Looking back at the d20 boom...

JamesV · July 02, 2012, 01:10:00 PM

I ran a fun sandbox D20 Modern/Future/Cyberscape game. I was impressed with how well the rules were adapted for the setting. I tried running a True20 game, but I wasn't crazy about it. I consider that game notable for giving me that last push to buy a copy of BFRPG.

I played in a complete saga using Star Wars D20 original through revised, which was a whole lot of fun.

Most of the last decade was defined by D&D3 and other D20 games, and it was a pretty good time.

Frey · July 02, 2012, 02:44:26 PM

My favourite d20 was The Vault of Larin Karr, the best example of what a mini campaign should be. Most Necromancer Games adventures were really good.

The setting I liked the most was Scarred Lands. Not all books were good, but some of them were really interesting, and I loved the campaign feel.

Benoist · July 02, 2012, 02:45:13 PM

Welcome to the RPG Site, Frey.

RPGPundit · July 02, 2012, 02:48:11 PM

Quote from: AnthonyRoberson;555600Didn't Bruce Baugh write Gamma World? Wasn't he some sort of Weird Forge-ite type character?

D20 "Gamma world" is a piece of shit, and yes it was written by Baugh. Baugh isn't a "forge-type character" (at least, he wasn't back when the sack of shit destroyed Gamma World as an intentional and stated act of revenge on people who liked gamma world), he was the other kind of Swine: a White-Wolf Swine.

RPGPundit

Aos · July 02, 2012, 02:48:30 PM

Quote from: Caesar Slaad;555611Actually, she's correct on that count. FC and 4e were both announced at the same gencon. But 4e had been worked on behind the scenes for longer. But it's sort of hard to suggested in was born out of 4e fallout. Benefited from it, yes.

I don't let facts get in the way of my asshollery. Ever.

languagegeek · July 02, 2012, 03:23:35 PM

Ghostwalk and Secrets of Pact Magic have been mines for other games. All I ever ran in d20 was Paizo's Legacy of Fire, which was fun enough to restart my rpg-ing after a hiatus of 20 years.

Marleycat · July 02, 2012, 03:43:09 PM

Quote from: Gib;555681I don't let facts get in the way of my asshollery. Ever.

I expect it and love you for it Aos.

cnath.rm · July 02, 2012, 07:33:42 PM

For me the D20/3e boom was a chance for me to play games without being tired down to TSR's worlds with their with tons and tons or novels worth of cannon to worry about. (and without my needing to put in more work then I wanted to into building my own world) I'm another Necromancer Games fanboy.

Quote from: Frey;555677My favourite d20 was The Vault of Larin Karr, the best example of what a mini campaign should be. Most Necromancer Games adventures were really good.

I never got to run that one, but it read really well, and I enjoyed running a lot of their other stuff. (I jumped on board the kickstarter for the new pathfinder version of Rappan Athuk) You might want to take a look at Frog God Games, it's Bill Webb's continuation of the NG legacy.

Quote from: Frey;555677The setting I liked the most was Scarred Lands. Not all books were good, but some of them were really interesting, and I loved the campaign feel.

Some of the early stuff in particular I thought was good, I loved the bits of fluff that went along with the spells in the first Relics and Rituals.

Piestrio · July 03, 2012, 08:25:03 AM

Quote from: RPGPundit;555680D20 "Gamma world" is a piece of shit, and yes it was written by Baugh. Baugh isn't a "forge-type character" (at least, he wasn't back when the sack of shit destroyed Gamma World as an intentional and stated act of revenge on people who liked gamma world), he was the other kind of Swine: a White-Wolf Swine.

RPGPundit

What's so shitty about it?

On its own merits, assuming you have no prior investment in Gamma World.

Black Vulmea · July 03, 2012, 09:16:20 AM

d20 Modern was my go-to game for years.

I liked both City of Brass supplements.

The Nocturnals sourcebook for Mutants and Masterminds is one of my favorite rpg books of all time.

Sidewinder: Recoiled remains one of the better Western rpgs published.

kythri · July 03, 2012, 10:24:20 AM

Quote from: jcfiala;555049Call of Cthulhu d20 was fun, if only from everyone's brainhurt when it came out. These days folks generally admit that the GM/how to play advice in it are top notch, and although it isn't played much it's hard to find used, which says something.

Cheap and plentiful! Buy extra copies!

Quote from: jcfiala;555049Toolbox was an odd collection of random tables put out by AEG, useful for ideas before a game ore to use for sudden encounters during the game. ONly downside is that the stats in the book are for 3.0, which makes it a little less useful for Pathfinder or the like, although you could probably just run with it.

The system-neutral update to Toolbox is pretty decent, and has a lot of extra content.

jcfiala · July 03, 2012, 10:30:07 AM

Quote from: kythri;555922Cheap and plentiful! Buy extra copies!

Well, I'm not sure if I'd call $24 cheap, but that's not bad. I'll have to keep that in mind if I hear someone is looking for it.

kythri · July 03, 2012, 10:31:43 AM

Since D20 is my game of choice, it's hard to pick and choose, but certainly D20 Modern is pretty fantastic.

The biggest problem of the D20 Boom, the glut/over-saturation of the market has ended up being one of the best things for me, as I can easily pick up tons of stuff for pennies on the dollar.

Certainly, there's a lot of "crap", but when you're paying a couple bucks for 100-200 pages, it's well worth it for the diamonds you find.

Then again, the glut helped crap out the market, so there's really not a ton of NEW content being made, unless you go Pathfinder. It's not horribly hard to convert PF stuff to 3E/3.5, but I'd rather the stuff be native.

kythri · July 03, 2012, 10:33:44 AM

Quote from: jcfiala;555923Well, I'm not sure if I'd call $24 cheap, but that's not bad. I'll have to keep that in mind if I hear someone is looking for it.

Yeah, I guess it's not REALLY cheap, but it's a $40 cover price book, so it's not entirely unreasonable.

T&T must know where there's a pallet of cases of this, because they replenish their stock quite often.

daniel_ream · July 03, 2012, 11:09:05 AM

I think that the only way I could be convinced to run or play a 3.5 rules campaign any more would be Arcana Evolved. I loved the setting so much when it went out of print I had the PDF printed on glossy colour paper and professionally hardbound. It's a coffee table book now.

I like a lot of the fluff that came out out of Green Ronin's historical settings, but the D&Disms tended to spoil them for me (I'm thinking of the rather hamfisted attempt to shoehorn the traditional D&D races into Hamunaptra). Same problem with Scarred Lands, really.