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Message: <blockquote data-quote="LurkMonkey" data-source="post: 5299241" data-attributes="member: 68949">I have a deep sympathy with the OP's assertion, but I think the point of disconnect is what is good from a business point of view vs. a fan point of view. Let's take my all-time favorite 2ed setting: Planescape. I LOVE Planescape. I own everything ever put out for Planescape except for the conceptual artist sktechbook (and that's pretty much a collector corner item). I am even so much of a completionist the I have the entire Ral Partha 11-6XX Planescape miniature series and the four mini box sets. Now, since I am obsessive about the setting, it would be reasonable from a fan point of view to assume that everyone else is, and that my love of it would translate into a massive win for anything put out in a Planescape theme. Unfortuantely, I am enough of a realist to know that is not true. Although I would love it if everyone had my same love of Planescape, over the years I have found that actually very few people do. Some don't like the planes as adventuring sites. Some feel that Sigil is to gonzo. Some even hate the whole 'Cager Cant' thing (what yeh flappin yer bone-box over, berk?). Some just plain didn't like it.  So, although TSR had an excellent customer in me, I doubt there were many like me. At least, not enough to justify all the material they DID produce, like half-a-dozen $40 box sets and scads of $15 suppliment books. So, from a business point of view, it was stupid. From a fanboi point of view, it was sheer Mt. Celestia. And while I was a fervent fan of Planescape, I didn't care for Dark Sun. Oh, I dutifully bought the intro box set, but the setting didn't gel for me. I didn't like the tropes, and I didn't like the stories. So, even while I was gulping down Planescape, the Dark Sun material got passed right by when I went to the FLGS. Looking back, I am very glad that TSR put out so much stuff during the 2E days. I am also glad that WotC swooped in and saved the brand from TSR's business stupidity. Now that it is all safely in the past, I can mine all that wonderful 'fluff' at my leisure, and not have to worry that the company that produces it is going down the crappper. As Charles Dickens once said in the opening lines of A Tale of Two Cities: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times."</blockquote>

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