There were/are 3pp for editions prior to 3e? Who are they?

[Aberzanzorax]

Forked from: I currently play x edition and I do or don't buy 3pp stuff. A POLL

You know... there are "3rd party publishers" (like Brave Halfling) who produce stuff for earlier editions.

A lot of people who play D&D don't play 3rd or 4th edition, and still buy stuff from 3pps.

I had no idea (apart from Judge's Guild)!Who else made (or even still makes) 3pp support for the editions of D&D prior to 3e?

 

[JeffB]

They are using the OGL/OSRIC, etc - The OSM (Old school movement)/Retro-clone/Simulacrum games.

Here is aLINK to OSM stuff available through LuLu .

As far as actually prior to 3e? The only two official ones were Judges Guild & Wee Warriors as far as I know- and I think basically Gary/Brian/Don K just allowed WW to produce items in a gentlemans agreement (and TSR distributed some of it, like "The Character Archaic"). Once JG got the official "approved for use" status I believe WW folded up not long after.

Mayfair might have had some rights at one point as well-

 

[darjr]

Daystar West was one. I only know because they published the first edition of Pharaoh from the I3-5 Desert of Desolation series.

Desert Series

Tome of Treasures - Daystar West

I think that some of the producers of 'generic' supplements were really producing things for D&D.

 

[Greg K]

Mayfair games, as I mentioned in the original thread, used to print stuff. You can find stuff on ebay.

 

[rogueattorney]

I'm not sure if the poster is asking about 3rd party stuff that was contemporary with the old TSR products, or is asking about 3rd party stuff that's being put out right now.

If he's asking about older stuff, Judges Guild actually had a license from about 1976 to 1980. Mayfair Games "Role Aids" line was not licensed, but was billed as compatable with AD&D. They put out stuff from the early 80's to early 90's.

Then there was a whole bunch of "generic" products that were for D&D in everything but name. Some of these started as D&D supplements and then grew into their own game... ICE's Arms Law, Spell Law, etc. became Role Master, Emperor's Choice's Arduin went from supplemets to their own game, etc.

But many more were just D&D supplements with the serial numbers filed off... Chaosium's All the World's Monsters volumes, Midkemia's cities, Flying Buffalo's Grimtooth's Traps series, Columbia's early Harn stuff before they put out Harnmaster, etc., etc.

I'm barely scratching the surface here.

The afterglow website did a great job cataloguing it all. Unfortunately, it is no longer up. This site has tried to replace it. It doesn't have as much content, but has more pictures.

If the poster is asking about new stuff for the old editions, the lulu link posted up thread is a good place to start. Also see:

Pied Piper Publishers (Rob Kuntz's company)
Goodman Games, both for their generic products (esp. Points of Light) and the odd 1e special
FES's Monsters of Myth, which is available through Lulu, but oddly not linked to on the Lulu OSR page
And of course, Dragonsfoot is a fan site that puts out a lot of professional quality stuff for free.