Do you lament the lack of third-party or fan material?

[Kzach]

Whilst reading through the thread about the fansite policy it suddenly struck me that I don't care. For a minute there I was confused because with the dawn of the internet there was tons of 2e material to be had and 3e's arrival tied in nicely with internet proliferation so there was gazillions of sites and third-party material to be had.

So I guess I had become used to it mattering to me. Thus it came as a minor shock when I suddenly realised that with 4e I just don't care that there aren't bunches of fan sites out there.

This all comes back to something that has been a theme through a few of the threads I've started over the last month or so. That being the massive amount of material coming out of WotC for 4e. I just don't want for anything more. I'm barely able to keep up with WotC's offerings and with the Character Builder, I can make pretty much any concept of character I can think of.

I do think it's a shame as the creativity pool has been reduced and I don't feel that's ever a good idea. I mean, without 3PP's we wouldn't have gotten some amazing products over the years. But then again, as long as the quality and quantity of material coming out of WotC remains consistent for at least another year or so, I doubt I'll ever need anything from anyone else.

 

[Khairn]

I do think it's a shame as the creativity pool has been reduced and I don't feel that's ever a good idea. I mean, without 3PP's we wouldn't have gotten some amazing products over the years. But then again, as long as the quality and quantity of material coming out of WotC remains consistent for at least another year or so, I doubt I'll ever need anything from anyone else.

When I compare the vast pool of quality 3pp companies and products which supported 3E (not the crap stuff) and compare it to what we have today for 4E ... yes I do lament the lack of 3pp's.

There is no doubt that WotC is producing a lot of 4E content, Some great, some average and some poor. Much like 3pp's do. But the glaring lack of new and creative settings specifically designed for 4E (I want more than just AD&D and 3E re-treads), and the very hit & miss adventures (Scales of War just to name one) they publish, don't excite me in any way. Aside from the crunch, I find WotC's 4E fluff to be ~bleh~ and certainly less creative than they've published in the past for earlier editions.

Personally I believe that competition spurs individuals and companies to become better at what they are trying to do. But WotC's restrictive GSL and DDI policies go a long way to eliminating any real 4E competition from 3pp's. That's clearly a good thing in WotC's eyes, but from my point of view, it's a loss for the 4E gaming community.

I believe that eventually even the most die hard 4E fan will have their fill with the amount of crunch that WotC produces. Personally I just don't think they're very good at producing creative and exciting new fluff and adventures. So once WotC has to start relying more on that fluff and adventures for generating player excitement, they may be in for a real shock.

 

[Maxboy]

Nope not at all, WoTC are bringing out enough good quality stuff 3pp isn't needed IMO

 

[Riley]

But the glaring lack of new and creative settings specifically designed for 4E (I want more than just AD&D and 3E re-treads), and the very hit & miss adventures (Scales of War just to name one) they publish, don't excite me in any way....

Personally I just don't think they're very good at producing creative and exciting new fluff and adventures. So once WotC has to start relying more on that fluff and adventures for generating player excitement, they may be in for a real shock.

I think WOTC's one great mistake was allowing/encouraging/forcing Paizo to chart their own path. I miss having those guys publish adventures for the edition of D&D that I am playing.

On the other hand, Wolfgang Baur has put out a 4e great adventure through Open Design (Wrath of the River King) - with two more on the way eventually. His stuff definitely is of the quality-not-quantity type.

Yeah, I wish that there were more 3rd party publishers doing adventures I was interested in. The thing is, I'd still rather play 4e and do my own conversions, rather than try to DM 3.5e ever again. It's fairly easy to convert, and I have a large collection of old adventures (and my own adventures, and eDungeon) to work with. So I'm doing fine without them.

 

[Tallifer]

Not really missing it. Wizards are producing more adventures than I can use rigth now anyways.

On the other hand, I prefer to supply for myself any lack on the imaginative side of adventuring. None of the third party publishers are likely to suit my idiosyncratic wishes. Pendragon's Arthurian mythos is about the only remotely satisfying world out there.

Fourth edition Dungeons and Dragons is wonderfully designed for a dungeon master to quickly and easily adapt any adventure or setting from a previous edition or third party. The rules for monster levels, skill challenge difficulties and traps make it simple to plug in some numbers into whatever fine story I invent or stumble across.

 

[ferratus]

I never much bothered with 3PP in 3.5 very much. I think the only D20 product I bought that was 3.5 was "Testament". I realized that nobody would ever do a biblical campaign (I was going to do Joshua's conquest of the Canaan) because of the general attitude among the majority of gamers that religion has cooties. So I traded it.

I also collected Dragonlance sourcebooks from Sovereign Press/MWP, due to my irrational love of that setting.

I never felt the need for even more rules though. I guess it is because I start with a race/class I want to play rather than a "character concept".

I also collected Dungeon rather than Dragon magazines.

 

[Wormwood]

Nope not at all, WoTC are bringing out enough good quality stuff 3pp isn't needed IMO

Yeah, I have to agree with this.

Adding to that, I would be hard pressed to use a product that I knew would never be in the DDI suite of resources.

 

[Kzach]

So once WotC has to start relying more on that fluff and adventures for generating player excitement, they may be in for a real shock.

I think this is why I'm not missing anything. For me, fluff is the easy part. I also don't generally enjoy reading other people's fluff. Most of it just doesn't excite me. Nothing out of 3e fluff really grabbed me.

So for me, I tend to just create my own fluff.

 

[carmachu]

When I compare the vast pool of quality 3pp companies and products which supported 3E (not the crap stuff) and compare it to what we have today for 4E ... yes I do lament the lack of 3pp's.

Yeah that.

Wotc might be producing adventures, but their not up to the quality of stuff I have. Paizo, Monte's stuff, Necro......you'll never see something of quality like Ptolus again.

 

[Quantarum]

I was initially somewhat unhappy at the lack of support, but looking back at 3.5 I realized the only third party stuff I was actually using was stealing bits and pieces from adventures I read, something I can still do. The same thing applies with fan created material. If you see a good idea, use it.

-Q.