Things you'd like to see from WoTC but never will...

[Cbas10]

Oh oh oh ... monster pogs ... with 1" diameters and skulls and crossbones on the back to indicate they are killed. Excellent cheap replacement to minis and easier to pick up than cut outs of paper. You could even include some "special effect" pogs that would randomly generate some sort of effect such as the type of trap encountered or wandering monsters. "Here draw you doom out of the DM's baseball cap!" hehehe ok .. not great ideas mind you but _I_ would love to see them and they will never be made

Now that is a GREAT idea. I'd certainly buy hordes of these! The Fiery Dragon markers are great, as far as artwork is concerned, but I hated cutting out the one set I bought. Additionally, they are not at all durable. WotC already did these "pogs" once in the basic "Adventure Begins" box - they just need to do more! They have the artwork already (from the MM and other books) and they obviously have access to the manufacturing (the "Adventure Begins" pieces). However, that might cut into the Minis sales.

I would like to see some epic campaign uber-modules that contain pre-drawn, color battlemaps for use with miniatures.

While I agree that there needs to be some more modules, I would not want space or money wasted on color battlemaps for each and every module. Part of the joy in roleplaying is (hopefully) still in the storytelling and DMs evoking players' imaginations. I'd be really bored if my DM opted for using a piece of paper and a "There's the room and what you see" comment instead of a 2-3 minute description of the room/area and its oddities. If battlemaps were really cheap and easy, I'd love them - I admit that it would be convenient. However, they would take a lot of space in a book (limiting the text content) and would jack the prices (due to being full color).

As for what I'd love to see:

1. Modules that have a stronger emphasis on story content and difficulties that players must PLAY through instead of HACK & MAGIC through. However, I'd settle for a good ol' hack-n-slash if the presentation and organization was as good as Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

2. More DM resources. Someone already mentioned this and I agree. No more books with a zillion tables, monsters, and PrCs; rather a book or two that really discuss running games and how to make them more interesting. It seems that the industry is raising a generation of gamers that MUST follow the book, CANNOT deviate from the rules, etc. Basically Computer RPGs on paper. Wait a second...is someone doing that?

3. More Greyhawk support. If Greyhawk is supposed to be the "base setting," why not release more than A SINGLE BOOK? It would have made more sense to make FR the core setting, based on what publications have seen the light of day. Why have all the core books refer to Greyhawk and its cosmology, monsters, etc. when they don't really have a setting to use them within? Greyhawk might not be as extensive or as amazing as Forgotten Realms, but it would make a great setting for "starter" players and DMs. Maybe the books like Book of Vile Darkness, Deities and Demigods, and Manual of the Planes might actually apply to our games without aggravating work on conversions and tweaking.

 

[NewJeffCT]

Hmm, I have no need for endless prestige classes, additional spells, odd core races, strange, exotic new monsters and alternate spell casting and/or magic systems. Our group of long time gamers tends to game straight out of the 3 core books only and not much else, unless it is a DM only campaign setting book. I think the group of players we have has only used one prestige class in total out of 6 or 7 PCs over a few campaigns now.

So, that said, I would love to see a definitive mass combat book if the upcoming 'Fields of Blood' does not do the trick. A Realms-like book on Greyhawk. Not because I love Greyhawk (I prefer Kalamar), but because I like the back story/ history behind a world.

How about an Asian-themed setting based on China instead of the usual Japan? Most of what I see seems to be replete with samurais and ninjas and China has almost 10 times the population of Japan. Not that there is anything wrong with samurai and ninja, but why not something different than the usual?

 

[jasamcarl]

Now that is a GREAT idea. I'd certainly buy hordes of these! The Fiery Dragon markers are great, as far as artwork is concerned, but I hated cutting out the one set I bought. Additionally, they are not at all durable. WotC already did these "pogs" once in the basic "Adventure Begins" box - they just need to do more! They have the artwork already (from the MM and other books) and they obviously have access to the manufacturing (the "Adventure Begins" pieces). However, that might cut into the Minis sales.



While I agree that there needs to be some more modules, I would not want space or money wasted on color battlemaps for each and every module. Part of the joy in roleplaying is (hopefully) still in the storytelling and DMs evoking players' imaginations. I'd be really bored if my DM opted for using a piece of paper and a "There's the room and what you see" comment instead of a 2-3 minute description of the room/area and its oddities. If battlemaps were really cheap and easy, I'd love them - I admit that it would be convenient. However, they would take a lot of space in a book (limiting the text content) and would jack the prices (due to being full color).

As for what I'd love to see:

1. Modules that have a stronger emphasis on story content and difficulties that players must PLAY through instead of HACK & MAGIC through. However, I'd settle for a good ol' hack-n-slash if the presentation and organization was as good as Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil.

2. More DM resources. Someone already mentioned this and I agree. No more books with a zillion tables, monsters, and PrCs; rather a book or two that really discuss running games and how to make them more interesting. It seems that the industry is raising a generation of gamers that MUST follow the book, CANNOT deviate from the rules, etc. Basically Computer RPGs on paper. Wait a second...is someone doing that?

3. More Greyhawk support. If Greyhawk is supposed to be the "base setting," why not release more than A SINGLE BOOK? It would have made more sense to make FR the core setting, based on what publications have seen the light of day. Why have all the core books refer to Greyhawk and its cosmology, monsters, etc. when they don't really have a setting to use them within? Greyhawk might not be as extensive or as amazing as Forgotten Realms, but it would make a great setting for "starter" players and DMs. Maybe the books like Book of Vile Darkness, Deities and Demigods, and Manual of the Planes might actually apply to our games without aggravating work on conversions and tweaking.

