Why don't you buy non-WoTC stuff?

[Psion]

I think there is one thing a lot of you are overlooking: The d20 license is doing exactly what it was intended to.

WotC/TSR never made a lot of money of small, specific items. Any single one of them didn't sell enough copies to create much of a profit margin. Yet at the same time, the D&D crowd loves these sorts of tidbits.

So what to do? The reason that small companies can get by with smaller print lines is they have lower overhead. So in comes the d20 system license. Small companies can explore new settings and supplements to their hearts content, while WotC can churn out the larger print run items that can sustain such things larger companies worry themselves with (y'know, little things like shareholders and full time employees.)

Really, you all should be thankful for the d20 license. With only the stuff that WotC is putting out this year, I think it would have been rather a dry year. But with all the d20 publisher support, you have your selection of settings and supplements. In all likelihood, most players only get a smattering of any of those. But having a rich and diverse selection like this is something unrivalled by any other game.

 

[Dinkeldog]

I agree wholeheartedly, Psion.

 

[Teflon Billy]

Bluffside is a fantastic city book, one of the best I've ever seen. That's why we nominated it for an ENnie. In addition, Interludes: Brief Expeditions to Bluffside is a great adventure, and we nominated it also, for good reason. Hal and crew are not just talkin' the talk; they're walkin' the walk.

Well, that saved me the trouble.

Ditto what the Colonel said

 

[Bagpuss]

Personally I'm the other way around now.

I've stopped buying Wizards stuff. Its when you pick a Wizard's product off the shelf and its half as thick but £5 more than most D20 products. Sure they are pretty but so's a lot of the D20 stuff.

The Judge Dredd D20 stuff is my most recent purchase along with most of the hardbacks for Scarred Lands, and a few of the softbacks.

 

[barsoomcore]

I just wanted to add my "True dat" to Psion's comment.

Remember twenty years ago when all there was was TSR? I am constantly amazed at not just the quantity of material that I can now go and BUY for my campaign, but the quality, as well.

Bluffside is indeed as great as everyone says. The Green Ronin boys kick rear end. Relics & Rituals fit my campaign perfectly. Nobody's yet mentioned Nyambe, Chris Dolount's brilliant sourcebook, my vote for the best 3rd-party d20 product yet. Spycraft, Constructs...

What's happened to this industry blows me away.

I own more WotC stuff than any other publisher, but there's lots of great 3rd party material on my shelves. I'm pretty happy with just about everything I've popped down the cash for, really. Oriental Adventures -- I use it all the time. Deities and Demigods was worth it just for the "How to make a god" rules -- I have a lot of NPCs in my campaign who are perfectly described with those rules.

It's like I'm a kid all over again. Only I have more money. And less hair.

 

[Bagpuss]

Case in point: LGS A had a copy of FL:UB, and I went to buy it the next time I ws there, and it was gone. The counter girl had no clue what I was talking about and offered to take a note and possibly see if she could get this ordered for me. I chose to buy it instead at LGS C ( LGS B did not have it - I'm guessing they sold out ) I bought the last copy at LGS C. We will see if they re-order...

So what will your re-order strategy be?

Hold on a second you have THREE local game shops? You luckly, luckly B****ARD!

Saying that at last a local bookshop has started stocking RPG stuff (although already its been pushed to a small corner by Games Workshop stuff). Still it has a VERY limited selection and I've yet to see them restock anything I've bought from them, or get new products when they come out.

I still have to travel across the Mersey to find a decent shop, which has much improved after changing manager.

 

[Zappo]

I only buy Wizards stuff because, frankly, I can't afford much else. I've bought the core books, the MotP, and the splatbooks. That's it. Oh, someone gave me the hero builder's guidebooks as a present. Very interesting; of course, since it has no crunchy bits, everyone bashed it.

I could technically buy more books, but I would never have the time to read them and actually incorporate them into my campaign. There are dozens of classes in the splatbooks alone which I haven't used yet, and hundreds of adventure and plot ideas. I still haven't read Defenders of the Faith because I think I have still a lot of things I can do with vanilla clerics and paladins.

Even if I had three brains and could devise one or more mega-campaigns which exhaust most of those books' possibilities, me and my players would never even get close to having the time to play them through.

I won't buy a book to let it sit somewhere and not get used, especially if it is a good book.

I did think for a while about buying Relics and Rituals, though. I eventually decided against it because I had already got T&B and that contained enough magic stuff to keep me going for years.

Same for settings. I'm playing Dragonlance and Planescape, and while I'm sorta bored with Dragonlance, it would take about a century or so before I run out of Planescape ideas.

 

[Umbran]

I kind of have to pitch in with a "me too" with what Zappo said.

People here, geeze, it sounds like you've got the wealth of a small country to throw around on gaming materials. *shrug*

 

[JeffB]

I was looking at the campaign poll thread and saw that GH was beating SL and thought it was not because it is a better setting but because it is official and the creator of the poll forgot some pretty big alternate settings:
Kalamar
The Hunt: Rise of Evil
too name a few....so why don't people buy non-WoTC stuff, retailers have told me that a lot of the non-WoTC stuff has less errata and seems like it goes in areas that people are asking for, heck we have WoTC people playing and using our stuff SO....why not you? And further will it effect you buying Dungeon and Dragon Mags (it will not for me, no worries Erik ) now that they are "under new management". What would make you decide to try a new d20 company (by new I mean one you have not gotten something from, not a brand new company).

Ok, I have started the ball now roll with it.

For me personally, I just tend to gravitate to more "traditional" settings...GH, FR, DL, Mystara, Kalamar..at least when I'm playing D&D....My fave gaming settings ever are the more creative works..Middle-Earth, Glorantha, Eartdawn, Tekumel, etc...

Most of the non-WOTC D20 settings are more off the beaten path, so I'm not as likely to get them...As I like a certain "flavor" campaign with D&D...I'd rather play a new rule-set designed around the setting when the world deviates from "traditional D&D"...rather than trying to fit the setting to the rules...

That being said..with the way WOTC is starting to lean towards mostly crunch and little fluff..I'll be looking elsewhere before long...

As far as adventures go, most D20companies are head and shoulder's above the WOTC offerings...and always have been, IMO.

 

[Sulimo]

Umm...I do. Its actually pretty much the revserse, with the last WoTC product I bought being the FR hard-cover.

The main reason for this is that I have little interest in books that are just extra rules. My interest is in adventures and sourcebooks.

Plus, I'm not a really regular 3e player...thus sourcebooks, and adventures still get alot of use.