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<blockquote data-quote="Rogue Agent" data-source="post: 5756092" data-attributes="member: 6673496"><p>It's not going to happen.</p><p></p><p>(1) The actual retro market is incredibly minuscule compared to the existing D&D and Pathfinder markets. Most of that market is incredibly conservative and you're never going to make any appreciable inroads in picking them up.</p><p></p><p>(2) 3.5/Pathfinder gamers generally <em>like</em> the fact that 3rd Edition cleaned up AD&D and incorporated most of the house rules people had been playing with for years or decades. That's why they're playing 3.5/Pathfinder instead of a retro clone in the first place.</p><p></p><p>(3) 4th Edition is a radically different game and a slightly tweaked version of AD&D is not going to appeal to 4E fans.</p><p></p><p>So you'll lose 4E fans (probably in droves). You almost certainly won't pick up any significant portion of the 3.X market you've already lost. And even if you created an OSR-darling, the conversion numbers would still be minuscule.</p><p></p><p>From a business standpoint, there's basically no angle from which that looks anything remotely like a good idea.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That might happen. There is a market for "original edition" games and Hasbro has been known to release them.</p><p></p><p>But it probably won't because OD&D is an unplayable historical curiosity. I think every serious gamer should hunt down a copy and read through it because there's a lot of valuable insight to be had from that, but it has basically zero mainstream appeal.</p><p></p><p>The most likely product you actually <em>might</em> be able to release like that would be the BECMI Basic Set (widely reputed to be the bestselling version of the game in history). But you just released a look-a-like Starter Set for 4th Edition, which would thoroughly muddy your efforts to market the nostalgia product.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Rogue Agent, post: 5756092, member: 6673496"] It's not going to happen. (1) The actual retro market is incredibly minuscule compared to the existing D&D and Pathfinder markets. Most of that market is incredibly conservative and you're never going to make any appreciable inroads in picking them up. (2) 3.5/Pathfinder gamers generally [i]like[/i] the fact that 3rd Edition cleaned up AD&D and incorporated most of the house rules people had been playing with for years or decades. That's why they're playing 3.5/Pathfinder instead of a retro clone in the first place. (3) 4th Edition is a radically different game and a slightly tweaked version of AD&D is not going to appeal to 4E fans. So you'll lose 4E fans (probably in droves). You almost certainly won't pick up any significant portion of the 3.X market you've already lost. And even if you created an OSR-darling, the conversion numbers would still be minuscule. From a business standpoint, there's basically no angle from which that looks anything remotely like a good idea. That might happen. There is a market for "original edition" games and Hasbro has been known to release them. But it probably won't because OD&D is an unplayable historical curiosity. I think every serious gamer should hunt down a copy and read through it because there's a lot of valuable insight to be had from that, but it has basically zero mainstream appeal. The most likely product you actually [i]might[/i] be able to release like that would be the BECMI Basic Set (widely reputed to be the bestselling version of the game in history). But you just released a look-a-like Starter Set for 4th Edition, which would thoroughly muddy your efforts to market the nostalgia product. [/QUOTE]
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