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Message: <blockquote data-quote="scourger" data-source="post: 1730192" data-attributes="member: 12328">I'll be glad to see the market correctedFor me, the market got fragmented when too many publishers were putting out too many books with what I'll call much form with little substance.  [Another way to say it is too much crunch with too little fluff.]  Here's what I mean.  Form is the way a game is played--the rules.  Substance is the subject of gameplay--the adventures.  For d20, the form was already pretty fully detailed (especially 3.0, which needed no revisions or additions for me to play my favorite fantasy game).  So, I was not interested when WotC or 3rd parties stared putting out a panoply of books for D&D with more form (more rules) and no substance (no adventures).  The worst is the proliferation of campaign settings with no adventures.  I learned with 2e not to buy "splat" books, so I don't.  I can understand why they are initially successful.  They are easier to produce and appeal to a broader market than adventures.  Why should a publisher work harder to write an adventure that requires creativity and thought when a book of new classes and feats can be slap-dashed together, especially when a module only sells to DMs while a setting/options books appeals to any player?  The answer is the phenomenon of market saturation that we currently see for d20.  Adventures grow the market by giving people a way to actually play the game and drive sales of core books (even core setting books).  Sourcebooks exploit the market by selling new rules that eventually overwhelm the consumer.  A publisher can only get away with this strategy with me by making a product that offers something truly different.  For me, this usually means a different genre than fantasy altogether such as Dragon Star, Omega World or Star Wars.  Judge Dredd is my favorite example.  I knew little about Judge Dredd before the d20 RPG came out.  I had seen the movie.  I was intrigued.  So, I borrowed some old comics from some friends.  It looked good (and ironic), so I bought the JD d20 core book.  It was a fantastic read.  It presented just enough changes to 3.0 to make it happen without overwhelming me with new options.  The real hook was that the company (Mongoose) shortly published four adventures: an intro and a trilogy.  I was hooked.  I buy everything for it, even though I haven't used any of the sourcebooks in play and notwithstanding that fact that I haven't run it past the first two modules almost 2 years ago.  And, the RPG prompted me to make cross-market purchases of comics, books, miniatures and a video game (things I do not buy routinely).  Overall good marketing.For D&D, I'll combat market saturation by selectively buying products that grow the hobby through adventures.  I'm keeping my subscription to Dungeon (consistently the best buy in gaming and the last thing I would cut if I had to make cuts).  I've got my eye on Mesopotamia by Necromancer Games because the posts indicate that it is really a big adventure playable under the core rules with source material and new rules added as a bonus.  Kudos to Necromancer if that is true.  I also love the Dungeon Crawl Classics by Goodman Games.  I played one, bought one, and have my eye on another.  I am confident that it will be worth it.  Lastly, I may pick up Mongoose's Signs & Portents #14 & #15 since those magazines feature a Judge Dredd adventure (I've passed on it otherwise).P.S.: I hope Fantasy Flight continues their Horizin Line.  I have really enjoyed that line of mini-games.  I've only been able to run Spellslinger, but they are worth picking up becase each one presents a short but complete setting in 64 pages or less.  Brilliant!</blockquote>

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