Terrain books--who's using them?

[Crothian]

Not to forget "Wilderness & Wastelands" .

I don't use that one, though

 

[Aus_Snow]

Hmm, if this is the case, let me ask you this. Would your campaign have taken a turn to the arctic if you did not have the crunch from Frostburn? I don't know a thing about your campaign, I'm just assuming the game was not set in chilly regions long before now.

It only started recently. It started cold and is getting colder.

Without that book, I'd have been forced to write or improvise rules. And as I said...

So, in effect, I might never have started said campaign.

 

[Voadam]

So between Sandstorm, Stormwrack, and Frostburn, what have you used from these terrain books? Are they worth purchasing or were the ideas/rules you used things you could have come up with on your own? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for terrain books but I find many of my adventures get back to the city or underground environments in short order (thus making the books a hard sell for me).

I don't own any of those, but I have used Into the Black and Bits of Darkness Caverns for underground stuff.

I used races and monsters from ItB as underdark world background and a neat cavern description from BoDC.

I do own Frost and Fur but haven't read it yet so I haven't used any of it. And my current game is in a badlands area of the outer planes and headed to get into less natural terrains so I don't expect to get much use out of my other terrain books for a while (the whole into the series, Savage Tribes, etc.).

 

[Psion]

So between Sandstorm, Stormwrack, and Frostburn, what have you used from these terrain books?

Stormwrack's out? Did I miss something?

Anyways, I use a variety of seafaring books. Seas of Blood is my principle book for combat system and ships, but I use aspects of Seafarer's Handbook and Book of the Sea.

I also use wildscape. Mainly for the ranger, but I think the fantasy terrain variants rock.

I am toying with throwing both an ice world and Hamunaptara in my planar game. The former will use Frostburn and Frost & Fur. The latter will use sandstorm. Both will use wildscape.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

Bought Frostburn.. loved the concept..
then ran into Wildscape at a game store....
Didn't buy Sandstorm or Stormwrack....

Wildscape provides the level of detail I need for pretty much all terrains, with a handy plug and play capability to mechanically define pretty much any setting you want.

IMO, buy Frostburn, etc.. if you want to run in a predefined enviroment. Buy Wildscape if you want to have mechanics for the enviroment you dream up for the next session

Oh.. Frostburn, etc.. has cool new spells, races, monsters and the occasional Prestige Classes for you to ban from your games ;p

My current campaign is being very Druid centric (PCs = 2 Druids, 2 Rangers, 3 other ) and I have used Wildscape in every adventure so far. My next adventures will use the book more as the group heads off into the Swamp.. and from there into a dark twisted forest.. then they will be high enough level to launch into a modified Deserts of Desolation
Looking forward to getting my moneys worth from that book to be sure!

The only arena it does not cover is sea faring adventures. I have 'Broadsides', which is fairly decent.. given that my group apparently has a ocean-phobia

 

[Napftor]

Stormwrack's out? Did I miss something?

Yeah, I figured someone would mention that.

And thanks for your Dread Codex review over at RPGNow, by the way.

 

[Hussar]

Sandstorm was one of the first WOTC products I bought in a long time. I really like this book. I like it enough that I'll probably buy Stormwrack as well. I've got no adventures heading into the cold, so Frostburn will have to wait.

However, if you are heading anywhere near a desert or area with no water, Sandstorm is definitely worth the money. Besides that, it's actually not a bad read as well. I definitely give it two thumbs up.

Although, taking a look at the caravel posted on the WOTC boards, it's nice to see that someone has no idea how rigging works yet again. I'm sorry, but you cannot place a catapult on the main deck of a caravel. It doesn't work. Nor does placing a ballista behind the bonaventure mast on the forecastle. Don't people realize that those sails need ropes to hold them in place?

If you are going to have gunpowder age ships without gunpowder, you need to develop ballistae that can be placed below decks. Catapults don't work on ships with three masts. Sorry.

 

[Bront]

I want to look into Stormwrack. Don't have a lot of interest in the others, but I'll probably try to flip through them to see if they're usefull.

Generaly, catapults aren't well built for ship combat anyway. Indirect fire is hard enough when the platform is not moving.

 

[MerricB]

I've used Sandstorm extensively - as a lead in to my Necropolis campaign, and to flesh in additional events in the campaign.

What have I used? Feats, prestige classes, monsters and environmental hazards. I love the book. It's really good.

(You can find details of how I've used it in my campaign blog: http://www.3rdedition.org/merricb/greyhawk/greyhawk.htm)

Frostburn I've also used somewhat. I've used in a couple of RPGA games, and I'd love to use it in my main campaign - I guess I will sometime soon, after they get out of the desert.

Both are exceptional books.

Cheers!

 

[NimrodvanHall]

I'm currenty running a campeign set in a desert.

What i use from Sandstorm is:

The Druid variant (one of my PC's that is)
A prestige Class (one of the PC's is a SandShaper)
some feats
most spells except from FlashFlood (this spell is way to rediculus in this setting, it creates hundres of cubic feet of water)
one dungeon as the base of the party hide out.
the enviroment rules

What i do not use is Fluff outside the sandshaper fluff
the new PC races