The Decade's Best D20/OGL

[1Mac]

This would be a fine product! I like the suggestion of PF conversion sidebars, so it appeals to both 3.5 stalwarts and the new Pathfinder vanguard.

In general I agree about excluding certain OGL rulesets, but I think there are certain rules in those products that are portable to more generic rules. Things like stunts and zones from Iron Heroes, challenges and damage tracking from True20, chases from Spycraft, loaded spells from Arcana Evolved (that last one might be tricky; I forget how loaded spells work exactly). You get the idea.

This project reminds me of the Ultimate Game Designer's Companion by Mongoose, which was a sort of best-of-OGL for the 3.0 era.

 

[Krensky]

Wow...

That... that's not really what I meant at all.

All I meant was that much of the best of OGL of the past decade are entirely different systems with at time only tenuous connection to their D&D ancestors.

As for the D&D3.0/3.5 stuff, it would probably be easiest and certainly more artistically honest to present the works as they were originally published, with notes from the designers or the editors on converting to other systems.

Alternatively, it might be best to focus on those products that are relatively edition neutral rather then thpose that just dump new classes, feats, spells, etc.

 

[jaerdaph]

All I meant was that much of the best of OGL of the past decade are entirely different systems with at time only tenuous connection to their D&D ancestors.

Absolutely! So, QFT.

Unfortunately, I don't think a single hodgepodge book collecting the best of all these unrelated games would be very useful to most people.

Perhaps several books are needed: One that collects the best 3.5e/d20/OGL fantasy (with notes for conversion to Pathfinder and possibly other systems), one that collects the best of d20 Modern/OGL (with conversion notes to True20 and possibly other systems), one that collects the best of M&M etc.

I will say this. I know I probably own a lot of this material already. For me to buy in, it would definitely need some "value added" other than "it's all in one place", and at the very least that would have to be conversion notes to Pathfinder.

 

[Knightfall]

Speaking of M&M, since that had a compatibility license that 3PPs could use, I bet a Best of 3PP M&M compilation would be very popular.

I'd be interested in such a compilation, but I doubt we'll see such a product now that a 3rd edition of M&M is on its way. A compilation and conversion to M&M 3.E. perhaps?

 

[Philosopher]

A "best of" compilation is a good suggestion.

Personally, I'd be more interested in such a product if everything was converted to Pathfinder (just as the Dragon Compendium that Paizo published converted classic articles from Dragon Magazine to 3.5). Rather than marketing it as a mere compilation, it could also be marketed specifically as a Pathfinder product, so that it'll be about more than nostalgia.

The next question is what products would you like to see included?