OGL; Is it working?

[philreed]

I suspect that if a non-open 4e comes out, we may see a bunch of new editions of OGL games, ones which don't exactly use the 4e rules, but which redesign their own games based on what 4e improved in D&D.

This assumes that 4e won't be primarily a miniatures game.

 

[Flexor the Mighty!]

This assumes that 4e won't be primarily a miniatures game.

Something I think is a very good possibility and would be probably the biggest boon there could be to OGL game makers. After all if the role players can't get that in offical D&D where else could they turn to but to you guys?

 

[Pramas]

One of the thing's that's interesting, is people still post like Green Ronin, Malhavoc, and AEG are doing a lot of d20 support.

I'd say we've done a lot of d20 support in 2005.

d20 Rule Books
Advanced Player’s Manual
Advanced Gamemaster’s Guide
Thieves' World Player's Manual

Campaign Settings
Eternal Rome
SpirosBlaak
The Hittites (PDF expansion for Testament)

City Settings
Shadowspawn's Guide to Sanctuary (Thieves' World, in stores next week)
Temple Quarter

Adventures
Murder at the Vulgar Unicorn (Thieves' World)
Freeport Trilogy 5-Year Anniversary Edition
Vengeance in Freeport (PDF)

Now first quarter of next year we have these titles coming up:

Thieves' World Gazetteer, a world book for the setting with tons of new info from Lynn Abbey, in January.

Future Player's Companion, a new sourcebook from the Game Mechanics akin to their excellent Modern Player's Companion, in February.

Crisis in Freeport, a new FP adventure that resolves the succession crisis, in March.

Damnation Decade, an honest to goodness d20 Modern campaign setting inspired by 70s scifi movies, in March.

That seems like a good amount of support to me. However, it is no secret that the d20 is drying up. Publishers have to decide how they are going to deploy their resources. If d20 books don't perform, you can't blame publishers for scaling back. So if you want to see more d20 stuff, you need to support the companies you like and (I can't stress this enough) tell your local game store owner that you want to buy this material. Retailers are being very convervative with their orders across the board and d20 in particular is a dirty word right now. They want to see demand before they order, so you need to be vocal if you want d20 to continue in stores.

 

[BryonD]

I'd say we've done a lot of d20 support in 2005.

I think a lot of people divide generic D20 and campaign specific stuff into separate groups.
I know I do.
That cuts your list down to three titles.
Which seems to be not a lot for a year.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that is how I think people frame their perceptions.

In my mind Green Ronin has done very little D20 this year.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I think a lot of people divide generic D20 and campaign specific stuff into separate groups.
I know I do.
That cuts your list down to three titles.
Which seems to be not a lot for a year.

I'm not complaining. I'm just saying that is how I think people frame their perceptions.

In my mind Green Ronin has done very little D20 this year.

That's the angle I was coming from.

Like Malhavoc having the AE Spell Treasury, Iron Heroes Bestiary, and Ptlous and other good stuff next year is gold, but I don't consider it d20 support like I would Hammer & Helm from Green Ronin or Book of Eldritch Might from Malhavoc.

Companies have gone too far from the core in a lot of cases to bring us something different. That's good but also risky. If you don't like Freeport for example, well, that's a lot of stuff you're not going to buy. If you don't want to get into another setting, that's even more stuff you're not going to buy.

I will never buy stuff from a publisher because I like the publisher. Many publishers use a wide variety of resources so the same quality between titles is no guarantee. Even those that generally love Green Ronin for example, have different opinions on what's good for the Advanced series. I'll buy it if it's sometehing I plan to use.

 

[Pramas]

That's the angle I was coming from.

Like Malhavoc having the AE Spell Treasury, Iron Heroes Bestiary, and Ptlous and other good stuff next year is gold, but I don't consider it d20 support like I would Hammer & Helm from Green Ronin or Book of Eldritch Might from Malhavoc.

The thing is, all the obvious books of that sort have been done. So are you guys really saying that you want them just done again? Never mind the reaction we'd get from distributors and retailers if we said, "Look, we did a new book of d20 spells and feats!" Hell, look at WotC's upcoming schedule. They are obviously struggling to find decent ideas for core books.

 

[DaveMage]

The thing is, all the obvious books of that sort have been done. So are you guys really saying that you want them just done again? Never mind the reaction we'd get from distributors and retailers if we said, "Look, we did a new book of d20 spells and feats!"

No! Please, no!

 

[Mark CMG]

OGL; Is it working?

I choose to believe it is working and working well.

 

[JoeGKushner]

The thing is, all the obvious books of that sort have been done. So are you guys really saying that you want them just done again? Never mind the reaction we'd get from distributors and retailers if we said, "Look, we did a new book of d20 spells and feats!" Hell, look at WotC's upcoming schedule. They are obviously struggling to find decent ideas for core books.

This is truth.

There are some areas though, that I don't think have been touched enough. My opinions of course.

Magic Items: There needs to be some alternative magic items to the core out there. Even if it's just collected form various resources and expanded. Perhaps include a magic item creation method that can replace or be used alongside the standard system. (Forged in Magic, the small Green Ronin book that did collect magic items in the 3.0 era, and a few others come into play like Arms & Armor, which was a catch all)

Spell Systems that can be used with core rules: Psionics and Magic of Incarnum cover this well. More alternative systems that don't come in underpowered would be great. Difficult to balance though.

Artifacts: I think we have Relics from AEG and Necromancer is coming out with a book of Artifacts next year. No official book from WoTC on it though and an area that would've been easy to flood early on.

Halflings: Outside of Heroes of High Favor, I don't think there's been a lot of Halfling support. Perhaps combine it with Gnomes or another underappreciated race.

Epic Rules: Outside of the Advanced Player's Guide from SSS, I can't think of too many attempts to craft Epic Rules that were different than the core.

There are other areas that I'm probably not thinking about. For example, I know fans have mentioned wanting to see some rules for trade/merchants and other bits.

 

[Pramas]

Halflings: Outside of Heroes of High Favor, I don't think there's been a lot of Halfling support. Perhaps combine it with Gnomes or another underappreciated race.

Well, this one we have covered. Two of the brand new sections of the Advanced Race Codex cover Halflings and Gnomes. There's also good new stuff for half-elves and half-orcs, who get little love. We are going to release each section as a separate PDF starting next week and then put them together in one package when they are all finished. You can think of each one as a mini Races of Renown book. If sales warrant, we'll do a print version.