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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gargoyle" data-source="post: 305807" data-attributes="member: 529">Re: Re: Re: Pet PeeveFunny you should say that.  During the D&D Q&A seminar, after a question regarding fast sneak, David Noonan sheepishly admitted that he was the one who wrote the Ninja of the Crescent Moon in The Sword and Fist.  Quote "I don't know what I was thinking."   Anyone who bought the first printing of that book knows there was not a lot of playtesting done, if any.  The average gamer spotted multiple large problems within minutes of opening the cover.   (All that being said, I love the erratted Sword and Fist and use it all the time.)  To answer the question of "how could they be?" my response is really the opposing question "Why couldn't they?" Some d20 companies do playtest more rigorously and more intelligently than WOTC.    The problem is figuring out which ones.  Waiting for a couple of these myself, and I agree that Monte writes good stuff.  But I still only use about a quarter of what he writes.  You're absolutely right about most of the material simply not fitting into a particular campaign.  Can't really disagree with that point of view.  I'm very critical of letting any new rules into my game, and don't have much of a problem coming up with character concepts or campaign material either.  I do allow almost anything that seems ok, if the players really want to see it , but sometimes I end up redesigning it, and that's no fun for anyone.  As a designer, I like tinkering with rules, but as a DM, I just want the darn things to work seamlessly.  I can understand just going with official material, and just a few trusted d20 companies.  All this is kind of frustrating to the consumer, but that's the price paid for more choices.   We've got to buy the stuff that's good and resist the urge to buy the crap (or the things that we really won't use).  That way the market will decide. Another thing you can do is post a request for a Vietnam style campaign setting or rulebook on the d20 publisher's board.  There might be some crazy-like-a-fox d20 publisher who's been dying to do one, but doesn't realize there is a market.   The cool thing about the d20 market is that it's growing.  A very thin slice of the d20 pie is getting bigger every day because the whole pie is getting bigger.  Nobody really knows what their market share is yet, or how deep it will go.</blockquote>

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