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Message: <blockquote data-quote="dcollins" data-source="post: 1118508" data-attributes="member: 876">What about playtesting?I want to bring this up, because I haven't seen it mentioned in this thread so far, and it's one of my axes-to-grind. For both rules and adventures, in the early 1st Ed. days, there was always an extensive "Playtester Credit" section. Personally, I think I can track the decline of TSR directly by the waning size, and then absence, of the playtester credit in their published works. The 3rd Edition PHB was a great turnaround, with a massive playtest program, and I think it shows (The 3.5 rules I'm leery of -- no playtest credit).The classic modules in the G, D, S, A series didn't just spring from nowhere -- as I understand it, they'd been used in tournament situations for a year or more before they were ever published. Today, with more of a focus on the game as a moneymaking scheme, it sure looks like most products are put on paper once and then sent out the door. This might even work better with sourcebooks (PRC broken? Don't use it.) than adventures (Key encounter broken? Everyone does in the middle.) I can't say as I know how many changes or evolutions occured in the G/D/S/A modules during their pre-publication tournament use, but it just seems like they were incredibly tight on a level that started to break apart in the mid-80's. Does that seem significant to anyone else?</blockquote>