What 3rd Party D&D Companies Are Left?

[Olaf the Stout]

Officially their last, I believe.



True, but Mongoose has shifted much of their effort to its Runequest line and GR is focusing largely on True20.



Are they still publishing new books for that line?



They're officially winding down when they finish out their current future releases list (which has one whole book on it), I believe.

I think that the e-market is doing fine, but market trends seem to indicate that those publishers who work primarly with physical (i.e., printed) d20/D&D products are cutting back and/or diversifying in an effort to optimize their business models. That is, they seem to be having some problems caused by a recent downturn in sales of physical, third-party, d20 products.

Your comment seem to confirm what I thought was happening with a lot of these companies James, although from the replies I have seen on this thread it doesn't look like things are as bad as I first thought.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Mistwell]

I think it's the market correcting itself.

Opening the game up to third parties was an experiment. Having a game and it's supplements all published by the same company is how things normally work, and D&D seems to be slowly but surely returning to this model. (And for the most part, it's the only game that ever left it.)

However there was an artificial change to the market with the release of 3.5 rules. The indie d20 publishers were doing quite well, all things considered, until 3.5 pulled the rug out from their backlog of products. When your entire line of products is incompatible overnight, it can really damage your business.

In addition, with gamer dollars being limited and devoted all at once to purchasing those very same 3.5 books, it functioned as a double hit on those indie companies.

Finally, there were some non-market-driven problems with several distribution companies that had an unexpected and very harmful impact on many 3rd party publishers, often happening at the same time as the hit from 3.5.

I think this was less the market correcting itself, and more the sometimes insurmountable impact of these other events which were not really market-driven.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

Paizo just announced a new line of monthly, full-color 32-page adventures that will kick off in June with Nick Logue's "Crown of the Kobold King." There are other major projects in the offing.

The magazines aside, we are supporting the OGL in a huge, huge, huge way in 2007 and beyond.

--Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC

Looks like Paizo is doing well. I'm glad to hear that. I take it that you are doing this so you can expand into larger adventures that don't quite fit into the space allocated for a Dungeon Magazine adventure.

Will there be a subscription option for this series? And how much are the adventures? Magazine-style format I'm guessing (i.e. soft paper cover, like Dungeon and Dragon magazines are) ?

Olaf the Stout

 

[jdrakeh]

Your comment seem to confirm what I thought was happening with a lot of these companies James, although from the replies I have seen on this thread it doesn't look like things are as bad as I first thought.

Olaf the Stout

It's not as bad as you thought. . .

I predict that those companies who expand into e-publication, while simultaneously pruning their release schedule for physical d20 products and/or focusing their print efforts on non-d20 products that are proven earners should recover fully from the recent downturn in sales.

On the other hand, I predict that those companies who try to do what they've always done in the face of a changing market will find themselves out on a limb in the near future. Expect some casualties, but not the apocalypse that the doomsayers are on about.

 

[Ceresco]

Paradigm Concepts,Inc. is still publishing d20 material for it's Arcanis line. The most recent releases are Theocracy of Canceri and Forged in Magic: Revised and Expanded. There is still Censure: Jewel of the Coast and City of Thieves coming out (soon?) as well as an Arcanis World book, a high end product a la' Ptolus, encompassing all of the world of Arcanis as interpreted by Henry Lopez, PCI Prez.

They are diversifying, like everyone else it seems. Last I heard there will be an Origins release of Witch Hunter. I also believe it will be supported with organized play.

Though PCI and the RPGA have parted ways, they will continue to support organized play, and all indications poiint towards "The Gathering" to being a big part of their future strategy. I for one am very eager to discover what they have planned.

 

[Mystaros]

Immediate Future, new products (not including "Offered Again's"):

Game Trade Monthly #83 (Products releasing Feb/Mar 07):

Total of 13 products from 5 companies.

