Aldarc
Legend
Yeah, that sounds definitely like what John Wick would want to do.@MerricB
I agree with you Don, but I wonder how much of that was because no one could make a D&D clone and not get sued into the dirt.
In all seriousness, I think that there were always people who were dissatisfied with D&D's designs. Heartbreakers were symptomatic of this phenomenon. There was bound to be people who would have made their own games in significant enough ways from D&D, such as RuneQuest and Traveller. I don't think that the only solution to every "I have an idea for an RPG" would somehow involving wanting to make a D&D clone. I think it short-sells human creativity significantly, and it feels a bit insulting to the designers of this era to be honest.