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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Willie the Duck" data-source="post: 9656326" data-attributes="member: 6799660">I agree with the overall point, but I don't think the last bit is the necessary component. Gary's greatness in game design could have been completely wedded to the D&D model, and once he lost the ability to design in that framework*, he was SOL. Likewise, he could have left TSR and made the next big RPG hit** and that wouldn't make the Great Man theory true.      *I'm reminded of the plausibility of this every time Paul Simon -in an interview -insists that, no, Art Garfunkel wasn't a lessor partner when they were collaborating and that his contributions were vital to the success of their works -- he just was hugely less able to adapt to a solo career than Simon was.**I don't know, written Vampire: the Masquerade instead of Rein·Hagen, et al.The functional component, IMO, is that Gary wasn't Great in all aspects of the Great Work -- notably in the tasks of showing leadership skills for a large corporation. He could, at least once, make* a game that people fell in love with. Full stop. Everything after that ranged from acceptable** to horrific (events leading to OP scenario). *quibbling over how much of it was him aside. **I haven't heard that he was actively bad at running TSR when it was a 2-2 dozen person organization</blockquote>