[d20] What non-WoTC books have you gotten the most use out of?

[Caesar Slaad]

Gareth knows his stuff, I wasn't wholly taken by his OGL Horror book but it definitely had some great ideas.  The whole ties thing or whatever it was called.

Heh... well, I don't have that, so can't comment. The first thing I read by Gareth that drew my attention was Steam and Sorcery by FFG. The book was honestly a bit of a mess, but I remember commenting that the campaign ideas in the beginning were brilliant. Gareth let me know those were his. I also dug his material in the Classic Play: Book of the Planes and Book of Dragons. Really imaginiative stuff, lots of neat campaign ideas.

Who are the other two?  I don't know them.

Robert Schwalb has been on Green Ronin's payroll for a while now. Though I don't like everything he's done (Cavaliers handbook), he's pretty handy with system work.

Patrick Younts is another RPGnetter and has done a few titles (list), mainly by mongoose. Between him and Mearls, you'll find the Mongoose Quintessential books worth buying (Younts did the Quintessential Sorcerer and Monk book. He also did books like barbarian II, but I think the format mongoose was requiring for the book sort of hamstrung his efforts.)

[Balbinus]

Between him and Mearls, you'll find the Mongoose Quintessential books worth buying (Younts did the Quintessential Sorcerer and Monk book. He also did books like barbarian II, but I think the format mongoose was requiring for the book sort of hamstrung his efforts.)

Good as they often are, I avoid books like those so as to avoid book inflation.  The other night I had to carry about eight books to the game because I hadn't had time to copy the few pages I actually wanted and it killed me.  I tend to prefer not to have too many books to refer to when running stuff.

[RPGPundit]

For me, the most useful non-Wizards general (non-setting) D20 books have been:

AEG's Toolbox.  This is a MUST-buy for any fantasy campaign!
Dynasties & Demagogues: again, a MUST for anyone who wants to run a political campiagn.
Portals & Planes: a VERY useful companion to the Manual of the Planes (speaking of which, I must get it back from who I lent it to)
Cityworks: a good general sourcebook for urban play.

RPGPundit

[mearls]

It pleases me tremendously that people still find the FFG books I wrote useful. They were easily amongst my best works. In almost every case, I was basically taking a month to write the city or dungeon book that I wanted to use in my own campaigns. I'm glad people found them useful.

For my own uses, I think I've run John Tynes' Three Days to Kill three or four times. It was handy not only as an adventure, but also as a good source for campaign ideas and stories.