D20 Collecting

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:07 am

I figured that this non-TSR forum needs a strand for the non-TSR publishers who have benefitted from the D20 OGL rules.

This is not a "Flame the D20" strand. Do that elsewere.

To start, I think there are currently a few D20 publishers worthy of collecting:

Green Ronin

Malhavoc Press

Goodman Games

Necromancer Games

Troll Lord Games

Yes, TLG has gone over to their Castle and Crusade game line, but they still still sell their own and other companies' D20 products.

What other companies should be added to the list?

What D20 modules or adventures have you tried that stand out above the rest?

What cool D20 purchases have you made recently?

Mark Cool

Posts: 3187 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 5:57 am

Well I've got stuff from all of those companies. You could add Kenzer to the list as well as Eostros and Adventure Games Publications for future companies.

Modules:
Last great module I read was Shades of Gray (Kenzer/Necro release)

Liked WotC Expidition to Ravenloft (Course many things bugged me about this, I look at it as not setting canon)

Other:
I just recently got Glorantha for Xmas - though haven't read it yet (and it contains no d20 stats/etc is just fluff) Lankhmar is next on my list Smile

Course if you have to pick up on d20 book this year, or next, etc..Bardsgate (Necromancer Games) is a must! Wink

ShaneG.

Posts: 133 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:59 am

Pied Piper Publishing

Posts: 1075 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:55 pm

Companies:

Mongoose Publishing puts out different splatbooks. Their Slayers Guides, Encyclopaedia Arcane/Divine, and miscellaneous books can be worth reading. Collecting . . . well, they do have frickin' ton of books, and some of them are bound to be rarer than others.

Should smaller, no-name companies be added to your list, or was the d20 explosion too similar to the black-and-white comics glut that made comics worthless in the 80s/90s?

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 12:58 pm

I recently went nuts and collected all of the Freeport books by Green Ronin.

I like the way that they set up a pirate city to fit any game world, and the quality of the writing is good. It is a nice mix of the fantasy and horror genres.

Now, of course, there is another Freeport module out...Crisis in Freeport. Gotta go get it.

Has anyone bought or read Ptolus?

Posts: 4542 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 7:42 pm

MShipley88 wrote:

I recently went nuts and collected all of the Freeport books by Green Ronin.

I like the way that they set up a pirate city to fit any game world, and the quality of the writing is good. It is a nice mix of the fantasy and horror genres.

Now, of course, there is another Freeport module out...Crisis in Freeport. Gotta go get it.

Has anyone bought or read Ptolus?

Here's and obscure module, but one worth hunting down: The Gryphon's Legacy by Gaslight Press was flat-out one of the best low level adventures I've read for any system....Wolfgang Baur wrote it, and it has a lot of 1st edition feel Having said this, I guess they went out of business fairly quickly because this is the only item I've ever seen by the company. Unfortunate, because I think they would have had some high quality material based on just this adventure and the theme of their campaign world.
Enjoy reading the Freeport stuff also.

Necromancer and Kenzer are two companies whose products consistently meet a certain standard.

Mike B.

Posts: 3187 · Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2006 9:02 pm

Badmike wrote:

Here's and obscure module, but one worth hunting down: The Gryphon's Legacy by Gaslight Press was flat-out one of the best low level adventures I've read for any system....Wolfgang Baur wrote it, and it has a lot of 1st edition feel Having said this, I guess they went out of business fairly quickly because this is the only item I've ever seen by the company. Unfortunate, because I think they would have had some high quality material based on just this adventure and the theme of their campaign world.
Enjoy reading the Freeport stuff also.

Necromancer and Kenzer are two companies whose products consistently meet a certain standard.

Mike B.

Wasn't hard to track down, and only $5.50 w s/h, but I'll take your word on it being good.

I should also add he helped write Five Fingers: Port of Deceit from Privateer Press. A company that does outstanding writing and art in their books (I get any and everything they put out) Course its a bit more steam powered/fantasy then high fantasy/sword and sorcery.

ShaneG.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Mon Dec 25, 2006 7:30 pm

Troll Lord Games has not responded to an email I sent them several weeks ago. I wonder if they are hibernating the business until after New Years....?

Posts: 76 · Posted: Tue Dec 26, 2006 8:08 pm

Plaag wrote:

Wasn't hard to track down, and only $5.50 w s/h, but I'll take your word on it being good.

I should also add he helped write Five Fingers: Port of Deceit from Privateer Press. A company that does outstanding writing and art in their books (I get any and everything they put out) Course its a bit more steam powered/fantasy then high fantasy/sword and sorcery.

ShaneG.

I will second that Gryphon's Legacy is good, and I wish they had released the planned sequels. It got lost in the glut of d20 modules that came out soon after 3E.

Privateer Press is the best thing that came out of 3E/d20 in my opinion, or at least the best that I like which has also been the most commercially successful. I don't just like Iron Kingdoms, PP sucked me into painting two miniature armies for two miniature games the company has produced.

