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<blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 3873874" data-attributes="member: 22779">Wandered through the bookstore today.&nbsp; I happened to go through the young adult section for a change.&nbsp; I was floored by the HUGE amount of YA fantasy out there.&nbsp; I know it's being driven by the Potter Express, but, WOW.&nbsp; There's just so much of it.&nbsp; I can't blame any young adult for not reading Conan or older fantasy when there's just a smorgasbord of fantasy on tap.I did read the first two of the Bartimaeus trilogy.&nbsp; Certainly Potter inspirations, but, much, much darker.&nbsp; Really good book IMHO.&nbsp; Fun read.&nbsp; But, to make my point for a second.&nbsp; Back in the day, when many of us were getting into fantasy, there just wasn't that much to read.&nbsp; There was no Fantasy section at your local bookstore.&nbsp; It didn't exist.&nbsp; Fantasy was SF's red headed stepchild until the mid 80's.&nbsp; But, this isn't the 80's anymore.&nbsp; Now, someone getting into the game at the age of say 18, has grown up swimming in thousands of titles.&nbsp; At least hundreds of new titles every year, and that's not counting franchise books like D&amp;D books or Buffy.&nbsp; We're talking hundreds of original titles every year.&nbsp; We went DECADES without a hundred new fantasy titles previously.If D&amp;D wants to hook the older YA crowd, it can't rely on the pull of Howard or Lieber.&nbsp; Sure, it can use those.&nbsp; But, it also has to move beyond them as well.&nbsp; Trying to tie the game to classic fantasy, great as it is, is only going to turn off new gamers.&nbsp; It'll become &quot;that game that old people play&quot;.&nbsp; In order to stay current, it's going to have to move some of the classic stuff back a few steps and bring forward some of the new.&nbsp; They don't have a choice really.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hussar, post: 3873874, member: 22779"] Wandered through the bookstore today. I happened to go through the young adult section for a change. I was floored by the HUGE amount of YA fantasy out there. I know it's being driven by the Potter Express, but, WOW. There's just so much of it. I can't blame any young adult for not reading Conan or older fantasy when there's just a smorgasbord of fantasy on tap. I did read the first two of the Bartimaeus trilogy. Certainly Potter inspirations, but, much, much darker. Really good book IMHO. Fun read. But, to make my point for a second. Back in the day, when many of us were getting into fantasy, there just wasn't that much to read. There was no Fantasy section at your local bookstore. It didn't exist. Fantasy was SF's red headed stepchild until the mid 80's. But, this isn't the 80's anymore. Now, someone getting into the game at the age of say 18, has grown up swimming in thousands of titles. At least hundreds of new titles every year, and that's not counting franchise books like D&D books or Buffy. We're talking hundreds of original titles every year. We went DECADES without a hundred new fantasy titles previously. If D&D wants to hook the older YA crowd, it can't rely on the pull of Howard or Lieber. Sure, it can use those. But, it also has to move beyond them as well. Trying to tie the game to classic fantasy, great as it is, is only going to turn off new gamers. It'll become "that game that old people play". In order to stay current, it's going to have to move some of the classic stuff back a few steps and bring forward some of the new. They don't have a choice really. [/QUOTE]

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