Henry
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BelenUmeria said:
Depends on what you're looking at; the Mutants and Masterminds line they produced is supported as much as any WotC product; heck, it's supported more than Eberron at the current time (having a drop on Eberron by two years, admittedly). Also, thanks to the Superlink license, there's a good bit of extra material in the chain for adventures, NPCs, and new powers, too.
Charles Ryan was likely putting a little marketing into his response to Merric, which I don't have a problem with, as well as his personal opinion, which is cool; I just disagree like crazy with the assertion that WotC does supplements in general better than anyone else, if you're talking actual content. In production values, maybe - even then, there are two or three top companies that rival them, though it costs them a LOT more to do so than WotC. In content, however, I've seen far more innovative developments, usable ideas, and creative elements that I can use from AEG, Green Ronin, Blue Devil Games, and EN Publishing than I have WotC.
I've been personally unimpressed enough with the WotC material from this year (Stormwrack, Incarnum, Lords of Madness, Weapons of Legacy, etc.) that I just haven't bought them, and to be honest, from my glimpses of Five Nations, Explorer's Handbook, and Races of Eberron in the bookstore, they don't have enough innovative material to make me want to buy them. (I bought Races of Eberron and returned it because it really didn't have enough new story material to make me want to keep it. I have NO use for the Lifeforged, the Warforged items, the racially bound prestige classes, etc.)
On the other hand, what have i kept? Arcana Evolved (running a game with it now), Black Company (bought it in March, and even ran a few games with it), Spycraft 2.0 (hesitant about running as-is, but planning to strip it for items and ideas in other games), and Poisoncraft (this one is older, but I bought it because I needed a poison reference, and this one stomps on anything else out there, FLAT.) Compare this to WotC's previous offerings, everything from Call of Cthulhu d20, to the Splatbooks, to recently the Complete Warrior/Divine/Arcane/Adventurer, and the excellent Draconomicon, Libris Mortis, and Eberron Core book. In my experience, I've been finding LESS in the WotC line, and more in the other publishers. (one exception: DMG 2. One bright spot in a year of so far unoriginality. That book's first chapter by Robin was worth the whole book, plus the parts on PCs running businesses, the challenging environments, and the magical locations. Even if I never use those rather unoriginal magic items in the back, the rest of the bookwas quite golden.)
However, I DO agree with Belen Umeria that third party support as a whole is lacking. Not only are companies not supporting some very good concepts, but they are jumping from one to the other looking for the "killer app" among gamers. One thing I also wish would happen more is cross-over works. The kind of joined effort I used to see with things like the Bluffside efforts, the Diamond Throne support from Fiery Dragon and Ironwind Metals, etc. is one way for smaller companies to pool their efforts and look and perform as if "bigger."
DO I have a negative opinion of WotC? No, of course not, because (1) I have high hopes now that they've hired someone like Mike Mearls on the Developing team; maybe we'll see ideas that work a bit better, and I'll find things from them I like again. and also (2) like all cycles, I'm sure it'll swing back around to things I do like again. But saying WotC does it "better than everyone else" I'll take umbrage with, when I see the past six months worth of releases that offer very little to me.
