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Message: <blockquote data-quote="teitan" data-source="post: 8234809" data-attributes="member: 3457">I don't think 3pp is important like it was 5-15 or more years ago, especially for Paizo, who has built a strong brand name for quality products. 3pp doesn't really drive core sales like it used to with just about every 3pp publisher now developing house systems and those of D&D inclination adopting some form of the OSR movement as their core system. While Paizo supports 3pp because of the OGL primarily, they don't need 3pp. Back in the day 3pp really drove the industy. I managed a game/comic shop and once the D20 bubble burst and we started getting more quality product 3pp for D&D it really kept the industry going when White Wolf crapped the bed and ended the original WOD and Chaosium started having funding issues as well as undelivered product (Pulp Cthulhu I am looking at you). The market was still nowhere near the size it is now and what I can see is that that market is basically 5e with very little lifting of other publishers. Paizo is banking on what is now essentially a house system, almost divorced from D&D, especially with WOTC now slowly dropping or changing D&Disms like Alignments and adopting the Tasha's rules as standard.What Paizo struggled with, and struggles with, is the identification of Pathfinder with D&D. I have been invited to play D&D in groups, they say D&D but it's Pathfinder. They are considered synonymous. With 5e being such a massive and the publishers like Kobold and such having very close relationships with WOTC, its kind of hurt them in that 3pp field because Pathfinder no longer resembles 3.5 era D&D, nor is it 5e era D&D. So the two massive audiences are no longer there for Paizo in that regard. They are banking on Pathfinder/Golarion fans. They are building their own brand identity beyond "unofficial heir" to 3.5. 3pp would help but like other games, it's not necessary and compared to other companies, they are also doing very well.I think we, as a community, have placed a lot of emphasis on 3pp support as an indicator of success but we seem to only apply it to D&D and Pathfinder. We overanalyze it but barely breathe of the idea for Cthulhu or any number of other games out there. Other OGL based games failed even with decent support like Mongoose Runequest. Maybe it's time we quit looking at 3pp support for anything not called D&D?</blockquote>

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