Official Books vs Unofficial: Your group's standard is?

[Thanee]

We use pretty much only WotC books, but that's certainly not because the 3rd party publishers are seen as bad or something, it's just that we simply do not have (m)any books besides WotC stuff and that's certainly more than enough already.

When looking at other companies publishing d20 (or other RPG) books, I mostly look for different and unique games, like World of Warcraft, Mutants & Masterminds or The Game of Thrones, which I bought recently. I will also very likely pick up the Warhammer 2nd Edition book eventually, and am waiting for my Shadowrun 4th Edition copy to arrive.

Bye
Thanee

 

[FATDRAGONGAMES]

We use pretty much anything, the only rule is it must be approved by whoever is currently DMing the campaign. We have a short list of third-party publishers that we pretty much green-light automatically like Ronin Arts, Green Ronin, Mongoose and Le Games. Anything else gets read pretty closely to make sure it doesn't throw the campaign off too much.

 

[barsoomcore]

I'm the DM. What's official is what I say is official. Nobody else gets that authority in my campaign, including Gary Gygax, Monte Cook and everyone at Wizards.

 

[Voadam]

Just as much WotC stuff has been banned as 3rd party stuff for us, and a lot of 3rd party and homebrew stuff is in play. Everything new must be DM approved whether it is WotC or not.

 

[BWP]

I voted "Other". The individual DM (which is usually me) approves or disapproves individual books for use in the campaign. I have no explicit prejudice against non-WOTC books, but they are the de facto standard. I only have limited gaming dollars available, and the bulk of that goes to Midnight books and non-specific WOTC books (by "non-specific" I mean "not Forgotten Realms, not Eberron, etc."). I don't approve books that I don't personally own a copy of.

 

[The_Gunslinger658]

I voted "Other". The individual DM (which is usually me) approves or disapproves individual books for use in the campaign. I have no explicit prejudice against non-WOTC books, but they are the de facto standard. I only have limited gaming dollars available, and the bulk of that goes to Midnight books and non-specific WOTC books (by "non-specific" I mean "not Forgotten Realms, not Eberron, etc."). I don't approve books that I don't personally own a copy of.

Only when my players beg and grovel, then I'll approve a non-wotc book. Personally, I own most the Kingdoms of Kalamar stuff but thats pretty much it for anything 3rd party.

Say Bruce, get back to proofing Armies of Oblivion.


Scott

 

[Aus_Snow]

Usually more 3rd party than WotC, when I'm GMing. I *own* more 3rd party than I do WotC (due to - in my opinion - higher production values, better writing and more mature/interesting ideas and themes involved, in general), so I guess that's hardly surprising.

When I'm playing though, it ranges all the way from completely non-d20 every time, to D&D 3.x or d20 Modern with no house-rules whatsoever.

I also do run a purely D&D 3.5 game. Just the one. After all, there's still a *lot* of good stuff you can do with that.

 

[swrushing]

I allow some wizard stuff and some 3rd party stuff and will review everything that goes in before campaign starts. neither wizards stuff nor 3rd party stuff gets a free pass. it gets in if it fits my game or adds enough to warrant some tweaking.

after the campaign starts, almost NO new stuff gets added. Those will be eligible next campaign.

 

[Talic]

We use alomost exclusively WotC. Like others have said, its mostly because those are the only books we own. Other sources, including homebrewed, are always at least looked at and considered by the various DMs and allowed on case-by-case basis.

That being said, the DMs like to know what we plan on using even for WotC stuff, and occasionally things are ruled off-limits or tweaked slightly due to styles of play or setting.

The hard part about 3rd party material is that its not always balanced well against WotC product, and care must be taken in choosing what's allowed. At least by alowing any WotC product, you can usually count on it being balanced against existing material.

 

[Staffan]

Mostly WOTC with some third-party stuff here, mostly from Malhavoc (notably the Unfettered class, and in theory Hyperconscious - I say in theory, because no player has delved very deeply into psionics). I'm also not adverse to stealing monsters from other sources, but that's none of the players' business.