Is the "official D&D product" really that big a deal?

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

My local Barnes & Noble carries Malhavoc, Goodman Games and a few other third party publishers. No idea how well they sell, but I do notice that books like Complete Book of Eldritch Might and Beyond Countless Doorways will be there one visit to the mall and gone the next, so either they're returning them (which I'm not sure is possible) or someone's buying them.

Granted, they'll have one copy of The Adventure Begins beside four Heroes of Horror and three copies of Promethean: The Created, but they do have some third party stuff. Heck, they've even had a few Necromancer hardcovers over the years.

It's a weird world when the big brick and mortar bookstores are more adventurous than the FLGS or local comic book stores.

 

[Zulgyan]

Avalability a problem? That is what amazon.com is for!

I live in Argentina, where we only get WotC products in spanish.

I order ALL my RPG stuff by amazon since I prefer the english version.

And I got only the 3 cores by WotC and then about 12 necromancer products, some goodman games.

That's D&D...

I'm buying C&C stuff right now.

 

[Nepenthe]

Well, I buy some non-Wizards stuff occasionally, but my current in-use shelf consists of a whole bunch of Wizards books, all the MWP/SP 3.5e Dragonlance stuff, a couple of 2e and Saga Dragonlance accessories for inspiration and Malhavoc's Cry Havoc mass combat rules.

I don't really have anything against 3rd party, but I prefer to buy hard copies (instead of pdfs) and I really haven't found any "must haves". I'd get the 3.5e Tome of Horrors in an eyeblink if it were in dead-tree and I've been wondering about some of the Iron Heroes stuff, though.

 

[Bagpuss]

I think simplicity is a big factor too. The amount of 3rd party stuff can be fairly overwhelming. Saying "WotC books only" also gives the DM a level of control so they know what players are bringing to the table.

I would love to play with a DM as lax as "only WotC books only", we currently have Only PHB, PHB2, DMG, Complete books (but nothing from Mage onwards). No Spell Compendium (without research, 1000gp per spell level), no Magic Item Compendium.

The Classes in the PHB2 and Complete books are also house ruled, such that some aren't even allowed.

 

[Doug McCrae]

For me it's mostly WotC material. I tried a few 3rd party monster books - Denizens of Avadnu, Tome of Horrors 2 & 3 - and was not very impressed. The artwork is poor. There's some rules that are all over the place like a Ref save to avoid a magic missile (Screaming Skull in ToH 2), Ref saves to avoid being nauseated (Retch Hound, also ToH2), lots of medium-sized creatures with Improved Grab and so forth. Some early WoTC books like MM2 were just as bad but by MM4 I feel that Wizards have really cleaned up their act.

Did I mention how bad the art is in Denizens of Avadnu? It's really, really bad.

 

[MerricB]

I would love to play with a DM as lax as "only WotC books only", we currently have Only PHB, PHB2, DMG, Complete books (but nothing from Mage onwards). No Spell Compendium (without research, 1000gp per spell level), no Magic Item Compendium.

The Classes in the PHB2 and Complete books are also house ruled, such that some aren't even allowed.

You'd love playing with me. The only 3.5e books I don't allow is Unearthed Arcana... well, actually I don't allow FR or Eberron books if I'm not playing in those worlds, in order to keep the uniqueness of those worlds.

But that's still a lot of books.

I just wish I could persuade someone to play a Bo9S character in my games! I've got an Incarnate, Soulborn, Fochluchan Lyrist, Arcane Hieromancer, Soulblade, Factotum, Scout, Swashbuckler, and a Dwarf Fighter in my games!

Cheers!

 

[LostSoul]

Too much stuff out there to figure out how it all works together.

I like core-only games.

edit: Though I don't mind if monsters are pulled from different sources. Homebrew is good as well as long as the DM lets everyone at the table have a veto.

 

[Edgewood]

I certainly used to be WotC only in the past but that has changed recently. More and more I am finding myself drawn to not only 3rd party d20 stuff, but also completely different systems all together. I find myself on the cusp of dropping 3.5 altogether as the rules glut is really getting to me.

It's time to dig out the old D&D boxed sets and see what I can mine from them... back to simplicity I say.

 

[Storyteller01]

I'm pretty much WotC only but my reasons aren't that I don't think there's good stuff out there...I have an extremely limited gaming budget and I know that WotC D&D products fit the style of game I want to play. All of the non-WotC that gets good reviews is also stuff that won't necessarily fit my style. They're on my list...but at the rate that I can afford stuff, a lot of it is already out of print or will be. Take Dragonlance for example. I really wanted to start buying the Sovereign/MWP Dragonlance stuff, but those products, along with FR and Eberron are pretty low on my list and I can only afford one game book about every three months or so on average. So, MWP's DL is pretty much already OOP for me.

Cash-ola. That's why I'm WotC only. If I win the Powerball...that's another story.

I've found this to be the opposite, and is one of the reasons I don't buy WotC. I can get 2 OGL books for the price of one WotC book. More if I hunt through the bargain bin.

That, and I didn't see the need to pay another $90 for 3.5, and most OGL still fits the 3.0 format.

 

[rgard]

In a couple recent threads, I've heard mention about the significance of the "official D&D product" label.

Are there really that many people out there who will only buy official stuff? Certainly, no ENWorlders, I'd assume. But do you know or play with people who will only buy WotC stuff?

If so, what's their reason for it?

Carl

I don't buy or use WotC stuff exclusively. The D20/OGL library includes Green Ronin, Mongoose, S&S, Malhavoc, FFG, and others as well as downloads (legal) from many of the pdf publishers.

Of course that's me. In the late 70s and early 80s, I purchased D&D-like products from Mayfair games, Judges' Guild, fanzines and other independents.

I do know folks who previously only purchased WotC, but when they are sitting at the gaming table and another player is using a Class or PrC from a third party, they begin to weaken. It's about introducing the WotC types to other options.

Thanks,
Rich