Angel Tarragon
Dawn Dragon
Monte Cook's various Books of Eldritch Might, Arcana Unearthed/Evolved, Mutants and Masterminds, Northern Crown, Unearthed Arcana, Draconomicon.
What products do you consider innovative?
- Thread starter Glyfair
- Start date
tetsujin28
First Post
Iron Heroes: D&D the way I've been waiting for it to be for 31 years. Removes the 'magic item economy' and other dumb stuff, and gets right down to awesome sword-and-sorcery action.
I know I'm going a little outside the time constraints of the thread, but...
WOTC: XPH, Savage Species, 3Ed/3.5 Ed
Malhavoc: Arcana Unearthed
Green Ronin: Book of the Righteous. I don't care about the pantheons so much as the appendix for generating Holy Warriors. Mutants & Masterminds.
WizKids: Pirates of the Spanish Main/Rocketmen: Axis of Evil.
HEROgames: HERO 5Ed.
Atlas Games: Nyambe, Northern Crown
AEG: Swashbucking Adventures, Spycraft
Pinnacle: Deadlands
Some older games I thought broke new ground: M:TG, Traveller, RoboRally, Space 1889, Crimson Skies, Iron Dragon, Car Wars, ShadowRun, Paranoia, Call of Cthuhu.
WOTC: XPH, Savage Species, 3Ed/3.5 Ed
Malhavoc: Arcana Unearthed
Green Ronin: Book of the Righteous. I don't care about the pantheons so much as the appendix for generating Holy Warriors. Mutants & Masterminds.
WizKids: Pirates of the Spanish Main/Rocketmen: Axis of Evil.
HEROgames: HERO 5Ed.
Atlas Games: Nyambe, Northern Crown
AEG: Swashbucking Adventures, Spycraft
Pinnacle: Deadlands
Some older games I thought broke new ground: M:TG, Traveller, RoboRally, Space 1889, Crimson Skies, Iron Dragon, Car Wars, ShadowRun, Paranoia, Call of Cthuhu.
Li Shenron
Legend
My 2cp (note that I'm not very familiar with older editions, so I may not know that something was done before):
Savage Species was innovative because it addressed the topic of playing a monstrous character, both as a race with a LA or as a class-like progression. IIRC it also had instructions for DMs to create their own custom monsters, which could have been innovative itself.
Ghostwalk was innovative because even if the idea is similar to Savage Species, this time it attempted to create an entire setting around it.
The Book of Exalted Deeds was partly innovative when it attempted to allow characters shunning combat (pacifists-like feats and classes) or shunning magic equipment (vow of poverty) but still fit those characters into a game based on them.
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook was innovative in trying to streamline a simple system to price castles in a fantasy setting, for example taking the availability of magic into account.
Were they successful? As a very general feeling, BoED is the most popular but only because it has the easiest material to pick up for characters, but the commonly used material from it IMO doesn't include the innovative things (except VoP, but only because some think it's very powerful). SS is probably moderately used, while GW is not popular AFAIK. SBG must be admitted to have been the unlucky one, just because buiding castles is itself a rare thing in D&D.
Savage Species was innovative because it addressed the topic of playing a monstrous character, both as a race with a LA or as a class-like progression. IIRC it also had instructions for DMs to create their own custom monsters, which could have been innovative itself.
Ghostwalk was innovative because even if the idea is similar to Savage Species, this time it attempted to create an entire setting around it.
The Book of Exalted Deeds was partly innovative when it attempted to allow characters shunning combat (pacifists-like feats and classes) or shunning magic equipment (vow of poverty) but still fit those characters into a game based on them.
Stronghold Builder's Guidebook was innovative in trying to streamline a simple system to price castles in a fantasy setting, for example taking the availability of magic into account.
Were they successful? As a very general feeling, BoED is the most popular but only because it has the easiest material to pick up for characters, but the commonly used material from it IMO doesn't include the innovative things (except VoP, but only because some think it's very powerful). SS is probably moderately used, while GW is not popular AFAIK. SBG must be admitted to have been the unlucky one, just because buiding castles is itself a rare thing in D&D.
