Is WoTC even relevant to you anymore?

[Korgoth]

All I was pointing out was that they put out a heck of a lot more then just "core books, a line of really kick-butt modules, and a setting or two.".

They never had a lot of extraneous product out during the Gygax tenure, which was the period of 1e TSR that I specifically referred to. So I'm not considering the two "Survival Guides" and the MotP, as well as Greyhawk Adventures, etc., all of which came after Gary was pushed out.

 

[Glyfair]

They never had a lot of extraneous product out during the Gygax tenure, which was the period of 1e TSR that I specifically referred to.

It depends on what you consider "extraneous product" (I suspect many consider it anything they don't want). It was different extraneous product.

Dungeon Geomorphs
3 different versions of the rules having product released at one time (OD&D, BD&D and AD&D).
Monster and Treasure Assortments (nothing new, just random collections of monsters & treasure).

Sure, there wasn't a lot of stuff in the early days. That's because they were conservative about releases. In the beginning they didn't even think adventures were worthwhile.

 

[Maggan]

*I will note that I actually do like supplements, more options = good. But it's definitely been taken to the extreme and a couple of my players have taken advantage of the fact that I don't gobble up every new book coming down the pike (lack of errata doesn't help).

It's a lot of books, but compared to 2nd edition, it's gonna take WotC about 12 years to catch up to the amount of books released at the rate their going now.

And they just passed 1st edition a year ago.

So while there's plenty of books coming out, it's not near as many as for 2nd, and it took WotC six years to catch up with AD&D1st.

/M

 

[megamania]

Regardless of what we want WoTC or any company for that matter needs to produce new product. This involves change.

We are not going to buy 30 different PHB, DMGs unless they are of different rules. I know many whom stick to 1st ed rules still. The only 2nd people I know is for Darksun. The rest are 3.5 players.

If a 4th ed dosen't come out then WoTC will lose DnD. Its about us but not on a personal level. Its business.

Too many people are taking 4ed personally.

 

[TessarrianDM]

WOTC is relevant to the RPG industry. It has lost its relevance to me.

My interest in their products tapered off throughout 2006, and came to a nearly complete halt after the announcement of the discontinuance of Dragon magazine. The game seems to be in an upward power spiral which I am not interested in. With 25 different hardback books to pull from, we as a gaming group do not need more rules; we would prefer simpler, more easily accessible ones. With a large (8 players) group and limited space, having to refer to 2 or more books each during play is cumbersome. As the DM, if I do not print out all of the information for any given monster or NPC (including full descriptions of spell effects and special attacks) I may have to dig through 5 or more books to run a single encounter. This has led to burnout on my part. So, while I will probably purchase some of the novel series that I began reading, I have no plans to purchase any further rulebooks or miniatures (unless they begin selling them individually as pre-painted non-collector pieces).

As for 4e, I do not see us changing from 3.5. To convince the group to make the change from 2e to 3.0, and from 3.0 to 3.5, I had to purchase the Players Handbook for all of my players each time. They were content with the older editions. I (courtesy of Dragon) was excited about the new editions. I just do not see that happening again. It would have to be an elegant, highly streamlined, well-written, easily understood and customizable work of art. That, sadly, I have no faith in Wizards to produce.

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

I see your point. We certainly can/will do more to make the DMs job easier. We have made some in-roads here but we have really have only begun to scratch the surface.

I just wanted to dig this up from a few days ago. To me, one thing to make the DM's job easier would be to getting back on a regular schedule for releasing errata to all products.

 

[Gundark]

WoTC could just about go out of business and I think I'd hardly miss them at all.

This is a joke right? WotC goes down, so does the hobby at large

 

[Fifth Element]

Now WOTC just seems to spam the market with "Complete Half-Flumph/Half-Wolf in Sheep's Clothing Arcane Prestidigipaladorlock Ferret Shaman Glaive-Guisarme Specialist's Handbook" type stuff.

Oh good, it's been at least a couple of threads since I've seen this chestnut.

Please provide examples of such books. Most of the books I've seen WotC release are things like "Complete Warrior", "Complete Mage" and "Tome of Magic". If you can't make your point without hyperbole, perhaps it's because it's not a valid point.

If it is valid, please try again.

 

[Fifth Element]

Too many people are taking 4ed personally.

QFT.

It is a characteristic of 4E threads that at least 50% of the posters forget/choose to ignore that WotC is a business, and if they don't make money, they're out of business.

 

[ShadowX]

I don't get it. How hard is it to just disallow these infernal splat books? How hard is it to ignore all those books WotC publishes that you deem superfluous? WotC has to keep pushing out new content to stay in business and yet many of you whine about it when all it requires is that you refrain from spending your precious money on it.

Personally, I enjoyed the first Complete series of books; the base game really does need something to spice it up. With only the core rules, most characters don't have enough appetizing feats to even fill up all their slots. The second set I could really do without. I also found the variant character systems put out, such as Tome of Magic and Tome of Battle, intriguing. Some more than others, but having played D&D for close to a decade, it is nice to introduce some new options outside the standard archetypes. From my vantage, the real culprit in the splat books are the various Races books that serve no purpose outside catering to players whose only fascination with D&D lies in levelling up. I doubt anyone was looking for more information about halfling society in Greyhawk or halfling-specific prestige classes.

Looking at their release schedule, I think they may have finally realized that the market for crunchy material has subsided and I am pleased that they have taken so vigorously to publishing adventures. So I would say WotC is still relevant. Then again, I notice that many bemoan the lack of fluff books for settings and such. As a DM I do not delight in a carefully constructed setting of my own design, I only care about the setting as it relates to the adventure. I see little reason to labor over details about an imaginary world if that nuance is kept only to myself. But I know this is an opinion few DMs share.