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

[jessemock]

I own the core 3 from Wizards, and that's it. I'll sometimes borrow a WotC book from a friend, but the prospect of actually laying down cash for a ton of excellent art and three or four good ideas? Balk.

Which doesn't mean to say that I reflexively snap up D20/OGL: the amount of awful crap out there is truly amazing.

Thing is, with so much community available, it's very hard to find a product that doesn't have some kind of review or, at least, discussion somewhere. Plus, there are conversions all over the joint, too.

Ultimately, it's the case that, for the investment of an hour's worth of surfing and ten bucks, you can get stuff mechanically as good as Coast (or better--neither of these say too much), either without their tedious, drippy, "ages 13-17" fluff or with something not much worse.

This is the golden age.

 

[Arnwyn]

I guess I fall into "somewhere in the middle", but I definitely lean towards the "d20/OGL Radical" side of things... I haven't bought a book from WotC since Draconomicon (and even that I was somewhat unhappy with).

 

[Kichwas]

I have a friend at work who only buys "Official DnD books", and while we don't game together, I am struck by how much he is missing out on. He on the other hand doesn't hunderstand how I can "waste" my money on material that isn't "official".

This friend's view just completely lack any logical basis...

One should buy what they find to be good product, not what a given set of suits has put a stamp on.

 

[eris404]

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?

Who are you, what are you? and Why?

Razuur

LOL, I haven't heard it put this way before. Charming!

I am somewhere in between. I buy tons of WotC books and I usually enjoy them. I also have been loving Dragon mag's recent articles and plan on using a lot of the material in the new campaign world I'm building.

However, I will take a chance on smaller publishers that produce PDFs. I have been pleasantly surprised with some of the material that I have found in them and because they are much cheaper than printed books, even if I buy a stinker it doesn't "hurt" as much.

The one thing I don't want to do is change the core of the game too much. I like my campaigns to have lots of flavor, but I don't want the players to have to learn too many house rules or new rules. I also don't want to force them to buy new PDFs or books, just because I decided to radically alter some aspect of the game. Conversely, if a player has found a spell, class, feat, etc. in some non-core book that they would like use, I usually try to accomodate them as long as it doesn't clash too much with the campaign world or give them an unfair advantage.

 

[Henry]

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?

In theory I am a d20 radical - I have a shelf full of AU, Spycraft, Freeport, Necromancer Games Modules, Malhavoc Press PDF's, Mutants and Masterminds, etc.

In practice, I'm more of a D&D Purist - not by choice, necessarily, but born of practicality. Our group consists of a majority of people who prefer Forgotten Realms and WotC products; 90% of the books they own are WotC only. In my FR Game, I only allow the core books and the FRCS - not even Magic of Faerun - and introduce into the game only those things I approve from other sources.

We can and do play other games - M&M, Spycraft, and AU on occasion - and they do enjoy M&M - but most of them have a first love of D&D, and WotC products in specific.

I have supported far more d20 companies than is financially healthy for me , but in practice don't use alternate material nearly as much as WotC core stuff. Though I have been slipping Magic of Faerun and Arcane Strife in on my players here and there!

 

[The Sigil]

Wildly radical, myself.

Anything in the three core books/SRD is "acceptable." Magic of Faerun is acceptable in part. All other WotC products to this point (though UA may become the notable exception) are "Right Out" - because everything in them has, more or less, been done better (IMO) by 3rd party publishers!

I probably use more "3rd party" material by a 5:1 margin than WotC material.

Of course, UA appears to have quite a bit of good stuff in it, so I may allow it in as well, which will cut down the 5:1 margin some.

Specific items I think have been truly inspired/brilliant strokes from 3rd-party publishers:

1.) Second World Simulations' Master of Arms - The way "combination moves" are handled.

2.) Monte Cook's Arcana Unearthed - The spell preparation technique - spontaneous casting like a sorcerer, but your "known spells" can be shifted daily.

3.) Mongoose's Quintessential Fighter (revision) and Encyclopedia Arcane: Elementalism - "Demilevels" - rather than full-fledged character classes, you have a 5-level "Semiclass" for which XP is directly expended to gain extra special abilities (call them "Fighting Styles" in QF, "Circles" in EA:E). This was independently developed by several other publishers nearly simultaneously, but IIRC, Mongoose published them first.

4.) FFG's Spells & Spellcraft - Adding special abilities to your familiar (also appears in their $4.95 Masterwork Collection). A MUST for anyone who has a familiar

5.) FFG's Path of... Series - Legendary Classes and the associated Legendary Abilities (one ability per level, the ability's "power" is tied to the level when you originally take it)

6.) Thunderhead/Mystic Eye Games - "Adjustment Boxes" to adjust/scale encounters to handle a party of a different makeup than Fighter/Wizard/Cleric/Rogue.

7.) Malhavoc Press' Book of Eldritch Might - Not for the content, per se, but for basically creating the electronic publishing industry (which has had some absolute gems in its own right).

8.) Sword & Sorcery Studios' Relics & Rituals - Rules for Ritual Magic

9.) Green Ronin Studios' Hammer & Helm - First book of which I know that introduced the concept of Bloodlines/Feats that grant special powers.

10.) FFG's Mythic Races - First book of which I know that included something that very much resembles "ECL adjustments" as we know them today.

I'm not saying every one of these products is universally fantastic in its own right, but I think these 10 ideas I noted above were gigantic steps forward for RPGs and certainly improvements on aspects of the "Core" d20 system. These all get mention for doing things "first" or simply "better." To limit oneself to WotC only really limits your creative avenues, as many of the ideas in Unearthed Arcana are essentially derived from/inspired by the above works.

Everyone else will have their own favorite 3rd-party bits, I'm sure, but I would suggest that you show these 10 "bits" (well, 9, I guess... #7 is a bit dodgy as "rules" go). Compare them to the rules (or lack thereof) for similar things from WotC (note publication dates where these are "Firsts" instead of "Betters"). If that doesn't convince someone that WotC is not, cannot, and should not be the "End All Be All" of game design companies, well, there's really not much more you can do.

--The Sigil

 

[Orius]

I fall in the purist camp, since all my 3e material has been published by WotC.

That doesn't mean I'm opposed to third party stuff. I'll rip anything I find in d20 sources I think is cool. I'm more interested in crunchy bits like spells, prestige classes, monsters, magic items and feats I can sprinkle into the campaign at will, rather than big rule variants that can alter gameplay.

 

[Desdichado]

This is the golden age.

You got that right.

 

[diaglo]

You got that right.

yeah, someone keeps showering us with...

 

[Desdichado]

Golden age, diaglo. Age!, not shower!