Particle_Man
Explorer
I would say:
Castles and Crusades (first game to allow one to have the race/class options of d20, but without the complexity of feats and skills).
Iron Heroes (first game to allow characters to be Bad Ass without relying on Magic Items)
Complete Arcane (first supplement to allow me to play a "Wizard type" without having to keep track of spells used, spell slots used, spell points used, etc.)
BoED (for the Vow of Poverty)
So naturally I want to play a Warlock with Vow of Poverty converted to either Iron Heroes or Castles and Crusades.
Castles and Crusades (first game to allow one to have the race/class options of d20, but without the complexity of feats and skills).
Iron Heroes (first game to allow characters to be Bad Ass without relying on Magic Items)
Complete Arcane (first supplement to allow me to play a "Wizard type" without having to keep track of spells used, spell slots used, spell points used, etc.)
BoED (for the Vow of Poverty)
So naturally I want to play a Warlock with Vow of Poverty converted to either Iron Heroes or Castles and Crusades.
ColonelHardisson
What? Me Worry?
I'll chime in with my "me too!" post citing Iron Heroes as innovative (for the swords & sorcery genre of RPGs, at least), for the reasons others have mentioned above.
DonTadow
First Post
I'd say NPCdesigner at www.rpgattitude.com . This is the best tool to come out with for DM's in years, as it is the first product of its kind that lets you generate npcs of all classes, races (and for that matter ecl races and prestiges) on the fly. It also gives you a fair amount of control over shaping and generating a series of them.
It's never been done before and thus gets my claim for innovation. It started with a guy saying "hey... I wonder is this possible".
It's never been done before and thus gets my claim for innovation. It started with a guy saying "hey... I wonder is this possible".
Innovation can be a very subjective term, but from my point of view, recent "innovative products" that I have played would include
Games
D&D 3E
Arcana Unearthed
Iron Heroes
Mutants & Masterminds
Elements of Magic
Expanded Players Handbook
Settings
Midnight
Iron Kingdoms
Older products that I consider innovative would include
Games
AD&D
Vampire
Mage
Rolemaster
Champions (Hero)
7th Sea
Setting
Harn
Birthright
Dark Sun
Planescape
Games
D&D 3E
Arcana Unearthed
Iron Heroes
Mutants & Masterminds
Elements of Magic
Expanded Players Handbook
Settings
Midnight
Iron Kingdoms
Older products that I consider innovative would include
Games
AD&D
Vampire
Mage
Rolemaster
Champions (Hero)
7th Sea
Setting
Harn
Birthright
Dark Sun
Planescape
Aus_Snow
First Post
RPG stuff from anywhere, anytime? OK. . . (though I'll doubtless miss at least a few, even from just my own base of experience) - and bear in mind that these have been picked from the options (that I am personally partly or wholly familiar with) that best exemplify innovation, not necessarily other virtues of any kind. . . thus, a number of my favourite RPG things are missing from this list, and a number of RPG things on this list are by far not among my favourites. . . :
OD&D
CP2013
Shadowrun
Traveller
CoC
GURPS
Ars Magica
Amber Diceless
oWoD
D&D 3rd ed. and the d20 SRD
Iron Heroes
Grimm
True20 (choice based on owning a 'predecessor' and having heard much, so far)
Tri-Stat dX
edit --- oops, didn't see 'recent' in the original post. Um. Well. OK. How about Iron Heroes, True20. . . er. . . how recent?
OD&D
CP2013
Shadowrun
Traveller
CoC
GURPS
Ars Magica
Amber Diceless
oWoD
D&D 3rd ed. and the d20 SRD
Iron Heroes
Grimm
True20 (choice based on owning a 'predecessor' and having heard much, so far)
Tri-Stat dX
edit --- oops, didn't see 'recent' in the original post. Um. Well. OK. How about Iron Heroes, True20. . . er. . . how recent?
Last edited:
Similar Threads
