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Message: <blockquote data-quote="woodelf" data-source="post: 2113536" data-attributes="member: 10201">i'm almost exactly the opposite--i'm just starting to buy D20 System stuff. I didn't see anything D20 System thai thought was worth buying [at cover price] before Nyambe and Spycraft. Last year was the first year that produced more than 3-4 D20 System products that interested me. 2005 is shaping up to be the year when D20 System finally catches up with my other favorite games on my "to buy" list. [That is, at the current rate i will probably buy as many D20 System products (from all vendors combined) as i do, say, Tri-Stat products. Though, if i like the new Werewolf as much as i did the old one, it might still be ahead--games like Ars Magica and Over the Edge would probably beat everything else out, if they simply produced the books faster: i buy them as fast as they print them, which isn't very fast.]Anyway, i was never enlivened by the WotC releases, nor by most D20 System products (both because of tone/content, and because of the choice to stay mechanically-similar to D&D3[.5]E), so i didn't buy them. And i'm not at all the poorer for it. Nor will you, in any way, suffer from no longer buying D20 System stuff. If, as you say, it no longer appeals to you (whether because of saturation or declining quality), then you lose nothing if that segment of the market does collapse--just as i wouldn't care if the videogame market disappeared overnight, because i get nothing out of it.Also, i don't think there's any danger of D20 System disappearing, or even ceasing to be marketable. In fact, with Blue Rose, Iron Lore, Castles & Crusades, and older things like Spycraft D20 and Mutants & Masterminds and BESM D20, i think we're finally starting to see the long-awaited [at least by me] 2nd-generation of D20 System--it's finally starting to truly grow beyond the limitations of D&D3E. And it's only going to get better. The market has survived long enough for people to see empirically that the promises of synergies are at least partly true and that the market isn't as afraid of change as was originally suggested. And the very saturation you decry is forcing branching out. We've gone beyond a pseudo-GURPS solution of "everything the same, except for where it's different" to a more Fudge-like solution of "build what you works for your game"--and i think this is a very good thing. The ennui you describe is a direct product of making everything compatible--within the limited space of "just like D&D3E, but with new widgets" (especially since some of the widgets are seen as not diserable to change), you eventually realizze that all the widgets start to look alike. Allowing games to diverge, and become "incompatible", is the perfect way to escape this trap, making stuff that will truly refresh your game for its difference. Notice how most of the stuff that got the biggest raves in Unearthed Arcana was the really different stuff--the stuff that *couldn't* just get plugged into your existing D&D3.5e game.[btw, sorry for the thread resurrection--i was out of town for 2+ weeks, and didn't have time to reply before i left.]</blockquote>

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