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Green Ronin Announces 'Cthulhu Awakens' RPG
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<blockquote data-quote="humble minion" data-source="post: 8526375" data-attributes="member: 5948"><p>I'm not sure that's the case. M&Ms heyday was definitely during its second edition, there were loads of high-quality sourcebooks coming out, the third-party supplement market was booming, and it'd largely overtaken Hero as the leading points-buy, relatively crunch-heavy supers RPG. It was the 2e->3e transition that was the turning point, and not because of any flaws in the 3e system.</p><p></p><p>I think it probably didn't help that when 3rd ed came out, the DC books were released first and the non-licenced stuff didn't come til much, much later. But what really killed it was the subsequent release schedule. There was months or years of just dribbling out Gadget Guide or Power Profile or Threat Report micro-pdfs, and then MUCH later stuffing them in a compilation hardback and re-releasing them as-is. Compared to, say, the 2e Ultimate Power book which was chock full of advice and new mechanics, the 3e Power Profiles books was an incredible disappointment. Very few new powers or flaws etc, no attempt to deal with the system weaknesses that were clearly obvious by then (problems with Shrinking and Weaken, the uselessness of Impervious, some BADLY needed clarifications on Limited Afflictions, the lack of any way to make powers independent...). It was just a lazy, phoned-in release, and the pattern was echoed in Atlas of Earth-Prime and Gadget Guides. Hero High 3e was basically a re-statted reprint of the 2e book with some timeline advancement, and most of the content of the Golden/Silver/Iron Age 2e books were lifted and dropped into 3e books as well. The new default setting of Emerald City was a bit more prescriptive than Freedom City was, and didn't develop anything like the traction. There was a bit of a return to form later with books like the Cosmic Handbook and Superteam Guidebook which actually contained new content, but by then the horse had bolted.</p><p></p><p>I quite liked the 3e system, and I'd still use it in preference to 2nd. It was clearly a bit rushed (probably due to deadlines with the DC licence) and needed more playtesting to iron out the minor annoying kinks, but it certainly had the right ideas. But GR really appeared to have simply lost interest in the line by then. All the development effort was going elsewhere, into AGE presumably, and it really showed in the quality and quantity of material coming out. GR staffers vanished from the M&M forums, promised products were released at a glacial pace if at all while GR churned out product after product for other games, and the amount of 3rd party material that was being produced (which was enormous in 2e, and often very high quality) rapidly dropped off a cliff as the game steadily died. I think Misfit Games are the only ones who are sporadically bothering these days, though Vigilance Press tried valiantly up until a couple of years back.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="humble minion, post: 8526375, member: 5948"] I'm not sure that's the case. M&Ms heyday was definitely during its second edition, there were loads of high-quality sourcebooks coming out, the third-party supplement market was booming, and it'd largely overtaken Hero as the leading points-buy, relatively crunch-heavy supers RPG. It was the 2e->3e transition that was the turning point, and not because of any flaws in the 3e system. I think it probably didn't help that when 3rd ed came out, the DC books were released first and the non-licenced stuff didn't come til much, much later. But what really killed it was the subsequent release schedule. There was months or years of just dribbling out Gadget Guide or Power Profile or Threat Report micro-pdfs, and then MUCH later stuffing them in a compilation hardback and re-releasing them as-is. Compared to, say, the 2e Ultimate Power book which was chock full of advice and new mechanics, the 3e Power Profiles books was an incredible disappointment. Very few new powers or flaws etc, no attempt to deal with the system weaknesses that were clearly obvious by then (problems with Shrinking and Weaken, the uselessness of Impervious, some BADLY needed clarifications on Limited Afflictions, the lack of any way to make powers independent...). It was just a lazy, phoned-in release, and the pattern was echoed in Atlas of Earth-Prime and Gadget Guides. Hero High 3e was basically a re-statted reprint of the 2e book with some timeline advancement, and most of the content of the Golden/Silver/Iron Age 2e books were lifted and dropped into 3e books as well. The new default setting of Emerald City was a bit more prescriptive than Freedom City was, and didn't develop anything like the traction. There was a bit of a return to form later with books like the Cosmic Handbook and Superteam Guidebook which actually contained new content, but by then the horse had bolted. I quite liked the 3e system, and I'd still use it in preference to 2nd. It was clearly a bit rushed (probably due to deadlines with the DC licence) and needed more playtesting to iron out the minor annoying kinks, but it certainly had the right ideas. But GR really appeared to have simply lost interest in the line by then. All the development effort was going elsewhere, into AGE presumably, and it really showed in the quality and quantity of material coming out. GR staffers vanished from the M&M forums, promised products were released at a glacial pace if at all while GR churned out product after product for other games, and the amount of 3rd party material that was being produced (which was enormous in 2e, and often very high quality) rapidly dropped off a cliff as the game steadily died. I think Misfit Games are the only ones who are sporadically bothering these days, though Vigilance Press tried valiantly up until a couple of years back. [/QUOTE]
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