Why don't you buy non-WoTC stuff?

[Tsyr]

In addition, I prefer to take a book and use ALL of it, not just the pieces that I think are cool. I do have some house rules, but I've never taken only 1 feat, or one section of a book and added to my campaign. It is all or nothing.

Gods alive... I couldn't use ANY WotC product if I limited myself to that requirement.

 

[Furn_Darkside]

also, what would your LGS want to see to have them start carrying a line of products or a company?

My LGS is run by goobers, I avoid them when possible.

I shop primarily online- Talon Comics.

I am not sure what would inspire me to buy more products. (Also- just to be clear, I was not insulting the quality of the cover art of Dry Lands- it is the picture itself the confuses me and makes me think it is not what I may want in a desert/arabic book.)

As for more casual gamers-
A catalog might be a good idea. Perhaps you and other companies could get together and grab some attention.

Freebies always pull people to them, but I am not sure how sustainable they are in the long run.

I thought Green Ronin had an interesting idea of giving away a free product with the purchase of a dragon/dungeon subscription. I am not sure how that worked out for them, though.

FD

 

[thundershot]

I buy lots of non-WOTC stuff. I just don't care for campaign settings in general. I have my own. Though I do plan on using Dragonstar very soon.


Chris

 

[Furn_Darkside]

In addition, I prefer to take a book and use ALL of it, not just the pieces that I think are cool.

Wow- you must save a lot of money on rpg books. I don't even use all of the ph- haha.

Have you checked out the reviews on this site? They can be really informative.

FD

 

[laiyna]

THG Hal,

If your products are so good and strong. What book would you sugest for me that could match the quality of the books/settings I mentioned. Name me one product (and I will be fair that I prefer none-adventures), and I'll buy it and put my review on this board. Be it good or bad... But I will compare it to the products I mentioned above, if it does not come even close to that quality I will say it also.

Be Free To Post a Title Below.................


Taren,

I need to agre that the Q-Serie of Mongoose is crap, and prob even worse. But if you like a "compleet" book for your cash I would suggest to try Chaos Magic. It will ad something special to your game.

Laiyna

 

[Jeremy Ackerman-Yost]

I agree. I think that having lost their best talent with the layoffs is starting to show. They still have a few good people on board, but not enough to tend to every line.

Many products this year -- DDG, Book of Challenges, Stronghold Builder's Guidebook -- have left me saying "eh." Just not enough inspiration IMO.

In the meantime, it seems like d20 publishers are coming up with cooler and cooler stuff.

I don't think it's a personnel problem, per se. It's more a reflection of corporate mentality. New and different is discouraged by the modern American corporate viewpoint. Only proven bread-winners are acceptable. This, of course, breeds stagnation. Smaller outfits tend to be more innovative for a number of reasons. They feel a need to distance themselves from the pack a bit to get recognized. And they are willing to take risks. This, IMO, is backward. WoTC has much deeper pockets than small publishers, and SHOULD be more willing to take risks. Instead they stomp up and down on originality in their products like Thumper on crack. Gotta love that corporate drone mindset. Inspiration will always come from the 5 guys who are risking their retirement savings to get a book published, rather than from a corporation who filters anything new and unusual out of their products to make them more palatable for mass consumption.

 

[der_kluge]

One of the reasons for my lack of d20 purchases:

Art, art and art: Really...

If you want to talk about WoTC's art, I've got one word for you - "Vampire".

Egads, that's the worst picture of a vampire I've ever seen. And that Mialee chic makes me want to puke.

 

[Matthew The Mage]

Ok i will throw my 2 cents in to the pot.

I am a die hard fan of D&D and get almost all the books that come out as "offical" ie Forgotten Realms, Ravenloft and the forth coming Dragon Lance

But on the other side i do own more than 10 books from the d20 system.

Part of it on my side is (I don't mean to hurt anyone here) that i get a little turned off by the cover art.
Yes i flip throught and take a look but not as much as if it had a good hard cover and (my opinion) better cover art.
Some give the look that they where drawen by someone who's art is not of great quality and that can lead to a false idea of the quality of the work inside.

They meaning d20 companies should start getting more coverage in the Dragon Mag. send the new onwer or editor copies. Take out space in the Mag. to promote new and coming d20 books.
I would love to see little more space in the Dragon mag. for d20 products. Even if it is a 1 page review including a nice picture of the front cover so people can see it and reconise it.


Yes i realize that a small company doesn't have the $ to compete with Wizo's.

Ok quick version.

1. More advertisment !!, maybe in Dragon mag?
2. Continue to improve the cover art and hard cover's are a good idea.

 

[ForceUser]

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.

I'm a homebrew DM. I don't look at a setting book and think "Cool, a new setting I can run!" Instead, I think "Cool, look at all these neat ideas I can incorporate into my homebrew!" Therefore, the more setting-specific a D20 book gets, the less I'm interested. To date I have bought nearly as much D20 stuff as official D&D stuff, but if you'll gander at my list, you'll see what I'm talking about:

Seafarer's Handbook
Traps & Treachery I & II
Creature Collection I & II
Relics & Rituals
Scarred Lands Gazetteer
Seas of Blood
Jade & Steel

Most of this stuff contains content that can be plunked into any setting without too much work. I like non-setting-specific D20 stuff - I'll always give that stuff a fair shake. I'm sure your The Hunt: Rise of Evil campaign setting is pretty cool Hal, as are Oathbound and Dragonstar, but in the end I'm not interested in running someone else's campaign world. I want to run mine.

 

[Tsyr]

2. Continue to improve the cover art and hard cover's are a good idea.

Personaly, unless it's a fairly hefty book, or one that I intend to use a lot, I won't pay the money for hard cover books. This is why I've passed up the various FFE products, for example... nothing in then I care enough about to spend the extra money for a hard cover.