Official DnD, D20, and OGL - who are you?

[Calico_Jack73]

My players are "By the book" players and are resistant to house rules or anything that isn't "official" so I am forced to be a WOTC only DM. However, I still buy 3rd party material mostly from Fantasy Flight and Green Ronin (I love Skull & Bones and am planning to pick up Midnight soon) in the event that I can convince them to try something new or I find a group that plays either of the other settings. I guess I'm a moderate.

 

[skinnydwarf]

<SNIP>

I would love to hear others comments on this. Are you a conservative "Official DnD" purist? Are you a Liberal "D20/OGL" radical? Or are you somewhere in between?

I definitely am a Liberal "D20/OGL" radical.

Who are you, what are you? and Why?

Razuur

I'm with you, most of the WoTC stuff recently has not appealed to me. Most of my D&D books (well, 3E, anyway) are third party stuff. Though I am kind of picky, and read a review or five first. Early on, I got burned with a Fast Forward product, Treasure Quests. It looked so promising, but it was so bad... Since then I've been careful with my RPG purchases- there is just too much crap out there not to be.

Hopefully I won't get burned at Ubercon this weekend. I'm just going to make a list of good companies, and really read over anything else.

About the only WoTC products I want are some of the older ones: Manual of the Planes and the Psionics book. All of the current stuff does not appeal to me. That may have something to do with the fact that I don't like 3.5, though.

 

[Creamsteak]

I'm not necessarily fond of WotC purism, but I prefer books that cover a whole range equally. My ideal 3rd part books is a set that covers all classes and/or races equally, and maintains high content throughout. That said, I still don't see enough material to really say I have found any publisher that has produced this. I'm sorta hoping wizards "complete" series is good, though. I'm also restricting myself to 3.5+ books, so I'm waiting to see if any publisher really shines through.

Basically, I'll have a slightly better idea after the ennies.

 

[Gothmog]

On the other hand, I categorically disagree with anyone who thinks that the recent D&D books have been of lesser quality than 3rd party material. I've seen the amount of playtesting and development that goes on and I can say with confidence that any time you pick up a WotC book, it has been properly playtested to ensure that it's power level isn't out of whack, and the mechanics and their interractions with mechanics from other sources are sound. I can also say that the same is not necessarily true for some of the 3rd party products I've been involved with in the past. While there is effort put into making those products better, they do not get the same rigorous development, playtesting, and editing that happens at WotC. Are there occasional mistakes in WotC book? Of course there are, but I have yet to see any book on the market that is free from minor mistakes.

I think you're going to find some dissenters on this one. While the WotC stuff has probably the best production values out there, good production values, playtesting, and editing does NOT always equal superior product. Sure, its nice to have lots of playtesting, but what works for one group might not be right for another and be completely broken- it all depends on the style of game each group runs. So the massive playtesting arguement only holds water if you play exactly the kind of game WotC anticipates in the core rules.

When I buy a game book, I buy it for the quality of ideas contained therin, not for how pretty it is, how much it was playtested, or how well edited it is. Nothing WotC has produced in the last 2 years (3.5 aside) has stacked up against releases from other D20 publishers such as Conan, Book of Fiends, Unveiled Masters, Hammer & Helm, MMS:WE, Darwin's World 2nd, the Midnight line, Book of the Righteous, Testament, Skull & Bones, Fields of Blood, the Penumbra line, and the list goes on. The WotC stuff is technically good, but it doesn't have the spark that really gives it oomph and makes me want to use it immediately. The stuff I listed above does have that special something. IMO, much of the WotC stuff focuses too much on "crunch" and doling out cool powers to the players, and forgets to take into consideration the notion that a good game book should make your jaw drop considering something interesting that hasn't been done before. To be fair, Unearthed Arcana has some really cool new ideas in it, but there are only so many new rules, PrCs, spells, and magic items that can be used in a game before it becomes saturated.

 

[Arnwyn]

I think you're going to find some dissenters on this one. While the WotC stuff has probably the best production values out there, good production values, playtesting, and editing does NOT always equal superior product.

Exactly. Good technical quality isn't the be-all and end-all. I have a feeling that some people at WotC isn't on the ball with that concept.

 

[Davelozzi]

Wow, the responses to this post really surprised me. I expected a lot more DnD purists, where things seem to be more in the middle or leaning towards the D20/OGL side.

I bet you'd get more D&D purists if you were asking this question to all D&D players, but here at EN World, we are, by and large, a more d20 informed bunch than the general gaming population.

As for me, I'm somewhere in the middle. I pick up most of the official core (non FR) product line. So far I have all but the castle/strongholds book, the Book of Challenges, Savage Species, Ghostwalk, Miniatures Handbook and the new character sheets. I also have a decent selection of d20 stuff*, including several books from Green Ronin, a few Malhavoc, a bunch of Necromancer adventures, a few other things. But my players pick up less books in general, and only one owns a non-WotC book, which is Mindscapes.

That book (Mindscapes) is probably the only non-WotC book that sees regular use in my D&D campaign, and it's just for the revised psion chart, so depending on what happens with the Expanded Psionics Handbook, that might be the end of it. On the other hand, a lot of my WotC books never get used either. I stick mostly to the core books, with an occasional monster, PrC or feat from something else.

So I guess all in all, I'm definately not a WotC purist in theory, but I sort of am in practice.

*I'm talking specifically about d20 fantasy here. For other d20/OGL games, I'll pick up lots of books from whatever company is making it. Specifically, I have all but one book each in the Spycraft/Shadowforce Archer and Mutans & Masterminds product lines, as well as several d20 Star Wars books.

 

[Davelozzi]

Nothing WotC has produced in the last 2 years (3.5 aside) has stacked up against releases from other D20 publishers such as Conan, Book of Fiends...

Gothmog, have you actually seen Book of Fiends yet to compare it? I'm just curious because from what I've seen it hasn't reached the stores around here (Boston) quite yet.

 

[Desdichado]

When I buy a game book, I buy it for the quality of ideas contained therin, not for how pretty it is, how much it was playtested, or how well edited it is.

Then again, that's often hard to judge until after you've bought the book. Interestingly enough, Ghostwalk was just the kind of book you said are the best types of books (lots of nifty ideas of things that hadn't been done before) yet my impression of it isn't that it's flying off the shelves, and certainly it isn't really making anyone's "best of" lists.

WotC has a strategy of making books that sell well; in a sense they appeal to a least common denominator. Books like Midnight on the other hand, while more inventive in most respects, tend to limit their audiences to folks who like that kind of setting.

In general, I don't buy as much as I used to anymore; I have a boatload of d20 products and don't really have any "need" for anything else, as I've got everything I want to run the game I want to run. So, yeah, I only buy stuff that really grabs my attention these days, and often what comes from left field and I don't anticipate wanting.

That said, there's very little on the horizon for this year that I'm looking forward to from WotC. I've already picked up UA, and I want Eberron (just to read; I doubt I'll play it anytime soon) and other than that, the books I'm anticipating are d20 or OGL from someone else.

 

[Gothmog]

Gothmog, have you actually seen Book of Fiends yet to compare it? I'm just curious because from what I've seen it hasn't reached the stores around here (Boston) quite yet.

Yep, my FLGS has an advance copy, and my copy should be in Wednesday! I have lots of love for the fiends. I have looked through it pretty extensively, and if anything its better than Legions of Hell and Armies of the Abyss!

 

[Desdichado]

Yep, my FLGS has an advance copy, and my copy should be in Wednesday! I have lots of love for the fiends. I have looked through it pretty extensively, and if anything its better than Legions of Hell and Armies of the Abyss!

Cool; I've been really anticipating this book.