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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5028704" data-attributes="member: 80487">It seems to me that WotC has figured out the most lucrative market for D&D books. The folks who bought a Rules Cyclopedia and have been happily having fun without another purchase? Not it.The folks who for 30 years complained that "D&D sucks", maybe even held that "Game X is what all RPGs should be" -- but nonetheless kept buying book after book (perhaps in hopes of "fixing" the game)? Ooh la LA!If in addition they use miniatures, well, research suggests that means a lot more per capita spending -- and Hasbro can provide the goods.So, at a very basic level, selling expansions is commercially a Very Good Thing. The whole "edition" scheme of selling actually different games is a bit whacked, I think. If you put out D&D and Star Frontiers, then you might sell both to the same person. If you offer only the Star Frontiers "game system" with D&D trappings, then the folks not looking for "D&D, but different" -- the perennial offering of "fantasy heart-breakers" -- are as out of luck (or else finding fulfillment elsewhere) as the folks looking for space opera.A basic core offers plenty of opportunities to add complications in modules, which seems to me should be, if anything, an improvement over front-loading in catching the hardcore. On top of that, it also lowers the bar for entry -- and provides something to buy for the people who are not likely to buy more than one book in any case (and might well buy none at all from WotC if the competition meets their needs).Moreover, you can provide complications in different ways. I should think that pretty clear from the decade of experience with the OGL, if not from the whole multi-decade history of different games.You can sell "1e"-style tools, and "2e", and "3e", and "4e".If there's a demand, and it's profitable to fill, then probably someone is going to fill it. Don't like "Vancian" magic? Want more tactical detail? How about a flatter hit point curve? A different XP scheme? Higher levels? New classes? Exotic races? Guns? More monsters, spells and magic items? Well, The Arduin Grimoire offered all that (plus a lot of other stuff of the sort that later appeared in the AD&D DMG).It does not follow that every demand is profitable enough for WotC to meet. However, a structure that increases flexibility seems to me probably a pretty good one.Finally, none of this would prevent the production of a whole new game as a new "edition" every few years. It might not negate the commercial necessity (if indeed there is such), either. However, it might at least reduce the frequency and degree of overhaul -- which of course always requires the sure cost of investment in advance, with no guarantee of any return at all.</blockquote>

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