Re: Legends & Lairs products: any good?

Waldo <peggoliathy@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Fantasy Flight Games, the makers of the Legends & Lairs line of
> supplements, has a huge sale over at drivethrurpg.com: pdf files of all
> their books for $4.99 a pop.

Cool. Last winter they had a sale on the dead tree editions at 5$ a
pop.

.... and I only had about three to buy, because I'd already bought the
others @ FLGS.

> (No, this isn't an ad.)
>
> Since these books retailed at $24.95, this looks like a pretty good
> deal. I'm tempted to splurge. But I've never read or played any of
> the L&L products.
>
> The ones on sale are
>
> Cityworks

Mmmm... don't use this one often; it doesn't mesh really well with what
I'm doing citywise. It's not a bad book, just not that useful to me.

> Darkness & Dread

Got it, not playing horror, don't remember it very well. I should
probably review it again.

> The five "Lore" books (Draconic Lore, Elemental Lore, Giant Lore,
> Necromantic Lore, and Twisted Lore)

Themed monster books, by creature type.

> Dungeoncraft

As with Cityworks.

> Masterwork Anthology (originally $4.95, now $1.99)

Don't bother -- it's excerpts from the other books, to give you a taste.

> Monsters Handbook

I liked this one -- gives some decent guidelines for monster
customization.

> Mythic Races

Probably more useful if fleshing out the races in the campaign, I
haven't looked at it in a while (but probably should). I don't remember
well enough to comment well.

> The four "Path" books (Faith, Shadow, Magic and Sword)

I use these regularly. Magic and Faith more then Sword and Shadow.

IIRC the prestige classes tend to be pretty decent, the
legendary classes are interesting. I'd implement them differently --
I'd have the level-based powers grow over time rather than be powered by
when you took them.

As it stands, if you take a power at level 3, you get it at 'third
power level' and that's it. You get your biggest power at the end
(which makes some sense) but in a way it defines the powers gained
through the legendary class. I'd rather see it taken at first level and
improve each level.

If you do it as written, taking 'Demonic Minions' at first level might
get you a few minions, but if you take it at fifth level you get a small
army. I'd rather see it taken at first level and get a few, then a few
more each level.

> Portals and Planes

Use when working on planar stuff

> Sorcery and Steam

If you're interested in steampunk.

> Traps & Treachery I and II

Lots of traps and thiefy stuff.

> Wildscape

Don't remember it well enough. IIRC it's intended as something of a
setting, with wilderness rules to support it. It isn't hard to use the
rules elsewhere, and the setting is more to give it a background for
reference, I think.

> I understand that most of this stuff is 3.0, which may explain why it's
> on sale now. But that's no big deal. If it's good, it's good.

I agree. I've been generally pretty happy with Fantasy Flight's L&L
line of supplements. I don't know about the adventures, though.

> So: has anyone bought these, read them, played with them? Are there
> any that you'd recommend?

The Path books certainly, the others... if you've got the money
available, they're certainly worth that much, I think. In hard copy at
least, I'm not sure about PDF (PDFs are useful, but still not quite as
nice to have as hard copy... and printing them yourself could get
expensive).


Keith
--
Keith Davies "Always code as if the guy who ends up
keith.davies@xxxxxxxxxxxx maintaining your code is a psychopath
keith.davies@xxxxxxxxx who knows where you live."
http://www.kjdavies.org/ -- Damian Conway
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Legends & Lairs products: any good?
    ... Waldo wrote: ... has a huge sale over at drivethrurpg.com: ... > their books for $4.99 a pop. ... > The five "Lore" books (Draconic Lore, Elemental Lore, Giant Lore, ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Legends & Lairs products: any good?
    ... has a huge sale over at drivethrurpg.com: pdf files of all ... Since these books retailed at $24.95, this looks like a pretty good ... The ones on sale are ... The five "Lore" books (Draconic Lore, Elemental Lore, Giant Lore, ...
    (rec.games.frp.dnd)
  • Re: I love used book sales
    ... The books would be ruined. ... No sale I've ever been to does it that way. ... While some people seem to think the laser scanner is a liability issue, I tend to believe the people on the FotL boards who say that it is not that, and it is also not just the fact that "normal" patrons were upset that the dealers would grab huge quantities of books and then sit and scan them to see which were valuable. ... The East Brunswick FotL does not have a "Box and Bag Day"; instead, non-profit organizations can make arrangements ahead of time to come after the sale closes and take what they want for free. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: I love used book sales
    ... seem to think the laser scanner is a liability issue, ... to repack the books I've been putting in my box to buy. ... never go to the preview sale or even the full-price day. ... last day or put a size limit on the boxes and bags. ...
    (rec.arts.sf.fandom)
  • Re: A cornucopia of magic systems
    ... mana levels, enchanting rules, power boosters,. ... needed at least three books to have the core rules. ... I have had no problem at all using HERO ... and create a TL 13 Space Officer from a universe whose technology ...
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