OGL; Is it working?
- Thread starter swordsmasher
- Start date
Pramas
Explorer
BryonD said:
Well, I guess we were just deluded to think things like the Thieves' World books with their bigass d20 logos counted as d20 releases. Or Freeport stuff, which has always been designed to drop into any d20 fantasy setting. Or Temple Quarter, which can also be used in practically any campaign.
JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Pramas said:
I just wonder if the market sees it as a d20 product? For example, Thieves World, or any setting for that matter, the diverges greatly from the core rules in temrs of spellcasting rangers and paladins, isn't necessarily what people are looking for unless their big fans of Thieves World.
Mouseferatu
Hero
JoeGKushner said:
Who defines "the market," though?
I own the Thieves World core book. I doubt I'll ever run a TW campaign; I got it to mine it for stuff for other campaigns. I know others who have done the same. So if we define the market, it does qualify as "just" D20.
BryonD
Hero
Mouseferatu said:
::shrug::
I certainly make no claim of speaking for anyone else. But I think that the overall perception is there. If you did a survey I fully expect you would find a big gap between those who thought of TW and those who thought of the "Advanced" line when asked to identify D20 support products.
That in no way means that people don't want or like TW.
It is two different ideas.
Lonely Tylenol
First Post
As far as "generic" d20 stuff goes from Green Ronin, I'd count Freeport and any other "drag & drop" settings as generic. Hell, even Ptolus is almost generic in so far as you can plunk it down in any homebrew world without having to rewrite everything to accomodate it, even though it would be much harder to insert it in, say, the Forgotten Realms. Freeport is smaller and easier to implement, with less background assumptions, so it fits well in many homebrewed campaigns.
Actually, this is something else I'm interested in, besides adventures. Mini-settings. Cities, towns, and other regions that are developed in a way that makes them useful to a DM. Like the old Village of Hommlet, where every character in town had some kind of hook. I like the idea of "drag & drop" locations. It's handy, and it saves me a lot of work.
This might just be me, but I wonder if d20 has seen enough stuff aimed at players for now. There are all the race books, all the class books, spell books, feat books, etc. I'd like to see more stuff aimed at DMs. More books of places, characters, interesting items with their own hooks (one of the things I actually like about Weapons of Legacy), and the like. Another book of feats and prestige classes is the last thing we need. But if I could get a book of towns, all moderately fleshed out and chock full of interesting characters with adventure hooks? That would be groovy.
A thought on the apparent decline of d20: maybe everything's been done now. It takes some real creative work to come up with any new "must-have" products, now that we've got the Complete Book of Everything Under The Sun (volumes 1 through x), and a new edition may or may not break through the wall of "oh god, not another book of feats." Either WotC will be able to hold our attention by just the novelty of a new edition, or they won't. If they don't, the market will go to whomever can provide stuff that really grabs us and makes us say "I want to play that!"
Actually, this is something else I'm interested in, besides adventures. Mini-settings. Cities, towns, and other regions that are developed in a way that makes them useful to a DM. Like the old Village of Hommlet, where every character in town had some kind of hook. I like the idea of "drag & drop" locations. It's handy, and it saves me a lot of work.
This might just be me, but I wonder if d20 has seen enough stuff aimed at players for now. There are all the race books, all the class books, spell books, feat books, etc. I'd like to see more stuff aimed at DMs. More books of places, characters, interesting items with their own hooks (one of the things I actually like about Weapons of Legacy), and the like. Another book of feats and prestige classes is the last thing we need. But if I could get a book of towns, all moderately fleshed out and chock full of interesting characters with adventure hooks? That would be groovy.
A thought on the apparent decline of d20: maybe everything's been done now. It takes some real creative work to come up with any new "must-have" products, now that we've got the Complete Book of Everything Under The Sun (volumes 1 through x), and a new edition may or may not break through the wall of "oh god, not another book of feats." Either WotC will be able to hold our attention by just the novelty of a new edition, or they won't. If they don't, the market will go to whomever can provide stuff that really grabs us and makes us say "I want to play that!"
Glyfair
Explorer
BryonD said:
I mostly agree about this (the difference being I have a 3rd category of campaign specific stuff that's specifically pushed as being usable in all campaign settings).
I already have a campaign setting I'm using in (Eberron), a backup (my homebrew) and a number of settings I like enough that I would run adventures in them if I had the time to run a dozen different campaigns (Scarred Lands, Diamond Throne, Greyhawk). I'm not interested in another setting. I'm not even interested in another setting that I think would be fun to play in (the Game of Thrones game falls in this category).
However, most generic supplements I've seen lately just don't have the spark that got me to buy some of the older ones. I suspect that's because the producers of quality d20 products have put their creative efforts into their own settings, licensed products, etc. Plus, most of those are different enough from "standard D&D" (so they stand out from the rest) that they aren't easiliy compatible with standard D&D games.
I think the category I'm most interested in now, from 3rd party publishers, would have to be the campaign specific ones that are easily compatible with standard D&D. However, even that's a pretty light list.
