The Inside Scoop on Gaming

INTRODUCTION

This overview is intended to be a summation, analysis and review of the currently published hardback rule and setting books for the Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Ed RPG. Last year Wizards of the Coast took a leap into the unknown by offering free access to their rules system and concepts under the somewhat complex D20 system and Open gaming license. In order to maintain their profits, they have restricted certain core rules and concepts to the 3 main rulebooks of the game- the Players Handbook (PHB), Dungeon Masters Guide (DMG) and the Monster Manual (MM). With these 3 books, any group should be able to create and play any campaign that they can devise.

However, large numbers of players and DM's prefer to use other peoples settings and rule ideas. Formerly TSR and (WotC to an extent) catered to this need by creating and publishing dozens of D&D game worlds and players options books. Having changed their business model, WotC now want others to assume the cost of creating and maintaining such elaborate lines of supplements, whilst retaining the profit centres of the core rulebooks and a handful of very popular game worlds (such as Forgotten Realms) and rules supplements (like the character class 'splat books' of 'Sword and Fist' for fighters and monks).

Now other companies can and are producing new game worlds, rule supplements and adventures by the dozen. A small boom in the roleplaying industry has been created by such companies as Swords and Sorcery, Necromancer games, Green Ronin, Fiery Dragon Press, Troll Lord etc. have sprung up to cater to the 3rd ed demand boom. A number of established WotC rivals have also gotten in on the act, such as Chaosium, Atlas and indirectly White Wolf. Barely a game exists that hasn't been suggested as a possible d20 conversion!. How many of these companies prove successful in mining profits from territory that WotC ceded as 'unprofitable' will only become apparent in the next few years. Clearly some companies have lower costs and higher quality products than others but that distinction isn't entirely clear on the dawn of this brave new age of roleplaying. Hopefully this overview will be of aid for gamers wanting to pick the winners early.

CORE RULEBOOKS

WotC have produced three cheap core rulebooks, each filled with colour artwork and have 200-250 pages each. They cost about £13 but may rise in the next 6 months.

3rd Ed. PLAYERS HANDBOOK (PHB)

As I mentioned above, WotC have maintained the rights to the three core rulebooks, so no other company can publish them. The basic book is the Players Handbook this outlines the core d20 mechanic whereby characters must roll a d20 and add on appropriate attribute, situational and skill modifiers to beat a GM decided Difficulty class (DC).

This replaces previous editions whereby often different types of rolls meant that players had to roll high numbers to succeed in some situations (e.g. hitting people) and low numbers in others (percentiles to hide in shadows) and occasionally numbers that were better if they were high, but not high enough to exceed attribute scores (opposed proficiency rolls). And in general this is a good move for the game, though it can make dice rolling pretty bland (d20 monotony sets in after a while).

Character classes and races have been slightly expanded from 2nd edition with the reintroduction of the 1st ed Monks, barbarians and half orcs and the creation of a new class- the sorcerer. The distinction between races who multi-class and those who dual class has been abolished as now everyone dual classes and uses the same xp table. This too cleans up character generation and advancement in a way that makes the previous rules look overly complicated.

The 'Alignment' concept is kept, whereby all intelligent entities must place themselves on axis of good/evil morals and lawful (orderly) vs. chaotic tendencies. This has always been a controversial idea amongst some players who see it as a gross simplification of human personalities- but it is a useful tool for the GM to reward pro-social behaviours, anticipate reactions, motivate characters and distinguish players from opponents. Having grown up with the idea, I'm relatively comfortable with the idea, and consider it a 'feature' of D&D that makes it unique from other games.

Saving throws have also been much improved- the previous system used 5 statistics that saved against badly defined threats. Now it three, much clearer statistics- Reflex (to dodge), Will (to resist mentally) or Fortitude (to tough it out). Again the omnipresent d20 mechanic takes over.

Magic too has been cleaned up- clerics can replace their memorised spells with healing magic at will and mages get to cast more spells at lower levels (thus removing the 1 spell wonder of previous editions). The sorcerer class is a step towards more flexible magic as it allows sorcerers to cast spells without memorisation, though with a narrower selection than wizards.

But then, we get to the bad stuff. Combat has been speeded up in certain aspects, namely the initiative system. Weapons now do the same damage whatever the critters size. But the two main problems are as follows- Flatfooting, Attacks of Opportunity (AoO) and Feats.

