Wizards of the Coast Product That I'd Buy

[JoeGKushner]

There are a lot of great d20 books out there now. I was highly pleased with Unearthed Arcana as it took mecahnics from a wide variety of resources.

What I'd like to see now, is something that doesn't reprint those books, but takes a page from Sword & Sorcery Studios and helps you put them into your campaign. For example, the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide did a good job of noting how you'd use the various official WoTC books like Exalted Deeds.

I'd love for instance, to see how Chaositech would work in the Forgotten Realms or some ideas on how to use the Dark Plea in a Greyhawk campaign. I know most of the ideas are fairly self obvious but some official notes, custom modifications to the material, and perhaps adventure seeds in the settings, would be fantastic.

 

[Mort_Q]

What I'd like to see now, is something that ... takes a page from Sword & Sorcery Studios and helps you put them into your campaign...

I'd love for instance, to see how Chaositech would work in the Forgotten Realms or some ideas on how to use the Dark Plea in a Greyhawk campaign.

Whereas Sword and Sorcery is d20, it is Malhavoc Press, not WotC.

I don't know the legality of siting a rival publishers works, but I doubt it'll happen.

Chaositech - Malhavoc Press
Forgotten Realms - Wizards of the Coast

When the Sky Falls - Malhavoc Press
Greyhawk - Wizards of the Coast

 

[wedgeski]

Whereas Sword and Sorcery is d20, it is Malhavoc Press, not WotC. I don't know the legality of siting a rival publishers works, but I doubt it'll happen.

A lot of Malhavoc's work is Open... including several chapters of Chaositech.

 

[Sir Brennen]

Whereas Sword and Sorcery is d20, it is Malhavoc Press, not WotC.

I don't know the legality of siting a rival publishers works, but I doubt it'll happen.

Chaositech - Malhavoc Press
Forgotten Realms - Wizards of the Coast

When the Sky Falls - Malhavoc Press
Greyhawk - Wizards of the Coast

It's not a matter of 'rival' publishers, so much as allowing another another company to use one's non-OGL content, aka Product Identity, aka Intellectual Property. Without some sort of agreement, it's copyright infringement.

Such sharing of content has been done in the d20 arena already, by non-WotC publishers. I think there's a couple of products that reference Green Ronin's Freeport, for example, and the Redhurst (sp?) Wizard Academy.

I don't think WoTC would do it, because such a book probably wouldn't be too profitable for such a large publisher, whereas for smaller publishers it's a win-win - Company 1 publishes book A, Company 2 publishes book B, one or the other publishes book C which describes how to use A with B, thus driving sales up for both companies.

If WotC where Company 1, however, they would have to look at the audience for book B, and decide if sales of book C, or resulting sales of book A, would justify the cost of printing book C in lieu of printing some other book D, which would stand on it's own. Company 2 would probably benefit, riding off of WotC's market and visibility, but it wouldn't be reciprocal. And I don't think WotC would allow Company 2 to publish book C, as WotC has much more vested in their IP, and probably won't want another publisher creating content for it.

Just some amatuer market analysis

 

[Wombat]

I'd buy RoboRally, but that's a different matter

 

[diaglo]

i liked what Green Ronin did with the spells in the 2000ed... Divine and Arcane from various sources.

 

[ssampier]

The Sand castle that Sam built

Sounds like a great idea Joe, but Wizards like to play in its own sandbox. With the SRD, you can take some of the good castle building sand and make your own castles, moats, and bridges, but you can't play in our box.

With the OGL, however, you can play in many different sandboxes, building your castles as you wish and changing the 'box' to fit your needs.

Such book probably won't see the light of day because of this diference. I personally think Wizards should development an 'imprint' that focuses on OGL books.

 

[Voadam]

There are a lot of great d20 books out there now. I was highly pleased with Unearthed Arcana as it took mecahnics from a wide variety of resources.

What I'd like to see now, is something that doesn't reprint those books, but takes a page from Sword & Sorcery Studios and helps you put them into your campaign. For example, the Forgotten Realms Player's Guide did a good job of noting how you'd use the various official WoTC books like Exalted Deeds.

I'd love for instance, to see how Chaositech would work in the Forgotten Realms or some ideas on how to use the Dark Plea in a Greyhawk campaign. I know most of the ideas are fairly self obvious but some official notes, custom modifications to the material, and perhaps adventure seeds in the settings, would be fantastic.

Well the terms of the OGL mean that any product like that would need to have separate licensing agreements with every company whose campaign they'd like to do that for.

TSR used to do that around the end of 2e with their supplements. For instance Chronomancer and College of magic had instructions on how to fit the material into Ravenloft, GH, FR, Birthright, Planescape, etc. which I always found interesting.

Thanks to the license however I mostly expect this to occur only within one company, for instance the way AU has suggested monster lists from various SSS products including the creature collections and tome of horrors as well as the standard MM/srd creatures and its own small bestiaries.

 

[Crothian]

Along these lines what I would like to see is a publisher with a particuliar setting do a weekly or monthly on line article that addresses using different books in their setting. They can highlight the best products that they feel fit their setting and can include their own books as well as other publishers.