d20 Past - Anyone using it?

[Kanegrundar]

I use the Musketeer, Shaman, and Sorcerer classes in my Rifts-like setting. I had to tinker with the background of the musketeer class, but that's fine with me.

I'll likely use more of it when I get to working on a Stargate/Sliders-like setting.

Kane

 

[Bobitron]

It's easy to point at d20 past and say "I'd rather have the civil war" or "I'd rather have imperial rome". But no to people would 'rather have' the same thing.

I have to admit, I am completely ignorant regarding the business aspect of the game industry. Would it be in any way practical for WOTC to publish short, 50-100 page books that are setting specific? I would assume that each of the eras described in D20 Past would have had quite a bit more material before editing. I think I would prefer to have had a seperate book for each era.

To give an example, in starting my WWII campaign, I needed to make the stats for weapons that weren't included in the D20 Past book. I know this isn't a huge deal, but even if the D20 Past book couldn't include a large amount of historical information, they could have included more setting-specific rules, even if that meant removing the adventures. In fact, I feel the adventures should have been free material on the WOTC website. That would have freed up 5-6 pages in each era for additional rules.

 

[Stormborn]

I go with arscott on this one. Yes the book has problems, but I thought the Pirate setting was nice, and I like the Pulp Scientist too. If you want time lines, plot ideas, and other historical details then buy a GURPS book, most of them are excelent. Since I have a lot of them, the ones I am really interested in, a book like d20 Past (and other d20 Modern products) just helps me apply the d20 rules to a setting I can get somewhere else.

As a writer I am currenlt opperating under the assumption that the things in d20 Past will see the MSRD before my present project goes to press, and if not I have noted them so they can be easily culled.

 

[Roudi]

With all due respect, if you want real historical information, you can research them in the library.

Hear, hear!

It was called d20 Past not d20 <era>. It was intended as a toolkit to be used with historical or historically-themed gaming. It might not cover ALL the bases one could want from such a toolkit, but one can't expect a book like this to teach you history.

Personally, I'm glad that no specific eras were covered. It leaves things open for the 3rd party market (who, in some cases, have produced consistently better products) to publish the era-based supplements & games. I'd rather have Blood & Guts: 1812 than d20 Past: 1812; know what I mean?

 

[GMSkarka]

d20 publishers are not jumping on WotC to release d20 Past OGC soon so they can develop a product in mind. Adamant Entertainment is already set to release their own approach to pulp genre RPG material.

'Already set'? We've already started, back in November 2004, and continuing monthly since then.

Aside from that, your point still stands. I don't see publishers waiting for WotC OGC. If we see a niche, we fill it. Products like d20 Past, in my opinion, are really just for those gamers who won't look at non-WotC product. It's the "official" release, and gives cursory coverage to things which the OGL publishers have been covering for some time already.

Which is fine...they have their audience, we have ours, and there is some overlap. We can concentrate on things that they don't have the time or space to cover, or which would be too specific to make financial sense at their level.

For PDF publishers, it also allows us to respond quickly to gaps in the "official" material (for example, gamer's complaints about the amount of material on the Nazis (weapons, etc.) in d20 Past allowed Adamant to more directly target those needs with our most recent Thrilling Tales release, Pulp Villains: NAZIS), so the arrangement works for everybody.

 

[HalWhitewyrm]

(for example, gamer's complaints about the amount of material on the Nazis (weapons, etc.) in d20 Past allowed Adamant to more directly target those needs with our most recent Thrilling Tales release, Pulp Villains: NAZIS)

That was a masterful way of working in the plug to fit the discussion. I bow at the might of your plug-fu, Gareth.

 

[Ranger REG]

'Already set'? We've already started, back in November 2004, and continuing monthly since then.

Forgive me. What I truly mean to say you are already dead set on your own approach to Pulp RPG genre adaptation, like AEG is dead set on their own modern-day d20 RPG ruleset, despite WotC's release of d20 Modern.

Aside from that, your point still stands. I don't see publishers waiting for WotC OGC. If we see a niche, we fill it. Products like d20 Past, in my opinion, are really just for those gamers who won't look at non-WotC product. It's the "official" release, and gives cursory coverage to things which the OGL publishers have been covering for some time already.

Which is fine...they have their audience, we have ours, and there is some overlap. We can concentrate on things that they don't have the time or space to cover, or which would be too specific to make financial sense at their level.

At the very least, WotC print out print products first. For most of us, we don't have plastic and have to wait until third-party PDF publishers to come around to getting a printing company and distributor to release their print versions.

Any startup publishinghouse businesses out there should post their contact information in the Publisher & Press Release forum.

 

[GMSkarka]

For most of us, we don't have plastic and have to wait until third-party PDF publishers to come around to getting a printing company and distributor to release their print versions.

Well, print versions aren't the problem, now that RPGNow is offering print-on-demand for all of its client publishers....the problem is the broken distribution system, which isn't interested in most small publisher product...and when they are interested, put the small publishers so far down on the "payment totem pole" that they're essentially stealing product. (When money is tight, they pay the big boys, because they're afraid of losing their business...it is literally robbing Peter to pay Paul)

 

[Ranger REG]

Really? Tell me you didn't felt that when your Skull & Bones pirate book was published by Green Ronin.

 

[GMSkarka]

Really? Tell me you didn't felt that when your Skull & Bones pirate book was published by Green Ronin.

Actually, it was published by Green Ronin *because* I felt that way. I knew that if I had released it as the premiere product from a new publisher (Adamant Entertainment), the distributors would pay it almost ZERO attention, and, if they did order it, the chances of my seeing money from it was slight, at best.

I had just come off working with Thyrsus Games on their FVLMINATA alt-history Roman RPG, which sold 2000+ copies via distribution, but they saw NO money for, which ended up putting them out of business.

I wasn't going to let that happen again, so I approached an established publisher of D20 product (who I knew the distributors would PAY, since they are one of the top D20 publishers), and negotiated a release through them.