Ranking of d20 Publishers

[Ishmayl]

Hello folks,
I was wondering if there is, somewhere on the internet or otherwise, a ranking of, say, the 10 best d20 publishers, or the 25 best d20 publishers. I ask this because I don't ever know where to look when I go to my hobby store. There are scores of d20 publishers, some of them great, some of them quite terrible at what they do. The only few I know are Ronin, FFG, and Troll Lord Games; FFG is definitely my favorite of those, but I would love to know what other companies are coming out with quality products.

 

[Nellisir]

3rd party print publishers I always look for, and usually buy, are AEG, Green Ronin, and Bastion Press. Others I check out regularly are Sword & Sorcery Studios (SSS) and its subsets Malhavoc Press (much higher on many other people's list) and Necromancer Games, Mongoose Publishing, Goodman Games, and Troll Lord Games.

What sort of products are you looking for?

Hope that helps
Nell.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, it is somewhat subjective.

But you can see the average ratings of the reviews of companies here

http://www.enworld.org/reviews/publishers.php

You can't list them by rating, but you can go through and see which companies have a lot of products and still have a high rating. I would imagine Green Ronin is probably at the top of the list.

 

[Morrus]

Depends what you mean by "best". There's no single person qualified to judge that. Looking at the review pages and average scores here on EN World will give you a general idea of the quality of publishers according to a variety of fans, but that's probably the closest you;ll get to what you're looking for.

 

[DaveMage]

Hello folks,
I was wondering if there is, somewhere on the internet or otherwise, a ranking of, say, the 10 best d20 publishers, or the 25 best d20 publishers.

I'm note sure there *are* 25 active d20 print publishers (I use print because you mention seeing them at your hobby store)....

Let's see (active meaning a release since Gen*Con or any expected upcoming release ):

1. AEG
2. Arthaus
3. Bastion Press
4. Eden Studios
5. Fantasy Flight Games
6. Fiery Dragon
7. Goodman Games
8. Green Ronin
9. Inner Circle Games
10. Kenzer & Co
11. Malhavoc Press
12. Mongoose Publishing
13. Necromancer Games
14. Paradigm Concepts
15. Privateer Press
16. Sovereign Press
17. Steve Jackson Games (this may be a stretch to call them a d20 company)
18. Sword & Sorcery Studios
19. Troll Lord Games

Who'd I miss?

Recently Inactive (or finished with d20)
Atlas Games
Fast Forward Games
Monkey God
Mystic Eye Games

 

[Great Mastiff Games]

You missed Great Mastiff Games which certainly falls into the 'quality D20 publishers' realm despite our current small size:

www.greatmastiffgames.com

 

[DMH]

I wonder what happened to MEG? I was hoping that the rest of the Foul Locals would be published.

Another small print publisher that has 2 excellent books is Skirmisher Game Development Group. The books are Experts and Warriors. If you have any desire to customize either (check out the reviews here first), I suggest that you ask your LGS to order them.

Eden is coming out with some more d20 material soon based on a French game.

 

[Vigilance]

Who'd I miss?

RPGObjects!

Chuck

 

[Ishmayl]

Depends what you mean by "best". There's no single person qualified to judge that. Looking at the review pages and average scores here on EN World will give you a general idea of the quality of publishers according to a variety of fans, but that's probably the closest you;ll get to what you're looking for.

Really, I suppose by "best," I meant, "Which companies have the best ratings. But you guys answered my question, collectively, so I thank you.

 

[tensen]

I hope you add Dark Quest Games to the list... since while we do .pdf products for the most part, we also have print products available in stores.