Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
The
VOIDRUNNER'S CODEX
is coming! Explore new worlds, fight oppressive empires, fend off fearsome aliens, and wield deadly psionics with this comprehensive boxed set expansion for 5E and A5E!
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Pre-Order DLC comes to D&D with D&D Beyond and Xanathar's Guide to Everything pre-order
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7239818" data-attributes="member: 37579"><p>That point might not have come out as well as intended. </p><p></p><p>The argument I'm making is that not all licences products are equal. Not just in quality, but in the perception of how "official" and sanctioned they are. </p><p>There's a big gulf between a product like the <em>Book of Erotic Fantasy</em> - a product WotC did <strong>not </strong>want made and changed the rules of qualifying for the "D&D compatible product" logo and something like <em>Tome of Beasts</em> which is equally unofficial but done by an ex-TSR employee and hyped on the official podcast and something like <em>Lost Tales of Myth Drannor</em> which is being done by a bunch of people who freelance for the D&D organised play program and has permission to copy the trade dress of official D&D products. </p><p></p><p>Are are "licensed products" but they're really not on equal footing or the same. </p><p></p><p>Which I was trying to demonstrate by invoking the popularity of the products. </p><p>I imagine <em>Lost Tales of Myth Drannor</em> has some well-written adventures, with the content being written by experienced adventure writers. But the same could be said about the best-selling adventures of M.T. Black. Or the staff at Kobold Press for their books <em><a href="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/prepared-a-dozen-adventures-for-5th-edition/" target="_blank">Prepared</a></em> and the newly released <em><a href="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/prepared-2-one-shot-adventure-for-5th-edition/" target="_blank">Prepared 2</a></em>. </p><p>But LToMD received a news post on the front page of this site while <em>Prepared 2</em> did not. Despite both being "licensed". And there's far more demand and interest for the former. Why? Because there's an implied official sanctioning from WotC. It has their silent, unspoken seal of approval.</p><p></p><p>Ditto Curse and D&D Beyond. We have no idea of their chops at designing feats for D&D. They're programmers. Really, we should trust their feat design as much as we trust Mike Mearls' ability to code in Python. That they're including feats <em>should</em> get as much attention on ENWorld as, oh, me releasing a book of Feats on the DMsGuild. But it doesn't get that level of attention. Because they are a direct partner of WotC. </p><p>As I said earlier, there is the "veneer of officialness". </p><p></p><p></p><p>It's totally a difference that exists entirely within the mind. As can also be demonstrated by the people who quickly dismissed the feats as "3rd party crap". The feats will be good or bad depending on their design alone...</p><p></p><p>But things are inequal. </p><p>If you pre-order the book on the platform you'll get the new feats with Xanthar in Beyond and these new feats. And the difference to a person creating a character will be largely cosmetic. But if you buy all the content available, excluding those feats it's still only WotC material. There's no Kobold Press or Green Ronin feats in D&D Beyond that I can see. Which implies that any non-WotC feats that are included are somehow sanctioned or approved. </p><p>This may or may not be true. WotC might not approve or even glance in the direction of Curse's game design. In the same way that WotC just published but didn't really write the 3e <em><a href="http://www.dmsguild.com/product/28592/Dragonlance-Campaign-Setting-35?it=1" target="_blank">Dragonlance Campaign Setting</a></em>. But, regardless, that approval is implied. </p><p></p><p>It's a fuzzy topic. Heck, just look at the debate over who "wrote" the first three 5e storyline adventures. Were those official WotC products? Or licensed products?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Jester David, post: 7239818, member: 37579"] That point might not have come out as well as intended. The argument I'm making is that not all licences products are equal. Not just in quality, but in the perception of how "official" and sanctioned they are. There's a big gulf between a product like the [I]Book of Erotic Fantasy[/I] - a product WotC did [B]not [/B]want made and changed the rules of qualifying for the "D&D compatible product" logo and something like [I]Tome of Beasts[/I] which is equally unofficial but done by an ex-TSR employee and hyped on the official podcast and something like [I]Lost Tales of Myth Drannor[/I] which is being done by a bunch of people who freelance for the D&D organised play program and has permission to copy the trade dress of official D&D products. Are are "licensed products" but they're really not on equal footing or the same. Which I was trying to demonstrate by invoking the popularity of the products. I imagine [I]Lost Tales of Myth Drannor[/I] has some well-written adventures, with the content being written by experienced adventure writers. But the same could be said about the best-selling adventures of M.T. Black. Or the staff at Kobold Press for their books [I][URL="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/prepared-a-dozen-adventures-for-5th-edition/"]Prepared[/URL][/I] and the newly released [I][URL="https://koboldpress.com/kpstore/product/prepared-2-one-shot-adventure-for-5th-edition/"]Prepared 2[/URL][/I]. But LToMD received a news post on the front page of this site while [I]Prepared 2[/I] did not. Despite both being "licensed". And there's far more demand and interest for the former. Why? Because there's an implied official sanctioning from WotC. It has their silent, unspoken seal of approval. Ditto Curse and D&D Beyond. We have no idea of their chops at designing feats for D&D. They're programmers. Really, we should trust their feat design as much as we trust Mike Mearls' ability to code in Python. That they're including feats [I]should[/I] get as much attention on ENWorld as, oh, me releasing a book of Feats on the DMsGuild. But it doesn't get that level of attention. Because they are a direct partner of WotC. As I said earlier, there is the "veneer of officialness". It's totally a difference that exists entirely within the mind. As can also be demonstrated by the people who quickly dismissed the feats as "3rd party crap". The feats will be good or bad depending on their design alone... But things are inequal. If you pre-order the book on the platform you'll get the new feats with Xanthar in Beyond and these new feats. And the difference to a person creating a character will be largely cosmetic. But if you buy all the content available, excluding those feats it's still only WotC material. There's no Kobold Press or Green Ronin feats in D&D Beyond that I can see. Which implies that any non-WotC feats that are included are somehow sanctioned or approved. This may or may not be true. WotC might not approve or even glance in the direction of Curse's game design. In the same way that WotC just published but didn't really write the 3e [I][URL="http://www.dmsguild.com/product/28592/Dragonlance-Campaign-Setting-35?it=1"]Dragonlance Campaign Setting[/URL][/I]. But, regardless, that approval is implied. It's a fuzzy topic. Heck, just look at the debate over who "wrote" the first three 5e storyline adventures. Were those official WotC products? Or licensed products? [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Dungeons & Dragons
Pre-Order DLC comes to D&D with D&D Beyond and Xanathar's Guide to Everything pre-order
Top