D&D 4E 4e Gold Rush: What 3rd Party Support Do You Expect?

[GlassJaw]

How do you read the results so far?

1) Mid to High level adventures and Psionics will be under-served;

OR

2) Players don't expect these kinds of products in the first 5 months because they don't want these kinds of products in the first 5 months.

You could also assume that players won't be ready for high-level adventurers out of the gate, nor will designers be familiar enough with the overall "flow" of 4E to write effective high-level adventurers at the start.

Also, if 3ed is any indication, the initial flood was crunch but modules had more lasting appeal. Just look at the Adventure Path series and Pathfinder. Another way to look at it is once people get all the crunch they need, they start looking to published modules.

 

[frankthedm]

All I care about are the monster books.

I expect to see all those. And I expect there to be lots of power creep in them. I am not saying third party publishers try and make broken splat, I am confident they usually TRY to make their stuff reasonably balanced. The problem is they have is they have to make their material seem interesting and comparable in power to core rules material, but they don’t always have the research and number running that went into make the core rules decisions. A feat that seemed reasonable to a third party publisher might look a lot less balanced by someone who saw how the numbers work in the long run. And this works both ways, just look how weak some Wotc epic feats are now viewed. Making splat book options weak-sauce dooms the book as well, so it puts the third party publisher in a dire straight.

Weak=No one buys
Solid = Hard to balance properly
Overpowered = DMs disallow

Now there may be some underhanded companies that intentionally make overpowered options knowing no DM will allow the book into their game, but hopefully it won’t be as bad as some 3.0 offenders. Like the company with the advertismment that read;

“Does your archer get three attacks at second level? Ours does.”

 

[Morrus]

Like the company with the advertismment that read;

“Does your archer get three attacks at second level? Ours does.”

Who was that?

 

[Silent Cartographer]

How do you read the results so far?

1) Mid to High level adventures and Psionics will be under-served;

OR

2) Players don't expect these kinds of products in the first 5 months because they don't want these kinds of products in the first 5 months.

I mis-understood the poll, and voted on what I wanted (expectation of need), rather than try to second guess the marketplace.

I'll feel a lot more confident about 3rd party high-level content after 5 months than before...

While I'm leaning towards 4E optimism, my current 3.5 campaign won't wind down for at least another year or longer; I'm hoping a lot of bugs and bad assumptions will be worked out by the time I actually need to rely on 4E products.

 

[frankthedm]

Who was that?

I wish i could remember the company name. I remember reading the ad in a dragon magazine.

 

[EditorBFG]

Who was that?

It is my best recollection that it was Sovereign Press, advertising for the d20 version of Sovereign Stone.

 

[cybernetic]

Well, I know that I have my hand in at least two "lines" of books that might just be released for 4th Edition. As of yet, I can't say whether or not it will be with Phase 1 or Phase 2. My business partner, the financial backing, is wanting to see the 4th edition OGL prior to making the decision put the $5k down or wait it out for a 2009 release.

One is a setting that has been in development for a while. Its a blending of Western and Eastern fantasy. It lends itself well to the concepts we've seen that will be comprising the 4th Edition of D&D.

The second "line" is a set of Tool-box setting-neutral supplements. We have series of Adventures planned and a different kind of "splatbook" that touches on something that has had very little exposure in d20 or D&D in general and seems well suited to the new themes and design decision behind 4th edition.