D&D Community Different Than the D20 Community?

D&D vs. D20?

  • I buy only official D&D supplements, and so do most of the people I know.

    Votes: 27 13.2%
  • I buy Only official D&D supplements, but the people I know buy everything.

    Votes: 4 2.0%
  • I buy only official D&D supplements, but my friends avoid buying official D&D material.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Aside from the Core Rules I never buy official D&D Supplements, and neither do my friends.

    Votes: 9 4.4%
  • Aside from the Core Rules I never buy official D&D supplements, but my friends buy everything.

    Votes: 8 3.9%
  • I buy everything, and so do my friends.

    Votes: 79 38.7%
  • I buy everything, but my friends by only D&D.

    Votes: 42 20.6%
  • I buy everything, but my friends avoid official D&D products.

    Votes: 3 1.5%
  • Other (explain).

    Votes: 32 15.7%

I buy whatever is good. Period. I have no loyalty to Wizards, White Wolf, or anyone else.

Although I am partial to Dream Pod 9's Silhouette CORE games.
 

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I buy all kinds of books, though I *usually* prefer WotC books if only because the 3rd party books sometimes seem plagued by clunky mechanics. The Book of Fiends and Creature Collection II are as good as the better WotC books I have in this regard.

However, I have my nice share of 3rd party books that I use. I'm using Dungeoncraft right now to build a random dungeon for an Eberron campaign. I'll probably use Portals and Planes sometime... the mingling and malignancies would be perfect for Eberron. I continuously scrounge through CCII for monsters and I look to Book of Fiends of inspiration sometimes.

I also plan on getting IKWG, Monsternomicon 3.5, and Arcana Evolved at some point.

EDIT: As for my friends, one of them only buys FR stuff, the other guys really don't buy anything, though when they do it's usually WotC. I have gotten a few of them to pick up some 3rd party stuff, like the CCR, Relics and Rituals, CCII, and Torn Asunder... but that's it.
 
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Ranger REG said:
I thought this was a Yes or No poll, for which I would have answered Yes. The majority of the D&D community only cares for D&D label, not the d20 System label, even to the point of dismissing non-D&D games like Star Wars and d20 Modern, although I have seen a handful of D&D gamers curious enough to want to try Star Wars ... on the Wizards' messageboards.

No matter how much I recommend an outside d20 labeled product for certain topics -- mass combat, naval adventuring, African-flavored -- they prefer WotC make a D&D labeled version.

And I thought other dedicated fan communities of a certain RPG are closed-minded and one-tracked. D&D fan community takes their devotion to a whole 'nother level.

Yeah, I have witnessed this. But locally the Rifts and GURPS players have the edge in rudeness. (And to preach the gaming gospel of their chosen system.)

I actually avoid many WotC products, too much of it seems 'over the top' to me - I do not need or want Oozemasters, thank you so very much!

The Auld Grump
 

I look at everything, regardless of publisher. I buy what i think is good. Sometimes that means big-name publishers, sometimes it means somebody's first PDF product. Sometimes it means D20 System, more often it means something else. But, and i think this was the real point of the question, the presence or absence of a D20 System logo, or a D&D logo, doesn't really have any impact that i can discern on my purchases. Similarly, i don't automatically avoid any publisher's products. [I do automatically buy a couple publishers' products, or at least automatically if the topic interests me and i can afford it: Atlas Games, Wicked Dead Press, to name a couple.] Heck, even the game system doesn't necessarily cause me to pick up or avoid an RPG book, and all genre will do is adjust the purchasing timetable: a book for a genre i'm currently running will get picked up before one for a genre i'm not, but the latter will, at least theoretically, get bought eventually.

With one important caveat: there are some specific design choices in D&D3E that drive me batty, so i don't use the D&D3E core books. My default fantasy D20 System core books are Arcana Unearthed, Everquest D20, and probably soon Blue Rose. So, while i look at each WotC book that comes out, they almost inevitably don't appeal to me, precisely because of their tight compatibility with D&D3[.5]E. However, that's actually not a surprising thing, since i'd grown disenchanted with WotC's RPG products long before D&D3E came out. In fact, i haven't seen a WotC book that was worth the shelf space since they last owned Ars Magica or Talislanta (whichever was more recent). So it makes perfect sense that when they got a chance to redesign D&D, they'd do it in a way that didn't appeal to me. Not to the point where i don't even consider buying the books, but to the point where, despite giving them consideration, i've yet to actually do so.

