What exactly is OGL bloat?

[kenmarable]

I probably should expand a little.

I think it was good for the hobby to have well supported games, well supported alternate styles, lots of choice for materials, and lots of writers able to get stuff out there.

(snip)

I think it enriched the hobby.

I agree that it's great for the hobby and I especially love having obscure topics explored. However, from what I've heard from those more experienced than me, the traditional distribution system doesn't handle that sort of variety and niche products very well - at least for physical books.

But RPGNow arose and provided a distribution system that could handle that, and it did remarkably well from what I understand.

Unfortunately many products that would have thrived as PDF only went to print, as well as many customers called for print copies of many products that should have PDF only.

So that variety was awesome, and I loved it. It's just the practical distribution/printing side of things that didn't do so well. Now with PDFs well accepted (and even preferred by many) and the rise of Print on Demand, the industry can handle obscure products much better. Unfortunately, PDFs & POD pretty much cut the FLGS out of the loop*, and so many publishers have gone under that the stream of products is a trickle compared to the height of the 3.x/d20 era.

But it would be nice to have that variety back. Yeah, some people didn't really care for having 3 different drow books, etc. But I agree with you, that variety is great for the hobby and customer, if only the production and distribution side could manage it better.


* If someone can find a practical solution to providing PDF and/or POD services at thousands of game stores, there would be an believably massive resurgence in the 3pp market.

 

[carmachu]

IMO, it's all about the DMs.

Some DMs want to limit options to make the game easier for them to run. I know I'm one of them. I'm loath to allow in 1st-party splatbooks because they make the game more complicated. I just don't have the time to learn a 300 page book because someone wants to play a character using material from it. (If a player wants me to let something in, they're better off asking about a spell or feat than a race, better off with a "basic" race (eg genasi) than a prestige class, and ... well, I hate PrCs, so I'd probably be more likely to allow a base class, if it's not too different mechanically from the 11 core classes of 3.x.)

Some DMs would limit themselves to WotC only. They often get criticized here for that ("WotC isn't guaranteed to be superior, you're shutting out good-quality 3pp", etc) but that's missing the point. The DM wants to keep the amount of material and their rules research time down, and this is a shortcut to do so.* (It also makes research easier. I found out about terrible products and elements of products from WotC's splatbooks here very quickly, but getting the same info on 3pp is a lot harder, in part because hardly anyone buys them. Even some of the more popular 3pp publishers, like Malhavoc, hardly ever get their products mentioned here.)

Good luck with that. even just t rying to limit it to WOtc only in 3.5 you STILL had a ton of books.

And given that 4e is modeling itself as everything core, your going to have the same bloat in rather quick fashion.....another year or 2 is going to have a metric ton of books......

*shrug*

The DM never necesarily has to get the books. A player can and sit down with the DM and see about letting a spell, race, class, or wahtever. Thats what we do....

 

[malkav666]

Neat!

Thanks for all the replies folks. I am sorry for my confusing term. But just to clarify the term "OGL Bloat": I was referencing the large number of d20/OGL pruducts that were in support of D&D and new settings/systems in and of themselves. I had heard it called bloat and glut, and I used the term bloat, as in bloated (meaning full of). I did not mean to confuse folks.

love,

malkav

 

[Mark]

Neat!

Thanks for all the replies folks. I am sorry for my confusing term. But just to clarify the term "OGL Bloat": I was referencing the large number of d20/OGL pruducts that were in support of D&D and new settings/systems in and of themselves. I had heard it called bloat and glut, and I used the term bloat, as in bloated (meaning full of). I did not mean to confuse folks.

love,

malkav

I don't think it is as problematic to use bloat instead of glut as much as it is problematic to use OGL instead of d20.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Good luck with that. even just t rying to limit it to WOtc only in 3.5 you STILL had a ton of books.

That's why I kept out even most WotC splatbooks. In 4e, I'll just be using the three core books: PH1, DMG1 and MM1. I don't count anything else as core.

The DM never necesarily has to get the books. A player can and sit down with the DM and see about letting a spell, race, class, or wahtever. Thats what we do....

Books like Book of Nine Swords and Magic of Incarnum made this very difficult.