The Tidal Wave of Junk...

[jdrakeh]

Best? Maybe for the months of June 2000 and July 2000.

Whenever somebody here (at ENWorld) asks about 'best of 3.0' or 'best 3x monster books', the original CC still makes the lists of several posters (as does the corrected CC Revised). It had its flaws, sure, but I think Diaglo is way off base suggesting that it was "horrible" — as are you, suggesting that it had no real lasting appeal after the month of its initial release.

That said, people do seem to enshrine it as a 'best of' because of the illustrations, flavor text, and monster descriptions — not because of the mechanics. In that regard, I think it's a stand out example of mechanics not necessarily 'making' a product. For its mechanical foibles, CC sold well enough to warrant a reissue and still earns accolades from gamers on this very forum.

 

[pawsplay]

Just figure out the print date on Foundation: A World in Black and White (my apologies if the author is reading this thread, but there you go). That book proved indisputably that you could not simply slap a d20 logo on something just because the genre (super-heroes) was still wide open at the time. Shortly thereafter, piles and piles of d20 overstock started appearing at the local Half Price Books, even decent stuff that simply overestimated the market.

 

[Set]

The earliest 3rd party stuff I remember was the Freeport module and the Sword & Sorcery Creature Collection and Relics & Rituals, so for me it was a Tidal Wave of Awesome. Since 3E lacked a decent setting (IMO), the Scarred Lands quickly turned into the 'default' 3E setting around here.

I vaguely recall seeing a lot of Mongoose stuff, but from glancing at it in the stores, it didn't really appeal to me. (I mean they had total nobodies like Mike Mearl writing for them! Pshaw!)

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) If you avoided FFG and Mongoose's (snip)

FFG = Fantasy Flight Games. Midnight. Dawnforge. Dragonstar. Great board games.

FFE = Fast Forward Entertainment. Crap. The only publisher to make Mongoose look like its books were well-balanced, playtested and well-edited.

Please correct your post!

 

[Aberzanzorax]

FFG = Fantasy Flight Games. Midnight. Dawnforge. Dragonstar. Great board games.

FFE = Fast Forward Entertainment. Crap. The only publisher to make Mongoose look like its books were well-balanced, playtested and well-edited.

Ditto. I have only actually thrown away a single D&D book that I bought.

Demons and Devils by Fast Forward. I have never bought another one of their books.

Other books I've regretted paying money for (some of avalance press's stuff...talk about unbalanced) but kept as there were some solid ideas there. But FFE? UGH!

And Fantasy Flight Games is totally awesome. I wish they'd put out more stuff even now!

 

[DaveyJones]

i have products from numerous 3rd party publishers. many of them are defunct.

i miss seeing Hal from mystic eye games / thunderhead games
and Ed Cha from open world press


edit: off the top of my head i know i own products from: AEG, MEG/TH, Ambient, Atlas, Bad Axe Games, Bastion Press, Sovereign Press, Paizo Publishing, Creative Mountain Games, Darkfuries, Dog Soul Publishing, Dog House Rules, Eden Studios, EN Publishing, XRP, Goodman Games, Malhavoc Press, Green Ronin, Mongoose Publishing, FFG, FFE, Necromancer Games, Troll Lords, Privateer Press, Red Spire Press, Open World Press, WotC, Fiery Dragon, L5R, White Wolf

 

[Galloglaich]

My favorite D20 / OGL company was Avalanche Press, they did a ton of awesome historical flavor books even though they weren't too sharp on DnD rules in particular and always had those slightly embarrassing cheescake covers.

DriveThruRPG.com - Avalanche Press - d20/OGL 3rd Edition - The Largest RPG Download Store!

Their Celtic word and Vlad the impaler books remain classic research summaries for those particular eras / locations, still on my bookshelf. You get all the best data of five or six serious academic books or ten or fifteen primary sources condensed into one easy to read reference, thats immensely valuable to me for doing campaigns.

I also liked Necormancer, Green Ronin (gotta love Freeport), and Atlas, particularly Ars Magica. And of course Chaosium who ventured into D20 a little with gems like Cthulhu Dark Ages. There was a lot of stuff out there, the worst of which to me was the WOTC stuff, but I found some really useful resources.

Whatever happeend to Mongooses(?) Conan OGL RPG? Is it still out there? Do people play it? I never hear anyone talking about it any more.

G.

EDIT: my bad I forgot Cthulhu Dark Ages wasn't D20 / OGL, it was still teh awesome though...

 

[jaerdaph]

I know that Mongoose Publishing has never been an EN World darlin', but I have to say that some of their earlier titles like Necromancy: Beyond the Grave, Demonology: The Dark Road, The Quintessential Witch and The Quintessential Rogue were some of my favorite 3PP purchases and I still enjoy them to this day.

 

[frankthedm]

Whenever somebody here (at ENWorld) asks about 'best of 3.0' or 'best 3x monster books', the original CC still makes the lists of several posters (as does the corrected CC Revised). It had its flaws, sure, but I think Diaglo is way off base suggesting that it was "horrible" — as are you, suggesting that it had no real lasting appeal after the month of its initial release.

"IMHO it had plenty of worth none the less and a nice helping of flavor."

I'm not going to say it was "best" because i lost track of what 3rd party monster books were released following the August 2000 Wotc MM.

 

[jaerdaph]

FFG = Fantasy Flight Games. Midnight. Dawnforge. Dragonstar. Great board games.

FFE = Fast Forward Entertainment. Crap. The only publisher to make Mongoose look like its books were well-balanced, playtested and well-edited.

Please correct your post!

Fast Forward Entertainment was originally Fast Forward Games, I believe, but changed their name for whatever reason (to avoid confusion with Fantasy Flight, I imagine).

I do have one favorite FFE dice game I picked up and still play to this day - Inning A Minute Baseball. It was created by William W. Connors, author of my all time favorite TSR setting, Masque of the Red Death.