WoTC products, going downhill?

[Psion]

It's not like new products are total dogs, but I haven't actually been inspired to buy new WotC books for a few months now and it seems like for the months that lead up to that, I found the books I was buying weren't getting used in my games.

What makes it more conspicuous to me is that right before the decline, I feel that the products were very good... Complete Mage, Sandstorm, etc.

 

[Rawhide]

Much, much better

Star wars Saga is the best rpg thing to come along since 3e itself, bar none

i think some dnd stuff is suffering, but dragon Magic and PHBII are great. Comp Champ[ kinda sucks, but that's just one book And MMV is a big improvement to me

I hope the people behind Saga get to do a lot of dnd stuff soon, so their clear writing and cool ideas can help dnd stay out of a rut

 

[Imruphel]

I think it's not so much uphill or downhill but patchy.

If you look at adventures, The Sinister Spire was a great little adventure released at the same time as Expedition to Undermountain - Oops We Forgot to give you Complete Maps (the latter I don't blame on the designers who all produce good work: it was a failure in development). Before that we had the hastily and sloppily put-together Expedition to the Demonweb Pits which had great potential, an excellent author, but obviously a faulty development and editing process.

In the way of splat books, we have had the excellent Book of Nine Swords and the close-to-execrable Complete [divine II? I can't remember the name]).

I would call it patchy.

 

[Nepenthe]

Didn't Bo9s come out a year ago? I wouldn't exactly call it (or phbII) recent, considering the amount of books that get released monthly by WotC.

... Or, used to get released, which brings me to the part that is really worrying, or the basically completely bland rest of the year. I mean, I'm fixed since MWP is going to be squeezing out the final Dragonlance books at a good pace, but if it weren't for those, the book-buying addict in me would already be quivering in terror.

 

[Hjorimir]

Personally, I've been underwhelmed with WotC's products lately. I should note, however, that I really voted from a D&D standpoint and should have factored SWSE into my selection.

I'd be much more excited about D&D if I really felt that SWSE was where it was going... and going soon.

 

[delericho]

In terms of quality, WotC seem to be doig pretty well. However, in terms of content, I have found that less and less of their output really interests me. Which is fine, since I have enough books.

 

[ivocaliban]

*muffled grunt from beneath a pile of books*

In other words, I think most of the "downhill slant" issues come about from the sheer quantity of material that's already out there. There certainly aren't as many essential books as there were a few years ago, but that's understandable by the time you're getting around to Monster Manual V. I think the quality has improved overall, but the topics are far less interesting. The fact is, most of what I need or want has been covered already.

Well, except for Greyhawk...but I'll save that rant for another thread.

 

[Alnag]

It really depends... on one hand there are great things like Star Wars on the other, WotC beat absolutely anyone senseless with tones of feat/PrC/spells and that kind of...

Now they have catched themselves into a trap. There is crunch for everything imaginable and so they turn more to the fluff, but they conditioned customers for crunch hence the "going downhill threads". I don't mind fluff actually, but I am not sure how skillfull are the WotC designers in writing it, because I actually haven't seen any good so far. It was hidden under the tons of mechanics and such.

 

[Raven Crowking]

Books, slightly uphill. At least, I found Dungeonscape worthwhile, which is the last WotC book I purchased. Modules, downhill. I don't care for the new format, nor for the more linear approach of, say, Barrow of the Forgotten King.

Of course, that's IMHO. YMMV.

 

[heirodule]

Downhill: too much useless filler.

Used to be prestige class examples. Now it's Organizations. I was disappointed to find complete Champion devoted so much time to them.

Give me a feat compendium, one more monster book (more monster type books too) and a few more greyhawk adventures, or eberron setting books: planes and noir, or "heroes of noir".