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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Khur" data-source="post: 1314244" data-attributes="member: 5583">While I value this input, there are two problems with this assertion. First, and probably most importantly, we're not dealing with TSR, so what they did has little bearing. We'd be dealing with third-party d20 companies who can afford a licensing arrangement with WotC. Those companies may or may not have some relationship to TSR's quality, but probably not. I'll also say that, if we were dealing with the relevance of TSR, one of the most popular and best-selling module series was set in the Forgotten Realms--the Bloodstone series. People still pay pretty well for copies of this series on eBay and the like.Secondly, any counter to your assertion relies on an understanding of what you mean by "far inferior". Since we can't possibly know with certainty what you mean, we can't fully understand the relevance of your argument. Care to elucidate?The real unfortunate fact of the matter is that nobody has the power to know which things in this market (or most others) are "good". This is because we are all victims of marketing clout. We buy what we know about, and we always know about the product that has the most marketing capital behind it. I'm sure the best campaign setting, adventure, or soft-drink formula ever created is sitting somewhere in obscurity, lacking the exposure it deserves because the person who created it has no capital to market the thing properly.This is all academic, because the question of third-party, setting-specific adventures has to be posed from a business standpoint. If it's not viable as a business model, or a portion thereof, whether quality will ultimately show up is irrelevant. Nobody will do it.The indication is that WotC products sell the best. It's not a big leap of logic to assume that support material for official (and currently closed) settings will sell better than generic d20, especially if done by reputable firms. This conclusion seems to be supported by a desire in the market for setting-specific adventures. It also seems likely that such material on the market will support the increased sale of WotC's own books, if managed properly by WotC.If the setting-specific adventures are packaged thoughtfully, they'll be useful to generic campaigns as well. Heck, even if they aren't created thoughtfully, they will be useful to the generic setting. It's the reverse of the logic used by others to support generic adventures. You can replace what doesn't work for you—a feat here, a villain's race there, a god name here, and so on.What I'm really after is whether the business model will work.</blockquote>

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