D&D Community Different Than the D20 Community?

[ssampier]

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, ...

I have seen this before. My second edition playing cousins are the WORST. They think d20 is junk and the TSR supplements of yester-year are the BEST. It has nothing to do with compatibility, playable; it if has the TSR logo, it's great.

Myself d20 is the reason I bought 3rd edition. I think D&D by the books is boring. It's up to the DM to create his own campaign using the rules and advice provided. d20 frees up some time so I can find the right mix of supplements that fit my game.

 

[Desdichado]

I've still got more WotC stuff than any other imprint on my shelf, but most of my favorite books are by someone else.

I dunno. I don't buy much of anything over the last year or so, but the purchases I have made have mostly not been WotC products. But for d20 products, I really only look at a few companies too.

Then again, I'm probably the outlier in this poll. The game I'm running probably doesn't even qualify as D&D anymore, but some other d20 fantasy game. I have almost as many differences from standard D&D as something like Star Wars or d20 Modern has. The only fairly tenous thing that links it specifically to D&D is Unearthed Arcana which put most of the popular non-D&D rules into D&D.

 

[diaglo]

they stopped producing D&D years ago.

i buy it when i can on auction sites.

edit: i also buy d02. but that ain't D&D.

 

[Ranger REG]

I have seen this before. My second edition playing cousins are the WORST.

Can't be no worse nor spiteful as diaglo.

 

[woodelf]

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?

It's about *creating* planes and cosmologies, much as The Primal Order is about creating gods/pantheons. It takes ~128pp to explore what the new MotP "covers" in a short chapter. And, as a result, does it with much greater depth and breadth. It's particularly the breadth that i like--it suggests ideas for planes, and particularly planar interactions, that are much more "out there" than anything in the MotP. It also has several example planes along the way. If what you want is cool new places to send your PCs, ready to go, then pick up something like Beyond Countless Doorways. [Here, i think MotP falls flat, as, with the exception of a few of the "optional" planes in the back of the book, the places it describes utterly failed to interest me.] But if what you want is a toolkit/ideamine for creating cool new places to send your PCs, TPO: Chessboards is the way to go. [Again, MotP disappoints, because it is so narrow in scope in this area, mostly producing pretty standard "D&D"-style planes-as-other-lands-with-funky-rules. I think the old MotP's tables for alternate primes do a better job, all by themselves, than the new MotP's chapter on plane construction--the former cover more ground.] I think of myself as pretty creative when it comes to cosmology-type stuff, but it at several points pointed out ideas i hadn't thought of, or explored ramifications that i hadn't considered.

Or, as another test, look at teh recent thread here on planes as alien realms (or something to that effect--titled something like "planar travel, only different"). A lot of people talking about wanting to do planes in ways that MotP doesn't support. I didn't see anything that TPO: Chessboards doesn't support. Don't get me wrong: the whole Primal Order line is to most RPG supplements what Fudge is to most RPGs--it's much more toolkit than finished, ready-to-go product. But it's a wonderful toolkit, full of ideas. And broader in scope than anything on the same topics i've seen for D20 System, which is why i prefer it. I'll either apply the stats myself, or just wing them, so, either way, i don't need them to already be there.

 

[Psion]

It's about *creating* planes and cosmologies, much as The Primal Order is about creating gods/pantheons. It takes ~128pp to explore what the new MotP "covers" in a short chapter. And, as a result, does it with much greater depth and breadth. It's particularly the breadth that i like--it suggests ideas for planes, and particularly planar interactions, that are much more "out there" than anything in the MotP. It also has several example planes along the way.

Sounds a bit like FFG's Portals & Planes, in intent at least.

 

[philreed]

Sounds like I need to track Chessboards down. Off to ebay!

 

[philreed]

It's about *creating* planes and cosmologies,

And it appears to be difficult to find.