Reply to thread

Message

<blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5300349" data-attributes="member: 40177">Gah.&nbsp; I remember these days.&nbsp; Looking back upon the mid nineties, I can now think of them as &quot;the golden days of gaming&quot;&nbsp; But, if I want to be really honest, they were actually the days of &quot;Thank God I didn't have a good internet connection at the time or I would have realized just how damned poor I was&quot;.Seriously.&nbsp; I would get funds here and there, and put them towards D&amp;D products (and, let's face it, other things teenage boys bought in the late 1990s - alcohol, bad music, and more alcohol).&nbsp; While I had the core books, I never amassed much of a collection. See, while D&amp;D was our game of choice, when we had spare gaming money, it was put towards non TSR products.&nbsp; The problem being that TSR products often required other TSR products to play, while at the same time could not be used for every D&amp;D product.&nbsp; So, you'd be taking a shot in the dark about whether or not you'd have a product you could &quot;completely&quot; use.An example that is really clear in my memory, more than a decade later.&nbsp; I got something like a hundred bucks for christmas one year, and went down to my FLGS on boxing day when they do a big discount (you'd roll 3d10, and that was the percentage off on your purchase!)&nbsp; On that day, I got the revised Dark Sun boxed set, the Player's Option Skills and Powers, and a big pad of character sheets.&nbsp; I loved all three.&nbsp; EXCEPT...I couldn't use skills and powers with Dark Sun.&nbsp; And I couldn't use the character sheets for either, without making modifications (and that kind of defeats the purpose of premade character sheets, doesn't it?).&nbsp; Each product was mutually exclusive.And oh god, it got worse.&nbsp; We all loved the Dark Sun setting - it was (and is) my favourite setting of all time.&nbsp; However, at the time, we didn't have the psionics handbook (the one I bought got stolen - I've had my 2e psionics book stolen TWICE now).&nbsp; We didn't have the monster book, and Dark Sun has a shortage of monsters if you lack that book.&nbsp; I couldn't get my hands on either book, either, due to my own funds shortage.&nbsp; So, I wound up trading my Dark Sun books for the Forgotten Realms boxed set, because at least I could USE that with what I had.And this was why we didn't bother with TSR.&nbsp; It was much better to buy FASA games* - one core book as opposed to three, and every book you bought stood alone.&nbsp; If I bought a weapons book, or a cyberware book, I could use ALL of it (sure, there were hints to buy other products, but that's different).&nbsp; TSR made some good products, and it made some bad ones (I actually liked Gargoyle! though).&nbsp; So has WotC (remember Ghostwalk?&nbsp; Or the book of Vile Darkness?&nbsp; Or the first 3E splatbooks?).&nbsp; The problem, in my mind, is that TSR produced products that often linked up in strange ways, and scared away those consumers who could not afford to be completionists.&nbsp; * Except BATTLETECH, which tended to reference other Battletech books.&nbsp; But we generally didn't mind, because it was one of those games where we could play without a DM, and that made it special.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Wik, post: 5300349, member: 40177"] Gah. I remember these days. Looking back upon the mid nineties, I can now think of them as "the golden days of gaming" But, if I want to be really honest, they were actually the days of "Thank God I didn't have a good internet connection at the time or I would have realized just how damned poor I was". Seriously. I would get funds here and there, and put them towards D&D products (and, let's face it, other things teenage boys bought in the late 1990s - alcohol, bad music, and more alcohol). While I had the core books, I never amassed much of a collection. See, while D&D was our game of choice, when we had spare gaming money, it was put towards non TSR products. The problem being that TSR products often required other TSR products to play, while at the same time could not be used for every D&D product. So, you'd be taking a shot in the dark about whether or not you'd have a product you could "completely" use. An example that is really clear in my memory, more than a decade later. I got something like a hundred bucks for christmas one year, and went down to my FLGS on boxing day when they do a big discount (you'd roll 3d10, and that was the percentage off on your purchase!) On that day, I got the revised Dark Sun boxed set, the Player's Option Skills and Powers, and a big pad of character sheets. I loved all three. EXCEPT... I couldn't use skills and powers with Dark Sun. And I couldn't use the character sheets for either, without making modifications (and that kind of defeats the purpose of premade character sheets, doesn't it?). Each product was mutually exclusive. And oh god, it got worse. We all loved the Dark Sun setting - it was (and is) my favourite setting of all time. However, at the time, we didn't have the psionics handbook (the one I bought got stolen - I've had my 2e psionics book stolen TWICE now). We didn't have the monster book, and Dark Sun has a shortage of monsters if you lack that book. I couldn't get my hands on either book, either, due to my own funds shortage. So, I wound up trading my Dark Sun books for the Forgotten Realms boxed set, because at least I could USE that with what I had. And this was why we didn't bother with TSR. It was much better to buy FASA games* - one core book as opposed to three, and every book you bought stood alone. If I bought a weapons book, or a cyberware book, I could use ALL of it (sure, there were hints to buy other products, but that's different). TSR made some good products, and it made some bad ones (I actually liked Gargoyle! though). So has WotC (remember Ghostwalk? Or the book of Vile Darkness? Or the first 3E splatbooks?). The problem, in my mind, is that TSR produced products that often linked up in strange ways, and scared away those consumers who could not afford to be completionists. * Except BATTLETECH, which tended to reference other Battletech books. But we generally didn't mind, because it was one of those games where we could play without a DM, and that made it special. [/QUOTE]

Verification