My top ten most anticipated new gaming releases:
My top ten most anticipated new gaming releases:
by Matt the Bastard DM
The new edition of the Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne RPG by Guardians of Order (GOO) is my most anticipated release of the year. I LOVE all things Tekumel and I'm hoping this product will present a simple, complete rules set to run a campaign there. I think WOTC should beg M.A.R. Barker to work with them and put out Tekumel materials. If WOTC is looking at a new setting, I wish they'd consider Tekumel. It is the most detailed and complete culture I've ever seen in an RPG. Also, it is not based on western culture (which has been done to death in Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Forgotten Realms, Mystarra, etc...) and I'm sick of flavorless "standard fantasy" worlds.
Any new issue of Dungeon/Polyhedron magazine is second. I love the new minigames in polyhedron (I hope dead settings can be redone this way) and Dungeon is absolutely the best value per dollar in the gaming industry.
"City of Brass" and "Wrath of Orcus" modules from necromancer games are third & fourth because I love the "old-school" feel.
"City State of the Invincible Overlord" by Judges Guild (converted to 3E) is fifth--again because of the "old-school feel". This is another setting WOTC should consider publishing. It would go especially well with the "Book of Vile Darkness"
Book of Vile Darkness is the sixth of my list because I'm hoping it will finally present good price and demographic type information for slaving, whoring, etc... I feel these darker elements enrich a campaign, whether the players are fighting against them or perpetrating them.
The City of the Spider Queen is seventh, because I'm planning an underdark campaign using all the material from 1st-3rd edition I can get my hands on and culminating with "Queen of the Demonweb Pits"
The Epic Level handbook is eighth because my players like high-level gaming and I'd like a resource that makes such campaigns more manageable--particularly, giving me ideas of how to keep the players focused on the same goals rather than scattering to the four winds.
Mystic Triads "Magic Places" is ninth because the premise is unique--it hasn't been done before (at least not full scale).
WOTC's Book of Challenges is tenth because it's like the old "book of lairs"--stuff that's easy to drop in to a campaign.