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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 3730532" data-attributes="member: 32740">Not much.&nbsp; Much of the earliest 3rd party publications were really quite homemade - typed up, run off a copier and stapled together.&nbsp; Even if they were printed in a press the production quality remained minimal.&nbsp; Distribution was also minimal.&nbsp; Even D&amp;D itself was hardly widely distributed, or at least not until, say, the 2E era when TSR had finally built up a decent distribution network.&nbsp; So 3rd party materials were frankly rare.Remember though, that at some point in the '80's TSR got VERY obnoxious with its policies, frightening people away from even attempting to make available material for D&amp;D if not actually hitting them with lawsuits and lawyers.&nbsp; TSR's upper managment at that time wanted absolute control of the entire pie.&nbsp; God forbid anyone but TSR should EVER profit in some way off of D&amp;D.It really put a damper on any desire to try to produce 3rd party D&amp;D materials, and it also had TSR assuming the role of the evil overlord and killed a huge amount of goodwill from their own customers who didn't want to support such anti-gamerish policies and attitudes (gaming being a HIGHLY casual, friendly, and openly cooperative pastime because D&amp;D is NOT a competitive undertaking but a cooperative one).That lifted somewhat when WotC took over the game, but the 3rd party market for practical purposes didn't exist until the release of 3E though the critical, catalytic decision to actually make the rules open source was what really started anything like a REAL 3rd party publication market.&nbsp; New companies sprang up like weeds overnight.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 3730532, member: 32740"] Not much. Much of the earliest 3rd party publications were really quite homemade - typed up, run off a copier and stapled together. Even if they were printed in a press the production quality remained minimal. Distribution was also minimal. Even D&D itself was hardly widely distributed, or at least not until, say, the 2E era when TSR had finally built up a decent distribution network. So 3rd party materials were frankly rare. Remember though, that at some point in the '80's TSR got VERY obnoxious with its policies, frightening people away from even attempting to make available material for D&D if not actually hitting them with lawsuits and lawyers. TSR's upper managment at that time wanted [I]absolute[/I] control of the entire pie. God forbid anyone but TSR should EVER profit in some way off of D&D. It really put a damper on any desire to try to produce 3rd party D&D materials, and it also had TSR assuming the role of the evil overlord and killed a huge amount of goodwill from their own customers who didn't want to support such anti-gamerish policies and attitudes (gaming being a HIGHLY casual, friendly, and openly cooperative pastime because D&D is NOT a competitive undertaking but a cooperative one). That lifted somewhat when WotC took over the game, but the 3rd party market for practical purposes didn't exist until the release of 3E though the critical, catalytic decision to actually make the rules open source was what really started anything like a REAL 3rd party publication market. New companies sprang up like weeds overnight. [/QUOTE]

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