Was January really so long ago?

Have we all completely forgotten the Wizards of the Coast Dungeons & Dragons Open Game License debacle of the year 2023 already? Is the D&D community as gullible and stupid as we’re being made out to be? Has 2023 taught us anything? What happened to, “Vote with your dollars?”

Sorry, family. I wasn’t going to do this. I tried to convince myself to just stick to indie TTRPG month for all of July and not get dragged into any WotC bullsh🦆t. Honestly, I’ve already heard too much about Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants. I’ll be damned if I’m going to give it any press by talking about what we’re hearing is in this thing. I’m not even going to say, “Don’t do it.”

Disclaimer: Statements expressed in this article are strictly my opinion. If you disagree or have a different opinion, that’s okay. I’m not an expert on everything. I’m not always right. I’m just writing from my experience as I know it. Your mileage may vary.

I’m going to trust that most consumers are going to make informed decisions.

Rather than roast WotC, James Wyatt whom I’ve admired for years, and all the other lovely people who helped produce this book, I’m going to simply point out there are other options. Of course there are plenty of people (cough “shills” cough) on YouTube who are already fistpumping this new Bigby Presents book and it’s not due out until August. It seems that April’s WotC Content Creator summit had its desired effect on some of its louder intended audience. (*Meanwhile some of us can’t even get a legit reply email out of WotC regarding an interview request.)

Here’s what I am going to say: There are other, possibly better options out there. Go on DrivethruRPG.com or DMsGuild.com and do a search for “Giants.” There are hundreds of giant related materials out there. Then, while you’re poking around, search for Monster Manual Expanded by Dragonix. The content in these three or four books (Deadly Denizens counts, too.) is probably better than any official sourcebook on the market today.

The Dragonix books are just one resource. I could name a dozen more monster books from various Third Party Publishers that get the job done better than the reported 70 monster entries in this new WotC sourcebook. (Remember Third Party Publishers, those guys WotC were getting ready to screw over with the new OGL 1.1?) So far, I’m only talking about 5E compatible stuff.

If we look at other editions of D&D and other fantasy games, the list goes on a long way.

Let’s remember that 5E is just one edition of D&D. 3rd/3.5 Edition had some of the best OGL sourcebooks money can buy. They are relatively easy to adapt to 5E. Mongoose Publishing put out over 100 OGL guides covering magic, character classes, Slayer’s guides, creature templates, and a ton more. Alderac Entertainment and Green Ronin Publishing had dozens of their own titles covering these topics, including giants and rune magic.

How far out do we want to go? There are better supplements, even better indie TTRPGs than what’s currently offered officially from Wizards of the Coast. That’s without even recommending specific games such as Fantasy AGE, Pathfinder, Old School Essentials, or Dungeon Crawl Classics. Guaranteed, if there isn’t something already in print that is better, homebrew can and will be created that equals or tops anything official for D&D. We can do so much better.

There are rules lite games out there such as Index Card RPG, Deathbringer and EZD6 that cost way less than what these $69.99 hardcovers from WotC are going to cost. The best part about exceptionally rules lite games is you don’t need big, bloated, art-heavy sourcebooks. You can stat anything on the fly based purely on description. It takes less time for an experienced GM to make a monster up on the fly than it does to look one up in a D&D book.

That’s all I’ve got for today. Thanks for stopping by. Please use your own discernment. I appreciate you.