D&D 5E What a small industry 5e publishing really is, and WOTC are thieves.

[Retreater]

The university I work for uses OverDrive. I've used it a couple of times, though the selection isn't great.

We augment the offerings by purchasing new releases and popular titles a la carte.

One thing to keep in mind is that hoopla is a relatively expensive service for libraries; on top of the base annual fee, there is a fee charged to the library for each item downloaded. The library I worked at had it for a while, and it was popular, but

We limited the amount patrons could check out each month, just so we could lower the cost. But as the usage started spiking over the pandemic, we augmented it to 12 checkouts. It all comes down to how you want to spend your budget.

 

[LordEntrails]

I go with how folks use the term in practice, I've never seen it used in a positive light..

Generic drugs. Same as the original, but much less expensive. Positive connotation.

 

[CleverNickName]

I go with how folks use the term in practice

My "strange dictionary" theory has been confirmed.

 

[Bolares]

Generic drugs. Same as the original, but much less expensive. Positive connotation.

Such a smart point!

 

[Rabulias]

I go with how folks use the term in practice, I've never seen it used in a positive light..

It's generic in the sense that the vast majority of fantasy fiction, literature, and gaming tropes fit within it somewhere. You can have a fairy tale-like "rescue the princess and all have a happy ending" as well as a dark, creepy, and sinister "secret cultists are everywhere and we don't know who to trust" storyline. As a counterpoint, Ravenloft is not a generic setting in this sense, and only one of those stories would fit well within it. Which one is left as an exercise for the reader.

 

[Steampunkette]

FR isn't terribly specific in any way, really.

Oh, sure, it's got some of it's own stuff, and when it tries to do it's own stuff it does a pretty great job of it, really. Things like Thay being a magocracy with the eight zulkirs and magic weather patterns causing problems for neighboring kingdoms and no need to chase after escapees 'cause they'll either die in the desert or return. That stuff is pretty choice!

And it has, in turn, spawned things that other settings have taken for themselves. Like the Weave or Elven Mythals. But mostly it's pretty generic, like Golarion or Mystara or Greyhawk. They've all got nice special specific-to-them stuff, but the settings are broadly applicable to many takes and styles.

Generic is only bad to people who complain when their Frosted Cereal or Handbag doesn't have the right label on it to make them feel special. For the rest of us? Not so much.

 

[overgeeked]

Well... Eberron is WAY better than FR (this is bait)

Bait or no, it's still true.

 

[billd91]

I go with how folks use the term in practice, I've never seen it used in a positive light..

OK, sure. People often do use it to suggest it has no distinction, no unique cachet. But that's also a measure of the setting's success - if things don't seem so distinctive, it might be because it has helped establish a baseline that others aspire to or derive from. Greyhawk too and even Middle Earth "suffer" a bit from this level of success in fantasy roleplaying mindshare.

 

[billd91]

Generic is only bad to people who complain when their Frosted Cereal or Handbag doesn't have the right label on it to make them feel special. For the rest of us? Not so much.

And most of us would call those sorts of people, the ones who need the right label to feel special, snobs.

 

[LordEntrails]

And most of us would call those sorts of people, the ones who need the right label to feel special, snobs.

I guess I'm a snob, proper labels are important to me ;P