What are the better 3rd-party D&D supplements?

[monkeynova]

Hello all!

What are some of the better 3rd-party supplements for D&D 3.x? I was at my local bookstore, perusing the new WotC stuff, and I noticed they had a lot of other d20/OGL books there as well. Some of them (the Book of the Righteous -- I believe that's the name -- immediately springs to mind) look very appealing to me, but I'm concerned that with so much stuff out there, there might be a lot of drek, too...

I've only bought "official" D&D supplements up to this point; what are some of the better "unofficial" supplements out there?

monkeynova

 

[Samothdm]

Check out the Top 20 in the Product Reviews section here on ENWorld and then read the attached reviews.

Also, a lot of it depends on your gaming style and type of game. Are you a player or DM (or both)?

 

[jerichothebard]

My personal favorites are Tournaments, Fairs and Taverns and Everyone Else. They really allow you to flush out your campaign world a lot. That said, there is not much in them for players.

As a player, I can't say I have used much non-WotC stuff. Although the Book of Eldritch Might II, Songs and Souls of Power has some stuff I have used.

jtb

 

[Psion]

I think that a little information on what you are looking for would go a long way.

I think that Book of the Righteous, for example, is a fantastic supplement -- if you happen to be in the market for a pantheon with a good degree of character and campaign supporting detail.

A few of my favorites in a variety of categories:

Magic books:
Complete Book of Eldricth Might (Malhavoc)
Spells & Magic (Bastion)
Relics & Rituals (Sword & Sorcery Studios)
Necromancer's Legacy (Mystic Eye)

Class-related books:
Quintessential Sorcerer & Wizard (Mongoose)
Masters of Arms (Second World Simulations)

Monster Books:
Book of Fiends (Green Ronin)
Creature Collection II (Sword & Sorcery Studios)
Tome of Horrors (Necromancer)
The "Lore" series of books (FFG)

More specific creature books:
Classic Play: Book of Dragons (Mongoose)
Monsters Handbook (FFG)
Plot & Poison (Drow Goodnesss from Green Ronin)

Campaign Resources and Tools:
Requiem for a God (Malhavoc)
Toolbox (Alderac)
Planes & Portals (FFG)

City Settings:
Bluffside (Mystic Eye)
Freeport (Green Ronin)
Streets of Silver (Living Imagination)

Adventures:
Banewarrens
Vault of Larin Karr
Adventure I&II

Full settings:
Second World Sourcebook (requires a bit of GM time investment as its a bit more toolkit style, but my players dig it. Requires d20 Modern)
Scarred Lands (though the investment to keep up is large)
Midnight (FFG - very different feel from regular D&D, but a top notch job.)

You might want to check the top 20(+) lists on the review site, with the warning that those only show products with 5 or more reviews:
http://www.enworld.org/reviews/top20.php?p=1&c=print

 

[jerichothebard]

very strange double post... :\

 

[Crothian]

Goto the main page and look under the ENnies. Each year the best and brightest of d20 books has been represented and identified.

 

[CRGreathouse]

I have to say that the Book of the Righteous is one of the most overhyped books I've yet seen.

The gods are decent, but break no new ground; they aren't fundamentally different from gods in Greyhawk or in the Forgotten Realms. The book has alignment issues; this issue alone is so extreme in its treatment that it's hard to do it justice in a paragraph. Everything is broken into quantum categories for each alignment. (For example, all CG clerics worship Urian one way and all CN clerics worship him another.)

The book has balance issues; prestige classes (esp. Eagles of Urian) aren't well designed. The alternate paladin is popular, but poor in flavor and only mediocre in balance in 3.0 -- in 3.5 the balance is way off.

I bought the BotR because I wanted a 'toolbox' book discussing religion and presenting gods and mythology as a working example. Instead I have an unused book sitting on my bookshelf. Don't get me wrong -- I tried to use it to get at least some value out of my $40, but it just didn't work.

I really have nothing good to say about this book, and that's an unusual position for me to be in. I *wish* I could say something nice, but I haven't found anything that inspired my game or saved me even a minute of preperation.

 

[Emiricol]

Hello all!

What are some of the better 3rd-party supplements for D&D 3.x? I was at my local bookstore, perusing the new WotC stuff, and I noticed they had a lot of other d20/OGL books there as well. Some of them (the Book of the Righteous -- I believe that's the name -- immediately springs to mind) look very appealing to me, but I'm concerned that with so much stuff out there, there might be a lot of drek, too...

I've only bought "official" D&D supplements up to this point; what are some of the better "unofficial" supplements out there?

monkeynova

There is a lot of drek. However, my personal favorites include the Midnight campaign setting, Dungeoncraft and both Traps & Treachery books (all from FFG). Fields of Blood from Eden Studios is superb for mass combat and realm management. I'm a fan of FFG's latest stuff, clearly.

For D20Modern-based stuff, top of my list is Ultramodern Firearms from Green Ronin, and Darwin's World II hardcover from RPG Objects. RPG Objects also does the top-notch Blood & Guts series (Modern Miliary, Terrorism and In Her Majesty's Service) for D20 Modern.

 

[Nightfall]

To each his own. I personally found Book of the Righteous great because it was a thorough look at a panethon and how the religious order functions.

Now in regards to what's good about d20, I happen to say most of the Scarred Lands stuff (stay clear of Penumbral Pentagon), are good, but I feel the Class books (Player's Guides) rocked, the Creature Collections (CC Revised not CC 1), and the R&R books are great.

Green Ronin, Malhavoc Press, S&SS, Fantasy Flight Games, Mongoose, Goodman Games, thesee are what I consider premier d20 companies. Not sure about the PDFs, but certainly they along with the people doing the older campaign sets (Ravenloft by Arthaus, Dragonlance by Soverign Press), are some really good material.

And yes read the darn reviews. I'll be putting up more S&SS reviews along with some other d20 reviews soon.

Btw I still feel WotC is doing off and on when it comes to "official" stuff.

 

[Nightfall]

There is a lot of drek.

One man's drek is another man's campaign setting though!