Electonic Aids, Gaming, and Third Party Publishers

[Belen]

A few years ago, I burned out. A combination of a few bad players and complicated crunch was ruining the game for me. I tended to spend hours on NPC stats with a real desire to make sure I had crossed every T and dotted every I. In the end, I took half a year off from gaming and scrapped my old group. When I returned to the GM screen, I promised myself that I would never take the time to stat NPC by hand again.

Now, I used a combination of electronic aids while gaming. I use Heroforge to stat out the BBEGs, e-tools for the unique monsters, and Jamis Buck's NPC generator for quick and easy mooks. Using these aids really allows me to minimize the idiotic number crunching while maximizing my time spent focusing on adventure creation and character/player specific story arcs. In short, I could not continue to game without these invaluable tools.

Yet, it is the lack of these tools that keep my from using material from companies other than Wizards. I have yet to find character generators, monster generators, or spell sheets for Midnight, Arcana Evolved, or Blue Rose. These are all settings and material that I love. I buy the books, yet I would never run a game for them. I just do not want to go back to the sheer work of doing anything by hand and I am neither computer savvy enough, nor have the time to create my own electronic aids for these settings.

I know that D&D benefits from a large customer base, so they have fans creating these types of aids out of the blue. Yet I have no doubt that these aids help support the base and retain players that they would otherwise lose.

So I have to wonder why the third party companies do not commission such aids. I think the lack of such support will keep these companies small. d20 has a lot of complicated crunch and by ignoring support that would make this crunch more accessible, they are creating a barrier that a lot of GMs and players choose not to overcome. People who do not get to play that often want to maximize their time rather than have to spend it sorting out the various crunchy options. I know that some people really enjoy reading the books, using the crunch in new ways, etc, but for many others, they want something to make their life easier.

I really believe that third party publishers must find a way to release electonic aids for their materials. Even if that aid comes in the form of a spell sheet that gives the core stats of the spell plus page numbers of the spells. Heck, I would pay for such aids. Bastion has done it fr e-tools and I purchased both their books and the e-tools expansion. The AE battlebox is a good start too. It allows me to have a quick aid at the table.

Yet, it needs to be more. I want to see character generators, spells sheet, feat sheets etc. I need the 3rd party publishers to make my life easier as a GM. Then I can run games using their material and introduce that material to my players, who become a whole new market. Right now, I buy the books because I am a collector and I love new material, but I do not use the books which would introduce a lot more people to their stuff.

Anyone else feel the same?

 

[Steel_Wind]

While it's a licensed product and one of the best known ones, Sovereign Press does have e-tools releases for Towers of High Sorcery with more on the way for the Bestiary of Krynn et al.

They mesh and require the DLCS add-on for e-tools.

I do agree with you on the basic premise - but software is expensive to develop and it comes down to numbers: WotC has those numbers and most others do not.

FWIW, CMP's forthcoming RPG Toolkit promises an open approach to design so that more electornic aids can be made for RPG Toolkit that are not tied to WotC.

 

[Crothian]

Nope, I find doing things by hand to be relatively easy and not at all time consuming. There are so many easy short cuts that cut down the preperation time of d20, I find actually stats play very little part in it. I've never used computers other then to type up my characters and handouts on occasion. I'm old school, a pencil and blanck sheet of paper is all I have ever needed.

 

[Belen]

I do agree with you on the basic premise - but software is expensive to develop and it comes down to numbers: WotC has those numbers and most others do not.

I knew about the the DCLS etc. I bought them.

I have to disagree about the cost of electronic aids. An excel character generator such as Heroforge or a monster generator on par with Jamis Buck's probably would not be that expensive and I think it would net them a lot of customers. Likewise, spells sheets such as those found here: http://www.militaryfocus.com/dnd/index.htm would be very cheap, yet make life a lot easier.

I am not saying that third party companies should develop their own e-tools, but they can put out aids that would help people maximize their time spent using crunch.

Without such aids, I think that the small publishers will never get beyond their current market share.

 

[Belen]

Nope, I find doing things by hand to be relatively easy and not at all time consuming. There are so many easy short cuts that cut down the preperation time of d20, I find actually stats play very little part in it. I've never used computers other then to type up my characters and handouts on occasion. I'm old school, a pencil and blanck sheet of paper is all I have ever needed.

Well, Crothian, for someone who spends as much time with the game as you do, I reckon that you have had to come up with the shortcuts. I do not think that others are as fortunate.

Also, while I enjoy buying RPG books, I hate reading through the crunch. I never take the time to go through a stack of books to find all the crunch I need, but I can guarantee it would get used if it was all in a nifty excel sheet.

 

[EricNoah]

I agree that computer tools are an essential part of my gaming toolbox. E-tools and calculating spell spreadsheets are two I really can't do without. They help me prep the game the way I want to run it (books closed 98% of the time, necessary rules are in my adventure notes, stat blocks, etc.).

