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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eyebeams" data-source="post: 3324050" data-attributes="member: 9225">It wasn't a change. It was a set of optional rules. And they *were* optional. I don't recall kits ever becoming standard in published NPC stats, for instance. Compare to 3.5e, where edition changes did become the standard for all subsequent products. That's not a new edition.Ultimately, I think 2e's main problem was that it was, well, too quintessentially D&D. People like to talk all about how they want meat and potatos fantasy, but they're actually talking about a form of fantasy gaming and fiction that comes *after* D&D. AD&D1e was a gonzo mashup ot pulp sword and sorcery with enough Tolkien for mass appeal. 3e is the post internet revolution dungeonpunk system that borrows from card game and computer game mechanics.2e? 2e was the system that actually strove to be a standardized version of D&D, based on the fantasy fiction that came out of D&D and the fundamentals of what was considered D&D's particular identity as a system. It ultimately didn't push anything forward, but it fulfilled expectations.In fact, I think that if 3e's rules had come out in '95 before net-based promotion and the explosion of the fantasy genre into computer games it would have been the most reviled edition of the game ever.</blockquote>