Ever since the Open Game License and d20 D&D many fine Third Party Supplement Adventures have been created and can easily fit into Campaign worlds such as Greyhawk. Necromancer Games, Green Ronin, White Wolf, and Goodman Games are just a few of the companies that have made some stellar works that many people have implemented in Greyhawk.
What 3rd party adventures have you utilized and where have you placed them in Greyhawk? How have they worked for you?
Seriously, I usually cherry-pick anything I'm using, rarely going whole-hog with any supplement. I borrowed some Monk stuff from a few places for my Scarlet Brotherhood monks, but that's about it.
...Heck, I can't even remember where I borrowed it from...
Can you give some examples of good sources to borrow from?
Well, I'm sure that some folks do. There has even been a bit of discussion of them here and there, though not much. I don't use any myself. I pretty much stopped buying gaming supplements for D&D years ago. The creative side of DMing and world building is what appeals to me and my vision of things is heretical enough that not much is usable out of standard products except for little kernels of ideas here and there. Not really worth the money to me.
I have a few third party items. I have a few things from Sword & Sorcery, namely a book on spells and mostly arcane PrC's, as I like oddball spells to surprise my players with. I have a few adventures from Necromancer Games, my favorite of which is a lower level adventure called "Crucible of Freya" which I think is probably the best lower level adventure that has yet been written for D&D v3.x. Another book I highly recommend is the Tome of Horrors. This book is for D&D v.3.0, but I think an update is available from the Necromancer Games website, as is a pdf verison of the full book updated to D&D v3.5. This monster book has many classic monsters in it that were not in the MM 1 or MM 2, though with there being a MM 4 on the way, maybe these have all been mostly covered in the series by WOTC now. In any case, the Tome of Horrors has its own unique monsters too, so it is worth a look at least.
That is about all I have, but as I used to work at a full hobby shop and ran/stocked the gaming area I came into contact with quite a few gaming books. A lot of the third party stuff is hit and miss, but for the most part Necromancer Games, Sword & Sorcery Studios, Kenzer, Green Ronin, and Mongoose make decent stuff. Still, I recommend giving anything a good once over to make sure it fits waht you need or suits your style of gaming.
It is harder to find some of the stuff that was made for D&D v3.0, but when you can find it it's usually on sale for a discount. Even if you play D&D v3.5 don't be leary of buying a D&D v3.0 product, as there will be few corrections needed to update it. A skill or two have been removed or rolled into another(Scry is removed and Intuit Direction and Wilderness Lore have been combined into Survival) and a few feats will need to be changed or updated as they have been revised, removed, or rolled into another feat(Ambidexterity has been rolled into Two-Weapon Fighting, etc.). I'd literally just write the corrections into the book in red ink over correction fluid/tape.
I've adapted a lot of stuff into GH, will dig around and see if I can find an old post on the topic.... _________________ Allan Grohe<br />https://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk.html<br />https://grodog.blogspot.com/
I collected most of Green Ronin's Master Class series and enjoyed most of them individually but have found them imperfectly satisfactory when using in campaign.
For example, The Witch's Handbook is good overall but in play seems more like an NPC class than a viable PC class. This version of the witch is like a sorcerer with a tailored spell list and some druid character abilities.
I have found many many supplements useful, in parts. I have found no third party supplement that was useful whole cloth. The only exception t this is the AEG's 3.0 DM Toolbox. This is the best resource I have found for an on the run game. It is out of print, but it is invaluable. The only thing I suggest is buying a box of labelling tabs for fast indexing.
Other works include:
AEGs Merceneries - This volume is well written, and I like much of the "fluff," about merceneries and the culture of a mercenery band. The feats are excellent, and I incorporated many of them into the Noble Character Class which I submitted to CF! (I have a revised Noble being submitted this month).
Fantasy Flights Path of Magic/Path of Sword/Path of Faith - These are some of my favorite books of all supplements. I use the feats, the spells, the improving familiar section, the "small gods," and most particularly the "Schools." These last are alternate methods of advancing a character (burning experiance) in ways not tied to class. One of these schools (Talaxian Duelist) I have included in my version of Gran March. It is a series of techniques taught only at the Shrine of Kelanen in Hookhill.
I have the "Hedge Wizard," Power Class from Green Ronin, and found it an excellent multiclass, class. However, as a stand alone class, it is only useful for NPC's. I really like it and have included it as a class in Gran March. My rationale was that the Keoish objected to Magic for a thousand years and the Alchemist class developed. In the Gran March the alchemist and the adepts have a strong relationship.
I also have a Swords & Sorcery work called Relics & Rituals. I like this a great deal due to their approach to magic. There are numerous magic items presented. They are stronger than typical D&D items. However, there drawbacks are often extreme. A pair of gloves that grants +2 to Dex and all Thief skills... but you compulsively steal when you wear them. I like this, some of the prestige classes, and the spells.
If you like different types of game play, try Dynasties and Demogogues by Penumbra. This is an excellent tome to change up the game and try a political campaign. Until I played in one, I had no idea how much fun they could be. Also, Love & War is an excellent tome in the same series.
