Top Twenty Observations

[JoeGKushner]

So I'm looking over the top twenty.

Slaine
Mutants & Masterminds
Spycraft
Call of Cthulhu
Judge Dread

All good games, but none of them d20, all OGL or PI by Wizards.

I guess I'm saying I think that with Warlords coming out, as well as Arcana Unearthered and Warcraft, Stargate, and others, that perhaps it's time for an OGL Top Twenty. I notice that the next five items on our list, on page two, are all D20 style material that might be more appropriate like Forged in Magic, Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting, and To Stand on Hollowed Ground.

In other observations, I'm very puzzled by the lack of Malhavok Products on this list. I see Green Ronin, Necromancer Games, Mongoose (for two OGL books...),Pirvateer Press, and Atlas sneaking in once.

What can publishers do to increase awareness of their products to get to the top twenty list? Use their forums to encourage more reviews/discussion?

 

[trancejeremy]

Slaine isn't only OGL - it's d20.

I don't think Spycraft or Judge Dredd are either.

I think M&M and Everquest are the only ones that aren't d20.

Unless you mean d20 as a synonym for D&D.


It would be nice if the top whatever list were sortable by product type. AFAIK, there are 4 different types here:

Accessory
Setting
Rulebook
Adventure

With things like Slaine & Spycraft (and most your list) as 'rulebooks'.

But then, things that I think are accessories, like the Manual of the Planes, are also considered 'rulebooks'. And settings, like Hunt: Rise of Evil, are considered 'adventures'. So I dunno.

 

[Corinth]

So I'm looking over the top twenty.

Slaine
Mutants & Masterminds
Spycraft
Call of Cthulhu
Judge Dread

All good games, but none of them d20, all OGL or PI by Wizards.[/i]

This isn't true. Spycraft, Slaine, Judge Dredd, Babylon 5, Armageddon 2089, Stargate SG-1 and Warcraft display the d20 logo in their ads and on their covers. This means that all of them must conform to the strictures of the d20 System Trademark License, which means that all of them must refer to one of WOTC's rulebooks--usually the D&D PHB--for the foundations of the rules.

Call of Cthulhu is published by WOTC. As the owner of the d20 game engine, they can do what they will with it. Chaosium's support of the d20 version may or may not have to follow the usual rules, but I err towards the former.

So that leaves only M&M and the EQRPG as the prominent d20 RPGs that don't use the d20 STL right now. This will change in the future, but the fact remains that--for the vast majority of d20 RPGs--there is no good reason whatsoever to eschew the power of the d20 brand when most of the target audience already has a D&D PHB and thus has all of the missing rules (a whopping page or so) that would be allowed if you didn't use the d20 STL. That isn't a good trade, so take the d20 logo and enjoy the benefits of the massive d20 community and its network of users.

 

[trancejeremy]

Also, Malhavoc stuff has generally been released as PDF products first. Most of the people who write reviews of their stuff write them for the PDF products. So they do well on the PDF top 20.