Goodman Games 3.5 Revival

[ggroy]

After the OGL 3E 3pp product bloat a lot of people are wary to ever buy the non-Wotc stuff. Sadly this sentiment seems to have carried over to 4E, it may take some time until tje market regains faith in 3pp products. ( Even though some of them are very good, the prejudice is still there )

I remember the "d20 crash" back around 2003-2004, induced by the announcement and release of 3.5E D&D. At several local FLGS in town, all kinds of 3E/d20 3pp stuff ended up in the bargain bin a year later. The aftermath of all this was that the smaller FLGS stopped carrying any new d20 3pp stuff for the most part. These smaller FLGS were reluctant at first to even carry stuff like newer Dungeon Crawl Classics modules, or later the Paizo/Pathfinder adventure paths and modules. It was as if anything 3.5E with or without a d20 logo, was "tainted" with bad luck. One essentially had to make a special order for most new d20 3pp stuff.

At times I wonder how much "backfire" and sales fallout WotC received during the d20 crash and the subsequent aftermath.

 

[jaerdaph]

I imagine the GSL change that allows Goodman to do this might entice other 3rd party publishers who haven't felt comfortable doing so to date to throw their hat in the 4e ring if they know their products won't have to be pulled again when 5e comes out in a couple of years. Who knows, we may even start to see 4e material from companies like Green Ronin and even Paizo now.

It sounds like a win win for everyone (except of course those strange folks in the minority who enjoy participating in edition wars and have vowed to fight on like five year olds).

 

[Leif]

It sounds like a win win for everyone (except of course those strange folks in the minority who enjoy participating in edition wars and have vowed to fight on like five year olds).

That is an insult to five-year-olds everywhere!

 

[ggroy]

My source is not omniscient and can't speak for everyone's sales. They also have no information on non WotC 3e sales.

According to my sources, 3.5E sales (both 3pp and WotC) were already starting to slow significantly as early as late-2005/early-2006, while essentially falling off a cliff in 2007. The only way that most older 3.5E stuff could sell after the Aug 2007 announcement of 4E D&D, was to put them in the bargain bin.

My sources attributed the significant sales decline of the WotC supplement books (starting sometime around late-2005/early-2006), to the lackluster content quality of most of the WotC D&D supplement books released after 2004. They also attributed the decline to the increasing frequency of WotC supplements being released after 2004. Before 2004, WotC was releasing an average of one book per month for 3E D&D since 2000. After mid/late 2004, WotC was releasing an average of two books per month for 3.5E D&D.

An increase in the rate of new books being released with declining content quality, turned out to be poor for business in the end. Haven't we all heard this before, from a decade earlier during end days of TSR back in the mid 1990's?

With respect to 3pp 4E stuff, my sources have mentioned that it has been slow going so far. Even the WotC 4E modules have been slow going too.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think it's good that the company is going to be able to go back to that stream of revenue.

As Pathfinder takes off, it may become viable and useful again. I have a hard time imagining that there are people who didn't take advantage of the numerous fire sales of Goodman Game products as the game exists now, but as Pathfinder brings in new converts to the 3.5 system, and IF it's not a problem to convert between 3.5 and Pathfinder, it'll all be good.

 

[Asmor]

Funny... for some reason I think that argument could be made about other PDFs as well...

Not only could that argument be made about other PDFs, there's used to be an entire subforum just for making that argument, so no need to bring it up again.

 

[ggroy]

As Pathfinder takes off, it may become viable and useful again. I have a hard time imagining that there are people who didn't take advantage of the numerous fire sales of Goodman Game products as the game exists now, but as Pathfinder brings in new converts to the 3.5 system, and IF it's not a problem to convert between 3.5 and Pathfinder, it'll all be good.

If this is the case, maybe Goodman will post up a simple translation document between 3.5E and Pathfinder for most of their Dungeon Crawl Classics modules.

 

[JoeGKushner]

If this is the case, maybe Goodman will post up a simple translation document between 3.5E and Pathfinder for most of their Dungeon Crawl Classics modules.

Heck, considering that editing is going on now, I can't help but think we'll see Pathfinder logos and classics on 'em if that's permissible with the Pathfinder license.

 

[Dire Bare]

After the OGL 3E 3pp product bloat a lot of people are wary to ever buy the non-Wotc stuff. Sadly this sentiment seems to have carried over to 4E, it may take some time until tje market regains faith in 3pp products. ( Even though some of them are very good, the prejudice is still there )

Most of the companies that I would by 4th Edition products from without question have decided not to jump into the market . . . Green Ronin and Malhavoc at the top of the list.

 

[guivre]

Not only could that argument be made about other PDFs, there's used to be an entire subforum just for making that argument, so no need to bring it up again.

When current events are relevant, yeah there's a reason to bring it up again. Regardless of past discussion.