Stuff I want (From you 3pp People)

[Raven Crowking]

Am I wrong in thinking that, unlike the OGL, the GSL contains the means for WotC to pull the license from people trying to step around what they consider "theirs"? It seems that, while one might play a game that allows one to make a book on X under the GSL, that if WotC really wants to, they could pull the rug out from under you.

Mark's reverse patronage project is a great idea, though. Otherwise, what is asked is that the 3pp does all the work, and takes all the risk, so that you may or may not buy the final product, which may or may not still be publishable as-is after the first run, based upon how WotC's lawyers view it.

Spread the risk around a bit, and you might be able to get exactly the product you want.

RC

 

[Mark]

Sure they are. You just might have to rename them and leave out a bit of fluff here and there.

Snake people are snake people....they have been around in stories longer than DnD has.

DS

And, of course, I specifically meant the name itself (and any images that might tread too closely to images used by WotC). Remember that there also are things that are doable under normal circumstances that are not under the GSL because of having agreed to certain stipulations in order to gain other benefits. Naturally, the farther away from official (as in not using the actual name) a publisher gets, the fewer sales will be made. The more generic a project is (the fewer real references to actual material), the fewer will be inclined to purchase.

If you are to go the "monster family" route, I would suggest picking one without any baggage packed by WotC and the GSL. Avoid the ones specifically mentioned in the GSL as off limits for whatever reasons.

 

[darjr]

Menu's, backroom contents, wagon contents, store wares and what is on the shelf, maybe randomly rollable. All built with the default economy in mind.

for those times when the players want to shop. Yes it happens. I'd very much like to be able to throw something together that has had a ton of forethought put into it that I don't have to do.

I didn't think, at first, that I'd buy that, but if it's carefully checked against the default economy assumptions, I would.

Maybe throw in things like the contents of domiciles and churches and other gneral places the players may 'wander' into and want to... ah... browse.

 

[Scribble]

It is a very good thing for 3PPs who have spent time looking into the options for two years to lend their expertise and opinions to a thread that is bemoaning the limited 3PP support for the most recent system.

Methinks mayhaps you misunderstood the intentions of my thread?

Nowhere was I "bemoaning" the lack of anything.

All I've been doing with this thread is indicate the types of products I'd be interested in seeing produced. (Really it makes no difference to me if 3pps make them or if WoTC makes them... Just seems more likely a 3pp would make these.)

If you, or another 3pp don't want to make these products (for whatever reason) I don't really care.

I'm not trying to be rude here, just blunt. I didn't start the thread looking to hear why people aren't making content- I don't care.

I started the thread to say if you are looking for an indication of what at least one current 4e player wants content-wise- here it is.

 

[Mark]

Methinks mayhaps you misunderstood the intentions of my thread?

Nowhere was I "bemoaning" the lack of anything.

All I've been doing with this thread is indicate the types of products I'd be interested in seeing produced. (Really it makes no difference to me if 3pps make them or if WoTC makes them... Just seems more likely a 3pp would make these.)

If you, or another 3pp don't want to make these products (for whatever reason) I don't really care.

I'm not trying to be rude here, just blunt. I didn't start the thread looking to hear why people aren't making content- I don't care.

I started the thread to say if you are looking for an indication of what at least one current 4e player wants content-wise- here it is.

I've really tried to be helpful but some posters are categorizing some of the things 3PPs aren't making as things they don't want to make rather than things they can't. It was clear in the first paragraph of your first post that you wanted things from 3PPs that you were not getting and that there were a lot of things you didn't want from 3PPs. I don't mind your bluntness and I'll continue to help as much as I can in regard to where licensing issues come into play or my general opinion on various ideas. I'm happy to do it and certainly if some ideas strikes me as doable for me personally, I'll be sure to say so. Thanks.

 

[buddhafrog]

Menu's, backroom contents, wagon contents, store wares and what is on the shelf, maybe randomly rollable. All built with the default economy in mind.

for those times when the players want to shop. Yes it happens. I'd very much like to be able to throw something together that has had a ton of forethought put into it that I don't have to do.