So, I think that there are many worthwhile tomes out there. Each has a different aspect that is useful.
WAHOO! I use all type of non-WotC stuff for my D20 D&D campaign. About time I found a post to suit me. Here goes for my campaign world, consisting of Oerth and Earth, as in my Bureau 13 d20 playtest campaign. I also use the D20 Modern line from WotC for modern-day Earth characters, and the two planes can interact (I also use the cosmology that crystal spheres don't exist-Toril, Krynn, and even Eberron are all distant systems, so the game universes in WotC are accessible via space travel from Oerth).
Bureau 13 D20 playtest edition, TriTac Games (should be out this year, mid-summer- I am in process of converting the old game to D20).
Arsenal and Factory, from Perpetrated Press, for technomagic items found in the underground black market in GH cities with populations over 25,000.
The Dragonstar line from FFG (Starferer's Handbook, Guide to the Galaxy, Player's Companion, Imperial Supply, Smuggler's Run, and Galactic Races).
Jerimond's Orb, from AEG, a starter adventure for the Earth humans, and two GH elves, suddenly planeshifted to a small town (Treefall) south of the Grandwood Forest, which I placed five days away (by horse) from Rel Astra.
Classic Play-Book of the Planes, from Mongoose Publishing, an alternative way to do planar mechanics.
Dungeon World series of d20 books from Fast Forward Entertainment-this world of darkness is actually a world created by a technomagic server where soul-bound souls are downloaded into, for the amusement of the last of the Suel Imperium's immortal Lords' souls. Those downloaded into the server arrive naked, totally stripped of all possessions, completely healthy, and must either eke out an existance in this world, or try to escape, which allows them to return to their corpse, whole, healed, and possessing anything they found while in the server's realm.
Temporailty, by Dark Quest games: new rules for time travel in d20 games.
Most of the Blood products by RPG Objects(Vigilance, Time, Fists, Relics).
Second World Sourcebook, by Second World Simulations: My personal fave of all these, it allows seamless conversion of D20 Modern and D&D, so both can be interchangable in each other's worlds. A GM can create rules why high level D&D spells don't work on Earth (as in Urban Arcana), and with the small starter adventure (Small Worlds and Exiles), a GM can even give the PC's a way to bypass that rule allowing them to pursue D&D classes at full capability!
Shadow Cabinet, by Pisces All Media: Basically, a TARDIS that allows travel to anywhere, anywhen! The major link between my two campaigns, but they have not learned how to coincide them exactly (the Oerth Team is technically from about 6 months in the Earth Team's future, so things the Oerth team does on Earth, I have to reconcile with the Earth Team's future). The Earth team knows the function better, but the Oerth team found the Cabinet's key, therefore, cooperation is required!
Sorcery and Steam, by FFG, and Dragonmech, by Goodman Games-both used for ideas, nothing hard and fast used from them.
I have many more I use, but all that is just off the top of my head.
One of my favourites is "Experts" by the Skirmisher Game Development Group. This supplement expands on the Expert npc class and although it doesn't have any great benefits for pc's it certainly adds some interesting background campaign ideas. I also love the look and layout of it; it comes across like a blast from the past, all lovingly prepared and enthusiastically amateurish (in a good way).
Tome of Horrors is one I get a lot of use out of and I am looking at using Lost City of Barakus and The Lost city of Gaxmoor I have some TLG d20 stuff and Arcana Unearthed as well that I am going through to see what if anything I want to use.
I also have the Wilderlands Boxed set and City State of the Invincible Overlord but neither really impressed me. _________________ Agape,
I have very few 3rd party adventure books as I usually use 1st and 2nd ed GH adventures and update them to 3.5-modified. Most of my players are not familiar with the old modules and the stories are great, as is.
I have many 3rd party books, mainly for intrest on certain topics, like a specific demi-humans, or humanoids. I have several on classes and alternative rules, poisons, spells, herbs, critical hits and more. I do not use any of them, as a whole book. I do use parts of many of them.
There are a lot of great ones out there and alot of not-so-useful-to-me books, as well. Several of the publishers mentioned by the others above, put out a lot of good stuff.
A few of my favorites: "Path of the Sword" by Fantasy Flights for the same reason as Anced_Math the schools of combat, "Experts" by Skirmisher improves on the expert class, "Masterwork Maps: Inns & Taverns" by Darkfurries games because of the highly detailed taverns with backgrounds and plot hooks. Also "Wildscapes" by Fantasy Flights has an alternate method, that I favor, for doing random encounters based on PC skills. "Corwyl" and "Hammer and Helm" from Green Ronin are also very good.
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I only use official material (ie: whatever WotC as the current IP holder says is official) for rules mechanics.
However, I have no qualms or quibbles about using adventures from any edition, and indeed, any game or source, since I only use the plot twists and adventure ideas and maps, anyway.
If one were to go third party, I could see checking out Troll Lord or Zeitgeist/Goodman Blackmoor stuff... for obvious reasons. _________________ Does the walker choose the path, or does the path choose the walker?
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