Worst 3.5 publishers?

[Henry]

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's please keep civility in this thread by eliminating any and all insults towards one another, or this thread is going to have to go on EVERYONE'S ignore lists.

Sorry for the intrusion.

 

[DaveMage]

I wish publishers would upgrade their existing products to 3.5e in the form of free PDF errata.

For example, I have both Relics and Rituals I and II. Really like the books, but I'm a little bummed that there aren't going to be any upgrades to the spells in those books.

Sure I can buy R&R III when it comes out, but I'd be surprised if it included 3.5 versions of all the spells listed in R&R I and II.

I'm not a publisher, but I did work on converting a large product. I can tell you that while it may be easy to convert on the fly, it is very time consuming to convert an entire product - especially one as large as Relics & Rituals. Keep in mind, that the more time that is spent converting an entire product, the less time is spent on creating new ones.

(And I now have *great* respect for folks like Scott Greene who have converted so many creatures from prior editions.)

And, of course, since you want the conversion to be free (as we all do), that means that the hours invested in doing so produces no profit for the converting company.

This is why you'll see new products convert old monsters - such as Green Ronin's Book of Fiends, which introduces new creatures along with the updated stats of older ones. Companies spending the time to get it right deserve compensation, IMO.

 

[Treebore]

Ignore List?!!? I don't put anyone on my ignore list. I am willing and able to read anyones opinion. IMO, I repeat, IMO ignore lists is no different than my kid telling me I don't like what you are telling me so I refuse to listen.

Also, if you use ignore lists how can you say you participate in or run an open forum? You use ignore lists to make sure you hear/read only what you want to. This translates to being exclusive. Which can also be called elitist.

I read everyones post. I have absolutely no one on my ignore list. I am here to find out everyone's opinion, not just those who say what I like to hear. Otherwise there would be no point for me to even come to these boards.


Ignore list?!?! Come on!!

 

[MEG Hal]

Ignore list?!?! Come on!!

I believe Henry was inferring locking this thread in his own subtle way...

 

[diaglo]

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's please keep civility in this thread by eliminating any and all insults towards one another, or this thread is going to have to go on EVERYONE'S ignore lists.

Sorry for the intrusion.

you could at least answer the original question.

we know you have an opinion on the matter somewhere up there in your gray matter.

i'm not trying to be rude. just trying to egg you into adding to the discussion.

 

[Darrin Drader]

>>>
Of the list you brought up, only Menzoberranzen, "From the Ashes," and "Strongholds" has any promise of standing the test of time and of those, really, only Menzoberranzan and Strongholds are truly worthwhile.
>>>

Time to go back to meditation, Darrin. You know not of what you speak. When you have reflected upon your ignorance, please return and share what you have learned with the class.

Yeah you're right. My ignorance is making that statement as though it is fact when it is really just the opinion of one gamer who was buying many of those products at the time. Thank you for reminding me to not post angry.

 

[Merova]

Apologies

Ladies and Gentlemen, let's please keep civility in this thread by eliminating any and all insults towards one another, or this thread is going to have to go on EVERYONE'S ignore lists.

Hi all!

Your wish is my command, oh Most Majestic and August of Moderators.

To all who I may have offended in my replies to Darrin, I offer my apologies. Sometimes I stay in RPGnet mode when posting on different fora, forgetting that "heat" level in permissible discussion can be radically diverse. Mea culpa.

ON TOPIC: My earlier comment about Fast Forward was also unnecessarily snarky and pithy. Although I am enthusiastic behind some ideas from FFE, given the current design trend towards mechanically implementing "balance" in resource allocation and character design, I find that they have been consistantly spotty in execution.

To tie in to my discussion with Darrin, like some of TSR's products from the early 90's, FFE has plenty of interesting ideas. However, there is a strong lesson to be learned from game settings like Maztica or Spelljammer; cool ideas are not enough. Games need to be playable. With the coherent ruleset of 3.0 and 3.5, there shouldn't be too much of a problem in making the games playable, but to do so, designers need to know the rules.

My feeling is that much of FFE's output has been hobbled by designers who don't know the rules, nor respect the premise of balance that underpins them.

Therefore, Fast Forward is my vote for the "worst." However, they'll still get my money for the CrossGen game. (Yippie! I luv Meridian.)

Thanks for reading.

---Olivia

 

[James McMurray]

Obviously i have a much more demanding opinion of what the definition of compatible and revison mean. Can you play a 3.5 game with only 3.0 books? No. There are so many changes you have to have the 3.5 material available to you in order to play.

Can you run windows 98 with only a CD of Windows 95? Of course not. Compatible doesn't mean that you don't need the upgrade to se the upgrade, it just means that if you've ot some programs designed for windows 95, they'll still run on windows 98. And the fact that you've upgraded means you'll run smoother when using those old programs.

Granted, windows may not have been a good choice for comparison, but the philosophy is the same.

 

[maddman75]

A closer analogy would be 'can you network to Windows 95 machines after you upgrade to Windows 98?' Yes, you can. The other people on your network don't have to upgrade too. But if the DM decides to upgrade the game to 3.5, the players all need new players handbooks. There's not enough good stuff in 3.5 to make that worthwhile. What would make it worthwile? About the scale of improvement from 2.5 to 3.0.

 

[Crothian]

So far I've seen plenty of stuff to upgrade to 3.5 but that's not really the concern. If people could use the 3.0 core books and play 3.5 that would defeat the purpose of making 3.5 Wizards had to have enough changes to justify people spending the money on the new core books. Wizards is a company and they have to protect their bottom line. Why do people hold it against them that they want to do this?