Flatfooting is the daft idea that when combat begins, everybody is caught by surprise and loses all dexterity modifiers to armour class until its their turn in initiative. This means whoever goes first can wreak havoc at higher levels against helpless opponents. Formerly thief's could backstab only if they snuck up on people- now they just walk up to lower initiative opponents at the start of combat and gut them like pigs. All of a sudden combat isn't about weapons skills and armour class but how has the highest initiative modifiers.

Attacks of Opportunity- In combat, whenever you move close to an opponent (unless they are flatfooted), they get a free hit on you. Unless you have special feats (which we will get to in a minute) this means doing practically anything, including casting spells, running away or drinking potions. Bizarrely the only thing that doesn't provoke an attack (other than attacking yourself) is standing perfectly still and not doing anything!

Feats- Feats are 3rd Ed's addition to the game, and I must say I have mixed feelings about them. Characters can select a limited number of feats as they progress, which let them use combat manoeuvres, cast spells differently, craft magical items, use weapons effectively etc. Even if we leave aside the issue of whether some of these should be skills (learning how to make wands etc., how to track etc.) then the problem is the complexity they bring to combat. Half the feat are combat or avoiding Attack of Opportunity related, and so make the combat system quite confusing. Players will have less of a problem with them as they will know what they can do with their limited number of feats. It's the DM's who really struggle as now monsters have access to feats, leading to confusion as a dozen critters use a dozen different feats in battle. Its something that you get used to in time, and players love them 'cos they can specialise and became rather powerful, but I could easily live without them. (I'm considering a house rule where only PC's have feats- I'll just throw bigger critters at them to compensate for the NPC's relative lack of combat power) All in all though? Well the PHB improves on the AD&D 2nd Ed. system but when they introduce new concepts, the game engine is less stellar. Characters who specialise are much more powerful than 2nd Ed equivalents and accumulated modifiers can become ungawdly. Play balance is less of an issue now, though at 20th level, wizards still rule.

As an introduction to gaming, D&D3 is not bad, though the combat rules can be challenging for new players. If you intend to play 3rd Ed then there is no way around buying this book, as it contains the important systems mechanics, meaning that any rating I would give for it is effectively meaningless. But I'll give it a 3.5 as its OK but not brilliant.

3rd Ed.DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE

The DMG is another must have book, as it concerns itself with the DM's side of the screen. It contains the two most important tables in the game for the rules following DM (and the only reason I ever looked at my 2nd Ed. DMG)- the challenge rating/XP table and the Treasure and magical item tables. Though to be fair, it looks like the Prestige Classes in the DMG such as Assassin, Blackguard (Anti-Paladins!. Huzzah!) and arcane archer along with the rules for creating new prestige classes will also be popular.

A lengthy section on combat rules and definitions so powers and states also make this a must-have book. Non-vital material includes sections of creating new races, personal game worlds, campaign structure and handling player that will be useful for neophyte DM's, but not worth reading for experienced DM's.

In conclusion, this book is required for 3rd Ed. but isn't the most scintillating of reads. Its always a bit dry in tone, and \I found its advice to me as a DM of 12 years experience similar to me someone teaching grannies to suck eggs. That said I recall that when I was starting out in the game at the tender age of 10, such basic advice and information was quite useful and has probably shaped the way I GM anything.

The DMG gets a 3 rating of 3 for experienced GM's and a 4 for new DM's. But you will need it for 3rd Ed as you wont find the rules within anywhere else.

3rd Ed. MONSTER MANUAL

Harking back to the classical 1st Ed monster manual, this book is largely a colorized 3rd Ed. update. Unlike the 2nd Ed Monstrous Manual which had one creature per page in an easy to read lay-out the MM uses a continuous format so sometimes many creatures share the same page. This means the artwork for the monsters is often misleading or on the next page as the DM desperately scrabbles to show the players a picture of what they are facing.

The monster mix is about 85% 'classic' creatures (dragons, demons, golems, orks, drow, mind flayers etc) and 15% original critters. By and large I found the new monsters to be slightly irritating insectoid affairs- clearly WotC felt they didn't have enough ant men adversaries. The classic creatures seem to have more hit points and do more damage than in previous editions- an escalation to match the increased abilities of the PC's.

