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Message: <blockquote data-quote="GregoryOatmeal" data-source="post: 5691219" data-attributes="member: 6667661">Interesting analogy. Well at this point rugby is the definitive rugby. Clearly each grew into their own games that are actively supported by a stable set of rules, a fanbase, and the production of new content. But Rugby didn't kill high school football or cancel the NFL. And the new NFL rules definitely didn't cause a rival football league to catch on. 1E and 3.5 and a bunch of other editions are no longer produced. Obviously nothing is stopping me from buying the used copies of a book if I want to. But it's very disingenuous to say the variety of editions is not a major deterrent to getting a game going. Lots of people don't want to buy new books, read new rules, or play an edition besides the one they grew up with or own. Choice of edition has to be one of the biggest deal-breakers for getting people to commit to a campaign. In a way there's like 8 dead D&D editions (BECMI, 2.5, perhaps 4E Essentials...) that each require shared comprehension of out-of-print books and rules by a diverse group of players that can be quite opinionated. And those old 1E and 3.5 books will get covered in pizza stains and their bindings will break. I know PF is carrying the 3.5 torch and that's great, it's probably a better game than 3.5, but it's just another divison, another big book to buy full of slightly different rules to memorize. And I wouldn't have wanted it if 3.5 was still produced - there simply wouldn't be any need for this slightly different clone of an existing game. These things logistically makes it hard to play D&D casually.If there was a big enough base to support 1E, 3.5, and 4E that's great. They could each blossom into their own games like Rugby. But if the partitioning of editions doesn't stop soon we'll have eight major versions of D&D, half of which are supported, all of which require big expensive books that may not even be compatible. 5E is just moving in the wrong direction. Choice is great but if everyone has to agree on the same thing it makes consensus more difficult. I've never been able to get really settled in to any roleplaying game to feel like I'm even using half the rules in the core books.It's interesting how games evolve. We could be in the birthing stages of a bunch of enduring roleplaying games - roleplaying is still fairly new. Which is cool and has advantages and disadvantages. I just hope the dust eventually settles and some of the games stick. Maybe one day 4E will be a supported independent game like Rugby, while a few more editions are supported and have active communities. The Football/Rugby is the best-case scenario.</blockquote>

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