Hmm...perhaps because Wotc came to the conclusion that the market wouldn't support another largely generic detailed fantasy setting and FRs built in fanbase and more pulpy air made it the more popular choice? And maybe they wished to confine FR specific names and locations to their own line in order to establish that line as prestigious. And just maybe they still wished to have a pool of names of npcs, places, etc to serve as examples in the core books... Just maybe..they have been saying this all along?

 

[der_kluge]

As you command, so mote it be!

It's on the schedule for the Ravenloft line being put out by White Wolf/Sword and Sorcery Studios. It's not the sort of thing which interests me overly much, but I'm sure with a little bit of scrounging around, you could find out about it on the Kargatane site.

Rock on, DUDE! Masque of the Red Death d20. Wait till I tell my friend about the news!

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Hmm...perhaps because Wotc came to the conclusion that the market wouldn't support another largely generic detailed fantasy setting and FRs built in fanbase and more pulpy air made it the more popular choice? And maybe they wished to confine FR specific names and locations to their own line in order to establish that line as prestigious. And just maybe they still wished to have a pool of names of npcs, places, etc to serve as examples in the core books... Just maybe..they have been saying this all along?

Which still makes me wonder why they tried to ressurect Greyhawk as their default setting rather than using the Forgotten Realms. Even though I'm not a big fan of the Realms, all the popular D&D CRPGs (except Planescape:Torment) have been set there, the most popular D&D novels are set there, there was TV show talk for awhile, it's a varied setting that is both generic and has a measure of distinction- hell, it is the default setting in all but name.

So why not?


Now, back on topic. I'd love to see M:TG d20, even though I refuse to ever buy a pack of the cards again (I vowed I would quit playing forever if they took the Llanowar Elf out of core). The setting seems like a great place for high-powered, epic-style campaigning. I don't know why they bothered with Eberron when they already had this property in-house, with a built in fan base... it just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Other than that, I'd second the call for more modules. I enjoyed the adventure path... while RttToEE looks like fun, I've never seen anyone run the module very well. I'd like to see a "less hacking, more thinking" type module, too...

 

[Aeolius]

"Greyhawk Unbound: Beyond the Core": A hardback supplement which assumes that a DM has every 3.0/3.5 rulebook and supplement, and wants to use them in the World of Greyhawk. This supplement would add the prerequisite selection of new skills, feats, spells, magic items, monsters, and treasure unique to Oerth, detail the various "Mysterious Places", give revised stats for noteworthy NPCs, and provide detailed maps of various locales. The book would also give a general description of other areas of Oerth not covered in the LGG, so that aspiring visionaries could flesh them out for their own campaigns.


"Of Skies and Seas": a hardback supplement detailing adventures in aquatic, underwater, aerial, and variable-gravity planar locales.


Mandatory support for the Macintosh platform, in all licensed computer endeavors.

 

[jasamcarl]

Which still makes me wonder why they tried to ressurect Greyhawk as their default setting rather than using the Forgotten Realms. Even though I'm not a big fan of the Realms, all the popular D&D CRPGs (except Planescape:Torment) have been set there, the most popular D&D novels are set there, there was TV show talk for awhile, it's a varied setting that is both generic and has a measure of distinction- hell, it is the default setting in all but name.

So why not?


Now, back on topic. I'd love to see M:TG d20, even though I refuse to ever buy a pack of the cards again (I vowed I would quit playing forever if they took the Llanowar Elf out of core). The setting seems like a great place for high-powered, epic-style campaigning. I don't know why they bothered with Eberron when they already had this property in-house, with a built in fan base... it just doesn't make any sense to me at all.

Other than that, I'd second the call for more modules. I enjoyed the adventure path... while RttToEE looks like fun, I've never seen anyone run the module very well. I'd like to see a "less hacking, more thinking" type module, too...

Again, because they wanted to resign all fluff/prcs that are FR specific to the FR line in order to make them the one source for that stuff and draw in as many FR-centric players (and even non-players) as they could. Thus an FR group would purchase from one line for the fluff (and setting-specific crunch) and the other for even more crunch. It gives FR books a larger audience than the amount of rules material would normally entail...In other words, if you are going to make something a source of fluff (a rather limited market), make it the definitive source of fluff....

 

[The Blue Elf]

Again, because they wanted to resign all fluff/prcs that are FR specific to the FR line in order to make them the one source for that stuff and draw in as many FR-centric players (and even non-players) as they could. Thus an FR group would purchase from one line for the fluff (and setting-specific crunch) and the other for even more crunch. It gives FR books a larger audience than the amount of rules material would normally entail...In other words, if you are going to make something a source of fluff (a rather limited market), make it the definitive source of fluff....

Thats because FR realsed all these source books,supplments,and Novels people would buy them as I remember they had some advertisments in Comic Books and some Magzines that people at the time it was the most marketable.

 

[Desdichado]

Alternatively, have several designers collaborate on this, providing different viewpoints (similar to what J. Dyal is doing on his website currently).

Look for an update later this week, finally. Also, I'll get back into my online game this week. Sorry for the delays, folks!

 

[Bloodsparrow]

I guess you're right. I mean, so far the only elf subraces we have are the moon elves, sun elves, dark elves, aquatic elves, wood elves, winged elves, wild elves, star elves, half-elves, half-drow, and fey'ri. If new ones stopped being added, the elf fans might feel neglected!

And with templates you could have Dire Elves, Chaos Elves, Skeletal Elves...

A Dire, Skeletal, half-drow... Sounds like something Vin Diesel would play.

Seriously... I think I may have already said this, but... I second the suggestion that was made a while back for a book about dieties and religions that doesn't include metric butt-tons of stat blocks. I want some flavor... Need the "info". Not that I don't enjoy sitting down with a soda, a pad, and a pen to write me some scripture every now and again, but some times... It'd be nice to actually have something to base it on.