Customer Reviews

Experts: A Comprehensive D20 Sourcebook for Fantasy Role-Playing Games

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Experts, by Varhola, Knorr, and the SGDG, expands the world of TSR's Dungeons and Dragons and all related role-playing games by covering the unexplored and under-exploited of the professional non-player characters (NPCs) who make the background of every adventure, mission, and campaign.
For the gamesmaster (GM), this tome gives new ideas for adding depth and colour to the setting where the player characters (PCs) are based and to where they adventure. By listing more than 25 new NPC expert classes and over 50 new NPC skills, a GM can design any number of unique NPCs to service his/her world of play.
For the player, a greater choice of secondary classes and skills will increase the excitement of the game. Most players will find that achieving the goal of becoming a successful expert will be as challenging as achieving success in the main classes. From my own experience, when I created a wizard character I randomly selected that the PC's secondary class was that of Merchant. I spent as much time acting as a go-between for PC-PC, PC-NPC, and NPC-NPC negotiations as I did battling monsters and villains. Currently in Living Greyhawk I play a wizard who tries to make a living as an alchemist in the city of Greyhawk but occasionally takes adventures to acquire fresh spell components.
For the students of serious history, Varhola, Knorr, and the SGDG have written a text that amounts to a Cliff's Notes summary of life in Mideval Europe, Africa, and Asia. The book is replete with historical tie-ins and useful information (such as the list of medicinal herbs of the Mideval world on page 85).
For those who play non D&D role-playing games, such as World of Darkness, Traveller, or Deadlands, because the authors dedicated their efforts to elucidate the non-magic-using expert and profession classes, the ideas in this book can be used in any role-playing setting, including Sci-Fi, Modern Day, and Mideval/Fantasy genres.
Whether you are a player, an independent GM with a weekend club, or a member of a seasoned organization, I feel you will find Experts an essential supplement to the TSR's Players' Handbook and Dungeonmaster's Guide.

If your game group wants more choices in character types and skills, if you want to whip up an instant population of craftsmen before or even during the game, if you want more depth in the nonplayer characters (NPCs) you play, or if your players' visits to towns and cities have become a long, non-roleplaying chore, then this book is for you. This volume is packed with an incredible wealth of gaming aids and ideas. Everything is here to let you, for example, quickly look up an exact remedy and price from the town herbalist or alchemist, play a prerolled Sage or Craftsman instantly, set up your own specialist Expert in a few minutes, set up a Guild, let a player train/practice in a craft or play an unusual Expert, or determine whether a city even has certain Experts available.

The book outlines five broad types of Experts (Craftsmen, Scholars, Entertainers, Professionals, and Tradesmen) and under them, details 28 types of Expert: Alchemists, Physicians, Courtesans, and more. Many, such as the Armorer, Physician, or Sage, would usually act as "services" in town; some could be important NPCs, such as the Steward of the local castle; others, such as the Guide, the Artificer, and the Slaver, could easily become the center of new adventures. A great amount of supplementary and background material supports these Expert types: medieval work area and laboratory descriptions, a whopping list of about 110 new skills, three new feats, and Guildmasters (as a new prestige class) and their guilds (including several tables for quick random generation of guild structures and availabilities in any given town/city). Table contents include effects of unsound construction, ship design flaws, sages' libraries, herbal remedies (with availability and properties), mineral availability, device complexity, Experts as spell casters, Experts' prices per level, and more. A second prestige class, the Militiaman, is also offered, and suggestions are given on use of the various Experts' materials as part of a campaign or for player character use.

The 28 ready-to-go NPC Experts (one of each kind) have enough background and personality to get going the moment you need them, without being so detailed as to require major rewrites for your campaign. The worst you'd need might be a name change for the person, their city of origin, or their god. A few of these characters have enough back story (ranging from humorous to sinister) to potentially springboard some side-quests for the Dungeon Master. Linked to several of these NPCs are some of the book's 17 brand-new magic items (all items are tied to the Experts theme, such as the Everfull Brewpot, Fireseal Wax, and the Mini Mecha Golem); these could be easily written into side-quests as well.

This book has now been revised and reissued as Experts 3.5; both book are highly recommended, whichever one you can lay your hands on.

This d20 system publication provides the DM or player with a huge store of Expert character classes and sample NPCs for use in fantasy games. Alchemists, blacksmiths, shipwrights, sages... the people that make a town or city more real. New d20 skills and feats help you work out PC interactions when they need an Expert's services - or if you have a PC who wants take a few levels of the Expert class. Highly recommended.

NOTE: As of August 2005, Experts has been superseded by the new Experts v.3.5 (ISBN # 0972251197), also available at Amazon. All the same great stuff, updated for the latest d20 rules, with a lot of new material. Skills, feats, new prestige classes, and some new scenarios to boot. Go get that one!

