Tired of D20/OGL?

[Nathan]

I absolutely dig the amount of D20 material available at my local game store, but already, I am beginning to wonder when the bubble will burst. For one, are the rest of you getting tired of D20/OGL stuff? How many fantasy modules do we need anyway? As of yet, I haven't seen enough unique material, except from Atlas, Green Ronin, etc to warrant me buying a bunch of D20 fantasy modules. I hope someone can push for some funky designs soon.

Anyone seen anything truly neat out there that uses the D20 rules?

Nathan

[Mike Holmes]

People actually buy adventures? Wait. People actually buy adventures - for D&D3E? What's the world comming to?

OK. Sorry. I'm not sure what you're getting at. Is there too much D20 stuff for what? Sustained economic growth? For anyone to sort through? Tired of it how? Like I bought to much and now I don't want to read it all (well, obviously I don't have that problem)? Or tired of it hogging shelf space at my FLGS? That last one would fit, except I don't see anyone else making anything else to compete. Nothing's being pushed off the shelves that I can see. What's the fear here?

Mike

[Ryan]

I like the idea of the OGL.  It allows WotC to focus on one world instead of something like 6.  And they are putting out a quality product instead of a bunch of fluff.  I don't give a rat's fart about the D20 system itself.  I am comparing TSR to WotC.  TSR was putting out a bunch of crap for the most part because they were spread out so thin.  How many different worlds were they developing for when they got bought out?  I can think of about 5 off the top of my head.

What the OGL does is allows various companies to leech off of the D&D name, and they can put out a good quality product.  This way us gamers have the best of both worlds.  We have many different settings to choose from, but we don't have to weed through all the crap adventures.

One thing that I find rather annoying is when companies name the system for the game.  Like D20 (WotC and how many others), Synnergy (for Blue Planet) and many more that I can't think of off the top of my head.  It's a system, who cares what to name it.  And if you're going to name the system, make it a relevent name.  What does teamwork (synnergy, sorta) have to do with rolling dice?  I do like the system, though.  Anyways...

What I don't like about the OGL is that there's too much out there.  I'm sure that there are a few companies out there trying to make a fast buck and putting out material like TSR did.  I don't agree with that.

And, I do buy adventures.  Why?  I want to run characters through something premade before putting myself through the stress of creating adventures.  This way I get to see how the characters will interract with each other without having to worry as much about the integrity of my adventure.

Have fun, all!

-Ryan

[Mike Holmes]

On 2001-10-29 09:24, Ryan wrote:
What I don't like about the OGL is that there's too much out there.  I'm sure that there are a few companies out there trying to make a fast buck and putting out material like TSR did.  I don't agree with that.

So, what you don't like about OGL is that there is no quality control, and you have to sift through the bad stuff to find the good stuff? Just clarifying.

Mike

[Ryan]

I realize that I contradicted myself in there.  But, yes, Mike, you are correct.  You do have to weed through some crap, but not nearly as much as when it was only TSR creating for the game.  I have evidence of this sitting on my bookshelf.

But what bothered me most about TSR is when they'd create something really cool, but not follow up on it.  Anyone hear of the continent of Taladas (for Dragonlance)?  It was a really cool continent, but they didn't follow up on it at all.  They kept creating and creating stuff for Ansalon.  There were some seeds in Taladas, but it was a little too open for my taste.  It would have been nice if it was acknowledged.  Okay, that rant is done.

OGL is a good idea, here's to hoping that companies do good quality control on their products (which is the case, for the most part).

[Nathan]

I will try to restate my issues with the D20 business.

I haven't seen ENOUGH wild stuff. D20 adventures are great and all, but darn it, I want to see some pretty whacky stuff. Not just more fantasy schlock - where are the really funky crossover ideas and weird system-breaking stuff? Has anyone seen anything like that for D20? Or is it mostly average to great modules and fantasy stuff?

Thanks,
Nathan

[Ryan]

Define wild.  I mean wild can mean so many different things.  I mean there's strange type wild.  And wacky wild, and just plain stupid wild.

I understand the idea of something different.  If an individual (or company) is going to come up with a setting, do something to set it apart.  Like make the world floating (sound famaliar, Nathan?  Or do SOMETHING to make it different from the rest.

Take Palladium, for example.  I hate the system, and many people agree with my opinion on that.  But the world is done extremely well.  They don't just have the cookie-cutter races (Elf, Dwarf, Human, etc.).  They have other races like the Wolfen, Changeling, and others that I can't think of.  And the world actually has a good history to it, though some of it is pretty blatantly ripped off (the islands of Y and Oda, the map is actually Pangia (sp?)).  But, it's pretty original, it makes sense, and most importantly, it has room for expansion.  My friend that runs the game added in many different things to it.  Like nuclear weaponry (it was already detonated), missiles (what does this shiny red thing do?  Oops...), among other things.  He runs the game as Strang-wild and wacky-wild.  Yes, we did save a dragon from a damsel.

But Nathan, I agree with you.  I am sick of cookie cutter settings.  Give me something different.  And on the subject of something different, has anyone ever heard of a game called Hunter Planet?

-Ryan