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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AbdulAlhazred" data-source="post: 8789493" data-attributes="member: 82106">Well, specific questions/comments about things that WotC people, not TSR people, were made. I would say 'no' in the specific case cited. Beyond that I disagree that TSR ever bought another company with the sole aim of 'killing' it. SPI in those days was a rather prolific wargame publisher. RPGs were its demise, as their 'Universe' RPG really didn't set anyone on fire. I honestly never even read it, but I don't know anyone who did, so I'm pretty sure it landed with a profound 'thud' and was pretty much stillborn. Traditional wargame companies had very little luck with RPGs, tending to produce elaborate complex mechanical games with little attention to tone or overall play experience. RPG people by 1981 weren't wargamers primarily anymore, so SPI put out a dud. Then they published the Dallas RPG, which was equally poor market targeting, as I doubt anyone in the RPG world was a huge Dallas fan, or few at any rate. That was also really more of a 'party game' in a sense, as the roles and characters were limited to a pretty small fixed set. It actually was a pretty innovative RPG in many ways, but it would have been much better done using a fantasy or similar theme and not tied into an expensive but pointless TV IP.TSR, remember it had roots as a wargame company as well, seemed to want to take over at least some of SPI's product line. I will hand it to Gygax though, the way he shafted them and left them with all the company's debt was at the very least ruthless and tone deaf. It shows that he really could be a jerk, at best.</blockquote>

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