I’m having a lot of fun in my weekly roleplaying sessions. I hope I can keep the tempo up when my holidays end!
I admit that I’ve finally succumbed to imaginary peer pressure and bought the Monster Manual I.
Then, based on the reviews of the amazing John Cooper at EN World, I’ve bought the following books:
Then, curious because I had never heard of the Avadnu guys, and because Cooper had mentioned a Dark Sun touch to the denizens in the book, and because I liked the campaign setting’s art at the time even though I have never read a single Dark Sun book, I decided to check out Inner Circle. And I immediately succumbed to temptation by buying two PDF files detailing The Broken Isles, containing the equivalent of the player’s handbook (PHB) and the dungeon master’s guide (DMG) for low-level play (1st to 5th level) in this campaign setting.
Player’s Guide to the Broken Isles
Both available as a bundle from RPG Now. Something is wrong in this setup. The real reviews are only available for the bundle, and in that review, if you click “Buy Now” you get a Not Found error. I’ll send them an email to get it fixed.
Their blog also pointed me to another posting, which holds this gem:
I’ll define “a hobby game” as “a game where you spend substantial time preparing to play the game and a significant portion of the value proposition of the game comes from the out-of-game experience.” ¹
Yep, that’s me. Preparing for the sessions is a big part of the hobby.
#Books #RPG #Publishing
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I agree. All that imaginary peer pressure can get to you 😄
Monster Manual I is essential for all the reasons you imagine. Monster Manual IV tends to polarise opinions and I’m on the side of the folks who like it, a lot. Here's my review of all WoTC's Monster Manuals to date. For a little comparison, here's my take on Monster Manuals from other companies. In short - avoid MMII like the plague, and Tome of Horros I, II and Monsternomicon are wonderful.
Here's my review of all WoTC's Monster Manuals to date
here's my take on Monster Manuals from other companies
I’ve never heard of The Broken Isles, and would be interesting in your thoughts on it. Oh, and http://athas.org is essential reading if you’d like to know more about Dark Sun.
– GreyWulf 2007-01-17 16:31 UTC
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Thanks for the links to your reviews! I read them before, I realized. They must have been the source of my distrust of the MM2. 😄 As for the Fiendish Codex (didn’t part two come out at the end of last year?) – I remember never featuring many devils or demons in past games. But I included a summoned Bearded Devil in my last session to give my players some grief. It worked quite well. So perhaps there will be more of that in the sessions to come, hehe. And some of my players may even have heard of or fought the devils in the depths of Nethack…
– Alex Schroeder 2007-01-17 17:21 UTC
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Let me also take this opportunity to say that I like the tag line “This time, the Shadow won.” It’s from a banner I saw on EN World for Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games. There’s also a fan site that goes with it: Against the Shadow.
Midnight by Fantasy Flight Games
If you check out the Midnight d20 campaign book on EN World, you’ll see *THIS PRODUCT IS WATERMARKED*.
I guess “watermarked” is not as bad as DRM – but if you follow the link there is a warning saying “If any books bearing your information are found being distributed illegally, then your account will be suspended and legal action may be taken against you.” ¹ Then – somehow – I don’t feel too well.
1. I don’t like being treated like a criminal-in-waiting. It’s rude.
2. I don’t want to be threatened with a lawsuit in the case of bad luck, negligence or stupidity of my friends. And yes, in do have the right to give copies to my close friends and family. This is called Eigengebrauch here in Switzerland.
This basically means that if my laptop is stolen, and somebody uploads the files somewhere, then I will have to prove my innocent in court. >{
I don’t like it.
– Alex Schroeder 2007-01-18 22:09 UTC
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I don’t like it either. Thankfully watermarked pdfs are slowly fading from the pdf industry for all the reasons you give. It’s just too much hassle for the publisher to keep track of them all.
Midnight is a pretty good setting, though it can feel too much like a one-trick pony. The bad guys have won, and......that’s about it, really. In a way, that’s like just using the Empire of Iuz (where the bad guy most definitely has won) instead of the whole of the Greyhawk campaign setting. It’s a bit too bleak for my tastes, and there’s little wiggle room to make the situation worse for the characters. I prefer settings that are generally optimistic; that way the characters *really* feel it when bad things happen!
After all, if their home is already overrun with slavers, disease and corruption, what else can you do to them that’ll hurt? Kick their cat? 😄
– GreyWulf 2007-01-19 01:14 UTC
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Hm, one-trick pony is an interesting criticism. I think I wouldn’t mind too much, because my current campaign started with a big bang planned (no details as my players read this site, haha). In other words, I’m planning to take them from 1st level up to 15th or some such in a single campaign setting. And in that case, having a single-purpose campaign setting is not too bad.
If you plan to run several campaigns in the same world, and the big badass has already conquered all of it, you’re right. ;)
– Alex Schroeder 2007-01-19 07:14 UTC