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Message: <blockquote data-quote="billd91" data-source="post: 5468931" data-attributes="member: 3400">I think if 4e had not been called D&D, it wouldn't have done as well as it has. That said, if I wanted to do something with the rule engine in 4e without calling it D&D, I would have:<ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sold it as a generic ACTION Role-Playing System</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Sold genre-oriented add-ons to it</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Planned for my first two genre-oriented add-ons to be a kung-fu one and a D&D-based one with D&D branded content, both timed to be released at the same time as the system in general</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Publicized plans to put out other genre-oriented add-ons like more fantasy, supers, pro-wrestling, etc.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">And I'd have kept some elements of D&D 3.5 going</li> </ol> Certainly, I have some benefit of hindsight here, but the 4e system was pretty much untested in the D&D market as a whole entity and I think the polarization we've seen should have been predictable. I'd have been reluctant to go with a massive revision without a massive public playtest period. Putting out the 4e rules engine as a separate and modular RPG system would, in essence, provide that big public playtest, particularly once the D&D-oriented genre add-on was released. Then, if it really took off, the next edition of D&D could incorporate what worked, revise what didn't.4e lends itself pretty well to table-top skirmishing/action gaming, well-suited to kung-fu action movies and pro-wrestling, but a bit shifted away from many years of D&D traditions and tropes. I'd have used the action gaming as the main selling point as an alternative way to play your D&D, not as the official replacement.</blockquote>

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