The future of d20M is... splats!

[Vigilance]

Wasn't there an exclusive publishers' mailing list that WotC (or some outside volunteer) ran in order to get feedback for d20 Modern? I mean, they were trying to design a rulebook that would be more "acceptable" for third-party support than the Player's Handbook.

I think there was, including a prerelease version of the d20M rules available. However I dont think it worked out well... certainly some of the main people who support Modern and who continue to support it weren't, to my knowledge the people who were part of the mailing list .

However since RPGObjects wasnt in that list I cant speak to who was or wasnt in it.

However there wasn't a rush of support right away. So as not to speak for anyone else I'll just say that from RPGObjects' standpoint it took us (and by us I mean me) awhile to really understand what the rules could do and what they needed.

So some people interpreted the lull as a failure of d20M when in reality the rules have continued to gain popularity and that has drawn more support.

Chuck

 

[Vigilance]

That's probably due to the fact that fantasy seems to be more popular in rpg world then sci-fi. D20 fantasy is 'over supported', i see that as a good thing. There's currently something going on that i can only describe as "culling the herd", there's so much stuff out there that it's bound to contain gems, people are finding the gems and the gravel is being discarded (going out of business).

I dont see anything like that going on. I see companies that make a lot of substandard, cheaply made, poorly edited books continuing to flood the market with them while some smaller companies that made really interesting stuff are the ones going under.

So from my point of view there's a culling, but more like one that is removing the gems in favor of the cookie-cutter bland "yet another fantasy splatbook" crowd.

Chuck

 

[Cergorach]

I see companies that make a lot of substandard, cheaply made, poorly edited books continuing to flood the market with them

*cough*mon*cough*goose*cough*
Maybe the worst example...
I was actually thinking about companies like privateer that are now releasing beautiful books, companies like *bleep* and *bleep* are finally gone...

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, it is not like the license have a mandatary restriction that you must make a high-quality useful game product. No offense to those who have tried and failed in this venture. I'm sure that you intended to sell something that could be used by other gamers-slash-potential customers.

 

[Ranger REG]

So some people interpreted the lull as a failure of d20M when in reality the rules have continued to gain popularity and that has drawn more support.

Well, it can't be helped. The RPG market is more widespread and competitive these days compared to when the very first D&D game was releases back in 1974.

(BTW, Happy Anniversary, Dungeons & Dragons, and its creators, Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson and folks.)

 

[Salcor]

Of the D20 Modern producers I have to say that RPQ Objects, and the Game Mechanics are producting the best products (although I am just starting to explore a lot of the pdf products online). I think the Blood and Guts series and the Players Companion are the best two products I have. That is one of my problems with DnD products, I have to sift through everything to get to the good stuff. Feels like I am shopping for a car or a house. So far I haven't had that problem with D20 Modern.
On a side note, Vigilance I just got Soldiers recently. A good product, but the specialist doesn't have any class skills. (Hopefully this is Charles Rice, otherwise sorry).

Salcor

 

[Vigilance]

Thanks Salcor, and I'll fix the specialist for you, that's sort of a big SNAFU lol.

Chuck

 

[Vigilance]

*cough*mon*cough*goose*cough*
Maybe the worst example...

Not only was I not thinking of the Mongoose, they are on my list of most improved companies.

OGL Ancients, OGL Cybernet and Conan were some of the best games Ive read in the last year.

As for who I *was* thinking of, no comment

Chuck

 

[Sebastian Ashputtle]

From today's Gamingreport.com:


http://www.gamingreport.com/article.php?sid=14047&mode=thread&order=0

Hmmm...the "strong player base".

Does that mean that D20 Modern is a strong selling game? That it is a certain thing that its popularity and market share are large?

I've often wondered how well Modern sells.

 

[Bill Scott]

They simply said they were going to focus more on their strengths (the big full-cover HC being a definite thing that they do better than anyone in the business).

That's a matter of opinion. The only thing that WOTC did recently that impressed me in the 'big book' format was the Erberron(spl) campaign setting.