Edit: let me give two examples. I bought AU from Malhavoc. The first thing I did was enter all of the AU spells into a calculating spellsheet. It was a couple of weeks of pretty intensive labor. But in the end I ended up with something that made it possible for me to prep lots and lots of different spellcasting NPCs as necessary, and allowed my players to prep their spell lists so they hardly ever have to refer to the books during combat. The other thing I did was enter as many of the races and classes and equipment items as possible into eTools. It may not sound like much, but it was THE thing that made it attractive for me to DM this campaign.

The other example is the Expanded Psionics Handbook. Again, first thing I did was build an auto-calculating spellsheet. Now that book is ready for me to use, to fully integrate, into future D&D campaigns.

Converse example: considering purchasing Complete Arcane. Really really didn't feel like I would be up to the task of entering dozens of new spells into my master spreadsheet. Ergo, never bought Complete Arcane. Even if I had it, it wouldn't get used ... because if it's not on a spreadsheet when I'm prepping NPCs, it's like the spell doesn't exist.

Would I like more electronic support from publishers? Sure. Do I think it's going to happen. No. Because when you do something like that you are committing yourself to constantly fixing/updating/improving the electronic tool, and that's not something most companies are interested in doing. They'd rather get in, publish, and then say, "whew, done." I can't say I blame them!

 

[Belen]

Would I like more electronic support from publishers? Sure. Do I think it's going to happen. No. Because when you do something like that you are committing yourself to constantly fixing/updating/improving the electronic tool, and that's not something most companies are interested in doing. They'd rather get in, publish, and then say, "whew, done."

I never really looked at it that way, but that makes sense. It seems a horrible way to do business though and not a method that will sustain them longterm. Personally, I probably spend 100+ per month on gaming. Every dime of that goes to third party stuff. (I am lucky in that I do not have to buy my Wizards books.)

However, I keep having to put away the third party stuff. I just cannot use it in my games any longer. It takes too much work, so I have gotten to the point where I only use Wizards material because of the electronic help. Precisely because I use so much electronic aids, I have come to realize how useless third party products have become.

I really think that the third party publishers new to embrace RPG toolkit and either draft some fans to create e-aids or pay someone to do it. Otherwise, I am at a point where spending my money is not worth the extra time spent in using their material by hand.

 

[EricNoah]

WotC has been very good about a sort of "don't ask, don't tell" policy w/regard to their spell data and fan created spell spreadsheets. And other publishers have been too. [edit: example -- Monte's reaction to my AU spreadsheets wasn't "stop doing that!" -- it was "very cool." That's the kind of support the fans need if they're going to be participants in the development of these tools, as mentioned below.]

It may come down to the fact that among the D&D fan community there are a lot of very clever, hard-working, skilled computer folk who are willing to put in more time and more effort than even a paid publisher. If I were a publisher, I would just stand back and let the fans do the work and not get in their way. [edit: saw your comment about fan-created tools -- a hearty agreement here.]

I agree with what you say about 3rd party published materials ... and the further they go from "normal d20" the harder they are to integrate with my two main tools. I'm particularly concerned, frankly, about Iron Heroes, a product I'm very much looking forward to ... but I don't know how I'm going to get it to work with eTools. I could certainly be a PLAYER in a campaign where there weren't many electronic tools. If I only need to prep and update one PC, I can do that easily enough in word or some homebrewed spreadsheet. But if I'm expected to GM ... that's going to be a different matter entirely...

 

[Belen]

I agree with what you say about 3rd party published materials ... and the further they go from "normal d20" the harder they are to integrate with my two main tools. I'm particularly concerned, frankly, about Iron Heroes, a product I'm very much looking forward to ... but I don't know how I'm going to get it to work with eTools. I could certainly be a PLAYER in a campaign where there weren't many electronic tools. If I only need to prep and update one PC, I can do that easily enough in word or some homebrewed spreadsheet. But if I'm expected to GM ... that's going to be a different matter entirely...

Bingo. I feel exactly the same way. Being a player would be easy as I would only be responsible for myself and one character. However, I will not run a d20 game these days without e-aids. I just do not have the time to prep everything.

These aids would be a great boon to GMs and 1 GM using comes with 4 players. If a GM chooses to run Black Company, Midnight or AE, then they usually introduce that material and the company to their players. I only have one player who is aware of anything outside WOTC.

I really want to introduce my players to non-Wizards stuff, but the lack of good e-aids prevents me. Thus, the company looses out on 4 people who could be buying their books.

 

[Mythmere1]

The complications of crunch turned me off completely from the 3E+ ruleset. I ended up playing Castles & Crusades, which is simple enough not to need outside support. On the other hand, crunch is a big plus for many players - it's only the DM who feels the full weight of complex rules.

Since it's just the DM, maybe this explains why the cost/benefit isn't there for the e-tools on other games - it's only a subset of customers who would use them extensively.

EDIT: Heh! Same opinion posted simultaneously.