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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dire Bare" data-source="post: 9533996" data-attributes="member: 18182">"Cash grab" is another common gamer/fan complaint that grinds my gears. It means, of course, the only reason for a change is to juice profits. And that is rarely, if ever the only reason for changes to anything, including in D&D.The shift from AD&D 1E to 2E was not a cash grab. Was TSR hoping to increase profits on D&D? Hell yes! But there were, as always, multiple reasons for the edition change. 1E was a mess, and 2E straightened out and streamlined some of that mess. It was designed to be backwards compatible, much like 3.0 to 3.5 and 2014 5E to 2024 5E. The term "edition" wasn't as charged back then as it is today.The re-design of the trade dress, layout, and art style was much needed, as even to a middle-school kid back in the 80s, 1E looked incredibly dated and unprofessional. Now in my later years, I feel 1E and OD&D have a nostalgic charm . . . but in the 80s I was excited for the new version of the game and the new look! Sadly, like you, the art style of 2E left me cold, and the later revised 2E even colder . . . although many individual titles were beautiful books! But still, to that middle-schooler in the 80s, the new 2E books looked more modern than what came before.</blockquote>