3rd Party Products - Do You Care?

Jack99 · Sep 23, 2009

Considering that I have around 100 3pp products for 4e, I guess my answer would have to be yes.

When that is said, fewer and fewer 3pp companies are getting my dollars. Not because their products are not included in the DDI, not because they are not WotC, but simply because they (mechanics-wise) can not keep up in quality anymore. Fluff-wise there seems to be a lack of decent writers. Again except for a company or two.

The_Gneech · Sep 23, 2009

Yes, yes, YES to 3PP adventures, especially Goodman Games' DCC. I really dislike both the WotC fluff, and the "delve" format. But the "Punjar" setting from Goodman and the DCC modules gave me a working vision of "4E that doesn't suck," and I am grateful for that!

-The Gneech

Alaxk Knight of Galt · Sep 23, 2009

I'm disappointed for 2 reason

1. The Settings of d20 Products
I loved the various settings that came out, Game of Thrones, Wheel of Time, Iron Kingdoms, Rokugan, etc. Each is a nice little sandbox to run adventures.

2. Inventiveness of d20 Products
Mutants and Masterminds and Iron Heroes come to mind immediately as two systems that really pushed what d20 meant (I'm sure others can name equally inventive uses of the system). When you've got multiple designers across multiple companies pushing the system, I think the system is healthier for it.

GnomeWorks · Sep 23, 2009

Jack99 said:
Considering that I have around 100 3pp products for 4e, I guess my answer would have to be yes.

I was unaware there were that many.

Could you do a breakdown of what they are? Adventures, monster books, etc?

Jack99 · Sep 23, 2009

GnomeWorks said:
I was unaware there were that many.

Could you do a breakdown of what they are? Adventures, monster books, etc?

There are more. I haven't been buying everything. Regarding the breakdown, I must admit that I am in no mood. I do however have this blog where I made short reviews of the stuff I bought. Reviews aren't important, but the blog should facilitate an overview of the products. The products are indexed by rating and by publisher, but I never got around to sorting them by type. You are of course more than welcome to take a look yourself

- I do have most (if not all) major releases. I mostly shipped a few weird races and such. AFAIK and IIRC.

Jack99's 4e Ultrashort Reviews

thecasualoblivion · Sep 23, 2009

1. I was never really interested in 3PP material during 3.5E, and I tend not to have a high opinion of 3PP in general.

2. If it isn't in the Character Builder, as far as I'm concerned it doesn't exist.

3. As a DM I make my own adventures, so I don't really buy those.

4. I also use my own homebrewed setting, so I don't really buy those either.

5. The Compendium gives me what I consider a satisfactory selection of monsters, so I'm good there.

No, I really don't care.

Jan van Leyden · Sep 23, 2009

Generally yes, but my desire to buy D&D books is rather low, much, much lower than in the 3.x era.

Maybe 4-5 books per year plus my DDI subscription gets me covered.

If something looks very (campaign setting) interesting or at least interesting (adventure), I might buy it regardless of the publisher, but the probability is very low, indeed.

Jack99 · Sep 23, 2009

It also has something to do with people having all their stuff (or at least the interesting products) from previous editions. I mean, if you have Freeport, you (probably) do not need another pirate setting. If you have Dark Sun, you do not need another desolate world where its tough to survive.

Likewise, the publishers know this.

GMSkarka · Sep 23, 2009

Just to give you an anecdote that you might find interesting:

Adamant published 4E stuff, under our "VENTURE 4th" banner. It did OK, sales-wise, but really no better than our other lines.

In August, we released our first PATHFINDER support product, TOME OF SECRETS.

Just in August and September alone, the sales for the PATHFINDER product, quantitatively speaking (since it's a different price than the 4E stuff, I'll just go with number of copies sold) have reached the level of sales of all of our 4E stuff combined, since their release. Monetarily, it's not even close (since the 4E stuff was mostly $2 short PDFs, and the TOME PDF is $10).

So, obviously, there is a widely-sustainable market for 3rd Party product. Just not for 4E.

keterys · Sep 23, 2009

3E I bought _lots_ of 3PP - I started getting burnt on some really questionable products, cut back a lot.
3.5E I kept up with Malhavoc and Paizo and very occasionally dipped into another company (like a couple Goodman games or Necro products).
4E I just make my own stuff. I've got about 3 products for myself (Ari's, Wolfgang's, War of the Burning Sky), and one of my friends picked up a few Goodman adventures.

My players are now tied to the character builder - they adore it and can't function without it, so player-oriented 3PP is near useless in that respect. Fwiw, my _own_ creations are similarly thwarted which makes me a bit sad.

I would consider 3PP for monsters and adventures, but I have such an enormous backlog of adventures for previous editions and find making monsters so easy I haven't been looking. I do keep meaning to try that newish Goodman magazine though.

Oddly, I feel less need to pick up _all_ player-oriented products than previously. All the WotC stuff shows up in char builder eventually and people won't use it until it does mostly, so whatever.

So odd.