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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Darrin Drader" data-source="post: 1730856" data-attributes="member: 7394">That is one thing I find somewhat foolish, considering that a lot of the same people that are writing those rules for the small presses are the people who are also writing them for WotC. In addition to Serpent Kingdoms and the Book of Exalted Deeds, you'll also find my name on or in all but one of Bastion Press's Oathbound books. You'll find Jesse Decker's name on the cover of Green Ronin books as well as numerous WotC books. Same goes for Erik Mona. Then there are others who have become prominent in the D20 market who have crossed over to doing some freelance work for WotC, such as Wil Upchurch and Rodney Thompson.  There is probably a market for a 3rd party publisher to do these, and some have, such as Necromancer Games. This is also an opportune time to plug my favorite gaming magazine - Dungeon, which does exactly what you describe here for the price of one meal at McDonalds every month.  The chances of getting the same kind of buzz going as there currently is for Eberron, for most companies, would require the support of a much larger financial backer just to handle the marketing, so its not going to happen any time soon. On the other hand, it is entirely possible for a small press to eventually achieve this through word of mouth. Of course that would require a few things - 1st: getting noticed. With the number of D20 releases hitting the shelves of the local game stores diminishing, there is now a greater chance that a single new product line might now get seen amid the crowd. 2nd: It needs to find a core group of players; people who actually spend their weekends playing in this setting rather than the other established settings. For people who are already happy with the setting they're playing in, this is a pretty tough sell. 3rd: It needs happy players who are willing to go out and evangelize the heck out of the product line. Considering that most gamer interraction happens around the gaming table or the store, it isn't always easy for the buzz about something to get through to a lot of people. Online messageboards like this one reach far fewer people than many here would like to believe. Ultimately there are those that can overcome these obstacles. I have to give FFG credit for their success with Midnight. The same holds true for RPG Objects' Darwin's World, which is my favorite D20 post apocalyptic game currently on the market. At the end of the day though, if a new campaign setting is released that is standard fantasy fare, it is likely to be compared with the Forgotten Realms which has superb writing, excellent art, and a history that has existed for more than half of my life. There are always those who would rather compare it to Greyhawk, which has been around for almost as long as my entire lifetime, but the point is that it will never be a fair comparison and the new setting will eventually get disregarded by all but a small group of people who are extremely passionate about it. Its a losing battle, so in my humble opinion, unless you are working on FR or Greyhawk, you might as well be pushing the envelope to see what else you can do with the fantasy genre.</blockquote>

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