Is the d20 market completely saturated?

[Odhanan]

Excuse me while I wax philosophic here, but as a player, and a sometimes DM, there's really not much left for me to purchase that would extensively add a huge amount of value to the game. I mean, there are tons of splat books, tons of monster books, plenty of modules, campaign settings, and a host of other great products out there, that already add a lot to my game.

I do not feel that way. For me, the d20 is like heroic fantasy as a literary genre. Could I say everything has been done in heroic fantasy? Certainly not. There is always the next guy who'll come with a new idea, a new tweak, a new concept that will make me wonder "hey, now, wouldn't that be cool in my game?"

There is a natural selection in the d20 market. If you think it's not original/good enough etc, just don't buy it. In the end, the best remain.

The only thing that could end the d20 market would be for WotC to stop the OGL (which is very unlikely) or for some other reason (like rumor, dislike for the business, just the stuff looses its buzz for some reason), people just lose interest in the whole thing. Even in the theory of the publication of a D&D 4th edition without OGL, I am not convinced people would stop producing and buying OGL stuff.

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Just to add my two cents,

I have to add to agree with the view that D20 Fantasy has been done to death. But D20 Modern and D20 Future are such unsupported areas is boggles my mind why more product isn't being created for them. IMHO, the best tird-party book I ever picked up (Darwin's World 2) was done for D20 Modern. Why aren't companies creating more settings and material for these genres?

D20 Future is a particular frustration for me. There just isn't enough *stuff* for it. The only setting I can find is BDG's Dawnstar, which while good doesn't really appeal to me. I've bought all of Ronin Art's PDF's, and I'm desperately waiting for the Blood and Space Ship Builders Guide and the Future Players Companion. But that's all that's in the pipeline that I've seen.

Jack

 

[Ranger REG]

Just to add my two cents,

I have to add to agree with the view that D20 Fantasy has been done to death. But D20 Modern and D20 Future are such unsupported areas is boggles my mind why more product isn't being created for them. IMHO, the best tird-party book I ever picked up (Darwin's World 2) was done for D20 Modern. Why aren't companies creating more settings and material for these genres?

Only a few companies publicly support d20 Modern.

The other companies don't think the small customer base is worth appealing, so they stick with the larger base: the PHB owners.

However, some companies support d20 Modern by using the MSRD in their game products. White Wolf's d20 Trinity Universe line (Adventure!, Aberrant, & Trinity ) use MSRD even though their products have the PHB requirement labels on them.

D20 Future is a particular frustration for me. There just isn't enough *stuff* for it. The only setting I can find is BDG's Dawnstar, which while good doesn't really appeal to me. I've bought all of Ronin Art's PDF's, and I'm desperately waiting for the Blood and Space Ship Builders Guide and the Future Players Companion. But that's all that's in the pipeline that I've seen.

Well, they tried to cover all of the science-fiction elements but the book is too small to contain them in greater details. Personally, I hope that there will be future volumes of d20 Future and it appears there will be this year: d20 Apocalypse and d20 Cyberscape. Perhaps putting out a book that covers a single thematic element is better for customers as well as WotC.

 

[trancejeremy]

I think the Dungeon Crawl Classics sell well enough - certainly Goodman has been pumping them out - I think #15 just came out and they have just announced #20.

 

[AIM-54]

The clever girls always were the ones that were ostracized from the group.

You know, I'd always assumed it was plural...

But I see that it's been masculinized now...

 

[DonTadow]

There has been some really goodstuff that has hit the market and then there are a lot of repetetive products. the PDF industry only broadened it more. I look at some products and think, man if these two would have gotten together this could have been a complete idea. I think the companies that strive for something different instead of pirate campaign number 1000 will be prosperous in the future.

 

[philreed]

I've bought all of Ronin Art's PDF's, and I'm desperately waiting for the Blood and Space Ship Builders Guide and the Future Players Companion. But that's all that's in the pipeline that I've seen.

Thank you. We do have more PDFs for Future in the works, it's just that we're busy with some work for other companies at the moment.