D&D 5E Why I Changed My Mind About Third Party Books

[Zardnaar]

Overall I have neverhad issue with 3pp (Judges Guild!) but I have been disappointed with the FGG products in recent years, for 5e and S&W. I bought the original 2 volume quests of doom, and was pretty underwhelmed by the newer stuff, and some of it was old conversions from 3.x. Seemed pretty haphazard and uninspired.

I supported the Goodman Games adventure Kickstarter and also the end result seemed flat compared to the adventures they write for their house system. But for some they may be worth checking out.

TLG adventures- in particular, the A series are quite good. The first few are small sandboxy type areas like Phandelver- Small frontier type towns in a larger region with a few adventure locations and lots of hooks/smaller plots in each book. Ive run the first 4 (A0-3) and big fun has been had on both sides of the screen. The originals statted for C&C are still easy peasy to convert to 5e, if some of the later adventures in the series that havent been converted yet, float your boat.

I liked the 1st few A series when we played it for C&C. I think the Knight was gonna try to marry the Witch Queen.

They have made it up to A5 so far and they replaced the Unkler things with Gnolls.

 

[Inchoroi]

Overall I have neverhad issue with 3pp (Judges Guild!) but I have been disappointed with the FGG products in recent years, for 5e and S&W. I bought the original 2 volume quests of doom, and was pretty underwhelmed by the newer stuff, and some of it was old conversions from 3.x. Seemed pretty haphazard and uninspired.

I supported the Goodman Games adventure Kickstarter and also the end result seemed flat compared to the adventures they write for their house system. But for some they may be worth checking out.

TLG adventures- in particular, the A series are quite good. The first few are small sandboxy type areas like Phandelver- Small frontier type towns in a larger region with a few adventure locations and lots of hooks/smaller plots in each book. Ive run the first 4 (A0-3) and big fun has been had on both sides of the screen. The originals statted for C&C are still easy peasy to convert to 5e, if some of the later adventures in the series that havent been converted yet, float your boat.

Oo. Got links to the sandboxy type areas adventures? I've got a world to populate, after all. If I had a complaint about FGG, it's that; while they make a sandbox, there are some areas of their sandbox--example, in Sword of Air--that are completely bereft of any details. The city Apothasalos literally has nothing, not a detail.

The Quests of Doom issue is one I'm familiar with--I want them, but I'm pretty sure I'll only use a few of them. They were definitely conversions, though, from their "Environment" books, which had some adventures in them that take advantage of the rules and things they made for each Environment type, but 5e doesn't need those extra rules (and is better without them), so Quests of Doom got made specifically to bring those adventures to 5e. If I ever am able to get them, I probably will, solely for the extra adventures--as a DM who is actually kind of bad at homebrew stuff, having extra adventures is a lifesavers.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Fifth Edition Foes is definitely a good one. Back in the 3e era, I always considered Necromancer Games to be one of the best of the third party publishers.

Tome of Beasts is natural 20 of a product. I didn't pay Kobold Press much mind prior, but will have to rectify it.

A lot of the great third party companies of 3e's era ended up creating their own systems: Paizo - Pathfinder; Troll Lord Games - Castles & Crusades; Goodman Games - Dungeon Crawl Classic RPG; Green Ronin - Fantasy AGE. Though, Green Ronin is an exception, really, as they have gone on to be integral to Wizards' current products.

 

[delericho]

Green Ronin - Fantasy AGE. Though, Green Ronin is an exception, really, as they have gone on to be integral to Wizards' current products.

That's maybe a bit of a stretch - they did one product (OotA), and had some material make its way into another (SCAG). But then, so too did Kobold Press (the two ToD adventures).

I'm not convinced those third party publishers are integral any longer - I suspect instead they were used by WotC to do work that they didn't have bandwidth to do in-house (because they were working on the Core Rulebooks). But it looks like the adventures are now back in-house (CoS, SKT).

Of course, now that I've said that, they'll probably announce that the next storyline is to be done by Green Ronin...

 

[JeffB]

Oo. Got links to the sandboxy type areas adventures? I've got a world to populate, after all. If I had a complaint about FGG, it's that; while they make a sandbox, there are some areas of their sandbox--example, in Sword of Air--that are completely bereft of any details. The city Apothasalos literally has nothing, not a detail.

The Quests of Doom issue is one I'm familiar with--I want them, but I'm pretty sure I'll only use a few of them. They were definitely conversions, though, from their "Environment" books, which had some adventures in them that take advantage of the rules and things they made for each Environment type, but 5e doesn't need those extra rules (and is better without them), so Quests of Doom got made specifically to bring those adventures to 5e. If I ever am able to get them, I probably will, solely for the extra adventures--as a DM who is actually kind of bad at homebrew stuff, having extra adventures is a lifesavers.

Unfortunately you missed the big .99 print and pdf adventure sales the Trolls conducted over the last two weeks. I posted a link on the press release forum, but not sure if anyone took advantage.

But if you go to drivethru's website, look at the Troll Lord Game section and look for The Umbrage Saga, that PDF has the first 6 A series adventures bundled into one book. You will also find tneir 5E conversions.

I would post links but I'm on my phone and its a PITA , sorry. LMK if you cannot find and I will do after work

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Heh, probably...

Using the word integral was a bit strong, I'll admit. With 4e, it did seem like third party publishers were less and less welcome to the table. 5e is starting to see an upswing, but it's still nothing compared to what we had in 3e. Not that that's necessarily entirely a good or bad thing. There were some amazing products in that era, but also a ton of dross.

That's maybe a bit of a stretch - they did one product (OotA), and had some material make its way into another (SCAG). But then, so too did Kobold Press (the two ToD adventures).

I'm not convinced those third party publishers are integral any longer - I suspect instead they were used by WotC to do work that they didn't have bandwidth to do in-house (because they were working on the Core Rulebooks). But it looks like the adventures are now back in-house (CoS, SKT).

Of course, now that I've said that, they'll probably announce that the next storyline is to be done by Green Ronin...

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

I have been looking at that and their Book of Lost Spells. 5E Foes seems to get good mentions from people that have bought it. Do you know of the various monsters in the Quests of Doom books are in it?

I don't have Quests of Doom yet so I don't know how they match up. 5e Foes is a bunch of 1e MM2/FF monsters which is why I love it. Its also got a lot of FGG originals in there too.

 

[aco175]

I do not have a problem with 3pp, especially now since the current modules coming out from Hasbro are not for my style. I have been looking at one of them to try though, but would like to see options and smaller modules (and at less cost). Maybe a module that spans only a few levels, like Phandelver.

 

[Zardnaar]

I do not have a problem with 3pp, especially now since the current modules coming out from Hasbro are not for my style. I have been looking at one of them to try though, but would like to see options and smaller modules (and at less cost). Maybe a module that spans only a few levels, like Phandelver.

What sort of levels are you looking at?Do you want a book with several smaller adventures in it a larger adventure?

 

[Inchoroi]

I do not have a problem with 3pp, especially now since the current modules coming out from Hasbro are not for my style. I have been looking at one of them to try though, but would like to see options and smaller modules (and at less cost). Maybe a module that spans only a few levels, like Phandelver.

Lost City of Barakus by Frog God Games; fun dungeon crawl, with some fun magic items. You'd have to convert, though, to 5e. Not a hard thing to do, however, just slightly time consuming if you're like me.

There's also Stoneheart Valley, although I wouldn't call that a short adventure (neither is Barakus, really, I just really like FGG's stuff).