NOW LIVE! Today's the day you meet your new best friend. You don’t have to leave Wolfy behind... In 'Pets & Sidekicks' your companions level up with you!

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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 1689440" data-attributes="member: 697">This is the key - in it's first year, AU has sold as many copies, if not more, than Twilight 2000 and Paranoia in their first years. There are plenty of people willing to buy games, but few games they want to buy.This is the key to understanding the d20 market - Atlas and Green Ronin had d20 modules available the day D&D 3e entered the market. Green Ronin is still in the d20 business. Atlas got out. Finding the line that separates those two is the key to finding the foundation of what makes d20 tick. And after that, you need to look at Mongoose and Malhavoc, the two big d20 companies that got into the game relatively late, yet surged past everyone else. Those are your other two big d20 companies. Again, you have to ask yourself what separates them. The answers are all out there. It's just a matter of finding the data and slicing it up the right way.The key to any game that would arise after D&D lies in the player networks. Right now amongst d20 companies, I'd say that Sword & Sorcery, including Malhavoc and Necromancer, is probably in the best position to step into that hole. They key would be finding designers who understand what makes D&D tick.The really funny thing is, when you look at what's out there, AU is really the only popular non-D&D fantasy game. Every other big d20 company either has a non-fantasy game or a setting for D&D. Nobody else has a complete fantasy game that's been a breakout hit.What surprises me is that more people don't think that's really weird. Then again, I thought it was really strange that nobody did class books until Mongoose released them in 2002.</blockquote>

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