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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Alphastream" data-source="post: 7680865" data-attributes="member: 11365">I really enjoyed reading this article, but I disagree strongly with the idea that OSR was anything sizeable or the idea that it influenced 5E in any significant way. The market share for OSR is tiny. A lot of it is free, none of the companies are anywhere close to being mid-tier companies in the hobby, and our hobby is already one where the top two companies are just incomparably larger than anyone else. Even the companies that feel like solid mid-tier companies are very small in comparison. An average 4E splatbook sold better than most present-day mid-tier companies' success stories. There isn't a market reason to compell D&D to swing this way. Any company looks at its past product line as it creates new editions. You can find this being discussed by developers for Shadowrun, for Star Wars, you name it. D&D has always looked at its past - any number of Dragon magazine articles capture that, as well as tons of interviews over the ages. And 4E obviously diverged in its approach to gameplay (I've been a big fan of every edition of D&D). D&D 5E did a great job of reclaiming its exciting gameplay, while retaining many of 3E and 4E's advances. And, it brought in additional advances. 5E isn't 2E or 1E or any E. No player is going to look at my Moldvay copy and say it looks just like 5E, because it doesn't. Tons of players wanted the next edition of D&D after 4E to have this kind of gameplay change, and the vast overwhelming number of those gamers aren't OSR gamers (myself included).</blockquote>

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