But what else is vital about the Monster Manual? Well two things- it defines the special abilities of monsters- such as Ability score draining, grab attacks, regeneration and so forth. For example 2nd Ed weapon immunity to weapons of less than a certain enchantment has been renamed 'Damage Reduction.' Instead of offering blanket immunity to non-magical weapons, it now has a number of points of damage that are ignored in each blow. Every point over that threshold damages the creature. For example a werewolf can probably shrug off a sword blow without effect, but would now be blown apart by a direct hit from a catapult!.

The other new innovation is the introduction of templates. These are a lot like LUGS Star Trek RPGs' overlays where you take the basic stats and add on a set pattern of characteristics to turn it into a Vampire or half demon member of the original race. For example, take a Basic ork, now you say that one of its parents was a polymorphed dragon and you use the template to get a half Dragon/Ork who is substantially tougher than his compadres! Combine this with the fact that many intelligent races can pick up character classes and you get a Half dragon/ork Berserker who will kick PC ass and take names!

But the process of adding templates and classes is time-consuming in the extreme and probably not worth doing more than once or twice per campaign. It's a nice idea but not one I will be using

To conclude- the Monster Manual contains the usual assortment of classic monsters for the typical campaign. These are the 'bread and butter' of the fantasy genre and so useful to have. The unique rules in this book regard the definition of powers and templates and creature advancement. People converting to 3rd Ed campaigns from 2nd will need it as most monsters have been beefed up in the arms race with the players. But if you already have the old 1st or 2nd Ed monster manuals, you wont find anything really innovative. Rates a 3.

SWORD AND SWORCERY

CREATURE COMPENDIUM (CC)

I bought this book, not due to a good review I read here on RPG.net, but as a result of a very curious review in the RPGA's Polyhedron magazine. Basically the reviewer was trying to bash the CC while praising it. First of all he remarked that he barely used the 1st Ed 'Fiend Folio' as it was the most unscuffed of his gamebooks. He then compares the Creature Compendium to the Fiend Folio in style. Then he damns with faint praise the fact that the book appears to have had a years development, whilst it was written in a matter of months, thus implying it was slipshod even though he's ostensibly praising the writers. A snide remark about enthusiastic authors not being as concerned with game balance as the WotC rule committee is also slipped in. In the end he gives a slightly higher than average grade for the book, whilst the text of the review is subtly steering the reader away.

To explain this odd behaviour, I'll have to digress some more - as mentioned this review was in an RPGA publication. From my experience and what I've heard, I'd compare the RPGA to the old-style Russian Communist party. Both are ostensibly fraternal organisations devoted to relatively wide aims (the promotion of role-playing/ world Revolution) but in practice concentrated on some narrow bands (AD&D gaming/ Russian Communism respectively). Ostensibly they were ran by members, but effectively some officials were more equal than others and a hierarchy formed. Both had international branches/organisations who squabbled incessantly and refuse to co-operate. Both also had a doctrine that has changed in recent years due to economic circumstances and a somewhat slavish devotion to their paymasters (TSR/Wotc and the Kremlin).

So if the RPGA is similar to the Communist party, then Polyhedron is its 'Pravda'. An instrument of propaganda that spouts the party line to the party faithful. And the reason the CC review was sending so many mixed messages was that the doctrine is currently being adjusted to the new circumstances. In the old days, saying 'TSR good, others bad' was enough for the party faithful. But now WotC have the Open Gaming License, the RPGA is put in the difficult position of advocating D&D games produced by other manufacturers, but not at the expense of core WotC Material.

And the Creature Compendium is a very real threat. As people may be aware, White Wolf games allied with Sword and Sorcery Studios to produce a well written, edited, artwork filled hard back monster book two months before the official WotC Monster Manual came out. In fact CC was released with the Players Handbook and so benefited from GM's who wanted to start 3rd Ed campaigns immediately but needed 3rd Ed monsters quickly. In short, whilst sticking within the restrictive terms of the Open license, Sword and Sorcery stole a march on WotC and so the WotC sponsored RPGA felt threatened. (that at least is my conspiracy theory.)

