Laffs: Mike Stackpole on 3E, ca 1999

[King of Old School]

I think that this statement really sells 3e short. It's easy to just say that it sold because it was D&D, when the truth was that before that D&D didn't sell, and thats why TSR got in to trouble.

This is categorically false according to every industry source and every knowledgable industry commentator I've seen. Even at the nadir of AD&D2e, while there were a handful of individual months where it fell behind a couple of games (Vampire on some occasions, Rifts on others if you believe Kevin S.), there was never AFAIK a calendar year when it was not the bestselling RPG and never a month where it was outside the top two or three. TSR's downfall was the endless proliferation of settings and supplements in a vain quest to replicate the success of Dragonlance, and the deliberate mismanagement of the company by Lorraine Williams. Sales of the core books were never the problem, unless by "didn't sell" you mean "didn't sell as well as 3e in its first 2 years of release." For most of its lifespan, AD&D2e sold more than all the other games put together.

That's not to refute the quality of 3e (I strongly disliked AD&D2e and I think 3e and D20 are nifty), but D&D has always been the most popular RPG and the player network that subsequently exists means this is a self-perpetuating cycle. Wizards would have to have really messed up 3e to lose the top spot.

KoOS