures in. I was expecting something like a smaller, more insane (land-locked) version of Freeport by orcs, for orcs, loaded with locations and NPCs. It really should have been tweaked a bit and called The Slayer's Guide To Orcs. Then it wouldn't have been such a let-down to me (and I probably wouldn't have bought it as the Slayer's Guides aren't very helpful). Even so, Spells & Spellcraft is the first of your HC books I've bought. The others simply didn't do it for me (though I commend FFG on its extremely high production values and writing)--Traps & Treachery had too much focus on bizarre, expensive traps (already have Grimtooth's Traps, LOL, and my players hate me for it--adding more from  T&T would probably get me killed!) and not enough focus on criminal organizations. Underwater adventures and new races don't do anything for me, either... But Spells & Spellcraft--while not "perfect" (what ever is?) is just about the best damn book I've ever seen for D&D. Most of the spells weren't that cool, but they really weren't the focus of the book. Expanding the horizons of spellcasting classes in new and creative ways was. And in that, Spells & Spellcraft--to me--is practially indispensable. The book spurs the imagination and takes the game in new and exciting directions. Sure, some of the rules could have (should have) been more detailed (frex: how do you create place magic? XP, GP, caster level, prerequisites, time--what and how much?). The constructs/golems, "small gods," glyph eggs (magic grenades), familiars, bard/sorcerer variants and feats, libraries, alchemy... these were all golden crunchy goodness. With a bit of extrapolation on the DM and player's parts, the animist cleric variant easily does away with the need for buying Shaman supplements from other companies--the small gods section does a similar job at removing the need to buy Deities & Demigods or Upper Krust's (forthcoming in the year 2227 AD) Worshipper Points System. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  I like this. Spells & Spellcraft saves me money by combining juicy aspects of these other books into one low-priced alternative. I'm not buying D&DG now. I'm probably not buying Green Ronin's Shaman book now. FFG saved me $50 (with tax), LOL. The small gods system CAN work for divine ascension--and is much more useful for a wider number of situations and cosmologies than nearly the same number of pages that D&DG devotes to it, IMO. I picked up maybe three of your Legends & Lairs mini-modules before--just for the amazing maps--the writing in most mini-modules (regardless of publisher is usually useless to me), but balk at the $3.99 price tag when AEG (much improved) mini-modules are $1 cheaper. I would say that yours are frequently superior in production quality (at least before AEG got is act together on this series). I bought FFG's Raven Mine (mansion map!), Hidden Vault (dwarven mine) and Fifth Sepulchre (multi-level royal crypts). I used literally NONE of the adventure as written, but the gorgeous maps fueled my imagination and the adventures I ran off them were successful as a result. I would dearly love a book of gorgeous maps (unpopulated but furnished and keyed rooms, perhaps--or maybe just the maps). I bought Atlas' BACKDROPS and was pleased with it, as well as Dark Furies' floorplans pdfs.  Anyway, great job on Spells & Spellcraft!</blockquote>

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