Are any companies continuing with 3.0 support ?

[Melkor]

It would be interesting to get a look at the sales figures.

Since 3.5 came out, I've purchased the core books, Dragonlance campaign setting, and Warcraft.....I'll probably buy 3.5 products as they come out, but since we are staying mainly with 3.0, my main focus is on collecting a couple of 3.0 WoTC products I am missing, a couple of 3.0 Dragon magazines I am missing - and a ton of 3rd party 3.0 stuff that I never bought.

I wonder how many people are:
1) Continuing with 3.0 and not buying 3.5 products.
2) Are buying less 3.5 products because they know another edition will be coming down the pipe in the next 3 years.
3) Will just buy the 3.5 Core Books to reference with their 3.0 stuff.
4) Will buy everything 3.5, and continue buying 3.0 (My most likely choice).
5) Will just buy 3.5 from here on out.
6) Got fed up with WoTC when 3.5 came out and have stopped buying.
Or some other wacky combination.

 

[Nightfall]

Personally I consider 3.5 just more house rules I'll have to suppliment for other campaigns...but mostly I'll keep the stuff I like and will use and replace the stuff I DON'T like with 3.0. But that's only the rule conventions. Anything I purchase will probably relate back to 3.5.

 

[jmucchiello]

I would not like to see any company, including WotC leaving 3.0 completely behind, many people play it and it should be respected and supported for it.

I don't think WotC is going to release anything for 3.0 any more.

For myself, I'm targetting 3.5 for most things and including 3.0 notes where they are necessary (spell choice, some magic items, DR, etc). An adventure I'm working on, I don't plan to include 3.0 stats for any opponents except the spellcasters where the spells have changed significantly. I'm only including monsters that have not changed between version (or of my own creation). If you aren't happy that the monster has more skills and feats than other monsters in your 3.0 game, you can remove the extra skill points and feats yourself.

Of course, I'm a PDF maker so I have unlimited space. I would expect print publishers to slowly move away from 3.0 support since a) most people can figure out how to back convert stuff themselves, and b) will eventually view multiple stat blocks like they view stat blocks for alternate game systems, i.e. space that could be used to include more material in the book.

 

[Nightfall]

Thanks for the insight Joe. I certainly look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

 

[Mouseferatu]

Sad as it may be, it simply isn't cost effective for most publishers to do extra work to support both versions.

Every extra word in a book costs more to print, and therefore jacks up the price when the book reaches shelves. Some people might be willing to pay that much for the extra 3.0 stats, but many people will not.

And you have to look at the future. Frankly, there's no future in supporting an obsolete system. Even if the numbers even out now, for every day that passes, the market for 3.5 grows larger. 3.0 players who were waiting for a while will eventually switch over; not all, but some. And everybody knew to the game, or so close to everybody as to make no difference, will be starting with 3.5, since that's the one in stores, and that's the one being supported.

And you certainly won't see WotC supporting 3.0. That's losing business for them. WotC makes more money on the core rules than any other D&D product. Every D&D product is intended to point people back to the core rules. They're certainly not going to put out books that require core rules they aren't selling anymore; that's just bad business.

A few smaller companies, especially the PDF publishers, may be able to afford to support both, at least for a time. But there's simply no reasonable way for the average print publisher to do so, and to expect them to simply doesn't take into account the realities and logistics of the industry.

That said, the games are compatible. True, if you use a 3.5 monster in a 3.0 game, the skill points and feats might not even out exactly. And true, a 3.5 spellcaster might not cast spells in quite the same way. But ultimately--so what? Your players aren't going to look at the monster's actions and go "Hey! His skill points are off!" And if you make it clear up front that some spells have multiple variations, depending on caster, the spell differences shouldn't prove a bump either.

3.0 and 3.5 are difficult to convert only if you insist on every last number being adjusted, even when they don't really need to be. If you're willing to just play the game without worrying if someone's Listen is off by a few points, it's really not hard at all.

 

[Nightfall]

Ari,

admit it my friend. You're just trying to prepare them so they can pick up Echoes when it comes out.

 

[Ranger REG]

AFAICT, the monsters, spells, and magic items sections were never officially released under the OGL. They were available only in draft form*. So, technically, Wizards can prevent you from using those parts of the SRD if they so desire. Considering this, I can't see any company bothering to take the risk for the 3.0 die hards.

*This was prepended to my SRD files: "WARNING! THIS DOCUMENT IS STILL IN DRAFT FORM, AND HAS NOT YET BEEN FORMALLY RELEASED AS OPEN GAME CONTENT. WHEN THIS DOCUMENT IS FORMALLY RELEASED, ANNOUNCEMENTS WILL APPEAR ON THE OPEN GAMING FOUNDATION WEB SITE AND ON THE WIZARDS OF THE COAST HOME PAGE. UNTIL THEN, PERMISSION TO REDISTRIBUTE THIS DOCUMENT IS NOT GRANTED."

Exactly where did you download your Original (v.3.0e) SRD from? I asked because my SRD comes straight from the official d20 System Homepage on the Wizards of the Coast's web site, when they finally released ALL sections under the OGL (thanks to Andy Smith).

 

[Nightfall]

Maybe he got the same place you get all those cheap knock offs of Rolexes.

 

[Psion]

AFAICT, the monsters, spells, and magic items sections were never officially released under the OGL. They were available only in draft form*.

(...)

*This was prepended to my SRD files:
(...)

The end of my page has been garbled by the firewall, so I can't see if anyone else has bothered to address this, but:

Yes, a "full" 3.0 SRD was released. I specifically remember, because it was quite a fuss that mind flayers and a few other creatures weren't in it...

 

[Aaron2]

Exactly where did you download your Original (v.3.0e) SRD from? I asked because my SRD comes straight from the official d20 System Homepage on the Wizards of the Coast's web site, when they finally released ALL sections under the OGL (thanks to Andy Smith).

opengamingfoundation.org

It's still like this.


Aaron (not paying attention)