"Experts" adds a lot of depth to the adventuring that happens between the hacking, slashing, fireballs, and dice-rolling. The tables and rules in this book make it quick and easy to have a town or outpost populated with folk who are NOT cookie-cutter "services" for the adventurers with every town and sage/blacksmith/guide/whatever exactly alike. There is also a lengthy list of fully prepared non-player characters for the DM who has a game tonight and no time to prepare. Well thought out and valuable content for the money.

I was a big player of the old AD&D system in highschool and only recently returned to Dungeons and Dragons. Have been learning the D20 system and have been quite impressed with the changes. One of the problems I always encountered with AD&D was finding many of the hirelings and townsfolk completely two dimensional with no clear definition of their abilities and skills other than a name, hit points and an armor class to await slaughter by the next attack of bandits/orcs/or chaotic PCs.

'Experts' is awesome. Everything I always wanted to have back in my AD&D days, providing detailed skills, career development paths and background information on a host of professions that will often interact with players as hirelings and NPCs. Actually the book has a tremendous potential for Dungeon Masters who want to develop a thinking man's dungeon in which the use of NPC or even PC experts is the initial plot hook or required for the successful completion of the adventure.

The book is a great resource and I HIGHLY recommend it. The perfect cure for the cardboard NPC... and even offering a unique challenge for PC's who want to try their hand as an expert character on a special adventure.

"Experts" is the perfect reference tool for GMs to ease the burden of populating their campaigns with a wide variety of skilled NPCs. Whether you need a quickly-generated gemcutter or a fully fleshed-out musician, "Experts" provides the tools you need to create unique and individual NPCs. One of the hardest things for a gamemaster to do is to manage to create and fill the roles of all of the various NPCs that players will encounter in the course of a game. GMs often find themselves falling into the pattern of creating either "cookie-cutter" NPCs (i.e. every blacksmith in every village has the same skills, etc.), or creating the "uber-NPC" - an NPC that the players resort to for everything they need. Obviously, this detracts from the believability of the game that the GM strives to create and the players rely on for their enjoyment of the game. "Experts" is the best tool I have found for the D20 system to help both experienced and novice GMs from falling into these pitfalls.

Very rarely in the role playing universe do I believe that there are more than one "core" book for any roleplaying game. Really, if one has the main rulebook, than all the rest are secondary as your own imagination can fill in the gaps. This belief was shattered when reading the "Experts" book. In it is so much information, so well thought out, and so, well, full of information that a good DM NEEDS for games that I wouldn't mind listing it under "Core books" for this genre. I could list for you the multitude of different feats/classes/items/NPCs/etc, but this can only be 1,000 words, and that's not nearly enough to do this book justice. Support the little guy and find small press books like this, these are the people that don't put money before their love of gaming. And besides, if Gary Gygax says it's a good book, I'm one to agree.

An amazing book full of detailed information to enable any campaign to flush itself out with characters from all walks of life. Good for building specialize background characters to make the game run smoother, give a quest to further the plot, or even to allow Player Characters something to make them more unique this book has is all. More Feats and Skills to have players make or arrange to have made just about anything they can think of. From the simple tradesman to a citywide guild, you can create what you need for your campaign. New Items, ready made characters, DC tables to guide tasks for the Trades and Professions, as well as more than twenty five expert classes. Defiantly worth keeping in your library of books.

From the time I picked up the book till I put it down, "Experts" for the D20 D&D Role Playing game was time very well spent. This supplement certinaly breaks the sterotype of Hack & Slash role playing by adding a unique 3rd dimension to your average class of characters.
By expanding on this new and wonderful aspect of a true classic, "Experts" has finally made it easier to play a RPG that is more then just "kill the bad guy". It allows you to truly take on a role and interact more so then you sterotypical D&D Hack and Slasher.
For anyone who it a true role player, this is the supplement for you. In the sea of D20 supplements, "Experts" stands out like a bright beacon. I look forward to more products produced by this company.

Experts is a key asset for DMs interested in extracting the _roleplaying_ from 3rd Ed.

Once key NPCs are 'fleshed out' as bonafide skilled individuals, it only follows that they have personality, unique goals, and complex motivations. This book is a wonderful tool towards the goal of creating 'three dimensional' NPCs by covering that first step (clearly defined skill sets).

From the players' perspective this book is also valuable, as multi-classing a core adventuring class with one of the Expert classes in this book ought to provide players with noteworthy roleplaying opportunities. What fighter wouldn't appreciate some knowledge of battle dressing? What spy can't use a cover identity? Why shouldn't wizards also be scholars of a less arcane sort?

Experts, as presented here, also make ideal henchmen a la the Leadership feat. Designing a patently non-combatant henchman around a skill set that distinctly contrasts the skills of a typical adventuring party will vastly expand the types of adventures that are viable for typical parties.