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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 1460336" data-attributes="member: 10201">I'm not claiming it actively *does* anything. I'm saying it *facilitates*, encourages, or otherwise makes some behaviors easier. I'm claiming not that people don't use RPG books from different systems together because of D20 System, but that they change the mentality of those who do, and might do, that. First of all, do you call it "homebrewing a game" when you use, say, D&D3E PH, Monsternomicon, & If Thoughts Could Kill to run a game? If not, then why do you call it "homebrewing a game" when you use D&D3E PH, Mage: Sorcerer's Crusade Bygone Bestiary, & GURPS Psionics? 1 Right there, that distinction, is exactly what i'm talking about: the artificial construction of a boundary, saying that two RPG products are "inherently" compatible, just because tehy use the same game system, and two others have to be "kitbashed" or "tweaked" or "fudged" or "homebrewed" to work together, just because they use different game systems. Now, this attitude has always been there to some degree. D20 System didn't create it. It merely caters to it, and possibly reinforces it. Now, it's not just about some semantic point on how people describe their games. It's also about the mindset of what people buy, read, and play. Part of why people don't buy products of a different system is this belief that they won't be "useful" to them. And part of why producers often make something D20 System is this consumer behavior. And thus, in the long run, it becomes a force against innovation. Which is bad for all RPGs, D20 System included. Nobody complains that a novel is "incompatible" with their RPG system of choice. So, if you can take an idea from a novel, without any game stats whatsoever and incorporate it into your RPG session, then clearly it can be no harder than this, and probably considerably easier, to incorporate the content of any RPG supplement into your game. And there is no "incompatible", only "different".OK, i'm sorry, but this post is gonna kinda trail off here, because i've got too little sleep, need to get up at 3am for work tomorrow, and still haven't finished the pregens for the convention games i'm running tomorrow. I know i had a really excellent point that i was building to with that last paragraph, but my sleep-deprived brain lost it, and i'm not sure i managed to make it. So you'll either have to write it off as delusions of grandeur, or accept my claim--either way, hopefully i'll figure out what i was saying tomorrow or Sunday, and continue the point.1 And even if you, personally, don't make that distinction, plenty of people do. Look at the various threads on this messageboard alone that see a game using Arcana Unearthed as the core book as a "different game" than one using the d&D3E PH as the core book. Or the thread about what books people actually use in their games. Not to mention various threads about combining various products, here, on RPGNow, and elsewhere.</blockquote>

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