So what is actually in this book which costs £15, and is a 222 page hardback? Well it has a mixed medley of monsters and races native to the Scarred Lands setting of Sword and Sorcery Games. This setting has yet to be fully published (a strange move in itself) but revolves around a gameworld whose Gods recently defeated their parents, the uncaring Titans. (Shades of Greek mythology throughout). Most of the monsters are therefore evil Titanspawn left over from the divine wars and plotting to resurrect or free the Titans. Unusual hags, ratmen, animal mutations, evil fairies, unusual golems (including a mile high Mithral golem created by the Gawds themselves!).

And despite what others might think, this is not a Fiend Folio- defined as a mish mash of fan inspired weird critters. Instead its more like the Earthdawn or WFRP bestiary's- slightly unusual, reasonably original creatures that share common themes and quality. In certain ways its superior to the official Monster Manual- its layout is based on the 2nd Ed Monstrous manual which had one page per creature and associated artwork for each. As such it is easier to read and use in the middle of a game. Furthermore, the majority of creatures are not rehashes from previous editions- therefore the players will not know their opponents stats/powers in advance and metagame with that knowledge. It also brings back the learning curve and sense of wonder that many had as they grew to learn about the D&D world in their first game.

Given that in terms of artwork, colour and presentation, this book is equal to the WotC products and that in certain ways its superior to the Monster Manual, I would award it a 4. The only difficulty with it is that it doesn't cover basic races found in the Monster manual such as dwarves, elves, orcs etc. Variant evil 'Forsaken' dwarves and elves are present and other goblinoid types exist, but not the generic types found in the MM. That said, you don't really need stats for such basic creatures, so you could potentially forego the MM to buy the CC instead. RELICS AND RITUALS (R&R)

Sword and Sorcery's second offering is a book aimed at players as much as DM's. Again it costs £15 for a 224 pages hardback book. Essentially its the 2nd Ed's Tome of magic meets the Book of Artefacts with a few prestige classes thrown in. It starts off with a small primer on the war-torn gods of the Scarred Realms setting, proceeds with some optional prestige classes (many of which would be better for NPC villains than PC's) and then talks about ritual magic. Ritual magic has been missing in AD&D since the beginning, and was half-heartedly mentioned in a few obscure supplements over the years, but never fully embraced, as the paradigm of individual Vancian magic predominated. Ritual magic in this context requires multiple magic users to cast lengthy spells together, possibly with the aid of substitutes, sacrificial and otherwise. Most normal spells can be enhanced in this way, but 'true ritual' magic is a step above the norm. Unfortunately only one true ritual magic spell per spell level was provided for each of the 3 spell lists- Druidic, Clerical and Wizard. They start off with minor enchantments (Marriage ceremony for clerics, couples get 1 to saves when in dire straits!) and move up to the earth shaking (Moving Forests, building flying citadels) and ultimately binding Titans and achieving Immortality!

All of sudden schools and colleges of magic make a lot more sense. This ritual magic also enhances the old wizard in comparison to the more flexible sorcerers as sorcerers cant use rituals! But Sorcerers do get to use the large spell list of regular non-ritual magic in the Scarred Lands. Both players and DM's will enjoy this selection of fairly reasonable and original spells that give everyone more options in casting. Paladins will be overjoyed that there is an entire suite of spells that only they can cast which often mimic the travails and benefits of Arthurian Knights of the Round Table. Overall though the new spell lists are reasonable, filling in gaps from the PHB spell lists and being reasonably balanced. However, they are not earth shatteringly innovative and can hardly be described as 'essential' or 'game altering' in the same way as the ritual magic rules.

The book then moves into magic item and artifact territory giving a reasonable mix of stuff, each with a role and history from the Scarred Lands setting. Similar to the CC, the fact these items are not just reprints of previously published 2nd Ed material will delight players with their new challenges. There are a few nice items with adventure potential written into them- such as the Canopic Jar of Undead (porta-Mummy!) and the Gold circlet (which One-Ring style binds the wearers of the 12 iron circlets to the wearers will.) and so forth. The artifacts too are quite nice, many of them dating back to the Divine War when a 5 sword just didn't cut it by itself. A few are even made of bits of Titan, leading to a whole new class of artifact curses. Once again, original items and adventure potential make this a strength of the book.

