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

[Herremann the Wise]

I admit, I don't understand this as a criteria for products you'll use. Sure, I might consider production quality if I'm buying a product. However, once I own it, it wouldn't matter. Pure text is fine. In fact, I might consider that that quality is a detriment at the table (distracting, wasted space, etc).

Two reasons.
Firstly, I can't use something if I haven't bought it. Good production quality makes a purchase much more attractive to me.
Secondly, I frequently use illustrations when I'm DMing. The better the illustrations, the greater the chance of me scanning and using them (or alternatively just copy and pasting them out of the WotC archives if available).

While not as significant a reason as others I mentioned in my original post, production quality is still a factor (albeit minor) for me.

Best Regards
Herremann the Wise

 

[WhatGravitas]

I like 3rd party stuff, but only after a through-out review. And the same for WotC material. I don't care for the IP that much, because I'm somewhat of a homebrewer (although Eberron has really caught me).

And for some time, WotC didn't offer that much - I didn't like their first batch of "Completes" (i.e. Arcane, Warrior, Divine and Adventurer). In this time, I've made great use of Malhavoc's stuff (the Books of Might, Hyperconsciousness, AE and, of course, Ptolus) - and they're still on my top list of products. Green Ronin, Necromancer Games - they also got a place in my "good stuff list".

But now, at least I feel so, innovative 3rd party stuff has kind of died: Necromancer is slower than before, Monte has left the business, Green Ronin has turned to their own systems, as well as AEG.

On the other hand, WotC got a lot more creative and daring with their newer books: The new Completes are fresh and introduced some very interesting stuff, the "Monster Books" went from the meh-Libris Mortis to the top-notch Fiendish Codices, the PHB2, ToB: Bo9S is a very interesting thing, breaking with some old design paradigms, Red Hand of Doom is a very good adventure...

Yeah, nowadays I'm far closer to WotC products, than before: Good 3rd party stuff is rarer than before, and "official stuff" is far better than before - I'm not sticking to "official", I'm sticking to "good", and I have to admit, that "official stuff" belongs to the best stuff out there, right now.

 

[rgard]

Did you wander into this thread by accident?

My kids are asking me why I'm laughing.

 

[boerngrim]

When 3.0 was first released I bought a lot of 3rd party D20 product. I was just so enamored with the whole open game/D20 system concept. I did allow myself to buy some things that turned out to be not so good, but over all I still enjoy most of my purchases. I haven't really encorporated much into campaigns except adventures though. I've used the Freeport trilogy to kick off new campaigns three times. I've also used Nemoran's Vault from Fiery Dragon. There's a lot of good stuff out there.

 

[KB9JMQ]

95% of my purchases are WoTC. I don't really go out of my way to not buy 3rd Party stuff.
When it comes time to buy a book there is always a Wizards book on my to-buy list so I get it.
Once in a while I catch up with my book buying and will get a third party book I have wanted.

 

[Pale]

All I said was that the extra stuff wasn't needed, not that no one would ever be interested in it. I've bought plenty of non-WotC books myself, and am always interested in new adventures, regardless of the publisher.

You can (and plenty do) play D&D with just core rules. These people don't even need other WoTC books, let alone 3rd party stuff. What's the point in questioning why people don't buy stuff they don't need?

And I don't think anyone has been questioning why people don't buy stuff they don't need, just questioning some of the reasons given as fallacious.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

My main group of the past 10 years is D&D core only, and within that, they generally only use PHB base classes- no Psi, either.

In fact, some of the DMs even exclude PHB classes.

I, on the other hand, buy and use lot of 3rd party product. Still, that "official" label carries a lot of weight with me- I'll look at official stuff before examining 3rd party product of a similar nature. That doesn't mean, however, that that ends my shopping process- I may have 2 or 3 similar products if I think they'll each add to my game's quality.

 

[Hussar]

I know that many French D&D Gamers frown at the mention of most third party products. There is still a lot of gamers out there thinking that "third party" rhymes with "no playtest" and "unbalanced".

I doubt that's limited to French gamers either.

Really, in 2007, what 3rd party publishers? What's left? Green Ronin does Bleeding Edge, Goodman only does adventures, Necromancer and that's about it. Kingdom of Kalamar too I suppose.

People keep talking about all the great 3rd party books out there. It's June now. What 3rd party Monster book is there this year? New magic system?

People are buying pretty much only WOTC because that's all there is to buy anymore.

 

[DM_Jeff]

Someone wrote: "Another reason is that official D&D products reference and expand upon each other in a way that 3rd party products don't, despite the existence of the OGL."

Wow, this is so untrue, it's mind-boggling.

Pardon? As in, show me 3rd party books that occassionally sprinkle in new psionic powers, Incarnum effects, Tome of Magic abilities, and included pre-statted NPCs like warlocks, ninjas, duskblades, knights and marshalls? What about 3rd party books that expand new magical locations, racial levels and the like? There are none. WotC books DO reference and expand upon each other. They do. I'm looking at some right now, right there. Neat.

Oh, and that's why 90% of my purchases are now WotC-only. Necromancer and Goodman still earn my bucks for quality and ingineuity.

-DM Jeff

 

[Asmor]

Pardon? As in, show me 3rd party books that occassionally sprinkle in new psionic powers, Incarnum effects, Tome of Magic abilities, and included pre-statted NPCs like warlocks, ninjas, duskblades, knights and marshalls? What about 3rd party books that expand new magical locations, racial levels and the like? There are none. WotC books DO reference and expand upon each other. They do. I'm looking at some right now, right there. Neat.

Oh, and that's why 90% of my purchases are now WotC-only. Necromancer and Goodman still earn my bucks for quality and ingineuity.

-DM Jeff

I think he was implying that Wizards' own books DON'T expand on the proprietary material, even though they could. Wizards has (or, at least, had) a policy that all books should only require the core 3, meaning that almost everything new was restricted to the book it originally appeared in. They've loosened up a bit in recent years, but there's still an extreme dearth of, say, Warlock invocations, even though Complete Arcane's been out forever now and Warlock anecdotally seems like a contender for most popular non-core class. I can only think of 2 or 3 books with warlock invocations in them, and there's not many.

Then there's the more obscure stuff... I've seen a couple soul melds, and vestiges actually appear with surprisingly regularity in Dragon, but how much True Name or Shadow Pact magic have you seen expanded upon? Heck, even Psionics has to fight tooth and nail for every page that it gets.