What d20 author do you buy sight-unseen?

[Pants]

Stronghold Builder's Guide was the beginning of the end for that attitude in me.

I don't understand the hate this book gets, I really enjoyed it. Quick and easy stronghold designs.

I even had a whole session dedicated to the PC's picking out and making their strongholds after they were awarded land, money, and minor nobility. They had fun and they also had places to call homes too.

 

[Kelleris]

Hmm, actually I quite like the Stronghold book as well. Don't get too much use out of it (alas, my planning skills are too poor to use something like that often), but I thought it was a fun read at the very least.

And, like many others, I wouldn't ever buy a product due to the author. Other than some slight preference for the "name brand" writers, I don't really notice much effect of authorship on my purchasing habits.

Well, it made perfect sense to me when I wrote it... :\

A good rule of thumb is that, if you quote someone else's post, comment on it, and are tempted to add a patronizing-disapproval smiley (that's this guy: :\ ), you should probably revise your post. A disturbingly high proportion of patronizing-disapproval-smiley-using posts are not terribly civic, and using that smiley in response to something someone else said is almost never a good idea.

 

[Greg K]

MerricB's experience is radically different from mine - I'm sure he's much more in the mainstream among gamers than I am in this regard.

Yes. His experience is different from mine as well. What I do find interesting is that he and Diaglo will automatically by anything from WOTC just to keep up when Merric does not find everything good and Diaglo doesn't find any of their material good. I personally don't see how buying blindly helps improve DND as I imagine sales figures are taken by WOTC as being reflective of what people want. Therefore, if people are buying things that they do not like it only encourages WOTC to release more of the same rather than getting to reevaluate what they release and try something different.

Wizards of the Coast's books are so insanely hit-or-miss for me, and the ratio of useful content:stuff I'll never use so ridiculously skewed, that I would never consider buying a Wizards' book without cracking the cover first. That's not a reflection on the authors generally, but rather the consequence of a design philosophy that rarely meets my needs as a gamer

With respect to Wizards' product, my post conveyed exactly the message I wanted to send. Harsh? Yes, consciously and deliberately so - it's my reaction to the fact that even the supplements I like and purchase rarely have more than a dozen pages of content that may make it into my games. Shelling out the shekels for the one or two Wizards' books I may buy in a year usually involves me throwing up my hands at some point and resigning myself to the odious fact that I'm overpaying terribly for those few pages.

Trust me, I definitely understand your position. With rare exception, I also tend to find twelve pages or less of useful material in WOTC's generic products. However, I can't justify making a purchase at the cover price for such little useful material so I throw up my hands and then move to look for something from another company.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Ryan Nock.

I like Monte Cook, too.

 

[Sammael]

Well, Diaglo buys for collecting sake. I honestly don't know if Merric really buys WotC books sight-unseen, but I know he doesn't buy them all - as he has no interest in the Forgotten Realms.

I personally don't believe that WotC is the market leader when it comes to innovations anymore. I found two of their recent "edge-pushing" books (Weapons of Legacy and Magic of Incarnum) completely and utterly useless, with poorly written mechanics (WoL) or poorly written flavor (MoI). Besides, the WoL topic has been covered by numerous d20 publishers, and I can think of at least two books that handle it in a better way.

To make things worse, WotC has dropped the ball on their Forgotten Realms fans by reducing the number of regional books to one per year and the utterly incomprehensible reduction of page counts to 160 (160 pages for Waterdeep? ummm... it doesn't work).

 

[Greg K]

To make things worse, WotC has dropped the ball on their Forgotten Realms fans by reducing the number of regional books to one per year and the utterly incomprehensible reduction of page counts to 160 (160 pages for Waterdeep? ummm... it doesn't work).

If I had any interest in running FR, I would probably be buying more WOTC books. I looked through the FR 3.0 setting book and liked much of what I saw. Also, some of the other FR books have sounded interesting. Then again, if I had an interest in FR, I would also make sure to buy much of the pre 3.x stuff as well.

 

[Greg K]

I personally don't believe that WotC is the market leader when it comes to innovations anymore.

With respect to DND supplements, I never considered WOTC to be the market leader in innovation. The innovations, imo, have come primarily from third parties including former WOTC employees who have gone on to form their own companies. Most of the innovation that has come out of WOTC has come from those designers working on non-dnd d20 products- again my opinion.

 

[Psion]

I don't understand the hate this book gets, I really enjoyed it. Quick and easy stronghold designs.

I guess for me it espoused a philosophy of being a big magic item and no attempts to make economic sense. I never demanded this of normal material because I see adventurers as anomolies. But the old 2e stronghold book, for example, made some attempt at simulationism instead of serving up kewl powers in convenient brick and mortar format.

I guess I think that such things are appropriate for characters, not dwellings.

Anyways, I don't hate it, it just proved useless to the way that I play (and players that I lent it to never ended up using it, so I am not so sure it's all that easy, either.)

Anyways, after the first time you say no, the next time is easier still. I still buy a lot of WotC stuff, but I am a bit more selective, and passed up Heroes of Battle and Weapons of Legacy, as I considered the money that would be spent on them better spent elsewhere, and their topics done better by third party products I already own.

 

[MerricB]

Well, Diaglo buys for collecting sake. I honestly don't know if Merric really buys WotC books sight-unseen, but I know he doesn't buy them all - as he has no interest in the Forgotten Realms.

That's purely a money issue. It's not quite true that I have no interest in the Forgotten Realms, but my interest level is very slight these days. I have many of the 1e and early 2e FR products, and ran a FR campaign during those days. However, "Marco Volo", "Maztica" and "The Horde" all within the space of about a year showed me that TSR had no respect for the setting, and I returned to running games in Greyhawk.

It's worth noting that I find both Weapons of Legacy and Magic of Incarnum two of the most inspirational and useful books that Wizards has put out this year. However, Lords of Madness, a book I've seen many people praising, leaves me cold.

My method of sending a message to Wizards is different from the "I'm not buying that" method: I write reviews, and otherwise post on messageboards about what I like and don't like about books.

The innovations, imo, have come primarily from third parties including former WOTC employees who have gone on to form their own companies.

I'd say that is somewhat accurate; however, I also get the feeling that many of the things that people around here consider "innovations" often end up being "this utterly changes the game" sort of innovations. I look for subtler things than that.

This year, the innovation in D&D that has most affected how I play the game has been the new Stat Block format. I run many RPGA games, along with the Age of Worms campaign and (occasionally) an adventure I've written myself. I have noticed how much better the new format is for finding information quickly. It is a huge improvement.

The new prestige class format - hmm. This has been a mixed bag. Some of the information seems to be purely waffle, but then there have been some material (like the goals, organisation and sample NPC) of the Walker of the Wastes (Sandstorm) that has been pure gold for my campaign.

Have you noticed that there's a more newbie-friendly method of describing base classes? That there's even an adaption section?

Cheers!

 

[Sammael]

This year, the innovation in D&D that has most affected how I play the game has been the new Stat Block format.

I am not sure if that innovation can be attributed to WotC or to Paizo. At any rate, the new stat-block format is very good, and I've since switched over to it, but it's not a change to the way the game is played. It sure didn't change anything for me or my DMing style, and it definitely didn't change anything for my players.