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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Henry" data-source="post: 412313" data-attributes="member: 158">I was commenting on a very similar premise in the Book of Vile Darkness review thread that you mention, although I would state it differently. In my view, there does seem to be a desire of increasing numbers of players over about the last decade (I could trace it sometime between 1988 and 1990 as a rough starting point) to be less inclined to "wing it" and more inclined to keep it verbatim as released books allow.Perhaps this stems from the desire of game companies to sell their supplemental product that this behavior was encouraged? Perhaps the coming of Computer RPG's and Collectible card games influenced it? Perhaps even the emphasis on tournament play from that time onward fostered a feel to "keep the rules consistent?" I do not know.What I do perceive is that many players will not alter a rule if it is from an official source like WotC, even if that rule causes them trouble. Even more complex, these same players will refuse to incorporate something unless it is officially from the producer of the Dungeons and Dragons game. I have seen some gamers on these very boards who enjoy use of The Psionics Handbook, or the Dungeon Master's guide, yet who would never dream of picking up a Malhavoc Press product for no other reason than it is not a WotC product, and is perceived to be substandard.The perspective is surprising to me, considering the subculture of tinkerers and hobbyists that made D&D popular back in the 1970's and 1980's. Gary Gygax at this time (gathering my perceptions from various articles in Dragon and the DMG) did want to keep the game strictures better under his control, but the culture of wargaming grognards, so used to tinkering with their war rules to build a better game, did not follow his lead that closely.(Some have speculated that had Gary's fledgling TSR had the same clout as, say Avalon Hill, this might have been different, but such as not to be.)Our hobby was founded by tinkerers and self-supplementers, and to see a subset of gamers who will accept nothing less than official product is a little confusing to this old-schooler.</blockquote>

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