Your most recent purchases?

[The Sigil]

Me! me!

Within the last 4 weeks, purchased (after nearly a month of "being a good boy and buying nothing"):

Alchemy & Herbalists (Bastion Press) - Found the constant "cutsie" spellings ("Chymical" instead of "Chemical", etc.) got really annoying really quickly. Some nifty ideas for Alchemy and Herbs though - liked the text but Bastion Press' "Sinewy" look on their art is starting to get on my nerves after Minions, Villans, Arms & Armor, Ink & Quill... wasn't thrilled with the art initially but could ignore it... after seeing it time and again it's getting tougher to ignore. I also love Bastion's OGC policy (all text but "Bastion Press" is OGC) and will support them for that alone. *Recommend*

Deities & Demigods (WotC) - A resounding "enh" with shoulder shrug. See my post under the "Asmodeus..." thread on this board for what I would have preferred to see. Not NEARLY enough useful information. *Do not recommend*

Spells & Spellcraft (Fantasy Flight Games) - Spells are, well, spells, but this has a lot of other ideas (some a bit lacking in execution) that I love - improving familiars, new alchemical items, new magical materials, new sorcerous feats that are actually somewhat original (bloodburn). LOTS of good ideas in this one. *Highly Recommend*

Encyclopedia Arcane: Constructs (Mongoose) - Much better treatment of Constructs than Spells & Spellcraft, but for a book entirely devoted to Constructs, it had better have a better treatment. Liked the rules, but constructs are something of a sentimental favorite for me. If you aren't a huge fan of them, probably not for you. *Recommend if you like constructs, Don't Recommend if you dont*

Quintessential Fighter (Mongoose) - Flipped through it, purchased it for the fighting styles alone. Great way to add to your fighter without Feats. Of all the books I have, if I had to recommend one to a player who is using a fighter, this is the one. *Recommend unless you hate fighters*

Armies of the Abyss (Green Ronin) - To be honest, a little disappointed... too much space wasted on the "Powers of the Abyss" that Thautamurges can serve. Would have preferred to see more monsters. Cut the pages spent on Powers in half and give me more monsters instead and gets a Highly Recommended, as is, found too little bite for my buck to give it that kind of rating. *Recommend*

Bluffside: City on the Edge (Thunderhead Games) - Lots of good stuff here (not just saying that because I have a business relationship with them either), has a wonderful amount of crunchy bits. Gripes: Needs an index, needs to have a reference with each NPC in the appendix as to where they can usually be found. Admittedly, these are MINOR gripes. *Highly Recommend*

Also, I feel I should include books I was going to purchase but did not after skimming through them - these opinions are my own and based on spending about 10 min with each book:

Quintessential Rogue: Long on flavor text, short on crunchy bits. Trap construction and rogue equipment have been done already - give me something new (like Q Ftr's fighting styles), not "more of the same." *Highly Discourage*

Encyclopedia Arcane: Chaos Magic: Alone, might be okay, but I bought Wild Spellcraft (Natural 20 press) last month and wasn't pleased with the amount of white space, though the concepts were good. With Wild Spellcraft to compare with (as a benchmark) decided that this costs more and seems to have fewer concepts with less development. Ugh. *Discourage*

If you want my opinions on stuff I've gotten since the beginning of the year it will be much longer. I'm not trying to slam anyone, and not trying to conduct full reviews here, just giving my honest opinions.

--The Sigil

 

[GrimJesta]

Quintessential Rogue: Long on flavor text, short on crunchy bits. Trap construction and rogue equipment have been done already - give me something new (like Q Ftr's fighting styles), not "more of the same." *Highly Discourage*

I would look at this book again. The trap construction, though already thoroughly detailed by S&S, is MUCH better than the WotC attempt at it. The new equipment is good, but not the strong point of the book. The book shines when it comes to the Guild section and Law Enforcement section. The hideout and reputation rules are also very useful to both players and DMs, and the new feats are damn cool.

I would suggest you getting this if you like the Q.Fighter book.

-=grim=-

 

[The Sigil]

Advice...

I would look at this book again. The trap construction, though already thoroughly detailed by S&S, is MUCH better than the WotC attempt at it.

I thought S&S was not very good either. I loved Traps & Treachery, though, and used that as a benchmark. T&T has been out for almost a year, I believe, and this should have been able to at least equal it (since you can use it for reference). I felt T&T was much stronger, that's why I was nonplussed with the traps section. If you can't better it, leave it alone.

