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Is the d20 market completely saturated?
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<blockquote data-quote="gambler1650" data-source="post: 834138" data-attributes="member: 11033"><p>I started thinking that the D20 market was close to saturated a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through the reviews section. There are usually 2-3 books on individual races, monsters or classes, often even ones that are 'new core classes' (Witches and Shamans for instance). One area that I don't think is oversaturated is in Campaign Worlds. I can easily think of at least a couple that might be entertaining (assuming they haven't actually been done - a 'caveman' style one done on a prehistoric world with intelligent dinosaurs where the main classes are most likely to be barbarians, shamans and rogues (scouts) - for all I know this one's been done but I haven't seen it yet). Sure there are a _lot_ of them, but most have something new to offer, and in fact WotC is the one that shows the least originality (Kalamar, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dragonlance are all retreads.. so for that matter is Oriental Adventures though that's at least an original setting). I have Oathbound and Midnight on the way, am thinking about Slaine... I have Nyambe (was highly glad to see that one done), Scarred Lands, Engel and Mutants and Masterminds which all have a different take on the usual. </p><p></p><p>I agree with another comment that there should be more DM aids, but I've found enough of those online for the areas that I'd like to see (world building for instance). Books like Traps and Treachery, Wilderness & Wasteland fit these, as I assume does the Monster Handbook and Dungeoncraft by FFG. What might be nice is someone to create a campaign setting or campaign within a setting and at the same time write up a sort of 'development diary' online (I've seen a few of these in the Plots and Places section here and in old dragon articles online) that could be purchased with the campaign setting, or maybe even a DVD.</p><p></p><p>One of the ultimate problems with the multitude of books is simply, not everyone will have everything that a DM might use in his campaign anymore. Gone are the days when a player could show up to play with nothing but the Player's Handbook and know everything necessary to play (unless the DM is playing a straight 3E AD&D campaign). Additionally, keeping track of what's allowed and what isn't could become difficult. For instance, I'm planning on running a Scarred Lands campaign, but I also really like the concepts in the Book of the Righteous regarding holy warriors (basically each major god gets a 'Paladin' type). Maybe I really like a prestige class from another book, and want to throw some of the Nyambe setting onto a large island southeast of Ghelspad... I also like the witch class and Drow description by Green Ronin, and the Fey and Star Magic concepts in Mongoose Publishing. Suddenly I have more than a handful of books that I'm using, but I'm not using all elements of them, so have to remember what I'm allowing and what I'm not. In some ways, while it makes it less work for the DM in creating a campaign world (there's almost always something that'll substitute for a homegrown concept now), there's more keeping track of things.</p><p></p><p>I do think that if the market isn't exactly saturated with respect to original ideas, that it's reaching critical mass... In other words, there's just too much! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile :)" data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gambler1650, post: 834138, member: 11033"] I started thinking that the D20 market was close to saturated a couple of weeks ago when I was looking through the reviews section. There are usually 2-3 books on individual races, monsters or classes, often even ones that are 'new core classes' (Witches and Shamans for instance). One area that I don't think is oversaturated is in Campaign Worlds. I can easily think of at least a couple that might be entertaining (assuming they haven't actually been done - a 'caveman' style one done on a prehistoric world with intelligent dinosaurs where the main classes are most likely to be barbarians, shamans and rogues (scouts) - for all I know this one's been done but I haven't seen it yet). Sure there are a _lot_ of them, but most have something new to offer, and in fact WotC is the one that shows the least originality (Kalamar, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk and Dragonlance are all retreads.. so for that matter is Oriental Adventures though that's at least an original setting). I have Oathbound and Midnight on the way, am thinking about Slaine... I have Nyambe (was highly glad to see that one done), Scarred Lands, Engel and Mutants and Masterminds which all have a different take on the usual. I agree with another comment that there should be more DM aids, but I've found enough of those online for the areas that I'd like to see (world building for instance). Books like Traps and Treachery, Wilderness & Wasteland fit these, as I assume does the Monster Handbook and Dungeoncraft by FFG. What might be nice is someone to create a campaign setting or campaign within a setting and at the same time write up a sort of 'development diary' online (I've seen a few of these in the Plots and Places section here and in old dragon articles online) that could be purchased with the campaign setting, or maybe even a DVD. One of the ultimate problems with the multitude of books is simply, not everyone will have everything that a DM might use in his campaign anymore. Gone are the days when a player could show up to play with nothing but the Player's Handbook and know everything necessary to play (unless the DM is playing a straight 3E AD&D campaign). Additionally, keeping track of what's allowed and what isn't could become difficult. For instance, I'm planning on running a Scarred Lands campaign, but I also really like the concepts in the Book of the Righteous regarding holy warriors (basically each major god gets a 'Paladin' type). Maybe I really like a prestige class from another book, and want to throw some of the Nyambe setting onto a large island southeast of Ghelspad... I also like the witch class and Drow description by Green Ronin, and the Fey and Star Magic concepts in Mongoose Publishing. Suddenly I have more than a handful of books that I'm using, but I'm not using all elements of them, so have to remember what I'm allowing and what I'm not. In some ways, while it makes it less work for the DM in creating a campaign world (there's almost always something that'll substitute for a homegrown concept now), there's more keeping track of things. I do think that if the market isn't exactly saturated with respect to original ideas, that it's reaching critical mass... In other words, there's just too much! :) [/QUOTE]
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