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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Maggan" data-source="post: 566820" data-attributes="member: 6616">I'm not sure it'd be a successBasically, what I'm reading is the desire to have a sort of Basic D&D and some sort of Advanced D&D.Does that sound familiar?And didn't WotC just reposition their trademark to get rid of the stigma of it being an "Advanced" game?I myself started with the red Basic Set D&D box, and moved on to the Master Set eventually, but I never fully moved over to AD&D, because it was a bit too complex for my tastes.So, I'd love it if there came a box or a book along that said "Basic D&D, all you need, get it here, rules for PCs, DM advice and magic items, and monsters too!". A bit like the D&D Rules Cyclopedia. I'd snatch that book up in a flash, and I'd never look back (I actually did. Well I snatched it up, and... well... now I'm a D&D3e guy. There are stuff in the Cuclopedia that's still missing from 3e, though).But... it's not as if TSR and WotC haven't tried doing this after the Basic/Expert/Companion/Master/Immortal era.They've tried it a lot of times. Diablo, Diablo II, D&D Adventure Game, all those fat boxes duting the 90's with the D&D logo on them, the fast play rules and adventures. And still.... still... still they chose to drop the Advanced bit and unified the trademark.To me, that spells out in huge flaming letters: the basic and advanced D&D approach doesn't work anymore.So, WotC are concentrating on one set of rules, with one unified product identity. The D&D rules. And, if any d20 publisher wants to create a bridge product that would be a D&D lite, I'd probably buy it. And maybe if we're lucky, another 1000 or 2000 people or so will buy it. But probably no more than that.Because if it doesn't say D&D on the box, it'll just be another fantasy rpg that plays like D&D, with none of the allure of the D&D trademark, and I think during those circumstances very little bridge effect would be achieved.And most probably it won't even get to use the d20 logo, because it would have to contain chargen rules (otherwise it would require the D&D 3e PH, which would defeat the purpose of such a product)Okay, potential sales of 2000 copies aren't to be scoffed at. But then again, that would probably not generate that many sales of the core rules either, because you would have to be in the know already to find this rules set. Unless of course someone would pick up the distribution for it. Maybe White Wolf (Sword & Sorcery) could pull that one off, but then they would go head to head with the strongest trademark in the business. Not likely to happen.So to sum it up.1. I can't see WotC doing it again for a while. They've tried it, they even have a product out that qualifies as the bridge product some people are looking for, and we still ask for a bridge product as if the D&D Adventure Games didn't exist.And WotC don't want to confuse the trademark again. They've cleaned it up, dropped the Advanced, and are now using the far stronger and effective D&D for one product line. Makes more sense.2. It'd be rather pointless for someone else to do it, if the stated goal would be to pull droves and droves of people into the hobby and in the end start playing D&D, since if anyone but WotC does it, it won't be D&D. And it would be difficult and costly, and most probably a depressing experience as well, in the long run.3. I hope there are people who read this and says "bollocks, he's sooo wrong!" and then goes ahead and proves me wrong.One way of doing that would maybe to go the HeroQuest way, and make the D&D Adventure Game more of a big box game, with lots of nifty stuff in it, more like a board game. But then again, TSR did that. And they alone how well that game fared in the marketplace. And since it's not in the product line up at the moment, I'm pretty sure it won't be back in duty for a while yet.CheersMaggan</blockquote>

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