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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Imban" data-source="post: 4008175" data-attributes="member: 29206">I'm looking over my collection of third-party books for 3e and... I just don't see it (*). I have a huge selection of these books at my disposal, and most all of them that use "copy and paste" publishing do so in order to take only the parts of the core rules that they need, usually in the process of creating their own distinctive setting. The EverQuest RPG, the World of Warcraft RPG, Arcana Evolved, Iron Heroes, A Game of Thrones, Conan. All of those reprint a good deal of PHB material when appropriate, and this works to their advantage (**) instead of their detriment. It lets the designers clearly indicate modified versions of abilities by making them the printed option, rather than including an "errata" section, it allows the designers to more easily show which classes and races are (and via omission, are not) available for selection, and create a setting that's more tailored to its material than just designed as a straight addon to core D&D.So, where's this harm from "copy-and-paste" publishing?(*) The only books I would honestly accuse of this sort of tomfoolery are some of Mongoose's line - and Mongoose, especially right after 3.0's release, essentially specialized in rushing out masses of low-quality copy-and-paste stuff with no mechanical consistency - and AEG's Feats. I can't think of anything else in AEG's splatbook line that did that, and none of the other lines (Atlas, Malhavoc, Necromancer, Fantasy Flight Games, Green Ronin) I have have supplement books that are significantly comprised of reprinted material.(**) You can argue that World of Warcraft's Warrior would have been superior if they had taken inspiration from the class in the game rather than just copying and pasting the Fighter. This may be true, but is a very mild counterexample among lots of tailored setting material.</blockquote>

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