I agree. I would love a packet of pages that you could give to the players - handouts really. Make the game slightly more dimensional.

 

[darjr]

I agree. I would love a packet of pages that you could give to the players - handouts really. Make the game slightly more dimensional.

Yes!

Props!

Maybe editable PDF's of props? So I could make changes depending on my campaigns economy and tier?

 

[Pseudopsyche]

I want more products filling the middle ground between complete adventures and atomic building blocks. I have monster manuals, but I want examples of well-designed encounter groups and sets of encounter groups, ideally with some narrative logic and flavor. I like the Ultimate Toolbox for its lists of role-playing seeds, but I would love collections of complete "stat blocks for roleplaying" as defined in Mearls' latest Ruling Skill Challenges column. I like Dungeon Tiles, but I would buy examples of clever battle maps with engaging and interactive terrain (whether hand-drawn, composed of tiles, diagrammed more generally, or lavishly rendered).

I realize that I could mine all of these things from adventures, but I sometimes think it would be more efficient to consult a library of components instead of having to read and analyze so many adventures to find what I want. If I want to build an adventure where my PCs fight pirates, I want to be able to look up a collection of encounter groups for a pirate crew (I can use as many of the groups as I want, to tailor the size of the adventure), apply a role-playing stat block to the captain and his first mate both to seed the story and to flavor the NPCs, and then consult a book of battle maps for ships and harbors being raided, etc. Throw in some prewritten treasure parcels (complete with rich descriptions of ancient doubloons and the weather-control wondrous item/artifact the pirates used to power their ship), and I'd have a complete adventure, tailored to my preferences, with a fraction of the effort of assembling all the components myself.

 

[MichaelSomething]

I want more products filling the middle ground between complete adventures and atomic building blocks. I have monster manuals, but I want examples of well-designed encounter groups and sets of encounter groups, ideally with some narrative logic and flavor. I like the Ultimate Toolbox for its lists of role-playing seeds, but I would love collections of complete "stat blocks for roleplaying" as defined in Mearls' latest Ruling Skill Challenges column. I like Dungeon Tiles, but I would buy examples of clever battle maps with engaging and interactive terrain (whether hand-drawn, composed of tiles, diagrammed more generally, or lavishly rendered).

I realize that I could mine all of these things from adventures, but I sometimes think it would be more efficient to consult a library of components instead of having to read and analyze so many adventures to find what I want. If I want to build an adventure where my PCs fight pirates, I want to be able to look up a collection of encounter groups for a pirate crew (I can use as many of the groups as I want, to tailor the size of the adventure), apply a role-playing stat block to the captain and his first mate both to seed the story and to flavor the NPCs, and then consult a book of battle maps for ships and harbors being raided, etc. Throw in some prewritten treasure parcels (complete with rich descriptions of ancient doubloons and the weather-control wondrous item/artifact the pirates used to power their ship), and I'd have a complete adventure, tailored to my preferences, with a fraction of the effort of assembling all the components myself.

Heard of Dungeon Delve?

 

[dangerous jack]

I want more products filling the middle ground between complete adventures and atomic building blocks...

Me too. The last session I needed a small hideout in a city for a bad guy the PCs were chasing, so I used the 3 encounters from the 2nd Dungeon Delve adventure and swapped out the one bad guy at the end and it worked great and was easy to prep. I'd definitely do this again. I don't want to read pages of backstory that's critical to the encounter flow that I'll have to repurpose anyway. A paragraph or two to set the tone is sufficient.

Give me a book filled with an interesting tombs, a temple, an actual dungeon (i.e. prison), a trapped series of caves, etc. that are well thought out with a few interesting encounters and I'll buy it in a minute. Bonus points for integrating with Dungeon Tiles (not sure if that's allowed) or providing either a poster map or 1" grid map that I can just print off that doesn't require my screen-capping and resizing.