der_kluge
Adventurer
I was at a convention in Illinois this past weekend, and I had gone primarily to just go and visit with fellow gamers. It was a 6 hour drive for me, but I shared a booth with Bard's Production's writer Jeff Colledge, and his partner Bob (last name escapes me).
I did some freelancing work on Bluffside, so I was there promoting that. The con itself is FlatCon, and despite the fact that the air conditioning in the building died 2 days prior, the turnout was about 270+ people. Not huge, but respectable.
Jeff and I talked most of the weekend about various things. And one of things that we commented on was basically how, outo f our gaming groups, we were pretty much the only ones in the group that knew anything about the hobby outside the game table. In other, I had read the whole "Silver Marches" thread with great interest, and none of the other players in my group knew anything about it. "Silver Marches?", they asked.
Jeff's group was the same way. He made them all buy the PHB (everyone in my group owns a copy as well), but he said that despite a few copies of some of the WoTC splat books, no one owned anything else WoTC, or otherwise.
I think in my group, I can count on one hand the D20 products that they own that are non-WoTC. I bought MotP from a bookstore for 50% off, and got my friend one. And, between us all, I think we own all the splat books, except for MotW. There are probably two copies of T&B, and maybe two copies of DotF between us, and one S&F. One of the players owns a copy of the Kalamar setting book, and my friend also bought Relics and Rituals when it first came out. I have more D20 books than anyone else at a whopping FIVE books, which seems pathetically small by some of the accounts that I hear of on here.
Jeff and I couldn't help but believe that the absolute *dismal* state of D20 products in this day and age certainly had a lot to do with the absurdly simple fact that no one is buying the stuff. Certainly there are a group of people like you, and Jeff and I, who read ENWorld, and stay up to date with what's going on, but I'm wagering that 95% of all gamers out there don't even know this site exists.
If I had a dollar for every dealer that said "Never heard of 'em", or "What's that?" in response to a publisher, a book, or a website, I'd be a rich man. I told Jeff that I had gone into my LGS and asked for a copy of Common Ground I. "What's that?" To which I explained that it was a supplement for generating Inns, Churches and Merchants, and that I would be hanging out with the author that coming weekend, and I wanted to have a copy of it so that I could get him to sign it. "Who's it by?" "Bard's Productions" "Never heard of 'em". Well, this is a WHOLE other thread, actually, I digress.
In any case, I'm curious about the rest of your group. What do they buy, what are they D20 spending habits? I know some here have their whole group online, which is amazing. My group consists of very well educated, 30-somethings with spouses, and families (in most cases), and we are discriminating to be sure, but only myself out of our group maintains any kind of knowledge into the goings on of the D20 community. Do you find that that is true for most other groups as well?
Ok, this is gotten to be way longer than I had intended it to be.
I did some freelancing work on Bluffside, so I was there promoting that. The con itself is FlatCon, and despite the fact that the air conditioning in the building died 2 days prior, the turnout was about 270+ people. Not huge, but respectable.
Jeff and I talked most of the weekend about various things. And one of things that we commented on was basically how, outo f our gaming groups, we were pretty much the only ones in the group that knew anything about the hobby outside the game table. In other, I had read the whole "Silver Marches" thread with great interest, and none of the other players in my group knew anything about it. "Silver Marches?", they asked.
Jeff's group was the same way. He made them all buy the PHB (everyone in my group owns a copy as well), but he said that despite a few copies of some of the WoTC splat books, no one owned anything else WoTC, or otherwise.
I think in my group, I can count on one hand the D20 products that they own that are non-WoTC. I bought MotP from a bookstore for 50% off, and got my friend one. And, between us all, I think we own all the splat books, except for MotW. There are probably two copies of T&B, and maybe two copies of DotF between us, and one S&F. One of the players owns a copy of the Kalamar setting book, and my friend also bought Relics and Rituals when it first came out. I have more D20 books than anyone else at a whopping FIVE books, which seems pathetically small by some of the accounts that I hear of on here.
Jeff and I couldn't help but believe that the absolute *dismal* state of D20 products in this day and age certainly had a lot to do with the absurdly simple fact that no one is buying the stuff. Certainly there are a group of people like you, and Jeff and I, who read ENWorld, and stay up to date with what's going on, but I'm wagering that 95% of all gamers out there don't even know this site exists.
If I had a dollar for every dealer that said "Never heard of 'em", or "What's that?" in response to a publisher, a book, or a website, I'd be a rich man. I told Jeff that I had gone into my LGS and asked for a copy of Common Ground I. "What's that?" To which I explained that it was a supplement for generating Inns, Churches and Merchants, and that I would be hanging out with the author that coming weekend, and I wanted to have a copy of it so that I could get him to sign it. "Who's it by?" "Bard's Productions" "Never heard of 'em". Well, this is a WHOLE other thread, actually, I digress.
In any case, I'm curious about the rest of your group. What do they buy, what are they D20 spending habits? I know some here have their whole group online, which is amazing. My group consists of very well educated, 30-somethings with spouses, and families (in most cases), and we are discriminating to be sure, but only myself out of our group maintains any kind of knowledge into the goings on of the D20 community. Do you find that that is true for most other groups as well?
Ok, this is gotten to be way longer than I had intended it to be.
