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Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="RangerWickett" data-source="post: 1740291" data-attributes="member: 63">As an author of a few of these books *big grin*, I'd like to weigh in a bit.People were too generous early on.  Remember, it was a year and a half into the d20 movement, and aside from the Book(s) of Eldritch Might and maybe some Ambient stuff (not sure on their timeline), there weren't that many pdf books that were getting high praise.  So out we come with a pretty good little book, Wild Spellcraft, and we get 4s and 5s.  At the time was thrilled because, of course, I thought my writing was the best thing since sliced chocolate cake.In hindsight, I'd rate Wild Spellcraft as a 3, maybe a 4 because it was cheap and because I'd be a fool to give myself a low rating.  The mechanics in WS are a little weak, really, but there's a lot of suggestions for adding nice wild flavor.  I personally illustrated some of it (I did the female Dwarf pics), and so that will never go down as the highest production values in the world.  But it was pretty good little book.  Easily worth $6.Tournaments, Fairs, and Taverns, however, has for some reason never gotten a 5th review, so it can't go onto the top 20 list (which it would if it got a 4 or a 5).  For the time, I feel it was definitely a 4.2 to 4.5.  It was a bit of a niche product, and while some of the rules are a little complicated (the races needed to be simplified for the print version, and the drinking is, in hindsight, poorly done), but there's just so much goodness in this book, I love it.  The print version is even better, more polished and with more games and fun (though sadly Mystic Eye didn't use any of Danilo Moretti's excellent illustrations).  Still, I think the pdf version deserves a little over a 4.  I feel comfortable saying so because most of the material was submitted by people other than me.  I did almost all the mechanics, but the ideas and write-ups were done by ENWorlders.  Great stuff all around. Four-Color to Fantasy, I'll admit, is not the best superhero book for d20.  We all know that's Mutants & Masterminds.  But FCTF is the best sourcebook for adding powers to characters, regardless of genre.  Whereas M&M rewrites d20 to suit superheroes, FCTF basically adds super-powers to d20, without changing any rules.  Easy for plug-and-play usage.  If we repackaged it and resold it as a primarily toolkit book, not a supers book, it would deserve a solid 4, I feel.  I still want a printed copy of the book, in full color, but *sigh* it could never be done.  Hmph.  I'll just put off my next D&D purchase and spend $20 to get my own book, gawgroggit!The revised version, which is cross-compatible with D&D and d20 Modern, is a 4.5 if we're judging a powers toolkit, and a 3.7 if we're judging a superhero book.  It's got slick production values (though, no offense to Hound who laid it out, but I fell in love with Duncan's original), and it provides all kind of goodies, and it gives you suggestions on how to use them.  What more could you want?Little bit of triva.  While JL Jones did the cover art's characters, I drew the skyline in photoshop.  *grin*I wasn't involved with Steam & Steel, so I am not allowed to self-depecrate it.  Honestly I haven't had a chance to read it fully, even though I'm running a steamtech game.  I've got a player who loves the thing, though, and so I just tell him I've got X in mind, and he points me in the right direction. So, Wild Spellcraft really ought not be in the top 20.  FCTF ended up not being quite what it was advertised as, but I still think it deserves to be up there.  It doesn't have a ton of 'coolness' factor; it's a toolkit.  So it doesn't beat any of the top Malhavoc books, which are all supremely cool plus have good rules, but maybe somewhere around 15.TFT does deserve to be in the Top 20, I feel, and if someone would be so kind as to review it, I'd be thrilled, even if you gave it a 3 or something.  (A 2 would just be spiteful.) Oh, and Elements of Magic?  I'm sorry, but I think the book rocks.  I will say nothing bad about it except that I should've had a different cover.  The artist sucks, seriously.  *grin*  Don't worry, though, I'm good friends with him.Anyway, please review us more.  We tend to make a nice splash because we do products that aren't just collections of new crunchy bits, but I would be interested in seeing some reviews that look at our earlier books in hindsight.By the way, what's the policy on publishers reviewing the work of others.  I have Bruce Cordell's Mindscapes, and I love the thing.</blockquote>

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