Surprised by the non-suckage

[Vocenoctum]

I think 9 Swords and MM4 are too new (and the revile too fresh) for them to be accurately judged.

I'd also have to say COmplete Divine really. A LOT of folks are down on it because the PrC's are eh, and the editing of them worse. BUT, where CD shines is the extra stuff, there's a lot of stuff that was cool to read. (Even if the Hooked Hammer picture is missing half...)

Sure, the PrC's are better in Complete Arcane & Warrior, but the material in CD is cool.


The books that I think are unfairly criticized are the books such as Dieties & Demigods, where WotC said "this book will be X", but people expected Y, and then complained when they bought the book and it was X.

Same with MM4, the complaints are not about the quality within the chosen format, but about the chosen format, so it's sort of irksome.

 

[Teflon Billy]

OK...people are going to think I am taking the piss here, but...

World of Synnibarr

In all honesty.

I think it shows a level of "Wahoo!" creativity that 1E Gamma World (pretty much the "Wahoo!" high water mark) can't come close to on it's best day.

Is it perfect? No it surely isn't. As game design it' not even particularly good (though not nearly as bad as the common parlance would have you beleive). But it's fluff is no insanely over the top that I find I can't help but be entertained.

Reading it makes me happy.

 

[Treebore]

I GMed it for about a year. It is way better "balanced" than RIFTS. They got up to 38th or 39th level and it was staying challenign within the rules set.

I am not aware of any other "power game" like Synnibar or RIFTS, but of the two Synnibar is a heck of a lot better.

BTW I finally got my Dawnforge books. Other than the hardcover falling off within an hour of me starting to read it, laid flat on my floor, I really like it.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Book of Nine Swords, which I spent the last few days reading.

From what I heard, I expected it not to be to my taste. On first glance, the system looked more complex than I like. Reading through it, though, it really looks like it'll play pretty smoothly, and I think a lot of the concepts within are fantastic. I'm looking forward to my first chance to play a crusader or a warblade.

Treebore, glad you like Dawnforge. I didn't get to do much on it, but I'm really proud of what I did, and I love the setting. (One of the few truly high-powered settings I enjoy, really.) I was so bummed when they decided not to continue the line past the first three books; I was really looking forward to doing more work on it.

 

[Treebore]

I also bought a couple of monster books you did through Zeitgeist at GenCon. I haven't read them yet, but I bought them just because your name was on them. Hope you live up to my expectations.

 

[trancejeremy]

I guess my biggest surprise is the lack of love for some modules, such as Necromancers Durbenford module. I've heard it called a "major railroad" adventure and other things. I guess it could be. But with a module that big, with that many directions to go in, I would say it is more likely the people who knocked it read it while they were in a bad mood or didn't read it at all.

The adventure part of Durbenford is about 120 pages (not including stats & background). Of that, 80 pages is pretty much completely linear. Even the introduction of the book says the latter part of the adventure is linear.

Contrast that to say, Barakus, where there's dozens of little adventures all over, and no real plot. Or most other bigger Necro modules.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

First, Dragonlords of Melnibone. It's not that bad, dammit. I went back and looked at my review of it from when it was released, because I occasionally see it take a drubbing from a lot of folk, Teflon Billy foremost among them. I can see where TB and others are coming from, really, but I actually like it now, maybe even more than I did. Does it need work? Ohhh yeah, and it's a durned shame that Chaosium will almost certainly never redo it. Is it as good as Stormbringer? No. But it's a quirky, kinda fun book from the early days of d20.

Second, Deities & Demigods. This book has a lot more going for it than it's given credit for. It got trashed for having stat blocks for gods, but hey, so did the original 1e D&DG. What it has that is new are Divine Ranks and their attendant powers and feats. Given some work, these could be usable for really tough, epic level characters and monsters. Divine Rank 0 in particular is a nice way to toughen up a character or monster without too much fuss, and is a convenient way to model divine progeny. Plus, I like many of the critters in the book, especially the ones in the Norse section - the einherjar and valkyrie, as well as the giants, seem quite in line with the myths as I've read and understood them.

 

[woodelf]

[duplicate post]

 

[woodelf]

Magic of Incarnum: Bought the book brand spanking new for 12 dollars. Post shipping and handling. Less than 3 months after the release. All I can say is WOW. I've never seen something go from being so heavily anticipated to the bargain bin so quickly. I've gotten tons of mileage out of it, played as an Incarnate Archer and loved it. Used it extensively as magic for the more savage races. Used it to bring alignment rather than good/evil to the forefront in a campaign. I consider it to be my favorite WOTC purchase of '05 and value wise one of the best WOTC purchases I've ever made.

I'm gonna have to second (third?) this one. In fact, i'll take it up a notch--it's not just good enough, it's awesome; better than the rest. Magic of Incarnum is the first WotC book i've thought worth purchasing since they sold off Ars Magica, and the first D&D book worth buying since The Sea Devils. [Yes, i play D&D. Yes, i play it with D20 System. No, i don't use any of the D&D3E books, nor the D20SRD.] The only thing that would've made it better, IMHO, is if the design had ditched the D&D3[.5]E look, like Tome of Magic did (the only non-ugly D&D3[.5]E book, IMHO).

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

Second, Deities & Demigods. *snipped*

Glad I'm not the only one to find something useful about this book! As I said earlier in the thread, there are some good ideas hidden in the book and if nothing else it has helped me model my deities for my homebrew.