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Message: <blockquote data-quote="MoogleEmpMog" data-source="post: 3552786" data-attributes="member: 22882">First, I generally find the best 3rd party material to be a) a better value in terms of usable content/$ and b) better design.Of late, WotC has put out some really, really good and interesting design work (like the Book of Nine Swords and the warlock class) and fixed some of its worst excesses (by nerfing polymorph, for example), but for years this was not the case.  3.0 was an amazing leap from its predecessors, but the next WotC book (in the D&D line) that did a good job of advancing the d20 system was the Expanded Psionics Handbook!Conceptually, WotC *still* doesn't produce much that I like; the mechanics they use to translate bog standard fantasy into a playable form have gotten better, but the setting, not so much.By contrast, even in 3.0 you had interesting settings like Nyambe and the Iron Kingdoms (via the Witchfire Trilogy and Monsternomicon), and Arcana Unearthed as a very different take on fantasy.  Since d20 Modern, 3.5 and the spread of OGL, you have Conan the RPG, DragonMech, a variety of d20 western, horror and steampunk games, etc.  Without third party publishers, I would be back in the dark days of 2e, having to cobble together voluminous house rules just to cover the basics of the kind of settings I care to game in.During the same span, third party publishers put out Arcana Unearthed/Evolved and Iron Heroes (Malhavoc Press), the Blood and x line - particularly Blood and Fists - (RPG Objects), Mutants and Masterminds and True20 (Green Ronin) and many other products that moved the state of the game forward on a systemic level.  The best new WotC mechanics are still playing catchup with these (although WotC's Star Wars Saga looks like it may set a new bar).Finally, I find most of the third party books I buy are a much better value.  Arcana Evolved, for example, is about the price of a Complete book and a Races book combined.  Yet you get quadruple the classes you would in the Complete book and triple the races you would in the Races book (with racial classes as an additional class option).</blockquote>

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