Overall then, I'd certainly recommend Relics and Rituals to anyone playing a Scarred Lands campaign. Outside of that setting the books value diminishes slightly as the Prestige classes, the ritual magic, and magic items become a matter of DM's adapting them to their campaign. The spell list is useable in pretty much any setting. It lacks a few of the core DMG rules (probably due to WotC's legal restrictions) regarding magical item distribution and creation, but otherwise acts as an excellent magic supplement. A rating of 4.

PSIONICS Handbook

The Psionics handbook by WotC is the thinnest but most expensive of their D&D3 hardbacks at £18 for 160 pages. Not strictly a 'Core rulebook', psionics or psychic powers have long been an awkward point for D&D. I'll put this statement into context with a small digression into D&D history.

In First Ed Psionics were described in a small optional appendix in the back of the book which gave all human dwarven and halfling characters a minor chance to develop mental abilities. Most of these mental abilities resembled mid-level spells and there were a few attack and defence 'psionic modes' based on Freudian concepts of Id, Superego, ego etc that allowed people to mentally fight each other. Usually these were similar to traditional 'psychic abilities' such as telepathy, object reading, bio-feedback etc.

By and large psionics were a nice, random add on that could really boost an otherwise mediocre character. Unfortunately the 'power points' system that fuelled psychic powers was over-complicated, the probability curves of generating a psionic aware character was whacked as was the calculation of power points. Trouble was you couldn't boost them with experience and powerful monsters tended to have even more powerful psionic powers than the players- especially the legendary and lethal mind flayer.

So psionics were a 'take it or leave it' proposition for DM's, some argued that they were inappropriate for a fantasy setting (given the usual association of sci-fi and psychics) but Katherine Kurtz's Deryni novels were always an influence on the game. 2nd edition was initially psionic-free until the publication of the Complete Psionics Handbook in 1991. This substantially revised the system as it created a 'Psionicist' class for the first time, whilst retaining the option that other characters could possess minor 'Wild talents' allowing them to use psionics even if they were not full psionicists.

The Handbook was really rather good, as it vastly expanded the powers, created an interesting but complicated method of mental combat and demanded that Psionicists concentrated their skills into a selection of the different varieties of psionic powers- namely Psychoportion (teleporting around), Clairsentince ( divination), Psychokinesis (moving things with the mind or making them explode), Psychometabolism (affecting the psionicists own body), Telepathy (messing with others heads) and the rare Metapsionics (enhancing/degrading psionic powers of self and others). The system was quite nice, once more psionicists had psionic power points to spend to fuel their abilities, and these now rose with levels. Psionic powers were largely independent of character levels (though a few had pre-requisites of other powers), meaning low level psionicists could have powers equivalent to high level spells, but more powerful powers used up more points, making it something of a balancing act to optimise your character. I liked it because it gave unprecedented freedom to the characters that you didn't get with the level based spell lists.

The trouble was that some people felt that 2nd ed Psionics had play-balance issues. For example a 3rd level psionicist could try to disintegrate a red dragon, while a wizard had to wait till 12th level for the privilege (though the dragon still got a damn good saving throw, meaning it was only disintegrated about 20% of the time. And even if they hit, the psionicist had to go lie down for 8 hours before he was effective again!) . Personally I felt the system wasn't too bad as psionics seemed only really effective against solitary opponents. A mage could fireball a group of 20 orcs at 5th level, whilst the best a psionicist could do was telekinetically bash one or two for 1d10 damage, before being overwhelmed by numbers. Psionicists were always better a assassins, or Svengali types rather than artillery support. A properly played psionicist villain would go and mind control the local king and use his forces against the players, while an evil mage would animate some undead, or conjure some demons instead.

The other big limiting factor for psionicists was one that more than a few critics forgot. If PC psionicists were play balance issues, then they could be neutralised by NPC psionicists or psionic critters. As the old saying goes everything the PC's do, the DM can do better!

So 2nd Ed psionics were a minor presence, excluded from the core books until the advent if the 'Dark Sun' gameworld which gave all PC's psionic powers at character generation. Play balance was maintained by the fact most NPC villains had access to psionics too! (And was then accused of being a cynical marketing ploy to boost sales of the Complete psionics handbook by Dark Sun players). Once again psionics were left as a dead-end side alley.

