D&D 5E Am I no longer WoTC's target audience?

[jayoungr]

The Kobold Press adventures are bland and boring IMO

Which ones have you read? I'm a big fan of their Southlands setting.

and their crunch is overpowered, especially their Deep(?) Magic series, the one which details Clockwork magic, Blood magic, etc.

They're supposed to be reworking and rebalancing those for the upcoming hardback collection which was Kickstarted last fall.

The Tome of Beasts is nice, however, and their pamphlets which contain race rules are balanced and fun.

Speaking of Kickstarters, they have one now for Tome of Beasts 2.

Even the stuff in their monster books I've found to have a tendency to punch above the published CR

In my case, that's a plus, because my players tend to punch above their CR too!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

For me, it you're ranking purely by quality of layout, art and design (again the actually quality of the rules/material/content is extremely subjective), my rankings are;

1. Wizard's of the Coast
2. Paizo
3. Kobold Press

And then there's a big drop-off. The problem is if you're making material for 5E D&D, you're automatically working off of a different company's rule-set so are far less likely to attract staff and investment. Paizo is on this list, but they really run their own rival system to D&D (Pathfinder). And other companies with their own games, like Games Workshop, Call of Cthulhu, Vampire the Masquerade, and Savage Worlds can also pretty be pretty professional, but they run their own game systems (in the case of Games Workshop, they actually make way more money off miniatures than books).

So Kickstarter projects are the source for most more professional projects, as they can attract way more investment than other sources, and tend to be labours of love (at least the funded ones). Kobold Press is actually so professional today because they now tend to make their bigger projects on Kickstarter to give them that extra level of design quality that most smaller companies will not have.

 

[generic]

Which ones have you read? I'm a big fan of their Southlands setting.

Their "Lairs" book, a few of their Midgard books, that one about a blood coven(?) (I don't own it).

They're supposed to be reworking and rebalancing those for the upcoming hardback collection which was Kickstarted last fall.

Maybe they'll be less broken this time.

Speaking of Kickstarters, they have one now for Tome of Beasts 2.

That's interesting, I shall check it out.

 

[Fenris-77]

I don't run Midgard as a setting (although I'd like to at some point). I use the Kobold Press stuff to mine for monsters, ideas, hooks, and the occasional bit of crunch for other campaigns. I do like some of those magic supplements, but I haven't used any in play yet.

 

[jayoungr]

Their "Lairs" book, a few of their Midgard books, that one about a blood coven(?) (I don't own it).

Yeah, I find the northern Midgard stuff to be less interesting than the Southlands, overall. Unfortunately, the Southlands setting book is for Pathfinder only, but several of the adventures have been converted for 5E.

 

[generic]

Yeah, I find the northern Midgard stuff to be less interesting than the Southlands, overall. Unfortunately, the Southlands setting book is for Pathfinder only, but several of the adventures have been converted for 5E.

I play Pathfinder as well, so, I'll have to check the Southlands books out.

 

[jayoungr]

I play Pathfinder as well, so, I'll have to check the Southlands books out.

Oh, perfect for you, then! They have an Egypt-analogue, a sub-Saharan analogue, plant people, wasp people, and pirates!

 

[generic]

Oh, perfect for you, then! They have an Egypt-analogue, a sub-Saharan analogue, plant people, wasp people, and pirates!

That sounds awesome, not going to lie. I need to check out these Southlands books.

 

[Fenris-77]

Me too actually. I only have the Northern stuff. Moare wasp-people pirates!

 

[Parmandur]

I would rather have an excellent product that was designed by a casual gamer than a trashy and imbalanced product designed by a professional.

Well, sure: I don't care about the professional/amateur distinction much at all, but if we are going to distinguish that, the Kobold Press or Green Ronin are equally professional to Paizo or Fantasy Flight.