Buying WotC Products

[Azazyll]

Wow, I hadn't even realized this thread had posted. I intended to put a poll with it, but apparently the site didn't like me (it really hasn't since I bought membership, oddly enough). But to digress...

I completely agree that we don't need more rules, which is apparently the in thing to agree with right now. I buy books FOR the rules. that's what I find interesting, the mechanics of the game. Fluff is just about as neat, but really, paperbacks are less expensive, or free from the library. I realize it's a different format, and I like that more than a standard novel, actually, but to me, this is a game about rules. I have a WoD raised LARPer friend who obviously sees this in a completley different light from myself, and between him and reading these boards, I was truly shocked to see how many people don't really want more rules. That's the fun of it for me. That's why I subscribe to dragon, buy more books, and check out new systems of RPGing. That's what an RPG is to me. Not that I'm not interested in the Role Playing, I just find the Game equally if not more attractive. This is what I buy instead of CDs, movies, or comic books. Crunch is my entertainment, and I love looking at new rules. When new rules are bad (as many WotC products are but many, many more third publishers are) then I don't like the book as much.

Psion, you might want to take a look at Races of Stone in the store sometime. I really thought the quality of the mechanics improved significantly on WotC's standard of the past two years. It's probably in their top five splat books, for the mechanics at least, IMHO

 

[Wombat]

Since the 3.5 switch, I have only bought 1 WotC book, and that was under pressure and I still feel disappointed with it.

But that sounds wrong -- I have nothing against D&D3.5, I just don't have any real need for it, so I haven't made the switch. As such, many of the new books, since they are retools from 3.0 to 3.5, are of little use to me.

And since I love to homebrew and don't have any draw to Forgotten Realms (nor have I developed an interest in Eberron), I have felt no need for those books.

Thus almost all of my D20 purchases since the 3.5 shift have been "third party". Malhavoc and Green Ronin are my top companies

 

[Buttercup]

I've been buying about 80% of the WotC releases since 3.0 came out. But when I look at them objectively, there are lots that I'm not so interested in, and that I wish I hadn't bought. Manual of the Planes, for instance. Deities & Demigods, Epic Level Handbook, all the FR stuff except the magic book and the campaign setting, Call of Cthulu, Savage Species...all of these are books I'll never use, and don't even have any interest in.

I'm much more selective now. I'll look Frostburn over carefully, and the race books when they come out. But WotC is no longer guaranteed to get my money. Necromancer, on the other hand, I buy as a matter of course. Same with all the Kalamar books, the Midnight books, and anything with the Penumbra imprint. I've got all the Privateer Press stuff too, and I love it, so I suppose I should add them to my must buy list. WotC just can't compete with all these folks, IMO. They're too bland.