Official D&D
Dragon #355 (Paizo, pg. 24)
Dungeon #146 (Paizo, pg. 24)
Deluxe Dice (Wizards of the Coast, pg. 36)
FR: Cormyr HC (Wizards of the Coast, pg. 36)
Magic Item Compendium (Wizards of the Coast, pg. 36)

Traditional d20:
DCC #43: The Curse of the Barrens (Goodman Games, pg. 20)
DCC CD #0-#4 (Goodman Games, pg. 20)
Etherscope Rulebook SC (Goodman Games, pg. 20)
XCrawl: Coney Island Crawl (Goodman Games, pg. 20)
Bleeding Edge #5: Temple of the Death Goddess (Green Ronin, pg. 20)

M&M Official or Superlink:
Autumn Arbor Campaign Setting (Arbor Productions, pg. 17)
Instant Superheroes (Green Ronin, pg. 20)

Star Wars
Star Wars RPG: Saga Edition HC (Wizards of the Coast, pg. 37)


Game Trade Monthly #84 (Products releasing Mar/Apr 07):

Total of 14 products from 5 companies.

Official D&D
Dragon Magazine: Monster Ecologies (Paizo, pg. 30)
Dragon #356 (Paizo, pg. 30)
Dungeon #147 (Paizo, pg. 31)
Expedition to the Demonweb Pits HC (Wizards of the Coast pg. 42)
Fantastic Locations: City of Peril (Wizards of the Coast pg. 42)
Eberron: Curse of the Dragon's Eye (Wizards of the Coast pg. 43)

Traditional d20
DCC #44: Dreaming Caverns of the Duergar (Goodman Games, pg. 24)
DCC #45: The Medusa's Grotto (Goodman Games, pg. 24)
DCC: Heroes of the Northlands (Goodman Games, pg. 24)
XCrawl: Dungeonbattle Brooklyn (Goodman Games, pg. 24)
GameMastery Map Packs (Paizo, pg. 31)

Castles & Crusades
Secret of Smuggler's Cove (Goodman Games, pg. 24)
DB3: Deeper Darkness (Troll Lord Games, pg. 38)

M&M Official or Superlink
Hero High (Green Ronin, pg. 26)

Note that Mongoose has no d20 product releases planned for a whole 3-month period, though they had several RuneQuest products and plenty of minis planned. Nothing from Kenzer & Company, D&D-wise, nor from MWP (though I'm not sure about the Dragonvarld RPG book listed... it does not mention a system of any kind, so I suspect they are using their house system, the one used for Serenity, Battlestar Galactica, and in the past, Sovereign Stone).

Any way you cut it, this is a severe drop in the regular d20 products being offered through the distribution/retail system.

 

[jdrakeh]

. . . as well as an Arcanis World book, a high end product a la' Ptolus, encompassing all of the world of Arcanis as interpreted by Henry Lopez, PCI Prez.

Ooo. . . that sounds very cool. Not to derail the thread, but do you have any idea if it stands alone or if you'll have to own other Arcanis products to make sense of it? Also, any idea what the fluff to crunch ratio is? Will it be mostly fluff like the Mongoose Lankhmar and Glorantha world books, or 90% rules like Spiros Blaak (which I possibly spelled wrong)?

 

[JoshuaFrost]

Looks like Paizo is doing well. I'm glad to hear that. I take it that you are doing this so you can expand into larger adventures that don't quite fit into the space allocated for a Dungeon Magazine adventure.

In a nutshell, yes. Erik explained his thoughts quite well in the thread where we announced the line:

It gives us an opportunity to publish longer adventures and experiment a bit with the format in a way that wouldn't be appropriate for Dungeon's highly stable format. Secondly, we have more ideas (and our freelancers certainly do too) than we can fit into the magazine, and this is a way to exorcise some of them without messing too much with our core business. Thirdly, without the need to be 100% official we can get away with some interesting creative exercises that wouldn't otherwise be possible.

Will there be a subscription option for this series? And how much are the adventures? Magazine-style format I'm guessing (i.e. soft paper cover, like Dungeon and Dragon magazines are) ?

Enough people have asked for a subscription to this product line that its being talked about here in the office. It'll be a while before a decision one way or the other is made.

If you'd like to read the original press release announcing the line, click here.

Like Erik said, we're supporting OGL in a really big way in 2007. Detailed announcements are forthcoming--keep your ears and eyes open for them.

 

[MerricB]

Personally, I think this dose of stability has been a long time in coming.

Cheers!

 

[Mistwell]

Personally, I think this dose of stability has been a long time in coming.

Cheers!

I wouldn't call d20 companies continuing to drop like flies "stable".