Continued support for OOP editions-why?

[JeffB]

I'm curious to people's reasoning behind the worry of "lack of support for edition X"

I can understand this if one is talking about say, a game that received very little to no product support over it's lifetime-e.g. Lords of Creation, Powers & Perils, Timemaster, or any number of games with just a handful of products besides the core rules.

However D&D- no matter which edition-has always been supported extremely well by product.

BECM- yep- quite a bit of material.

1E- again, no huge lack of material.

2E- Heh We all know how much TSR pumped out over the years

3.X- WOTC supported this with tons of material, and including 3 party publishers- the amount of material available is absolutely staggering.


I know that were I interested in running 2E, I could scrape up enough product from TSR that interests me to game for many years.

Were I interested in running 3.x, there's no way in H-E-double hockeysticks, I could ever AFFORD all the products that look interesting to me, let alone run out of products to use.

This "my edition is no longer supported" panic happened when 3E was announced and then released, and now of course with 4E being released, it seems MUCH worse (and the funny thing is, the OGL allows the 3.x material to continue to be made).

I'm not wanting or trying to create an edition wars thread here-I could care less what version of D&D you play or don't. I AM genuinely curious why some (not all) people feel really upset by this, when there is so much material available.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Some of us, even armed with every quality 3.X product WotC and the 3PPs released and a fertile imagination still hunger for more support for a game that, to certain viewpoints, didn't need replacing, especially by such a deeply altered new edition.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Ignorance? Take me, for instance: How much new/old 3.5E (say) stuff will be available in print? How much new/old 3.5 (say) stuff will be available in PDF? For example, I'm still not clear on whether or not I'll be able to buy DCCs for 3.5 in PDF. (Definitely no DCCs in print, right?)

Probably those who've been stocking up over the years have no worries. Those of us relatively new to 3.5 and can't/won't play 4E are in a more uncertain situation. It's hard to imagine a huge forthcoming surge in 3PP support for 3.5, but that's just a guess.

 

[Rechan]

Some of us, even armed with every quality 3.X product WotC and the 3PPs released and a fertile imagination still hunger for more support for a game

How much more support is needed?

to certain viewpoints, didn't need replacing

No game needs replacing. And a new edition doesn't replace the old one. Older editions are not recalled.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Yeah. I mean how long, gaming one night a week, would it take before you'd run every 3.x adventure published by WotC, Necromancer Games, Paizo, Green Ronin, Goodman Games, Atlas Games Penumbra line and Malhavoc Press? I'd estimate 1200 years. And that's mostly good quality stuff too.

still hunger for more support

Why?

 

[Rechan]

Ignorance? Take me, for instance: How much new/old 3.5E (say) stuff will be available in print? How much new/old 3.5 (say) stuff will be available in PDF? For example, I'm still not clear on whether or not I'll be able to buy DCCs for 3.5 in PDF. (Definitely no DCCs in print, right?)

Probably those who've been stocking up over the years have no worries. Those of us relatively new to 3.5 and can't/won't play 4E are in a more uncertain situation. It's hard to imagine a huge forthcoming surge in 3PP support for 3.5, but that's just a guess.

Used bookstores, Ebay, and Amazon are your friend. If not DriveThruRPG.com or RPGNOW. Two months ago I bought Keep on the Borderland.

And it looks like several companies are still sticking with 3.5 (or Pathfinder, or whatever). Kobold Quarterly, I know is staying.

I mean, you have the pick of the litter now. Everything is half off (or more), and all you have to do is dig up some reviews to find out what's good or not.

 

[Doug McCrae]

Those of us relatively new to 3.5 and can't/won't play 4E are in a more uncertain situation.

Have you heard of ebay? You can easily buy even 1e modules for very reasonable prices.

 

[Flatus Maximus]

Have you heard of ebay? You can easily buy even 1e modules for very reasonable prices.

Yes, of course I've heard of ebay. The thread is about continued support, not second-hand sellers, isn't it? In any case, personally, I'm more interested in whether or not I'll still be able to buy a given 3.5 adventure in PDF once the 3PP has gone 4E with said adventure line.

 

[Treebore]

Because keeping it in print, on ALL of the store shelves, keeps the game more viable, meaning it keeps attracting new players, because it exists, on the book shelves.

IE to buy a product you have to know it exists in the first place. Going OOP takes it out of the sight of the general consumer, so the games player base dies off, and the DM/GM has an increasingly harder time getting people to try an old OOP game.

Why? Because the perception is that it most have went OOP because it sucked. If it was good it would still be in print. So why play a game that sucks so much its no longer printed?

Did OD&D, 1E, 2E, etc... go OOP because they sucked? Nope. They were replaced. They lost players because they went out of sight. Became unknown.

 

[Rechan]

Yes, of course I've heard of ebay. The thread is about continued support, not second-hand sellers, isn't it?

Considering how the OP talks about getting 1e and 2e materials second hand, and even says

I AM genuinely curious why some (not all) people feel really upset by this, when there is so much material available.

I'm not sure how you got that impression.

In any case, personally, I'm more interested in whether or not I'll still be able to buy a given 3.5 adventure in PDF once the 3PP has gone 4E with said adventure line.

Which third parties? Only... 2 or 3 have announced they're even going with 4e.

I honestly don't see DriveThruRPG, RPGNow, or many 3rd party companies deciding to take the sales off their websites.