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<blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 8151588" data-attributes="member: 27780">Polyhedron Issue 41: May 1988part 3/5Special Intelligence: Of course, sometimes the ways games change are not evolutionary at all, instead tearing the whole system down and starting from scratch in the hope of improving things by removing all the accumulated cruft. This was definitely the case when they went from Top Secret to Top Secret/ S.I. The designers decided to go for a very different playstyle to the original, dialling back the degree of realism to speed up play, making everything quicker, more clearly written, and more focussed on high action. Instead of players being employed by real world espionage agencies, and risk TSR attracting the attention of said real world agencies (which of course actually happened to Steve Jackson Games over GURPS Cyberpunk, and caused them considerably more real hassle than the satanic panic ever did) they also added Orion &amp; The Web, fictional global ones that are unambiguously heroic &amp; villainous, for that full-on 80's cartoon vibe. A fairly standard promotional article that reminds us TSR could be experimental with their design when they felt like it. D&amp;D's editions got changed relatively little because they didn't want to kill the big cash cow, but Top Secret, Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes and Buck Rogers all got new editions that were essentially entirely different games. None of them hit the magic combination of factors to make them as big as D&amp;D, but in having several very different versions of the game that cater to different audiences, it strengthens roleplaying as a whole by giving you more resources to draw from and combine in your own way. So overall, I approve of this. After all, the old game is still right there if you prefer that playstyle instead.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="(un)reason, post: 8151588, member: 27780"] [b][u]Polyhedron Issue 41: May 1988[/u][/b] part 3/5 Special Intelligence: Of course, sometimes the ways games change are not evolutionary at all, instead tearing the whole system down and starting from scratch in the hope of improving things by removing all the accumulated cruft. This was definitely the case when they went from Top Secret to Top Secret/ S.I. The designers decided to go for a very different playstyle to the original, dialling back the degree of realism to speed up play, making everything quicker, more clearly written, and more focussed on high action. Instead of players being employed by real world espionage agencies, and risk TSR attracting the attention of said real world agencies (which of course actually happened to Steve Jackson Games over GURPS Cyberpunk, and caused them considerably more real hassle than the satanic panic ever did) they also added Orion & The Web, fictional global ones that are unambiguously heroic & villainous, for that full-on 80's cartoon vibe. A fairly standard promotional article that reminds us TSR could be experimental with their design when they felt like it. D&D's editions got changed relatively little because they didn't want to kill the big cash cow, but Top Secret, Gamma World, Marvel Superheroes and Buck Rogers all got new editions that were essentially entirely different games. None of them hit the magic combination of factors to make them as big as D&D, but in having several very different versions of the game that cater to different audiences, it strengthens roleplaying as a whole by giving you more resources to draw from and combine in your own way. So overall, I approve of this. After all, the old game is still right there if you prefer that playstyle instead. [/QUOTE]

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