D&D 4E Volume of 4E/ d20/ OGL published product

[Jib]

Do you think that we will see a second wave of d20/OGL 3rd party material hit the market much in the way 3.0/ 3.5 did? Or do you think that people are hating d20/ OGL stuff so much that it will be a mere drop in the ocean?

IMHO we saw some GREAT 3rd party product for 3.0/ 3.5 and some crap. The crap might have out shined the good but there was some great stuff the past 7 years.

 

[Scribble]

Do you think that we will see a second wave of d20/OGL 3rd party material hit the market much in the way 3.0/ 3.5 did? Or do you think that people are hating d20/ OGL stuff so much that it will be a mere drop in the ocean?

IMHO we saw some GREAT 3rd party product for 3.0/ 3.5 and some crap. The crap might have out shined the good but there was some great stuff the past 7 years.

Seems like they're giving a select few the oportunity to see the SRD before the rest... I'm guessing they're trying to put good 3rd party product out there first just in case there is a wave of crap... Sort of get everyone sued to the idea of good 3rd party...

In anycase; I'm not sure there will be a "flood" this time around.

 

[Mouseferatu]

I have no doubt that we'll see a lot of third-party support for 4E. (Heck, some people are already announcing tentative plans.)

But it won't be anywhere near the surge we saw when the OGL first became available back in 3E. Both publishers and (more importantly, in this case) retailers got bitten too badly the first time around.

 

[DaveMage]

I think there will be some solid 4E support (from Goodman and Necromancer anyway), but that others will be more tentative. I think certain companies (such as, say, Green Ronin & maybe Mongoose) will test the waters a bit before commiting to any large product lines.

But I doubt very many new (if any) print companies will spring up just to do 4E.

The D&D product boom of 2000-2002 is quite over.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Do you think that we will see a second wave of d20/OGL 3rd party material hit the market much in the way 3.0/ 3.5 did? Or do you think that people are hating d20/ OGL stuff so much that it will be a mere drop in the ocean?

IMHO we saw some GREAT 3rd party product for 3.0/ 3.5 and some crap. The crap might have out shined the good but there was some great stuff the past 7 years.

I think the phased way WotC appears to be handling the 4E SRD/OGL will prevent the crap tsunami this time around, at least for a while.

I think folks always knew there were gems among the crap with D20; it just was a matter of whether or not they wanted to go digging for them. People who frequent good review sites seem, IMO, to be more open to 3rd party stuff, since it's not hard to hear about what's good and what's not.

Very few people at ENWorld or RPG.net don't know who, say, Green Ronin, Goodman Games, Necromancer Games or Paizo are, for instance, even if they don't buy from them.

Personally, I forsee myself buying a good quantity of material from good third party publishers, just as I do now. I suspect lots of people feel the same way.

 

[Dice4Hire]

I'm one of those people who never bought much 3rd party stuff. And I think I have bought a total of two PDFs total. (And both were copies of out of print adventures) .

For 4E, at least for me, I do not see this changing. I am pretty wary of 3rd party stuff, and my games tend to be WOTC only.

As for a 'flood', no I do not think so. 4E is too tentative, and the customer base is too split right now for any sane company to jsump in with both feet, or even for soe new publishers totkae that step.

On the other hand, 4E is the new thing, and staying 3,5 could also be a death sentence.

So, I see most publishers doing both, at least till the end of next year. Keeping some 3.5 going, but also introducing new 4E lines. But I would say, as with 2E, eventually, companies making only 3.5 products will be a sliver of the market.

 

[Sundragon2012]

The whole 4e announcement came at the perfect time for me. I was consolidating, and rewriting as necessary, my own campaign setting for publication but I really, really didn't want to release it for 3.5 for a few reasons the least of which wasn't that I sensed that the end was neigh for this edition.

Now I am getting the opportunity to really create something excellent for D&D and get in on the ground floor of a whole new edition. If 3.5 were my only option I was going to do True20 or OGL Conan. I still might make my setting mechanics free and create specific rules for 4e and True20. I really like True20 and think it deserves some solid support while at the same time want to reach the broadest possible base.



Sundragon

 

[Andre]

I have no doubt that we'll see a lot of third-party support for 4E. (Heck, some people are already announcing tentative plans.)

But it won't be anywhere near the surge we saw when the OGL first became available back in 3E. Both publishers and (more importantly, in this case) retailers got bitten too badly the first time around.

Yep. We may see a flood, but it won't be at the FLGS - those owners who are still in business have learned their lesson. Anyone thinking of making money on 4E will need a separate sales channel.

 

[Jib]

Of course we can hope that some the OGL stuff might get a fresh 4E look. I enjoyed some of the product I bought from Monkey God, Green Ronin, Necromancer Games, Atlas, Fantasy Flight, and WEG. I only hope that the flood becomes a chocolate stream of goodness with 4E and the OGL products for 2008 and beyond.

 

[olshanski]

my 3rd party products absolutely dwarfed my WoTC purchases for 3E/3.5. I only purchased adventures and not splatbooks.

From WOTC I purchased both core rules sets (3.0 and 3.5) I purchased MM3, MM4, Temple of Elemental Evil, and the original Adventure Path series.

From 3rd party I purchased over half of the DCCs by Goodman, 75% of Necromancer Games, Most of by Fiery Dragon, and a handful of Malhavoc, Paizo, Monkeygod, and Penumbra products.