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Message: <blockquote data-quote="buzz" data-source="post: 2730134" data-attributes="member: 6777">The point is that I don't agree with your point. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> I neither think that WotC is exclusively about "more of the same, only different" (no more so than any other d20 company, much less RPG publishers in general), and I don't think they are having any demonstrable negative impact on the d20 market as a whole, especially considering they are the primary dirver of that market. You're basically asserting your opinion of their products as irrefutable, and then making an inexplicable leap to citing it as the reason for some perceived qualitative malaise in the d20 market.Unfortunately, this doesn't really make any sense. The "decline" being discussed in this thread has nothing to do with the quality of products being produced, but the sales of the products being produced. If anything, there's moire amazing product out there than anyone knows what to do with!The time when third-party d20 publishers were aping the choices of WotC and producing derivative drivel that was "more of the same only different" is long past. The oceans of class splats, settings, and umpteen new feats and PrCs are gathering dust in discount bins. If d20 and OGL material is doing anything, it's straying further from the "baseline" of WotC. What we're seeing are d20 games going OGL, and publishers trying to supply what they specifically know WotC will not. At least, the companies that aren't actively trying to go out of business are doing so.TSR failed with its proliferation of settings because it's a flawed business practice. Like adventures, settings have a limited appeal, i.e., to DMs who use published settings and who are not currently satisfied using an existing one. I.e., a tiny slice of their fanbase. An even tinier slice is going to want to actively consume more than one.The quality of the setting is irrelevant (unless you want to argue that Greyhawk, FR, Planescape, DL, Brithright, Dark Sun, Mystara, and Spelljammer were "more of the same, only different").On top of this, creating a setting whole cloth, and then supporting it, requires a great deal of development resources. WotC learned from TSR that they cannot viably sustain 7-10 campiagn settings. To do so would be idiotic. Were WotC to announce yet another campiagn setting, with Eberron out only a few years now, the reaction would likely be a collective groan. No one is interested.Whatever the reason for the current state of the industry, the lack of settings from WotC is not it.</blockquote>

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