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<blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 6317131" data-attributes="member: 4937">Yes, and in describing their horribly broken product, I kept replying, &quot;You are describing problems I don't actually have.&quot;And that was largely because I'd chosen not to buy their products other than those related to the initial release, and unlike the company, I'd spent my efforts in actually creating a better product and a better game rather than following the 'Magic the Gathering' model of tempting players into buying new playing pieces for the utility that they brought in winning the game.&nbsp;&nbsp; Splatbooks were fundamentally being targeted not at DMs, but at players, with the selling point being: &quot;Look at all the new tools you can use to frustrate your DM.&nbsp; New races!&nbsp; New Feats!&nbsp; New Templates!&nbsp; New Prestige Classes!&nbsp; New Spells!&nbsp; New Magic Items!&nbsp; All officially sanctioned!&nbsp; Balancing and play testing not included!&nbsp; Revel in the broken goodness!&nbsp; One turn kills!&nbsp; Infinite combos!&nbsp;&nbsp; And no DCI to ban things!&quot;WotC was deliberately encouraging a play style that promoted selling books at the expense of the enjoyment of the game.&nbsp;&nbsp; We'd come a very long way from the point where things in the DMG were considered the exclusive province of the DM.&nbsp;&nbsp; Now players were expected to have control over and order up any magic item or PrC they desired without reference to the game situation at all.&nbsp;&nbsp; Furthermore, we'd come to a point were a given splatbook was by my estimation only providing me as a DM 5-10 pages of usable content (and that was a generous assessment).&nbsp;&nbsp; So there was no way I was going to spend $30 for a 5-10 page supplement.Playing a 3e game, I was using more pages of the 1e DMG than I was of any 3.5 era supplement.&nbsp; That's how bad it was.&nbsp; All that glossy illustration, and no money at all for actually producing needed, usable content and detail.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Celebrim, post: 6317131, member: 4937"] Yes, and in describing their horribly broken product, I kept replying, "You are describing problems I don't actually have." And that was largely because I'd chosen not to buy their products other than those related to the initial release, and unlike the company, I'd spent my efforts in actually creating a better product and a better game rather than following the 'Magic the Gathering' model of tempting players into buying new playing pieces for the utility that they brought in winning the game. Splatbooks were fundamentally being targeted not at DMs, but at players, with the selling point being: "Look at all the new tools you can use to frustrate your DM. New races! New Feats! New Templates! New Prestige Classes! New Spells! New Magic Items! All officially sanctioned! Balancing and play testing not included! Revel in the broken goodness! One turn kills! Infinite combos! And no DCI to ban things!" WotC was deliberately encouraging a play style that promoted selling books at the expense of the enjoyment of the game. We'd come a very long way from the point where things in the DMG were considered the exclusive province of the DM. Now players were expected to have control over and order up any magic item or PrC they desired without reference to the game situation at all. Furthermore, we'd come to a point were a given splatbook was by my estimation only providing me as a DM 5-10 pages of usable content (and that was a generous assessment). So there was no way I was going to spend $30 for a 5-10 page supplement. Playing a 3e game, I was using more pages of the 1e DMG than I was of any 3.5 era supplement. That's how bad it was. All that glossy illustration, and no money at all for actually producing needed, usable content and detail. [/QUOTE]

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