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

[Hand of Evil]

Well, you're in the wrong spot for that. ENWorld is somewhat notorious for being a hangout of d20-o-philes. Most of the "purists" probably aren't coming here; they're hanging out on the Wizards message boards (or not hanging out on messageboards at all...)

So, I think your sample here is probably a bit skewed.

Besides if you are a D&D Purist, you should still be playing 1st edition.

 

[diaglo]

Besides if you are a D&D Purist, you should still be playing 1st edition.

OD&D(1974) is the only true game. All the other editions are just poor imitations of the real thing.

 

[Ferret]

I rely on homebrew more then anything, but I am kind-a wary of the non-official stuff.

 

[Numion]

I only use WotC and Malhavoc stuff. In WotC's books I like the production values (FRCS is about the nicest RPG book I own), and Malhavoc isn't far behind.

I'm not sticking to WotC products because I want to be official. Heck, I'm still playing 3.0E, which isn't official anymore! I've just found most of the 3rd party products lacking. I've checked many out on the net (before you lambast me for that consider that it's legal to DL copyrighted material from the net where I live, so I'm not really breaking any laws), and most seem a bit so-so when it comes to mechanics.

Add to this the fact that I'm pretty thight with my gaming euros nowadays, I've not bought much.

 

[Corinth]

I do play and enjoy d20 RPGs other than D&D: Spycraft, Star Wars, (the d20 version of) Call of Cthulhu, Deeds Not Worlds.

With regard to D&D, I am not one to confine myself to WotC's output by intention. I do so, for the most part, because I attempt to confine myself to products that I know that I shall use often enough to make the purchase worthwhile. This is why, at the present, I intend to do no more than purchase a copy of Unearthed Arcana, The Player's Guide to Faerun, Faith & Pantheons (maybe some other Realms products) and The Book of Vile Darkness so far as WotC products are concerned.

This takes me to the third-party publishers. I stick to Green Ronin Publishing, Atlas Games, Malhavoc Press, Sword & Sorcery Studios & Necromancer Games for about 80% of my third-party purchases at present; if I can get an active D&D game going in the near future--my Spycraft game is stalled due to a player-player fight, and I may have a Star Wars game going soon--I will see if I can convince them to go with either Midnight or Dawnforge because I like both settings, but right now I have no justification for buying either of them. (Otherwise I'll go with Freeport, Greyhawk, the Realms or Rokugan.)

I am not interested in products obstensably meant for use with D&D that inflict radical and counter-productive changes upon it. As much as possible, I want to retain D&D's great strength of being able to "play it dumb" (as Bruce Baugh put it); to just jump in and know what's what with little more than the three-paragraph opening crawl of the Star Wars films.

 

[Desdichado]

I rely on homebrew more then anything, but I am kind-a wary of the non-official stuff.

I'm wary of all stuff, unofficial or not. I've found plenty of unofficial stuff that I like better and is better done than official material, though. I'm not sure why there's a perception that official = good. Granted, there's some pretty bad unofficial d20 stuff out there, but as far as I'm concerned, the official track records ain't much better.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

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

A liberal radical? Is there such a thing? I think someone needs to go back to Political Science 101.

I'm one of those "official DND" purists you mentioned. For the most part I only buy WotC stuff. However, this isn't because I'm hung up on buying stuff that's "canon" or "official", so much as I have many others things in my life that I enjoy besides RPGs. I'm married and have a one year old daughter. I am an avid reader and writer. I'm a film buff. I play chess. I'm a runner. I'm a fairly dedicated Christian and my faith takes up a lot of my time. The point is that the amount of time I can spend on RPGs is limited and so it turns out that when I do have the rare opportunity to buy a new book, it's usually a WotC one and I have been tremendously impressed with the quality I see in their products. I don't have the time to hunt through all the obscure third-party stuff.

Another thing that I like about "WotC-only" is that you are guaranteed to be buying something that other D&Ders are familiar with--the third party stuff will often get puzzled looks from other D&Ders when you refer to it in the course of a campaign. So maybe there is something to be said for canonicity.

[Shrug]

Maybe I'm "Neo-Orthodox WotC Conservative" with reactionary leanings.

 

[Desdichado]

I'm one of those "official DND" purists you mentioned. For the most part I only buy WotC stuff. However, this isn't because I'm hung up on buying stuff that's "canon" or "official", so much as I have many others things in my life that I enjoy besides RPGs. I'm married and have a one year old daughter. I am an avid reader and writer. I'm a film buff. I play chess. I'm a runner. The point is that the amount of time I can spend on RPGs is limited and so it turns out that when I do have the rare opportunity to buy a new book, it's usually a WotC one. I don't have the time to hunt through all the obscure third-party stuff.

Who says third party stuff is obscure? I don't buy anything obscure. And I do most of the same things you do. Well, I don't run. But I have four kids, so I'll raise you there.

 

[Chainsaw Mage]

Who says third party stuff is obscure? I don't buy anything obscure. And I do most of the same things you do. Well, I don't run. But I have four kids, so I'll raise you there.

ACK!? I can't imagine it. My wife and I love our daughter tremendously (and she wasn't an "accident", if you know what I mean ) but I can't imagine having more than one. This one kid takes up 80% of our time...how do people have more than one? And FOUR?? Whew!

As for the "obscure" comment, I meant that many gamers who I have encountered view third-party stuff as obscure. That's just been my experience. "Mongoose? Oh yeah, don't they make those 'Quintessential' books? Sword and Sorcery? Whazzat?"

Whereas if I whip out my Manual of the Planes, or my Deities and Demigods, or my Monster Manual II, everyone smiles.

 

[Desdichado]

I guess obscure is relative to what you're used to. Sword and Sorcery, Green Ronin, Malhavoc -- stuff by guys like this is pretty normal with the guys I play with. In fact, most guys I play with are more likely to have that than Monster Manual II, or Deities and Demigods, etc.