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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mkletch" data-source="post: 788645" data-attributes="member: 3396">Well, I play D&D twice a week, maybe 14 to 18+ hours total.  These are two different groups, and the thing that glues them together is WotC products.  Pretty much anything WotC is allowed (with exceptions, like a few prestige classes and feats, and house ruled spells).  However, any 3rd party supplement goes through an unstructured but thorough review, by the DMs and some of the players.  And frankly, its time consuming and tiresome.  I want to game, not read supplement after supplement that is 85% cool and 15% broken, unclear, contradictory or simply bad.3.5e will be the benchmark, but it will be 98% the same as 3.0e, so it really isn't a problem.  The DMs in the two groups will likely 'upgrade', but that's about it.As for a significantly different system, like the Star Wars system or Spycraft, one or two people having the book is not sufficient.  These rule changes are pervasive and profound.  Will everyone in the group buy the book?  Not likely.  So it is not viable.  Both groups I play with are 'older gamers': post college, with jobs and mortgages, kids, bills, taxes, responsibilities other than the next keg or random gaming book with cool cover art.  Buying some new game system on a whim is just not there any more; not that it ever was a good thing before.It's been close to 11 years since I've played GURPS, 13 for Shadowrun and 9 for Palladium in various genres.  Do I miss 'em?  No.  But I get more gaming in now that I ever did then.  Why?  I'm not wasting my time figuring stuff out that I'll want to forget in six months.  It's why I don't own a diesel car, try to support token ring for my home network, or make up my own invented language with which to speak to the checkout clerk at the grocery store.  Some people may not like standards, but they can be very, very useful.I walk into a dealership, and I don't have to lay down $40-50 to take a test drive.  It's free.  But if I want to try a new system or supplement, I've got to drop more than a few bucks.  My 'experiment' Star Wars was an expensive mistake.  Sure, everyone thought it was totally cool, but getting everyone to buy the book was a failure, regardless of how rabid the SW fans are in my gaming groups.  My wife and I are the only major SG-1 fans in our groups.  I'm sure you can predict the likely outcome of an SG-1 'experiment'.The SRD is online.  Theoretically, anyone can play using a few choice printed pages, and borrowing their DM's PHB for level-ups.  Although SG-1 is going to be partially OGC/d20, will it be available online as the SRD is?  It would help but, nope, not holding my breath on that one.  Sure it detract from a few sales, but think of it as a test drive.  I have a small-font PDF of d20 Modern.  It may be missing a couple things, but it mostly gets me there.  But it's 220+ pages, and I'm probably not going to print out the whole thing.  If we try d20 Modern, we'll print out maybe 30-50 pages total (including multiple copies of some sections), play with a couple laptops at the table (which we normally don't do) and try it out.  But if we decide to start playing seriously, I'd make a decent guess that four out of five would buy the book.  That is where Star Wars and every other 'licensed game' fails.I thought I'd be stoked, too, and I was at first.  But then I realized that it was a false hope.  The further the product is from basic d20 (either modern or fantasy), the much, much less likely I am to ever play it.  Inversely geometric.  I'd be 1200% better off to buy every episode on DVD with the money and time I'd spend/waste on the RPG version.Where does this put me?  Well, I'm five months into converting the VP/WP damage system from Star Wars to fantasy so that I can try my one group on it, and then perhaps try Star Wars after.  So, if I were to get SG-1, I'd have a vague hope of playing it in maybe 2005.  Hardly a wise gaming investment.  I think I'll buy the Arms and Equipment Guide instead.  Or wait until Monte's Arcana Unearthed; it has twenty times the chance of being used at the table.-Fletch</blockquote>

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