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Message: <blockquote data-quote="mearls" data-source="post: 416529" data-attributes="member: 697">GlutsSome of this is true, some of this I have a very hard time believing.For the past 2 years, we've been hearing about the d20 glut and how any day now there's going to be a massive culling of the companies that produce d20 material.Over that time, we have seen *one* major company get out of d20: PEG. And even that decisions seems more driven by unhappiness with working with d20 than sales issues. (It's also worth noting that, IN MY OPINION, Deadlands is at the end of its product lifecycle. I wouldn't be surprised if after the splat books for DL d20 were released PEG stopped producing major supplements for it.)The remaining companies that went d20 and died off produced no more than one, perhaps two products. I can't think of a single, major company that released d20 materials and went belly-up.Are sales where they were in August of 2000?No. But anyone with a brain expected that.Are the sales of d20 products higher than general RPG products released throughout the 90s?Yes.I don't trust any comment that's made about how distributors and retailers are angry about lame d20 products. As far as I can see, those same enraged retailers who are desperate for anything non-d20 are still ordered d20 materials en masse and selling them at a steady rate, a much better rate than RPG material for anything short of White Wolf's World of Darkness lines.This goes double for all the alleged designers who don't like d20. There might be some out there, but there are plenty of us who enjoy tinkering with, reading, and *gasp* playing the game. The comment strikes me as sour grapes more than anything else. I can't relate, since D&D has always been my favorite RPG, but I can see how it would be frustrating if I, for example, had to do all my design work in Rolemaster, GURPS, or some other system that I don't prefer.d20 is here to stay. It's fate is chained to the fate of D&D. If d20 dries up, that means the entire RPG hobby is heading down the tubes. From what I've seen, sales are doing fine. I don't think RPGs will ever again reach the fad level of sales they hit in early 80s, but the industry is far, far healthier now than it was in the period from 1993 - 1999.Perceptions, especially on the Internet, are funny things. They tend to be driven by what someone wants to see, rather than what's actually out there.</blockquote>

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