What are the 10 best d20/D&D companies out there?

[Gothmog]

My top 10 would be:

Green Ronin
Paradigm Publishing
Atlas Games
Fantasy Flight Games
Mongoose Publishing
Mystic Eye Games
Necromancer Games
Monkey God
Privateer Press (so far so good, IKCG impressed me- and I'm not into steampunk, but they haven't put out much yet)
AEG

Companies I'm wary of:

Malhavok- Can be good, or too wonky, hit and miss for me- I'm not as much into high fantasy. This is mostly a taste issue for me- I know lots of people love them.
Sword & Sorcery- pretty shoddy and often overpowered game mechanics, and their worlds don't do anything for me. Not to mention the hack job they did on Gamma World

If we go outside D&D, I'd add in there:

RPG Objects (Darwin's World 2 is phenomenal, and all their stuff is top-notch)

And no, WotC doesn't make it in the top 10. They gave us the core 3 books, but most books since Fiend Folio have been mediocre to severely lacking IMO.

 

[MonsterMash]

My list:
1. Necromancer Games
2. Troll Lord Games
3. Mongoose Publishing
4. Goodman Games
5. Fantasy Flight Games (FFG)
6. Malhavoc
7. Monkey God Sadly now abandoning D20

Got to confess after that I'm struggling a bit.
If it was not just D20 then Steve Jackson Games, Chaosium and Games Workshop would deserve mentions.

 

[Mouseferatu]

In no particular order...

WotC
Green Ronin
Sword & Sorcery
Fantasy Flight
Bottled Imp Games
MonkeyGod
Atlas
Expeditious Retreat
Paizo
Necromancer Games

Honorable mention to Zeitgeist, but you can't really judge from one product. I have high hopes, though.

 

[Fiery James]

Unfortunately, it looks like there's some sort of virus attacking your computers, because Fiery Dragon was deleted from each of your lists.

Fiery Dragon is one of the 10 best d20/D&D companies.

Feel free to cut and paste that!

(Wandering around the exhibition hall at GenCon, it looked like there may only actually be 10 d20 companies left... printing, anyway.)

- JB

 

[HvF]

I don't have 10 but I do have a big three outside WotC that I keep an eye on. In no particular order:

(1) Paradigm Concepts Inc. As a player in his 30s I appreciate a mature setting that doesn't pander to the BoVD crowd. Based very loosely on the fall of Rome, their world setting of Arcanis often deals with the politics of a decaying Coryani Empire and the successor states that have sprung up around it. While there is no shortage of evil cults and true villany, often who your allies are and who your adversaries are depends on what factions you happen to support. Regardless of which mode their products fall into (grand evil or political choices) they *always* spend a great deal of thought and energy on providing a well crafted storry and vibrant NPCs. The Codex Arcanis is a great campaign setting and supported by a couple of source books and 5 adventures, two of which (Bloody Sands of Sicaris and especially Carnival of Swords ) develop their city settings quite well. Given the complexity of city adventures I appreciate that. While some of their earlier products suffer some from bad stats blocks, what they are turning out now is very polished. In the next week their Players Guide to Arcanis should be hitting shelves so its a timely oppertunity to take a look at PCI.

(2) Green Ronin. I don't buy all their stuff, but everything I purchased from them I've enjoyed tremendously. In particular the Book of the Righteous (a complete fanatsy Pantheon) and Freeport: City of Adventure are both spectacular books. Like Paradigm, Green Ronin spends a lot of attention on storry setting and vibrant NPCs. The next home campaign I run will definately use the pantheon from the Book of the Righteous which lavishes attention on the storries and myths of the gods, while balancing "crunch". There is a prestige classe for each diety and a re-engineering of the Paladin to be adaptable as a Holy Warrior tailored to each diety (choosing the champion and guardian domains recreates the Paladin out of the PHB). I should say that their dieities are statless - for me that's a boon since those pages got put to good use elsewhere - but if you plan on having your PCs someday challenge a diety or its avatar you'll have to look elsewhere. Freeport is also one of the best d20 products released to date: a (ex)pirate city trying to go straight that can be put just about anywhere, (ie into any camapaign) as a fantasy "Hive of Scum and Villany". Freeport is also supported with a handful of adventures and a rougiues gallery as well as a nod or three to the horror storries of HP Lovecraft.

(3) The Ravenloft products of Swords & Sorcery as a rule have been very very good - though there have been shake ups among the design teams. The good news is they have Rucht Lilavivat (sp?) on their roster of authors who knows his stuff. On the off chance you are a member of RPGAs Living Death campaign he is the author of the modules Unspeakable and Insomnia. His work on assigning CR and customizing creatures in 3.0 (before the revised 3.5 MM) was groundbreaking in the Van Richtens Guide to the Walking Dead which was far better than I believed it would be. James Lowder and Ryan Nalor are also quite talented and worth watching for. However they apparently aren't involved in every project and there have been a few clunkers. Champions of Darkness is given unflaterring reviews and the revised rules in the 3.5 RL PHB go backwards from the elegant 3.0 RL Campaign Setting from which it was derived. None the less if you are looking to put some creepiness into your campaign (as opposed to gore) this is the best place to look.

I guess I should nod my head to Malhavoc as well. When Monte is on there is no one better, but I often find the quirky topics of Malhavoc products...quirky. Some work for me and some don't. That said I'm *really* looking forward to the "planescape reunion".

-Eric Gorman

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I know that 5 of the 10 are probably WotC, Green Ronin, Malhavoc, Mongoose, and Necromancer, but what would be the other 5? I only ask because I only have a smattering of WotC stuff and would like to know who else to buy from. Thanks!

Green Ronin is #1 with thier Mutants & Masterminds line.
Troll Lord Games is #2 with thier Castles & Crusades line that is coming out.


The rest...who cares?

 

[talien]

#8: Monkey God

#7: Monkey God Sadly now abandoning D20

#6: MonkeyGod

Bitter irony...too much...struggling...for breath.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Bitter irony...too much...struggling...for breath.

I'm right there with you, man. I may have started writing with White Wolf, but the Monkeys gave me my first shot with D20, and The Hero Snare is still one of my favorite projects. I dearly hope that, in the future, they find a way back into publishing.

 

[Maggan]

My 10 favorites

1. WotC
2. Malhavoc
3. Green Ronin
4. Necromancer Games
5. Sword&Sorcery (by itself)
6. Alderac
7. Fantasy Flight
8. Atlas Games
9. KenzerCo
10. Mongoose

Note that this is companies that I own books from. I have also heard a lot of good comments about Expeditious Retreat, but I haven't gotten hold of any of their books.

If Privateer Press actually hade made more than a few books, I would rank them high, if their recent releases have tighter rules integrity than The Withfire Trilogy had. All the same, I think they are the ones to watch out for!

Cheers

Maggan

 

[Keeper of Secrets]

Kenzer
Atlas
GreenRonin
Necromancer
Sword/Sorcery


I think these may be the best 5.