Will 3rd Party (now "4th" party) Companies Thrive like in 3.x OGL?

[BadMojo]

Answer hazy, try again later.

LOL...we didn't even have to shake you too hard to get that!

 

[Voadam]

Because WotC is ditching the wheel in favor of the astral sea

Honestly, the first 3rd party company to produce a devent 4e version of the Great Wheel can make a lot of money from this.

Tough to do with a lot of stuff (specifically names) not open content.

 

[SteveC]

I think there is a fantastic opportunity for third party companies with the release of 4E. Necromancer Games had "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel." The first company that manages to do "Fourth Edition Rules, Third Edition Feel" will be tremendously successful.

Most of the 3X Grognards will be moving to 4E (certainly not all, but most) but the company that serves their needs best will likely not be WotC.

--Steve

 

[Brown Jenkin]

There are plenty of things for 3rd party publishers to do right away. The first thing would be release the races and classes that are being held back right now. Sure those books won't last past the PHB 2 or 3 but the initial sales are the most important anyway and I suspect there is a market for Gnomes, Half-Orcs, Bards, and Druids. It may not be a large market but it would be good enough for smaller companies.

 

[Sir Brennen]

I think there is a fantastic opportunity for third party companies with the release of 4E. Necromancer Games had "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel." The first company that manages to do "Fourth Edition Rules, Third Edition Feel" will be tremendously successful.

Most of the 3X Grognards will be moving to 4E (certainly not all, but most) but the company that serves their needs best will likely not be WotC.

Man, I hope this isn't the case. Necromancer did well with their slogan and approach, but I think any company trying to "replicate" 3rd edition via the new rules is going to have a hard row to hoe. Mainly because many 3X grognards won't have the same nostalgia about their edition that those who played 1st edition did. How can they? The game is still current right now. Many neo-grognards will be such more for the change in mechanics than "feeling", and what's really the point of trying to replicate old mechanics with the new ones?

I also don't like the idea that 3rd party publishers will only exist to "fill in the holes" the new system is already perceived to have. Or just rehashing their past successes. The 4E independent publisher that will be the most interesting in my eyes will be the ones that take a look at the new edition, and realize what new places they could take us to. I think there's going to be plenty of "extensibility" in the new edition for some really talented and imaginative designers to shine, without trying to appeal the limited audience of those that only grudgingly came to the new edition, or not at all.

 

[BASHMAN]

The company who will do the best w/ 4e will be the one that makes an OGL PhB using the 4e improvements, but w/o the weirdness. When people playing 4e say, "This isn't D&D" they'll go for the company that makes "What 4e should have been"

A book that has 4e versions of:
Schools of Magic not brand-new things somehow named "traditions"
Gnome PCs not Tieflings
Halforcs not Dragonborn
All the core monsters (Frost Giants, etc)
Druids, Barbarians, Bards, Monks
Beloved spells that have been abandoned

It will take advantage of the improvements of 4e and appeal to people who hate the weirdness.
Once the OGL comes out, I can almost guarantee that some smart company will make their own PhB with all this-- and it won't do better than 4eD&D-- but it will be the biggest seller of all the 3rd party stuff...

 

[Cadfan]

The company who will do the best w/ 4e will be the one that makes an OGL PhB using the 4e improvements, but w/o the weirdness. When people playing 4e say, "This isn't D&D" they'll go for the company that makes "What 4e should have been"

A book that has 4e versions of:
Schools of Magic not brand-new things somehow named "traditions"
Gnome PCs not Tieflings
Halforcs not Dragonborn
All the core monsters (Frost Giants, etc)
Druids, Barbarians, Bards, Monks
Beloved spells that have been abandoned

It will take advantage of the improvements of 4e and appeal to people who hate the weirdness.
Once the OGL comes out, I can almost guarantee that some smart company will make their own PhB with all this-- and it won't do better than 4eD&D-- but it will be the biggest seller of all the 3rd party stuff...

They better publish fast then, before gnomes, halforcs, extra "core" monsters, and classes which didn't make the PHB get published by WOTC.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

They better publish fast then, before gnomes, halforcs, extra "core" monsters, and classes which didn't make the PHB get published by WOTC.

And when they do the OGL PHB can be revised to use the official mechanics while still stripping out the new weirdness of things like stupid feat/class feature names.

 

[catsclaw227]

I think there is a fantastic opportunity for third party companies with the release of 4E. Necromancer Games had "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel." The first company that manages to do "Fourth Edition Rules, Third Edition Feel" will be tremendously successful.

Defining what "Third Edition Feel" is might be as issue as well. Is it the great wheel? Is it gnomes?

What gives 3.x it's feel?

 

[SteveC]

Man, I hope this isn't the case. Necromancer did well with their slogan and approach, but I think any company trying to "replicate" 3rd edition via the new rules is going to have a hard row to hoe. Mainly because many 3X grognards won't have the same nostalgia about their edition that those who played 1st edition did. How can they? The game is still current right now. Many neo-grognards will be such more for the change in mechanics than "feeling", and what's really the point of trying to replicate old mechanics with the new ones?

I also don't like the idea that 3rd party publishers will only exist to "fill in the holes" the new system is already perceived to have. Or just rehashing their past successes. The 4E independent publisher that will be the most interesting in my eyes will be the ones that take a look at the new edition, and realize what new places they could take us to. I think there's going to be plenty of "extensibility" in the new edition for some really talented and imaginative designers to shine, without trying to appeal the limited audience of those that only grudgingly came to the new edition, or not at all.

I certainly think there will be more to it than that. WotC is changing the baseline assumptions for D&D in the new edition, so instead of the third party publishers "pushing the envelope" with unusual campaign settings, they have the opportunity to work with much more of the core audience.

I wouldn't call this plugging the holes at all, rather it's providing an alternative to the new core that will be more palatable to the portion of the market that likes a traditional game. If publishers were able to be successful with OGL in 3X with non-traditional settings, how much better would be giving traditional gamers a place to go?

Now with that said, you're right: the truly inspired publisher will take the new Edition and make something exceptional with it, something that we haven't even imagined yet. It's an exciting time, all things considered.

--Steve