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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pedr" data-source="post: 9562752" data-attributes="member: 33464">The Old School ... whatever ... was a reaction to 3rd edition, really, rather than 4th. OSRIC was created using the OGL as a way to enable the creation of 1e-compatible material and old-school play. The more established OSR did become more visible during the 4e era but that's primarily due to improved access to self-publishing, Print on Demand, PDF distribution through DriveThru and RPGNow, etc. Third party products during 3e still often required a large investment in printing and the complexities of distribution. None of that changes the fact that 4e didn't meet the financial goals WotC set for it, while Pathfinder was perfectly able to support Paizo's growth. The difference is that the revenue that's needed from an expensive project at a subsidiary of one of the world's largest toy companies is significantly more than the revenue Paizo needed to generate to consider Pathfinder an amazing success. So I don't know whether WotC was seeking to license D&D or sell it off towards the end of 4e. But it's easy to forget that the design of 5e was pretty clearly aimed at creating a game which could continue without too much attention after it was created. The open discussion of the play of all of the previous editions by the design team, the early discussions of modularity, even if they didn't get into the final game, the release schedule and approach to support at launch, etc mean my view is WotC leadership were getting ready to divert the bulk of their resources to Magic, with D&D 5e existing as the last edition: a pretty good attempt at distilling the previous 40 years of the game into something that could carry on without any attention. Then a few years after launch they suddenly had a hit on their hand, helped by Stranger Things, Critical Role, Twitch and other social media etc, so plans and approaches have changed and we've ended up with the 5e we have now.</blockquote>

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