What new d20 stuff came out the past two months?

[MEG Hal]

Hate halflings. Won't have anything to do with them. Otherwise, Hamlet of Thumble looked okay, except for the lame title, of course. Almost bought that company's previous Lost Caverns module, but it was a little "too old school" (by that I mean unnecesarily crappy looking on purpose, trying to be retro 70s).

Just to make sure the facts are correct Hamlet of Thumble is made by Open World Press through Mystic Eye Games and Lost Caverns is by Goodman Games (Mike Mearls wrote it so it should be great).

As a note I agree with Morpheus, the Artificer's Handbook is a great resource of information.
Check em out when you can.

 

[DonaldRumsfeldsTofu]

Well, Iron_Chef, it sounds like everything falls down and doesn't pass muster with you.

So let's start with the basics: What do you like so we can find something along the same line to recommend.

Barring that, it just sounds like we'll be putting forward titles for you to give mini-pan reviews all day

Now that I agree with.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Nothing much sounds interesting. My fault for saying d20 stuff and not d20 fantasy. Zero interest in anything non-fantasy.

Already have the excellent Magical Medieval Society and Magical Medieval City supplement. What a fantastic resource those were! Loved 'em! City Works sounds like I'd be buying the same material twice, but not as good as MMS... Probably has some stuff MMS doesn't, I bet, so I'll give it a looksie.

Don't want anything from Mystic Eye, Goodman, FFE (not FFG), they haven't released anything that I've liked enough to buy. Mongoose, Green Ronin, LI, these are companies with products I like (though Mongoose is always hit or miss, but they put out so damn much that they keep their "hit" count up vs. their "miss" count). The Quintessential Drow and Sheloth City of the Drow both sound interesting. How are their Ultimate Prestige Classes, Volume 2 and Ultimate Arcane Spellbook? They better be pretty damn amazing to attract my gaming dollar when I already have so many PrCs and spells!

Anyone see AGENTS OF FAITH from Living Imagination? That looked interesting; their STREETS OF SILVER was easily one of the best d20 city sourcebooks ever, despite some missing info (some provided later in a web enhancement), some bad art, organization, and layout issues. They also have a PIRATES book out... how's that?

I guess I'm looking for gritty, intelligent political and urban adventures and sourcebooks to complement my copies of MMS:WE and Dynasties & Demagogues. Particularly anything with a strong Imperial Rome flavor, as my DM wants to do something Romanesque next, but anything that helps run city and political adventures would help. How is GURPS ANCIENT (IMPERIAL?) ROME as a sourcebook for d20?

 

[MulhorandSage]

I guess I'm looking for gritty, intelligent political and urban adventures and sourcebooks to complement my copies of MMS:WE and Dynasties & Demagogues. Particularly anything with a strong Imperial Rome flavor, as my DM wants to do something Romanesque next, but anything that helps run city and political adventures would help. How is GURPS ANCIENT (IMPERIAL?) ROME as a sourcebook for d20?

Have you looked at FVLMINATA by Thrysus Games? I haven't seen it myself (it's on my "to get when the ship finally docks in port" list) but a lot of people whose tastes I respect swear by it.

 

[Nightfall]

Funny the section in PG: Fighters and Barbarians on raising and maintaining a merc company seems pretty gritty to me. And if you wanted to do mass combat, I like Cry Havoc's system.

But what do I know?

 

[Psiblade]

I have been able to import quite a few prestige classes & feats from both Player Guides (fighters/barbarians & wizards/bards/sorcerers) into my home campaign without issues. I guess your mileage may vary.

I just picked up the Warcraft book. I am a fan of the game and I really liked the art. I will do a review later.


-Psiblade

 

[ES2]

Well, I can't think of anything that has come out that isn't already mentioned, so a good question to then ask is what kind of products are coming in the next 90 days that anybody has any knowledge of? this way you can plan ahead.

 

[Kichwas]

Masterwork Maps Inss & Taverns: a collection of locations with maps for those kinds of locations. Handy DM resource, though not at all a 'sexy' sort of product. There are several of the -usual style- allowing for variety even in the mundane as well as several that are just plain interesting like the one built into a tree for use in an elven settlement -it reminded me an early scene in the first Dragonlance novel (which I read almost two decades ago, so the memory may be off), only it's shape is more original.

Quintessential Sorcerer: Really spices up the sorcerer, this is one of the few Quintessential books that seems to be well balanced and full of useful ideas. The only problem is that it's 3.0 so you'll have to adjust a few things.

Quintessential Ranger: for 3.5, saw it in the store but didn't give it a detailed look.

Salt and Sea Dogs: The Pirates of Tellene. Despite being for Kalamar this has a wealth of ideas on how to do piracy for the fantasy genre and is largely useful for any setting. You only lose 18 of the 144 pages if you use it outside of Kalamar, and you might not even lose that in terms of inspiration for organizing your pirates.

Those are my recent purchases, that and a new Kalamar module which may or may not be adoptable to elsewhere: Stand and Deliver, a 3.5 level one module about a fencing / jousting competition with some local intrigue wrapped up around it.

I've also bought into the Players Guide to Wizards, Bards, and Sorcerer -not as useful as I'd hoped it would be, Q: Sorcerer was a better buy (which suprised me), and the Revised Creature Collection which is handy, but still has the same old art (some of which I love for how funky it is, but realize how unpopular it is as well).

 

[Nightfall]

Arc,

Not my fault about the scythe falcon familiar! But hey at least you can get a monkey familiar now. I will agree they could have add some more new art to CC Revised.

 

[Iron_Chef]

Funny the section in PG: Fighters and Barbarians on raising and maintaining a merc company seems pretty gritty to me. And if you wanted to do mass combat, I like Cry Havoc's system.

But what do I know?

Already got plenty merc info in AEG's MERCENARIES and WOTC'S A&EG. MERCENARIES: BORN OF BLOOD looked okay, but too expensive to take a chance on; don't need merc material, esp. when parts of that book are non-fantasy oriented. I guess I thought the PGs were too tied into the SL setting and just too weird or unusable for my game. The art didn't do much for me either. I haven't found much SL stuff to be worth buying so far, though CC2 had some good stuff in it and I liked Secrets & Societies, though it's never seen any use (nice cover art, though!).

FULMINATA, huh? Never heard of it or the publisher. Sounds like something no store would carry... guess I'll hunt for it online.

Cry Havoc? Is that out? What about Fields of Blood?

Anyone see Agents of Faith? Living Imagination is a company that really interests me after Streets of Silver rocked beyond all belief (still, it was a bit too Italian Renaissance and heavily tied into their Twin Crowns setting so that it required a bit more tweaking than I normally like---but its attention to detail can't be beat, making it worth the trouble).