Poll: How much 3rd party do you use?

[EyeontheMountain]

I just got a couple of free PDFs due to answer ing antoehr poll on Enworld yesterday. I appreciate the gift, and will be sure to give the pdfs the attention they deserve.

But I am 99% sure they will never make it into my games. Even if they are amazing and have great ideas. I just don't play non-WOTC stuff.

Why? Partly becasue I live in Japan, and there is no local gaming store that has 3rd part d20 stuff in stock to flip through.

Of course they don't have English WOTC stuff in stock either, but I am willing to let a review decide for me, or just take the product on faith because I know it will see play time, either in my online or face-to-face games.

So according to the poll, I would be 0% 3rd party. How about everyone else?

For the poll I am assuming a fantasy style game, but not necessarily only d20, so if you play Gurps, Castles and Crusades and such, I suppose you would be 100% 3rd party.

But vote how you will.

 

[Deekin]

WotC +Dreamscarred Press.

 

[Treebore]

Just to clarify something about C&C, it allows me to use any D&D material from any edition of D&D. So even though C&C is my "core" I still get to use any module or book from any edition of D&D I want, with a few seconds of conversion for each different monster. Spells, magic items, and even classes can be largely used as is, especially if you have a feats system like I do.

So 50% actually works for me, because I am frequently pulling my monsters and spells from 3E. Plus 3rd party sources like Necromancer's "Eldritch Sorcery" (spells) and "Tome of Horrors 1-3".

Yeah, I have the best of all worlds and editions.

 

[Agamon]

Um, so if you play a game besides D&D, it's "3rd party"? What if you play something TSR made? Is AD&D 3rd party? How about Top Secret? And how about Paizo? They're "official", but kinda 3rd party, too.

I think of 3rd party as d20 D&D books, not even seperate d20 games. For me it's never 100%, but it's never 0% either. But it depends.

 

[Minicol]

bad design

I use a lot of 3rd party.

WOTC stuff is mostly BORING. They know how to make rules, but seem unable to do any kind of story telling. Most of the few modules they do are pathetic. Kind of if you had a great car, but no petrol.

To me D&D is a roleplaying game, not a tactical wargame as some seem to want it to become. The 3rd party have understood this, but it seems the message has difficulty gettig through.

 

[EyeontheMountain]

Just to clarify something about C&C, it allows me to use any D&D material from any edition of D&D. So even though C&C is my "core" I still get to use any module or book from any edition of D&D I want, with a few seconds of conversion for each different monster. Spells, magic items, and even classes can be largely used as is, especially if you have a feats system like I do.

I really di not know anything about C&C, I included it in my example becasue I know a lot of people use it.

 

[Storyteller01]

Mostly third party stuff, for reasons mentioned earlier. Also, with the exception of Magic of Incarnum, most of the new WotC concepts have been done by some third party makers. Same with rules or feats that WotC would prefer not to have in the game (difference in what's 'balanced' I suppose).

 

[Glyfair]

I voted 0%, but it's likely closer to 5%-10%. However, that's how much I use. I'm open to 3rd party products suggested by my players, and I have occasionally suggested it. No one has ever taken me up on it.

The biggest problem with 3rd party material is that it's not consistent. Supplement B assumes a certain paradigm, supplement C assumes a different one (sometimes even when they are from the same company).

With WotC there is more uniformity (which doesn't mean there is unevenness). You also don't have too much worry worry about introducing contradictions which is occasionally an issue you have to pound out with a lot of 3rd party materials being used together. Plus, you more often get additional support for supplements with WotC, when 3rd party concepts very often die on the vine.

Also, my chosen campaign world is Eberron. If I choose to run a 3rd party campaign world (something I have considered) my answer would be different.

(Now I see I missed part of the explanation of the question. Since I'm now taking a break from by Eberron game to run a Heroquest game, the number would be different. That's an odd thing to have to consider, though),

 

[Hussar]

Well, my campaign is set in the World's Largest Dungeon, so, right there, I'm using quite a lot of Third Party stuff. My last few campaigns were set in Scarred Lands, so, again, about a 50% split. Plus, I use quite a lot of Dragon magazine material, so, let's call that Second Party.

My players, OTOH, have almost never approached me with anything other than WOTC material. Sigh. During the SL campaigns, a couple of players tried out some SL material, but, even then, the majority of PrC's, spells, whatnot, was from WOTC.

I really think that most gamers aren't really even aware that non-WOTC material exists.

 

[Anticitizen One]

In the group I currently play in, we seem to use only WoTC material. I haven't actually tried to use any 3rd party stuff, but I'm sure the DM would allow anything reasonable.

When I DM I use a lot of 3rd party stuff, but I do find that I have to be a little more cautious with it than with the WoTC stuff.