Posts: 94 · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 2:28 am

[quote="MShipley88"]I recently went nuts and collected all of the Freeport books by Green Ronin.

I like the way that they set up a pirate city to fit any game world, and the quality of the writing is good. It is a nice mix of the fantasy and horror genres.

Now, of course, there is another Freeport module out...[i]Crisis in Freeport.[/i] Gotta go get it.

Has anyone bought or read Ptolus?[/quote]

I've got Ptolus, and its awesome. The complete city in breadth, depth, and
quality. Three different campaigns to play within the city from levels 1-20 -
and THE book to start a new campaign with!

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:19 am

Has anyone collected The World's Largest City from AEG yet?

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 3:21 am

Black Sails Over Freeport just arrived in the mail today...lightning fast shipping from Titan Games, and only $2.99 for this enormous book.

I can't believe that this adventure book was available so cheap. It is crammed with good stuff. Maybe I'll write a review.

Mark

Posts: 404 · Posted: Wed Dec 27, 2006 4:07 am

MShipley88 wrote:

Troll Lord Games has not responded to an email I sent them several weeks ago. I wonder if they are hibernating the business until after New Years....?

Ya might want to re-send... the Trolls are notorious for not answering e-mail. Considering the three of them are doing the work of fifty-two, I'm not surprised...

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 1:12 pm

I tried again ast night. Stephen Chenault responded within minutes of my email.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 11:53 pm

Plaag wrote:

Wasn't hard to track down, and only $5.50 w s/h, but I'll take your word on it being good.

I should also add he helped write Five Fingers: Port of Deceit from Privateer Press. A company that does outstanding writing and art in their books (I get any and everything they put out) Course its a bit more steam powered/fantasy then high fantasy/sword and sorcery.

ShaneG.

Gonna have to take your work on the Five Fingers: Port of Deceit publication, Shane. Apparently, this is one that came out recently enough that everyone thinks it's worth $25.

Posts: 3187 · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 3:36 pm

Badmike wrote:

Here's and obscure module, but one worth hunting down: The Gryphon's Legacy by Gaslight Press was flat-out one of the best low level adventures I've read for any system....Wolfgang Baur wrote it, and it has a lot of 1st edition feel.

Mike B.

Just finished reading this, and it is bloody brilliant. Sucks that the other modules/source material never made it to print, but regardless, this has so much potential.

ShaneG.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:47 am

Just finished going through Dezzavold, Fortress of the Drow, by Green Ronin.

It is excellent, and came to me from sci-fi-city-online as a bargain...the first real, workable drow setting I have found.

Mark Cool

Posts: 4542 · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 12:34 pm

Plaag wrote:

Just finished reading this, and it is bloody brilliant. Sucks that the other modules/source material never made it to print, but regardless, this has so much potential.

ShaneG.

I've always enjoyed Baur's work, especially his Dungeon magazine stuff (Kingdom of the Ghouls may be the best adventure ever published in that mag, and could have been a helluva box set if someone at TSR had the time or money to pimp it out). But yeh I did pick up Gryphon's Legacy because of the name, and wasn't disappointed. Such an original setting and premise that I've been trying to think of a way to convert it to my homemade gameworld for a campaign in the far north.
I've been reading through a bunch of my collected DCC items, nothing has really knocked me on my ass, but all reach a certain level of competence that allows you to purchase any of their products without fear of getting a real dud.
I started reading Black Sails over Freeport awhile back but got sidetracked. Is this worth picking up again and reading to the finish? Looked pretty interesting, and the premise was original. Did you ever finish working through this, Mark?

Mike B.

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:28 pm

I have not finished with Black Sails Over Freeport. My impression so far is that there is a lot of adventure there...maybe too much.

The whole book is enormous...an adventure series as thick as a sourcebook.

I don't see a group of players getting through it all. One issue would be that the party might be too high level by the end of the series to make the later adventures suitably challenging.

There are notes that say things about "proper experience point awards" or otherwise controlling experience points. This tells me that the writer is aware of this potential problem.

The trick would be to keep the characters involved and moving without frustrating the players by artificially slowing them down.

The thing about Black Sails Over Freeport is that it could easily be taken apart and used as a number of separate adventures...since the book relates a series of islands the player characters must explore.

So far, the Green Ronin products I have collected stand out from the D20 pack. It is interesting how a company's products can all have the same basic flavor even though there are different writers. Troll Lord Games, for instance, has a certain style to their products.

One interesting theme in the D20 products is computer spell checking. Reliance on find/replace tools or robotic spell checkers can produce some humorous or annoying repeated errors. Of course, this was much less of a problem in the old days, when a "spell checker" meant "editing your own product" and computers were used for "typing."

Mark

Posts: 3999 · Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2007 4:55 am

http://cgi.ebay.com/d20-THE-LOST-CITY-OF-GAXMOOR-TLG-LIKE-NEW_W0QQitem Z160072025723QQihZ006QQcategoryZ44112QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A good price on The Lost City of Gaxmoor from Troll Lord Games.