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<blockquote data-quote="KDLadage" data-source="post: 2008766" data-attributes="member: 88"><p><strong>updated on 22-NOV-02</strong></p><p></p><p>Ryan Nock launches the <strong>Natural 20 Press</strong> imprint with an excellent product. <strong>Wild Spellcraft</strong> had a lot of weight on its shoulders: as the first product of the new imprint, it needed to make a statement about the quality and value that this new imprint can achieve; it needed to be very, very good -- not just good -- to ensure to a future customer base that this is not an imprint to ignore. It needed to say "This is not your ordinary fan-work here. It is a professional quality product." And it succeeds.</p><p></p><p><strong>THE GOOD</strong></p><p>Wild Spellcraft covers some really fun territory. As the primary author of the <strong>Umbragia</strong> setting, I have to winder what my volume on Arcane Spellcasters would have looked like had I seen this book before I wrote mine. I may have gone in some very different directions.</p><p></p><p>The book has new spells, new classes and a new feel for your current, standard magic using types. It covers things in a very balanced and even handed way. For d20 writers, it also includes an RTF file that holds all of the Open Content so that it can easily be cut-and-pasted into a new d20 product. Very handy... I hope other d20 publishers are watching, as this is an excellent idea. The book is fairly meaty. The writing is in a very readable prose style that accentuates the material well. Several areas of the book spend time describing how one could use the book -- including a very cool TOP-TEN-style listing at the beginning. Overall, I highly recommend getting this book.</p><p></p><p><strong>THE BAD</strong></p><p>There are some short-comings, but they are more subjective rather than objective quality-related issues. For example: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> I feel that the lack of columns was a mistake. It makes reading the book a bit of a chore. As one reviewer put it, if the book were primarily meant to be read on-screen, this is not a problem. But I think most people will want to print it out.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> I feel that, although the artwork and layout are excellent, the borders are a bit wide and the artwork a bit too prominent. This results in a book that is nearly 5MB of download.... more than 5 times the size of the PDF files I have created for Umbragia... and the word count for the Umbragia PDFs is higher. Again, this is not such a bad thing -- I feel that the look of the Wild Spellcraft book is much better (in the end) than the Umbragia volumes. But the size will be a turn-off for some buyers. Perhaps d20 Press could offer a <em>bare-bones</em> version sans artwork... or just sell the <strong>Open Content</strong> file at a slight discount...</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul"> The use of <strong>d%</strong> when the roll can be modified was, in my opinion, a mistake. One of the elements of the d20 system is that <strong>d%</strong> rolls are never modified. Most of these rolls could have easily been changed to 20-sided dice (especially since the majority of the range brackets are in 5% increments) -- again, this was brought up by another reviewer as well.</li> </ul><p></p><p><strong>THE SKINNY</strong></p><p>But these are very, very minor issues. The book is an excellent buy. It was five dollars that I consider very, very well spent. God Job guys! I think it is evident that you will be taken seriously.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="KDLadage, post: 2008766, member: 88"] [b]updated on 22-NOV-02[/b] Ryan Nock launches the [b]Natural 20 Press[/b] imprint with an excellent product. [b]Wild Spellcraft[/b] had a lot of weight on its shoulders: as the first product of the new imprint, it needed to make a statement about the quality and value that this new imprint can achieve; it needed to be very, very good -- not just good -- to ensure to a future customer base that this is not an imprint to ignore. It needed to say "This is not your ordinary fan-work here. It is a professional quality product." And it succeeds. [b]THE GOOD[/b] Wild Spellcraft covers some really fun territory. As the primary author of the [b]Umbragia[/b] setting, I have to winder what my volume on Arcane Spellcasters would have looked like had I seen this book before I wrote mine. I may have gone in some very different directions. The book has new spells, new classes and a new feel for your current, standard magic using types. It covers things in a very balanced and even handed way. For d20 writers, it also includes an RTF file that holds all of the Open Content so that it can easily be cut-and-pasted into a new d20 product. Very handy... I hope other d20 publishers are watching, as this is an excellent idea. The book is fairly meaty. The writing is in a very readable prose style that accentuates the material well. Several areas of the book spend time describing how one could use the book -- including a very cool TOP-TEN-style listing at the beginning. Overall, I highly recommend getting this book. [b]THE BAD[/b] There are some short-comings, but they are more subjective rather than objective quality-related issues. For example:[list] [*] I feel that the lack of columns was a mistake. It makes reading the book a bit of a chore. As one reviewer put it, if the book were primarily meant to be read on-screen, this is not a problem. But I think most people will want to print it out. [*] I feel that, although the artwork and layout are excellent, the borders are a bit wide and the artwork a bit too prominent. This results in a book that is nearly 5MB of download.... more than 5 times the size of the PDF files I have created for Umbragia... and the word count for the Umbragia PDFs is higher. Again, this is not such a bad thing -- I feel that the look of the Wild Spellcraft book is much better (in the end) than the Umbragia volumes. But the size will be a turn-off for some buyers. Perhaps d20 Press could offer a [i]bare-bones[/i] version sans artwork... or just sell the [b]Open Content[/b] file at a slight discount... [*] The use of [b]d%[/b] when the roll can be modified was, in my opinion, a mistake. One of the elements of the d20 system is that [b]d%[/b] rolls are never modified. Most of these rolls could have easily been changed to 20-sided dice (especially since the majority of the range brackets are in 5% increments) -- again, this was brought up by another reviewer as well.[/list] [b]THE SKINNY[/b] But these are very, very minor issues. The book is an excellent buy. It was five dollars that I consider very, very well spent. God Job guys! I think it is evident that you will be taken seriously. [/QUOTE]
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