Good, Bad and Ugly

[Psion]

Necromancer is still publishing, but infrequently.

I wonder if anyone at NG is now shaking their fist at you.

FWIW, Necromancer Games just released Shades of Gray (which I am running) and Mother of All Treasure Tables.

 

[KB9JMQ]

Glad to have you back DG.
Watch out for the WoTC Minis addiction also known as plasticrack.
Once you are hooked you can kiss your extra spending money goodbye.

I can quit whenever I want to. I keep telling myself that.

 

[Mycanid]

Welcome back, DG!

The past year, especially, has had WotC really pushing the limits and getting creative with D&D and how their products are formatted. (For discussion on whether these changes are good and bad, please see any number of threads...)

3rd party d20 material is almost dead. Monte Cook effectively closed Malhavoc with the publication of Ptolus this past summer as his magnum opus; Green Ronin is concentrating on their own games; Necromancer is still publishing, but infrequently. Goodman Games is about the only d20 publisher left out there publishing books on a regular schedule; most others have thrown in the towel, or have moved almost exclusively to pdf (where you will still find some excellent material).

You'll get back in the swing of things soon, though!

I thought this was an EXCELLENT summary. Have to put in a plug for the Goodman's Games modules, though. I really enjoy them.

Another curious thing (perhaps more of a sideline movement?) is a slow re-surgeance of material striving to be "old school" in feel and even, to a certain extent, mechanics. Most of the others in here could articulate this better than I, but if you like such things, they are much more numerous than I can remember in the post 1e years....

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Welcome back, DG!

The past year, especially, has had WotC really pushing the limits and getting creative with D&D and how their products are formatted. (For discussion on whether these changes are good and bad, please see any number of threads...)

3rd party d20 material is almost dead. Monte Cook effectively closed Malhavoc with the publication of Ptolus this past summer as his magnum opus; Green Ronin is concentrating on their own games; Necromancer is still publishing, but infrequently. Goodman Games is about the only d20 publisher left out there publishing books on a regular schedule; most others have thrown in the towel, or have moved almost exclusively to pdf (where you will still find some excellent material).

You'll get back in the swing of things soon, though!

After reading this post I only just realised how correct you are. A lot of the 3rd party publishers have either largely got out of D20 or aren't around any more period. Looking at my list of 3E books that I own it includes publishers like Fantasy Flight Games, Bastion Press, AEG, Malhavoc (debateable as to whether they are still in D20). Necromancer and Goodman Games are pretty much the only 2 large(ish) companies still regularly producing D20 products (possibly Kenzer too).

Olaf the Stout

 

[Tuzenbach]

UGLY: The, erm, "creativity" inherent in the recent offerings of the Monster Manual series.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

UGLY: The, erm, "creativity" inherent in the recent offerings of the Monster Manual series.

Nothing can be worse than the art for the Century Worm though!

Olaf the Stout

 

[TarionzCousin]

WotC has published many non-Core books for D&D, with a profusion of new races, classes, prestige classes, spells, feats, tactical options, color schemes, sheet music, and recipes like Mom used to make.

There is a veritable bucketload of new (optional) rules and crunch for D&D available now.