Only the Lonely: Why We Demand Official Product

[lowkey13]

*Deleted by user*

 

[prabe]

Something you might have missed (or you might consider it to be included in what you have) is availability. As a DM, I strongly prefer for my players to be able to go to roughly any convenient game store and find the books I'm allowing options from. While there are some third-party sources that are pretty easy to find, they're more the exception than the rule. I've found a few things online that I'm allowing in, but I've found it easier to put the player options or other rules into a GDrive folder and share it, as opposed to trying to point them at the specific sources. Which I guess also suggests efficiency as a reason, for lack of a better word, so the players have fewer places they need to look. One could also say something about being playtested with similar premises and expectations, but that's probably included in your consistency and quality points.

 

[Fenris-77]

There is certainly a particular type of player who wants official product because there's an expectation that anything from the canon is 'allowed' which frees their inner munchkin to power game and optimize the crap out of something, thereby proving their system mastery and fitness as gatekeepers to the one true way.

 

[TwoSix]

There is certainly a particular type of player who wants official product because there's an expectation that anything from the canon is 'allowed' which frees their inner munchkin to power game and optimize the crap out of something, thereby proving their system mastery and fitness as gatekeepers to the one true way.

Speaking as a powergamer, this is absolutely true. When I want to go with a strong build, I pull out the PHB. When I want to self-police my power level and play more to concept, I use 3PP.

This isn't to say there isn't plenty of problematic 3PP (there is!), but when I've gone to the trouble of finding something I like and getting DM buy-in, I'm going to make extra sure I'm not being a donkey-hole about it.

 

[jasper]

Quality. Have you seen the binders on some the books?
Consistency. Did you every look at Rise of Tiamat vs Tomb? The writing and encounters are not consistent.
Interoperability. HMM What book changed how counterspell worked? It when from counterspell to using an action to know what spell. So WOTC now uses Apple interoperability. We have upgraded our OS you must upgrade too.
Authority. I was sick of this argument back in 2E. It is an official product the DM must allow it.
Canon. ONLY TRUE FAN GIVE A DARN ABOUT CANON. And some of those should be shot out of air cannon at the next convention and have no catch net.
Convenience can’t snark or argue with that.

 

[Tyler Do'Urden]

Something you might have missed (or you might consider it to be included in what you have) is availability. As a DM, I strongly prefer for my players to be able to go to roughly any convenient game store and find the books I'm allowing options from. While there are some third-party sources that are pretty easy to find, they're more the exception than the rule.

Go to a store for RPG stuff? This is 2020! We have DriveThruRPG.com! It's all right there, man!

 

[TwoSix]

Canon. This is always a touchy issue, but fans care deeply about this. What is, and isn't, "true" within the setting of the story? What is canon for the Buffyverse? For Star Trek? For Star Wars? For the Orville? Given the distinction between "official product" and "fan product" (and the hazy area of 3PP) the desire for official product that will provide more (and updated) "canon" is always there.

First off, great post.

I think somewhat related to the idea of "canon" is the idea of a "shared experience". Official material is really the only material you can be sure you have discussion points on with other D&D fans and nerd out over. I can think of several homebrew products I like much more than the current WotC artificer, for example, but I can't really log onto ENWorld and ask for advice about how to best use them in the campaign or for shared play experience. I have to go onto custom Discords for that kind of discussion.

 

[prabe]

Go to a store for RPG stuff? This is 2020! We have DriveThruRPG.com! It's all right there, man!

Well, since the tables I run are in game stores, the players are arguably already there. It's not as though I'm expecting them to get out of the basement when they're not playing ...

 

[Fenris-77]

Speaking as a powergamer, this is absolutely true. When I want to go with a strong build, I pull out the PHB. When I want to self-police my power level and play more to concept, I use 3PP.

This isn't to say there isn't plenty of problematic 3PP (there is!), but when I've gone to the trouble of finding something I like and getting DM buy-in, I'm going to make extra sure I'm not being a donkey-hole about it.

Yup, pretty much. I've mostly gotten bored with 5e optimization honestly. It's not that complicated, and I really don't find it immensely fun any more. Now, if I have a new idea about how to power some awesome synergy that's different, but I'm pretty done pairing GWM and PAM to max DPR and a bunch of other three letter acronyms. My concept builds are generally acronym free.

Last night for example, I had a ton of fun discussing with my son how we could take a Loxodon Artificer Alchemist and have the most fun possible with Poison Spray and using Catapult to huck things like acid and oil. Optimized? Not at all. Fun? Hell yeah.

 

[jayoungr]

It even goes beyond desire for official product: there has also been a sense that a product doesn't "count" unless it's a printed, hardcover book. I remember before Tales from the Yawning Portal came out, there were frequent complaints that WotC had not published any short, stand-alone adventures. Whenever I or someone else pointed out that WotC had published dozens of short, stand-alone adventures in the form of AL modules, it never seemed to make the complainers happy.