D&D 5E Do you ACTUALLY use 3rd Party Books?

[Remathilis]

Bits and bobs. Mercer's gunslinger and blood hunter. Zarieth's witch class. Stuff found online via DMs Guild and GM Binder. I've considered Grim Hollow and Primeval Thule as settings, but haven't run them yet. Run a few Goodman modules.

But no, I haven't really used 3pp in any serious capacity since moving from Pathfinder. We've briefly toyed with other 3pp games (Starfinder and M&M) but neither seemed to land fit us. For the most part, I was happy to occasionally augment my D&D with some new options, or try a d20 based game in a different genre, but I mostly stuck to WotC's offerings.

 

[Dreamscape]

The first 3E book I bought was 3PP. I bought the 3e core books some time later, and the 5E starter set and core books in 2014. All my other D&D purchases have been 3PP.

 

[delericho]

Yes. Mostly monsters, but some PC-side material has been used. More PC material is allowed, but hasn't been used.

 

[Xamnam]

I've got nothing against them, but I've not come across anything in my browsing that has compelled me to buy or incorporate it. I'll admit, I've not been playing long enough to have exhausted the well of the base game's interest.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Yes, I would say I use mostly 3rd party books

 

[Willie the Duck]

I'm assuming by "Yes, but only monsters" you meant the wider range of DM centered products which is what I voted for.

Ditto. Monsters, Modules, and supplementary Mechanics, but not player-facing stuff like new archetypes or feats.

 

[TwoSix]

I use a ton of 3rd party stuff, primarily from Kibblestasty, Laserllama, and Mage Hand Press. And I use in the sense that I've run characters or DMed characters using classes, subclasses, and other rules systems that 3pp have provided.

I've been vocal for the past several years that I think a well-curated 3pp game works better than core WotC 5e. Core 5e is pretty loosely balanced already, so as long as the 3pp isn't any stronger than a peace cleric/chronurgy wizard or clockwork soul/hexblade I'm not going to worry about it. Targeted magic item distribution is the universal cure to any emergent balance concerns in a 5e game, anyway.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

Same as some others here: Monsters, Magic Items, Settings, Ship rules, Alternative initiative rules but not true player-facing stuff like classes/sub-classes or feats.

ETA: in a prior campaign, I did introduce the player-facing Stronghold and Follower rules but the players didn't really get into them.

 

[Nebulous]

I have used 3rd party stuff from Kobold Press extensively. I have most of the pdfs and a lot of the material for Roll20, so absolutely yes. They are also my first choice for the Black Flag system, although I am sure that is a long way out from actually being published.

 

[reelo]

I don't. I don't play 5E.
The only horse I have in this race is the OSR. SO i have a vested interest in 1.0a being upheld in one way or the other.

But in the worst-case scenario, I'm pretty sure there'll be something for me under the ORC umbrella eventually. There's Chaosium already, and Kobold Press, and I'm sure others will join. Maybe a whole new slew of "old-school-style" games will come to be, who knows?