[Of course, by "everything" i don't literally mean everything. First off, i'm sure there are entire companies i've never even heard of, especially in the PDF-only market. Secondly, i have to have some way to "look" at it--either it has to show up in the FLGS, or i have to find a preview or review, or something. Third, some things i can eliminate without even looking. I never so much as considered the stirge book, frex, because i've got no intention of ever using a stirge in a game, or even having them exist in my gameworld, so it doesn't matter how well written it is. Similarly, there's no point in me looking at a modern-military RPG, because i'm just not interested in the genre. ]

edit: Forgot to mention two things. First, my gaming buddies are all non-partisans, or anti-D20S-System partisans. Most buy whatever works for their game, and if that game is D20 System (as it often is), they'll use whatever books they think work best, which might or might not be D&D-branded, and might or might not be published by WotC. One, at least, will generally choose the WotC product over the D20 System product, if both cover the same topic. The other will, as near as i can tell, pick the better in that situation, regardless of publisher.

The other thing is that, IMHO, simply buying what i think is "best" has consistently driven me *away* from WotC products, even when there is a choice. So, frex, i *love* psionics in my D&D game. You couldn't pay me to use the Psionics Handbook. While the Expanded Psionics Handbook has apparently fixed some of my issues, and would be tolerable, i think the Psychic's Handbook is *much* better, and if i'm gonna put psionics into my D&D game, it'll be either that way, or with the Shadowforce Archer rules. Similarly, I don't think the new Manual of the Planes is anywhere near the best other-worlds book for D&D3E--in fact, i think every other one i've looked at is better [that'd be the Malhavoc book, and the Phil Reed book]. And i'm not yet convinced that any of them holds a candle to The Primal Order: Chessboards.
 
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Ummm, odd question that I am not sure exactly how to answer, so I will say "Other".

I bought WotC material until the 3.5 version came out -- since then I have bought very little from them (UA, Eberron).

I have bought a fair amount of D20 material -- AU, Skull & Bones, Testament, Blue Rose, Swashbuckling Adventures, Grim Tales, etc. OTOH, I have not bought everything from any given line and I no more play their campaign worlds than I play WotC worlds, so you could just put this down as rules-junkiness.

And I have bought a fair amount of non-D20 books, such as Ars Magica, Unknown Armies, Blue Planet, etc., since the release of D20. I mine them for ideas as well.

Like I said, I think this puts me in the "Other" category...
 


TheAuldGrump said:
I actually avoid many WotC products, too much of it seems 'over the top' to me - I do not need or want Oozemasters, thank you so very much!
Meh. I have the opposite opinion: WotC are being too conservative, too restraining, too safe when introducing their new material. Granted, I don't agree with some things they put out, like the CW samurai or the psionics model, but most of the stuff are decent ... conservative but decent.

Of course, what I don't like from WotC, I almost can certainly find them in third parties, like the Psychic System from the Psychic's Handbook.
 

I think that's one of the bigger boons of the OGL, other companies are willing to go much further than WotC is with their rules material. They may not always get it right, but they at least try to go in a new direction sometimes.
 

woodelf said:
Similarly, I don't think the new Manual of the Planes is anywhere near the best other-worlds book for D&D3E--in fact, i think every other one i've looked at is better [that'd be the Malhavoc book, and the Phil Reed book]. And i'm not yet convinced that any of them holds a candle to The Primal Order: Chessboards.

First, thank you.

Second, I've never read Primal Order: Chessboards. What do you think makes it such a great supplement? Is it worth tracking down?
 

Tarondor said:
I buy everything. My friends buy nothing other than the PHB, to the best of my knowledge.

That fits my group, although one player has recently decided to start DM'ing and has purchased the DMG, MM, MotP, Planar Handbook, and one non-Wotc choice, Monte Cook's Beyond Countless Doorways. I'm not sure, but he might be wanting to run a planar-type campaign...
 

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