Warcraft anyone?

[Estlor]

Despite what Estlor says, it is possible to run a Warcraft campaign using nothing but the basic Warcraft RPG book, just like it's possible to run a Forgotten Realms campaign using nothing but the FRCS.

I can't deny that, but let's be honest for a moment. Comparing the Warcraft D20 book to the FRCS is like apples to oranges. WotC raised the bar on setting books so high with the FRCS that Warcraft D20 is just... underwhelming as a "setting book." What we got is a short book with excess white space that constantly refers to the A&HC, a product that wasn't even out when it was written. As a result, some of the references (namely technology) aren't even IN the A&HC.

Granted, I'm coming down hard on Warcraft D20. The book IS very well written and lays the groundwork for an interesting spin on the D&D game. However, it's incomplete as a setting book. Perhaps this is more the fault of Arthaus and S&SS than the designers of the book. It seems as if they were handcuffed to a low page count, larger than necessary font and line spacing, and poor layouts around images. I can tell by the text of the book that they wanted it to be so much more than it was.

That said, if you don't mind doing a lot of the work for yourself, WCD20 gives you some ingredients (races, classes, feats, and brief overviews of Kalimdor) to start with. It's just not the whole setting like FRCS is. Yes, WotC have released accessories for FR since then, but you've never NEEDED them like you need Warcraft D20 accessories.

Of course, again I stress, it IS a good book. It just fails to do everything it aimed to do.

 

[Dark Jezter]

That said, if you don't mind doing a lot of the work for yourself, WCD20 gives you some ingredients (races, classes, feats, and brief overviews of Kalimdor) to start with. It's just not the whole setting like FRCS is. Yes, WotC have released accessories for FR since then, but you've never NEEDED them like you need Warcraft D20 accessories.

Once again, I disagree. The Manual of Monsters is a very nice suppliment, but you don't need it if you want to run a Warcraft RPG campaign. The Alliance & Horde Compendium has some nice new races and prestige classes, but none of them are essential to run a game. The upcoming suppliment, Magic & Mayhem, will have more spells, magic items, and stats for technological devices, but it dosen't look like it will be any more essential for running a Warcraft campaign than Magic of Faerun was for running a Forgotten Realms campaign. The upcoming Lands of Conflict suppliment will contain detailed information about the eastern continent of Azeroth, but if you are running a game set in Kalimdor, it probably won't be of much use to you.

Of course, again I stress, it IS a good book. It just fails to do everything it aimed to do.

I do agree with you there. It's obvious from listening to the developers of the book, as well as examining the book itself, that they weren't able to include everything they wanted to.