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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SSquirrel" data-source="post: 1463444" data-attributes="member: 5202">My take on no one having new games in 2000.  Like the big Hollywood blockbuster, no one wanted to go up against 3E.  debut your game a month on either side and have people actually show interest in it and not get swallowed in the hysterical hype of GenCon and the actual appearance of a new version of D&D.  Bet when 2E was released (maybe even 2.5) if they debuted at GenCon people avoided timing releases for the same period. What you saw in 01-03 was the bandwagon and people falling off of it.  Some companies were staunchly against it the whole time, but many said hey why not and jumped on the d20 wagon.  Many crap games sold that might not have even managed to make it to production if it wasn't for the fact that they could ride on d20 coat tails.   I know there's tons and tons of systems out there, but eventually you look at enough sytems and say "oh yeah that looks like so and so, cmon think up something NEW" which is a very odd thing.  WHY did we think for so long that we need to havea new system all the time?  Oh yeah, we'd get sued if we used anotehr company's system.   Now what you're seeing is people who take the time (usually) with their products, and really look thru the SRD and see exactly what they really need for their game and how it needs to be tweaked to fit their world.  Conan and Midnight aren't my cup of tea, but they fit their setting perfectly.  Mutants & Masterminds is amazingly cool. and I've heard only good things of Spycraft as well (v2.0 coming soon).  Arcana Unearthed has lit a real fire up under me and that is exactly what I've come to expect from Monte as he has been producing quality work for a long time now.  The shakeout was bound to come eventually and it is happening as it SHOULD.  It's been expected for awhile and game companies really have to make sure they are putting out quality products that are well balanced, good looking and interesting.  The boring look of everything produced by Fantasy Flight is an instant "no thanks" to me.  heck, Midnight looks quite nice artwise and such, but like I said the setting isn't me really.  Now personally I think that any game that needs an entirely new system just to make the 1 or 2 core ideas work has something wrong with it.  yes I seriously doubt you would see things like Over the Edge d20, but cmon.  Something like Palladium would be pretty easy to do but Simbieda is SO anti-d20 its not even funny.   I mean yes you MAY be sitting on the best thing since sliced bread, but is this system you're spending time working on going to be as fully thought out as it should be?  Will you forget to handle X Y and Z?  The beauty of the d20 system is that you can take as much or as little as you want.  There have always been and will ALWAYS be crap games that come out.  Mark Rosewater (one of the head Magic:the Gathering guys) is of the opinion that we really need bad Magic cards to know the good cards.  If everything were Hypnotic Specter level of cool, we wouldn't know which were really "best" for different things really.  Apply the same logic to RPGs.  As stated, its my opinion that sometimes the need for a new system is more ego stroking than actual need.  You are finally seeing more people experiment with the d20 system and create things like Spycraft, AU and M&M or Midnight and Conan and this is GOOD.  It was also bound to happen.  I'm glad that there's great stores in Madison...I just wish that all the gaming stores in Iowa City and Cedar Rapids IA didn't close within a year of each other.  Nearest game stores anymore are in Davenport, Des Moines and Ames.  I think we'll see the transition of more of the market to the internet and pdfs specifically wwhich is also a good move.  Allows for more profit and you can use some of that profit on advertising on gaming sites. d20 should encourage creativity and I think it does in general, but it also lets people feel lax about working on the rest of the things.  Like keeping spells in the skill examples that aren't even in your game system.  Compatability with the PHB is only needed if your product has the phrase "must use the PHB" or however they phrase it exactly.  If your game is actually OGL not d20, as soon as someone familiar with d20 opens it up its obvious what system its for.  Look at the class blocks for example.  I think this is another myth that will fall by the wayside as well, but it may take another year or so.  Well taht depends on what kind of game you're wanting to run.  If you already have some stuff right out of d20 that you know you want to include and there's more of it you want than what is in Ars Magica, I wouldn't use Ars Magica and convert a bunch more stuff...I'd use d20.  Much simpler.  Choosing the system i usually what I do FIRST and then root thru other books for ideas, not the other way around.   I haven't played nearly all the supers games on the market (TMNT/Heroes Unlimited/Aberrant are probably the only ones played, more have been read) but from all my reading I've liked the implementation of Aberrant the best.  Simple system taht I made a whopping _4_ tweaks to and it ran smooth as butter allowing everyone to make the characters they had in mind.  I love 4 Color to Fantasy and need to look at M&M more (broke so can't buy it tho) but I would be perfectly happy running a game of 4CTF or blending that on top of other d20 stuff.  See if I told my friends I wanted to run HERO I would get things thrown at me.  NONE of the people in our group want to play it as we all find it too complex.  Yet Rolemaster is old hat to everyone so go figure.   So HERO will never happen in that group.  We're all comfortable with d20 and most of us with the Storyteller system so it would proabbly come down to 4CTF, M&M and Aberrant if I was going to run a supers campaign.  If your players are happy playing whatever system instead more power to ya.  My group isn't a "it MUST be d20" kinda group either....we got burned out on 3E and went back to Rolemaster.  Some of the players have very limited experiences tho and some of teh sytems I could run something in would just be more of a pain than they're worth so I don't *grin*  Some fo teh systems I would love to play I don't feel I could run well either..SLA Industries for example.  Absolutely love it an da buddy of mine from college ran it great....I can't pull it off tho so I won't even bother *grin*  Godo reading tho   3E initial sales were higher and I think that overall sales of the line have been higher than originally anticipated, but the yearly sales have been lower than they expected after the initial several months.  I think the beancounters basically said "hmm...we should be moving 3000 units this month instead of 2000" "yeah but we sold an extra 30,000 copies upfront" "and?  revise it early!  more money to be made" Hagen</blockquote>

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