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View Full Version : Introducing a Rural Community to Sourcebooks



Ascension
2008-05-01, 06:51 PM
My friends back home who introduced me to D&D have never played anything other than core races and classes, with the occasional splash of homebrew. When I came to college I was introduced to, and quickly became addicted to, the wide and wonderful world of splatbooks. I currently own CAdv, CWar, CScn, CDiv, RoS, MMIII and IV, ToB, and Dungeonscape, plus a few third party sourcebooks I plan to use if/when I DM. Core seems pretty restrictive to me now, and I think I'd have a hard time going back.

I'm going back home now for the summer and my question is this... How should I go about saying "Hey, there's a whole world of D&D stuff out here you've never explored!"? I suppose the easiest way would be to convince them to let me DM and throw something non-core at them just to show them how nifty it can be... but often the simplest way isn't the best. How should I do this?

shadow_archmagi
2008-05-01, 07:00 PM
Get a big pile of them. Keep track of who has what, and say they're allowed to use anything from any of them. Let them make their characters, and athen suggest PrCs and whatnot that complement. Soon they will see sourcebooks as another step towards optimization.

Ascension
2008-05-01, 08:55 PM
Soon they will see sourcebooks as another step towards optimization.

See, that's another thing... they're not optimization-minded at all. Part of the reason I'd like to introduce them to more books is so they can optimize a bit better.

Then again, maybe I should just relax and go with the flow. I'm still pulling out exotic monsters if I DM for them, though...

Glawackus
2008-05-01, 09:10 PM
Maybe have a BSing session where everyone talks about their dream characters...and then show them how to make them with other sourcebooks?

Rutee
2008-05-01, 09:15 PM
If they're not optimization minded at all, why are you sure they'll switch with some source books?

shadow_archmagi
2008-05-01, 09:18 PM
See, that's another thing... they're not optimization-minded at all. Part of the reason I'd like to introduce them to more books is so they can optimize a bit better.

Then again, maybe I should just relax and go with the flow. I'm still pulling out exotic monsters if I DM for them, though...

then show them books that fit CONCEPTS. Say

"Oh, you want to play a desert swordsmen? Whirling curved blades? How about a Dervish? Or maybe a Desert Wind Swordsage."

FlyMolo
2008-05-01, 09:24 PM
then show them books that fit CONCEPTS. Say

"Oh, you want to play a desert swordsmen? Whirling curved blades? How about a Dervish? Or maybe a Desert Wind Swordsage."
Dervish, btw, is my new favorite PrC. Above and beyond Whisperknife, Soulknife(it SHOULD be a PrC), War Mind, Warshaper, and Hulking Hurler.

Riffington
2008-05-01, 09:42 PM
Start by just pulling out some of the older Completes (skip Scoundrel).
Show them a cool class or two (I was playing a Scout when Complete Adventurer came out... when I discovered that the class actually existed I immediately wanted to switch).

RTGoodman
2008-05-01, 10:09 PM
See, that's another thing... they're not optimization-minded at all. Part of the reason I'd like to introduce them to more books is so they can optimize a bit better.

Well, good luck on that front. We've always used at least the first couple of Completes with my original gaming group, and they don't know the first thing about optimization. (Their most "optimized" character was a Sorcerer/Monk with VoP in a high-wealth game.)


I'd just say, "Hey guys, I've got these cool other books that add in new stuff, and I thought it might be cool to try it out. Just take a look through it and see if there's anything you like, and maybe we can use some of it."

monty
2008-05-01, 10:32 PM
Really, splatbooks can be fun without optimizing. In my current campaign, I'm deliberately avoiding CoDzillaing (there's also a druid in the party, which is bad enough, because you have to work hard to play a druid weak) by PrCing into Apostle of Peace. I have more fun when I play a mediocre build that uses stuff from twelve different books than a perfectly optimized win machine. Of course, sometime something will happen like one of your players stumbling over Planar Shepherd, and then there's really nothing you can do.

Talya
2008-05-01, 10:37 PM
Dervish, btw, is my new favorite PrC.

yeah. I like it too.

Hmm...Soulknife as a PrC...you know...assuming you squeezed all 20 levels of soulknife into 10 levels, it might be worth it.

Okay, maybe five.

Chronos
2008-05-01, 10:42 PM
Of course, sometime something will happen like one of your players stumbling over Planar Shepherd, and then there's really nothing you can do.Except for, y'know, banning Planar Shepherd. I'm continually baffled by how often people forget that option.

monty
2008-05-01, 10:44 PM
Except for, y'know, banning Planar Shepherd. I'm continually baffled by how often people forget that option.

That's always an option, but I was operating under the assumption that he was just going to let them experiment.

CthulhuM
2008-05-01, 11:17 PM
Hmm...Soulknife as a PrC...you know...assuming you squeezed all 20 levels of soulknife into 10 levels, it might be worth it.

Okay, maybe five.

It actually was a PRC in 3.0, and a pretty cool one at that. I don't know if it was all that good (since it was basically a melee-oriented PRC for psions), but it did let you do nifty things like channel powers into mind blades and then release them when you hit. It actually was cool enough to warrant its own base class, I'd say... shame they screwed it up so badly.

Er, right, yeah, introducing sourcebooks... I'd just highlight a few of the flashier, more interesting things you can do with the splatbooks. Show the guy who likes barbarians the bear warrior, show the guy who likes fighters the warblade, show the rogue the ninja (yes, I know it's bad, but it'll at least get his attention).