The Best & Worst of 3rd Edition: WotC Settings (Realms, Ebberon...) (Winners Anc.)

[jeffh]

I wonder where books like "Heroes of Horror" fit into this classification system.

It's in the Player's Supplement poll.

 

[Glyfair]

Of all the things I noted, the most surprising was Secrets of Sarlona. I wasn't really interested in running adventures there (with all there is to explore elsewhere), and it seemed a very tough area to place a campaign (with an almost all powerful controlling government).

Then it was really well done and an attractive area to run all sorts of different campaigns. I likely won't use it for a long time. Still, it was very well done and you could easily run several campaigns there without ever exposing players to the rest of Eberron.

How come? What didn't you like about them?

Personally, I love city books but I don't play in either Eberron or the Realms and these two seemed very campaign specific so I didn't buy them.

One of the biggest complaints about Sharn was the lack of a detailed city map. Personally, I think that would have severely hurt the usefulness of the product for me, but to each their own.

No index, for one.

I really like S:CoT, but the lack of index is infuriatingly annoying.

Well, there is a very good one done by Keith. Admittedly, it's not in the book (which has advantages and disadvantages).

 

[diaglo]

TerraDave,
would you include a:

my hat of d02 knows no limits

option on the polls please for me. i should know i bought everything that came out until i couldn't take it anymore.
for me, as more and more crap was released a became less and less happy.

 

[mhensley]

the thing i have learned from these polls is that i only bought about 1% of the books

 

[Glyfair]

the thing i have learned from these polls is that i only bought about 1% of the books

To be fair with this specific one, if you aren't picking up a campaign setting's books you'll miss large portions of the poll.

When 3E came out I picked up the first few FR books to use in my game. Magic of Faerun and Monsters of Faerun were among the best 3E books for my homebrew campaign. The campaign setting was good, but also revealed to me that I had no interest in running a Realms game as their was reference to too much past history which I'd need to reference to do the setting justice, so I stopped buying those books.

On the other hand, when Eberron came out I loved the setting. Heroic pulp fiction has always been one of my favorite genres (I ran many Justice, Inc. games in the past) and combining it with fantasy worked well. I bought all of the Eberron books.

 

[Darrell]

On the other hand, when Eberron came out I loved the setting. Heroic pulp fiction has always been one of my favorite genres (I ran many Justice, Inc. games in the past) and combining it with fantasy worked well. I bought all of the Eberron books.

See, I'm pretty much the opposite. I detested Eberron from the word 'go,' and thought mixing the 'pulp'-ish flavor with fantasy was the worst idea since (not wantin' to get all 'Simpsons Comic-Shop-Guy' on ya, but...) Greedo shooting first.

In fact, I checked 'did not like' on many of the titles on this poll without ever having looked at them. I hate them because they are Eberron.

[Comic-Shop-Guy] Worst. Setting. Ever. [/Comic-Shop-Guy]

But, whatever...one man's trash is another man's treasure.

Regards,
Darrell

 

[Anti-Sean]

In fact, I checked 'did not like' on many of the titles on this poll without ever having looked at them. I hate them because they are Eberron.

Well, that's certainly one way to help reduce the value of this poll for people who are actually interested in its results; much more effective than, say, just not voting on books that you haven't looked at.

But, whatever...one man's trash is another man's treasure.

That is often the case. However, one uninformed opinion almost invariably turns out to be just as worthless as the next.

 

[WayneLigon]

I voted for the Eberron books, save for Secrets of Sarlona which I don't have; really, I've loved just about everything that's come out for Eberron. Even if I never ran D&D again, I'd still use that setting background as it does most of the things I want in a setting and does them better than any other setting has to date.

I didn't vote either way for the vast majority of FR or Greyhawk. I've never used them, so gave them a miss save for Silver Marches, which I managed to pick up used for $8.00. I've always liked Silverymoon.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

The ones I care enough about to comment on:

Grand History of the Realms: It's a list. Of dates and events that really do mean nothing to me. I think it could have been greatly improved by more organization; like, say, events by region, with better maps. The recycled artwork was rather annoying, too.

Champions of Valor: OMG how lame. I'm sorry, but when they arbitrarily redefine "valor" to mean fighting evil, to the point where ANOTHER EVIL PRIEST IS VALOROUS BECAUSE HE'S FIGHTING HIS BOSS, it's stupid. And the substitution levels being almost entirely for paladins is just entirely too annoying. What, no valorous rogues?

Forge of War: This one I greatly enjoyed. It provides a lot of historical context, and is a very good basis for a war campaign. I'd've preferred a few maps with arrows on them, but I'm a milhistory geek, and understand not everybody wants those.

Brad

 

[Zaukrie]

One to comment on: I voted "did not like" on the Grand History of the Realms. It was a great book for what it was, but as an opportunity it was missed. The recycled artwork was appalling for a book that was to be kind of a capstone to 3E FR (not to mention a resource that is version agnostic). The lack of more depth to the entries was disappointing for the price. But, really, it was the recycled artwork (including a warforged) that killed it for me. Terrible, terrible cheapness and attempt to make more profit on what could have been a great, great book that could be re-sold through all versions of the rules.