The new equipment is good, but not the strong point of the book. The book shines when it comes to the Guild section and Law Enforcement section. The hideout and reputation rules are also very useful to both players and DMs, and the new feats are damn cool.

As far as guilds go, I am waiting for Bastion's Guilds book (Oct/Nov) to compare the two... if Bastion's is better, QR becomes redundant. Law Enforcement seemed similar to the Complete Thieves Handbook (2nd ed) and can be adapted from CTH without too much difficulty.

Hideout, reputation, and New Feats are something to look into, though I will say for my part, I never have been a big fan of reputation rules and the Feats didn't excite me. I will look at these again though.

I would suggest you getting this if you like the Q.Fighter book.

Well, as I said, I will certainly give it another look. However, if I am getting better treatment of traps from T&T, similar treatment of reputation from CTH (books I already own), better treatment of Guilds from Bastion (a book I am seriously considering buying), then the cover price of $20 is a bit much to pay for a little bit of stuff on Hideouts and Feats.

<rant>
One of the things that bugs me about d20 publishers is that they keep trying to re-invent the wheel. I'm not saying that everyone should automatically conform to the first OGC system that comes along, but when a solid system exists already and yours is not appreciably better, don't bother... just use the existing one and give credit in your Section 15. That's one of the big reasons we have the OGL. It's one thing when it's a case of parallel development and two similar systems get published... but quite another when the material has obviously been accessible for some time and another system comes along that is not much different from the one that's been around for a while.
</rant>

That, I think, sums up the big reason why I was not excited by the Q. Rogue... too much overlap with products that have been on the market for 6 months or more. And BTW, I did not compare it to S&S at all (S&S got about a 0/5 stars from me... I thought the thing was a waste of paper that did nothing for rogues and even less for bards - therefore S&S is not a good benchmark). There were about six Feats in S&S that I liked, but the rest of it I found to be utter trash. But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

--The Sigil

 

[Setanta]

I, too, was disappointed by Quintessential Rogue. That's not to say I didn't find it useful, just that I was hoping for more from a Mike Mearls book. I never bought TQF after reading the reviews, but picked up TQR based on the author. I liked the Traps and Guilds sections, but like every other Mongoose book I've picked up it didn't seem to go far enough. Out of all the character stuff (concepts, PrC's, feats), I think I'll use maybe two feats. The 'new uses for old skills' section had some nice ideas.

Probably the best product I've picked up in recent memory was Tomb of Abysthor, though I'm still reading through most of the excellent stuff I got in April.

 

[Richards]

The only thing I purchased in April was The Slayer's Guide to Bugbears, although I've been keeping my eye out for Battle Magic as well. (No luck just yet; maybe tomorrow, when I pick up my comics shipment.) I flipped through Deities and Demigods last week but couldn't justify the expenditure - gods just don't play that big a role in my campaign. I'll be snagging up the Ravenloft monster book when I find it, also hopefully tomorrow.

Johnathan

 

[Corinth]

My recent purchases:

• Call of Cthulhu, the D20 version
• Deities and Demigods
• The Stronghold Builder's Guide
• Scavanger Sons (for Exalted)
  [*]The Exalted rulebook, Unlimited Edition, so that my copy of the Limited Edition need not travel.
  

 

[Sayburr]

My April buys:

Geanavue
Freeport City Guide
Masters of the Wild

and I am waiting for Kalamar Players Guide to come in to the store.

 

[Erik Mona]

Each and every one of you who bought Armies of the Abyss bring warmth to my twisted heart.

Bless you, one and all.

--Erik

 

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Each and every one of you who bought Armies of the Abyss bring warmth to my twisted heart.

If Armies of the abyss is anywhere near as good as Legions of hell you better watch out for heartburn!

 

[ThomasBJJ]

Tell me again what is the point of Stronghold Builders Guide?? I normally buy all the WOTC stuff, but Dieties & Demigods will get little or no use for $40, Enemies & Allies was another "why do I need this?" book, and Bastion of Broken Souls? Sorry, my PC's are nowhere near 18-20th level. Now there's rules to build a castle? Hmmm, maybe if there are some good floorplans or something. I just can't see getting a book full of charts and tables on construction costs, and the obligatory Stonemason PrC.

Oh yeah, you could add Hero Builders Guidebook to that list, except that I already bought it. One MORE reason to wish for a time machine.