D&D 4E Would you buy 4E if it were not open/had no licenses for 3rd party companies?

[Gareman]

Store Owner

As a store owner, the poll tracks fairly well with my sales. About 80% of my D&D sales are Wizards of the Coast, with about 20% of my D&D sales being third party (D20/OGL). I wrote my own feelings about this as a store owner in my blog here . As a player, I've relied heavily on Monte Cook's materials for my games, but since he's left the industry (more or less), I don't see a future of buying a lot of third party materials.

 

[lvl20dm]

I will buy into 4e no matter what they do with the GSL. I played D&D before the OGL, and I would keep playing if they closed up again. That said, I liked some of the 3rd party stuff - Arcana Evolved and Iron Heroes most particularly, but there has been lots of good stuff from 3rd parties. I'm looking forward to seeing what Necromancer and Goodman Games do with 4e. I'm about 95% sure that 4e will be open, maybe not as open as the OGL, but I don't see them suddenly yanking the GSL off the table.

 

[drjones]

I never have bought much of the more 'out there' OGL, I just want premade dnd modules & settings that are quality.

I might feel different once I see the first few 4.0 adventures, I hope they are more high quality than the late 3.5 wotc seemed to be. If not I will be looking to the GSL longingly.

 

[Seanchai]

...to me that means they will buy the books, but if you want to keep them as long term customers you need to allow third party support.

That's what they're saying now, today. Let's see what they actually do when they're playing 4e with their buddies.

Seanchai

 

[Seanchai]

Nobody's forcing you to buy the non-WotC products - what benefit to you do you see from having D&D closed?

Network externalities. If you're the type of person who wants to use only official materials and only official materials exist, then you're going to have more players who play only using official materials.

Seanchai

 

[breschau]

I want the game to be open, but it doesn't matter really.

 

[Dice4Hire]

Unless you count Dragon Magazine as 3rd party (and I do) I never bought any 3rd party stuff for 3.0 or 3.5, except the first part of Rappan-Athuk form Necromancer in pdf form. Part of that is my situation, I live in Japan and Amazon Japan does not carry much 3rd party stuff. The game stores here carry no non-Japanese stuff either, so I have to buy all my stuff from Amazon Japan.

I would like to see 3rd party stuff in 4E, but it really does not matter to me one way or the other. I am sure WOTC will adequately support 4E.

 

[ThirdWizard]

I own a few non-D&D rpgs... BESM, Buffy, Angel, Dread, Call of Cthulhu, Shadowrun. None of them are Open. Doesn't look like I require an RPG to be Open to buy it. I don't see why I would hold D&D to a different standard than I do my other RPGs. In fact, I would find such a position untenable.

 

[SSquirrel]

Eh Dragon and Dungeon weren't 3rd party until they were spun off from WoTC and even then they worked so closely w/WotC I always considered it first party.

I never bought much Necro, then again, I had a friend who did maps for them and he had spare product so I have a good bit on my shelves, esp from their first couple of years
One I've always really liked for the Necropolis book he got me that he also got signed by Gary Gygax

 

[der_kluge]

I honestly don't know. Being open is EXTREMELY important to me since most of my campaign is based on 3rd party products, and heavily so from Necromancer games. Without that support, It would be easier for me to stay with 3rd edition.

I did manage to play 2nd edition for 10 years and it was fully closed, but now that that cats out of the bag, I don't know if I could go back. I suppose I'd end up buying it if everyone I knew bought it, and it was just really the shiznit and I loved it regardless. But the fact that it was closed would really, really bug me.