Gencon, WOTC, and D20 Modern

[Roudi]

Just as kingpaul disagrees with my assessment of d20 Past, I respectfully disagree with your opinion of d20 Future, (Psi)Severedhead. I'd never have started writing sci-fi material without it.

 

[Ranger REG]

I'm sorry, but given the average quality of an RPGO release versus a WotC release, and my limited gaming budget, I'm not going to bother checking out ever WotC release. It's not that I specifically exclude them, but for me to go out of my way to check up on all their releases, they need to be more consistant in quality. Sure, they might put out a great product that I miss, but I can't say I really care. I'm happy with the quantity of material I buy now.

Meh. Whatever floats your boat. I'd rather be more open-minded (WotC, RPGObject, and TGM/Green Ronin), even with my severely limited budget.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, that has me a bit worried.

I wonder, though...might the time be right for WotC to think about a second edition? Not that I think anything needs fixin' all that much...

With Star Wars Saga Edition coming out 2007, possibly 4e in 2008, perhaps we should aim for 2009?

Personally, I can't handle three edition makeovers in one year.

 

[Ranger REG]

I would submit D20 Future definitely belongs in the "rotting eggs" category

Meh. d20 Future is salvageable now that we have three companion softbooks follow-up.

I mean, let's face it. There are so many elements and tools to use for futuristic games.

 

[JPL]

With Star Wars Saga Edition coming out 2007, possibly 4e in 2008, perhaps we should aim for 2009?

Personally, I can't handle three edition makeovers in one year.

I feel your pain. Still, if we're really looking at no new d20 Modern products from WotC after Dark Matter, at least through April 2007....anything short of a new edition is gonna seem somewhere between "minimal support" and "dead game."

d20 Dark Matter is an interesting direction, though...I wonder if there would be a market for d20 Modern versions of other WotC IP? Boot Hill or Gangbusters or StarDrive? Maybe not enough to make it worthwhile...

 

[Masada]

I don't think anyone should be surprised that d20 Modern is a tiny fraction of the WotC product profolio or that they would therefore rarely promote it. As long as they continue to print core rules (or barring that continue to use the OGL), then d20 Modern will enjoy fans.

The flavor materials provided by the 3rd party publishers far exceeds anything I've read from WotC. Of course we couldn't enjoy the flavor with without the crunch published by Wizards.

But regardless, every fan/customer should be treated as if their particular favorite product is valued by WotC and be thankful they have this customer. The only thing that concerns me in the original post is that the poster seemed to have been mistreated and disregarded. That kind of customer care can catch up with you.

All it would take is one ambitious publisher to do something like "d20 Modern Evolved" with class-bending concepts and 400 pages of great flavor combined with the OGL crunch and WotC might discover a significant percentage of the little profit they do make on Modern had changed hands.

 

[JPL]

All it would take is one ambitious publisher to do something like "d20 Modern Evolved" with class-bending concepts and 400 pages of great flavor combined with the OGL crunch and WotC might discover a significant percentage of the little profit they do make on Modern had changed hands.

I'm not so sure. There's nothing stopping someone from doing this with D&D, either, and there have certainly been products like Castles and Crusades, or Conan, or Iron Heroes, that are really supposed to replace rather than supplement the D&D core books...and I don't think any of them have amounted, sales-wise, to more than a drop in the bucket compared to D&D.

I got the impression from a couple of Ken Hite columns a while back that WotC's market share is so much bigger than everyone else's that it's not so much a matter of d20 Modern not being a big seller compared to, say, Spycraft --- it's that it's not a big seller compared to D&D, so why not just make more D&D products?

Now, what I've been saying for some time is that WotC should hire Brother Vig to do a nice softcover martial arts book and a nice softcover military book. Best of both worlds --- freelancer innovation plus WotC production values.

 

[Ranger REG]

I feel your pain. Still, if we're really looking at no new d20 Modern products from WotC after Dark Matter, at least through April 2007....anything short of a new edition is gonna seem somewhere between "minimal support" and "dead game."

The only new edition I'm looking forward to is Star Wars Saga Edition.

So I have to say no to d20 Modern v2.0.

 

[Roudi]

Why is it, exactly, that d20 Modern needs a new edition? I certainly wouldn't find it useful.

 

[JPL]

Why is it, exactly, that d20 Modern needs a new edition? I certainly wouldn't find it useful.

Some folks might. I didn't think I needed D&D 3.5 until I actually read it and saw some of the improvements that had been made.

The powers that be at WotC surely have their own opinions about what could work better, or how the line as a whole needs to go in a slightly (or greatly) different direction, or whatnot.

And it would stand a good chance at selling some more books, which might be enough to revitalize the line for a while.