What do you consider a proper d20 book?
- Thread starter JoeGKushner
- Start date
Nikchick
Explorer
JoeGKushner said:
So, which question is it? What is a "proper D20 book" or what will people actually buy?
They're two different questions, imho.
If you're trying to get people to chime in and say they consider "proper D20" to be "absolutely generic D20: lists of spells, feats, settingless monsters, etc" asking them what they're going to BUY isn't going to get at that question.
Flexor the Mighty!
18/100 Strength!
A proper D20 book would be in a 20 sided shape that I could use to generate numbers from 1-20. It should roll well and not be too heavy.
Henry
Autoexreginated
"Proper d20?"
All of the above.
What am I more likely to buy?
2, 3, and 4. Adventures are those things that I'm either building myself or people are practically giving away for free.
What I COULD use, are more adventures for unique settings. I see tons of support for D&D, almost none for other settings. Modern is next most supported, through 3rd party and WotC, but I wouldn't mind seeing more heavy sci-fi adventures, superhero adventures (I loved GR's Time of crisis, and wouldn't mind seeing more things a little over half that size), and speculative fiction adventures. (I'd LOVELOVELOVE to see Black Company adventures, but I understand why GR can't do it due to licensing.)
All of the above.
What am I more likely to buy?
2, 3, and 4. Adventures are those things that I'm either building myself or people are practically giving away for free.
What I COULD use, are more adventures for unique settings. I see tons of support for D&D, almost none for other settings. Modern is next most supported, through 3rd party and WotC, but I wouldn't mind seeing more heavy sci-fi adventures, superhero adventures (I loved GR's Time of crisis, and wouldn't mind seeing more things a little over half that size), and speculative fiction adventures. (I'd LOVELOVELOVE to see Black Company adventures, but I understand why GR can't do it due to licensing.)
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
Hmm... I buy a lot of 1 and 3. That said, I usually buy them for use with other game systems, so a focus on setting and/or environment detail as opposed to mechanical crunch is what hooks me. I relish stuff like The Tomb of Horrors and Kingdoms of Kalamar specifically for this reason.
BryonD
Hero
Clearly all of the above is D20.
But I think there is a language break-down at work here.
There is a noteworthy difference between is it D20 and do most people think it will support their D&D game. That's why I think a lot of niche material, even though it may be brilliant in quality, does not gain recognition as "D20", even if it absolutely is. It isn't so much that people don't see it as D20, it is just that some not insiginficant percentage of people see the niche stuff and not useful to them and more or less forget about it.
So it is possible to walk up to a gamer and pop-quiz them:
Do you think GR did a lot of D20 support in 2005? Answer: Not really
Do you think Thieve's World is D20? Answer: yes.
It may sound like a contradiction. But it is perception in some cases.
But I think there is a language break-down at work here.
There is a noteworthy difference between is it D20 and do most people think it will support their D&D game. That's why I think a lot of niche material, even though it may be brilliant in quality, does not gain recognition as "D20", even if it absolutely is. It isn't so much that people don't see it as D20, it is just that some not insiginficant percentage of people see the niche stuff and not useful to them and more or less forget about it.
So it is possible to walk up to a gamer and pop-quiz them:
Do you think GR did a lot of D20 support in 2005? Answer: Not really
Do you think Thieve's World is D20? Answer: yes.
It may sound like a contradiction. But it is perception in some cases.