Now we have Bruce Cordell's 3rd ed. Psionics Handbook. It has scrapped the level independence of Psionic powers and ruthlessly categorised them into different schools of psionics again. Two types of psionicist are presented- the Psychic Warrior and the Psion. It's easily argued that the Psychic warrior is a redundant class as all it does is combine the features of a fighter with that of a Psychometabolist psion- the same effect can be gained by dual classing between the two basic classes.

Talking of which, the psion is the classic 2nd ed psionicist with a few tweaks. Once more players , must decide on a primary specialty. They can still get powers outside their normal discipline, but because now each discipline has a different associated attribute (Strength for Metabolism, Charisma for telepathy etc) you are really only going to have access to 2 or 3 schools of psionics at best.

Plus there isn't the variety of power choices that used to exist- now psionic 'spell lists' exist for power levels of 1-9, just like wizards. Indeed their similarity to sorcerers is pretty scary- sorcerers can cast a number of spells from a set list per day without preparation. Psions can manifest a number of powers from a set list without preparation. Sorcerers must wave their hands and chant to cast a spell. Now, for the first time Psions glow, or smell or manifest ectoplasm as they use their powers- making them obvious targets for the dreaded Attacks of Opportunity, just like sorcerers!

Sorcerers have familiars through which they gain some minor powers and can use as spies. Psions get a psicrystal- essentially a mineral familiar which gives them minor powers and which can be used to spy on people! The mechanic and consequences for when someone kills a familiar/ shatters the psicrystal is even identical! Sorcerers can use one shot spells stored in scrolls- psions do the same with one shot Tattoos.

The only real difference that still exists between the two classes is that sorcerers still have a variety of spell choices that target both individuals and large groups- Psions are still better off concentrating on leaders and lack the mass combat powers of a fireball equivalent. All in all, the Psionics handbook is rather disappointing. Despite including chapters on psionic items (largely similar to magical items in effect) and critters, it has betrayed the former portrayal of psionicists. In order to 'play balance' psionics, Cordell has just made them cheap sorcerer clones with the names filed off! There is nothing really unique or interesting about psionics any more, and I feel that players who enjoyed 2nd Ed psionics will be disappointed by this edition.

In conclusion, I can only recommend this book to those who want to use more magic in their campaign but want to call it by a different name. The material within wont materially affect your campaign and players will gain no advantage or unique rules to differentiate them from their sorcerous compatriots.

Still its competently done- so it would get an individual rating of a 2.

CONCLUSION

Having looked at the 4 WotC products and 2 SS books, we can now discuss which of these you need for a 3rd Ed. game.

Frankly the PHB is a must have, as is the DMG to a lesser extent. The monster manual is useful to have, but could, in a pinch be replaced by the Creature Compendium, or a GM using a home brew campaign with a lot of time to create monsters. If you want to play exclusively in WotC worlds or use the 3rd party modules then get the Monster Manual- you will need it. All of these 4 books though are well worth getting and good value for their current prices.

The Psionics Handbook and Relics & Rituals are both optional books that both players and DM's may find useful. Personally I would choose R&R as it offers a broader range of magic effects and original material than the Psionics book which is really just the Sorcerer splatbook with a name change and less area affect spells. R&R also has more pages and costs less than the Psionics handbook, so if I were a DM I would ask that if a player really wanted Psionics then he should buy the book. R&R can be used by the whole group so it is a better DM purchase.

Having reviewed and compared the existing hardback books, I'll briefly mention future releases. WotC's Forgotten Realms sourcebook will undoubtedly be very popular and should be of a high standard given its flagship status. Atlas Games' 'Touched by the Gods' may also prove interesting, though some of its material may overlap slightly with Relics and Rituals. Chaosium have produced the softback 'DragonLords of Melnibone' and hardback adaptations in the future may exist.

Beyond that, we may see KenzerCo produce some D&D3 books, as might AEG and Eden. At this time the other 3rd Ed. third party companies seem to be concentrating on producing small softback modules and its questionable if they have the resources to produce a hardback.

Finally some overall ratings.

Style- all of the hardback books are well edited, have reasonable artwork and maintain a consistent style and atmosphere throughout. I'd give them an rating of 4.

Substance- Hardback books tend to be substantial both physically and in terms of content. This collection is no exception, and while I may quibble about the usefulness of the psionic handbook, you still get a lot of information, game rules and options in each book. A substance rating of 5 then.

Steve Ellis.

All D&D3 hardback books