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<blockquote data-quote="Man in the Funny Hat" data-source="post: 9573958" data-attributes="member: 32740">Gygax was writing a game for the people he gamed with - adults.&nbsp; His children played the game as well but at the time THE MARKET for this was other adults, more specifically other adults with some experience with tabletop wargaming (upon which D&amp;D was based), and for AD&amp;D, adults with some experience already playing the original D&amp;D game.&nbsp; As for asking people to NOT buy the DMG - he was asking PLAYERS (only in the DMG foreword) to not buy the DMG (which was mostly aimed at dungeon masters( so that they would not spoil their adventures by knowing the details of all the random magic items or looking up information rather than interacting with the dungeon master to obtain it.The situation THEN just ISN'T the situation of today. The &quot;don't buy the DMG&quot; thing in particular had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with &quot;business models&quot; - it was just sensible, practical advice that players not SPOIL the game for themselves by eliminating all the mystery and discovery.&nbsp; They hadn't thought about the DMG in terms of, &quot;We need to make sure we can sell this to EVERYONE who plays the game.&quot;&nbsp; They were still INVENTING the game - the entire hobby - as the DMG was being written.&nbsp; Even as AD&amp;D began to be played it seems fairly clear that the way players were playing the game was changing faster than Gygax had been writing it, meaning Gygax's idea of what the game was and could be, was already rather different from what all the purchasers and players of his game thought it was and could be.Both were written for adults.&nbsp; The fact that both came to be played heavily by children is irrelevant.&nbsp; The fact that he tested the games with his own children also doesn't mean Gygax was making a specifically children's game at any point.&nbsp; THAT would be done by TSR after they had ousted Gygax and they made 2E - which WAS then aimed more specifically at a younger demographic (for better or worse).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Man in the Funny Hat, post: 9573958, member: 32740"] Gygax was writing a game for the people he gamed with - adults. His children played the game as well but at the time THE MARKET for this was other adults, more specifically other adults with some experience with tabletop wargaming (upon which D&D was based), and for AD&D, adults with some experience already playing the original D&D game. As for asking people to NOT buy the DMG - he was asking PLAYERS (only in the DMG foreword) to not buy the DMG (which was mostly aimed at dungeon masters( so that they would not spoil their adventures by knowing the details of all the random magic items or looking up information rather than interacting with the dungeon master to obtain it. The situation THEN just ISN'T the situation of today. The "don't buy the DMG" thing in particular had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with "business models" - it was just sensible, practical advice that players not SPOIL the game for themselves by eliminating all the mystery and discovery. They hadn't thought about the DMG in terms of, "We need to make sure we can sell this to EVERYONE who plays the game." They were still INVENTING the game - the entire hobby - as the DMG was being written. Even as AD&D began to be played it seems fairly clear that the way players were playing the game was changing faster than Gygax had been writing it, meaning Gygax's idea of what the game was and could be, was already rather different from what all the purchasers and players of his game thought it was and could be. Both were written for [U]adults[/U]. The fact that both came to be played heavily by children is irrelevant. The fact that he tested the games with his own children also doesn't mean Gygax was making a specifically children's game at any point. THAT would be done by TSR after they had ousted Gygax and they made 2E - which WAS then aimed more specifically at a younger demographic (for better or worse). [/QUOTE]

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